[FEATURE] Traffic Generator / ESPectre App for Home Assistant

[HACS-bank]

Before you start

• I searched existing issues for related requests.
• I checked docs/ROADMAP.md to see whether this is already planned.

Area

Home Assistant or controller integration

Firmware

Not tied to firmware

Summary

As discussed in #167 the average HA user will not be able to set up a traffic generator. They would benefit from an App for HA with the traffic generator, and a UI to choose options

Problem or use case

I have too many ESPectre devices, they overwhelm my router
I run HAOS
An app for HAOS with the traffic generator would make the next step "plug and play"

Suggested behavior

No response

Alternatives considered

No response

Implementation notes

No response

Contribution

• I am willing to help implement this feature.

[francescopace]

Thanks for opening this feature request, @HACS-bank ! I think this would be very useful for many Home Assistant users.

[HACS-bank]

Alternatively, one or more ESPectre devices could send pings into the multicast network .... currently, the ping target is required to be unicast, but ...

Imagine that each ESPectre device could discover / count N, the number of devices on the multicast.

Each of them could then multicast at 100 / ( N - 1 ) p.p.s. so that all of them receives 100 p.p.s from other devices, and sends the traffic for the others, sharing the load and removing the need for a script or app to generate the traffic.

Since all devices would generate a share, none of them would be essential, making this solution very robust and self configuring (immune to user error)

[francescopace]

Hi @HACS-bank, I’ve added a Home Assistant add-on for the external traffic generator, with a built-in panel accessible from the sidebar.

The panel lets you:

• Start and stop the generator.
• Switch individual or selected ESPectre devices between internal and external traffic.
• View traffic rate, CSI rate, occupancy, Wi-Fi RSSI, and IP addresses.
• Open each device’s Home Assistant page directly.

Installation

1. Open Settings → Apps → Install app.
2. Select ⋮ → Repositories, add https://github.com/francescopace/espectre, and close the dialog.
3. Search for ESPectre Traffic Generator and select Install. If it is missing, select ⋮ → Check for updates.
4. Open Configuration and keep the defaults for a first test, including an empty Source IPv4 address.
5. Return to Info, enable Start on boot and Watchdog, and select Start.
6. Select Open Web UI, or enable Show in sidebar to keep ESPectre Traffic in the Home Assistant menu.

The implementation has been tested on my live Home Assistant installation, but let me know if it works in your environment.

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[HACS-bank]

Very nice - easy to install, no configuration required Also gives me an overview of panels which need further attention :) [image: image.png]

…

On Sun, 20 Sept 2026 at 00:35, Francesco Pace ***@***.***> wrote: *francescopace* left a comment (francescopace/espectre#168) <#168 (comment)> Hi @HACS-bank <https://github.com/HACS-bank>, I’ve added a Home Assistant add-on for the external traffic generator, with a built-in panel accessible from the sidebar. The panel lets you: - Start and stop the generator. - Switch individual or selected ESPectre devices between internal and external traffic. - View traffic rate, CSI rate, occupancy, Wi-Fi RSSI, and IP addresses. - Open each device’s Home Assistant page directly. Image: Image (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3701bf3b-38fd-484a-b821-47755c2cc61e> Installation 1. Open *Settings → Apps → Install app*. 2. Select *⋮ → Repositories*, add https://github.com/francescopace/espectre, and close the dialog. 3. Search for *ESPectre Traffic Generator* and select *Install*. If it is missing, select *⋮ → Check for updates*. 4. Open *Configuration* and keep the defaults for a first test, including an empty *Source IPv4 address*. 5. Return to *Info*, enable *Start on boot* and *Watchdog*, and select *Start*. 6. Select *Open Web UI*, or enable *Show in sidebar* to keep *ESPectre Traffic* in the Home Assistant menu. The implementation has been tested on my live Home Assistant installation, but let me know if it works in your environment. ------------------------------ Image: Image (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ad355e81-23cd-42d4-83aa-08133cfd1531> ------------------------------ Image: Image (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f76b0fc0-d770-40d7-8d82-6807fd1de6c7> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#168?email_source=notifications&email_token=AUBFSPCUUCDHICLQJ567DCL5P4J5RA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTKNZUGYYTINJUGYYKM4TFMFZW63VHNVSW45DJN5XKKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-5746145460>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AUBFSPFZJMU3OBT7XBYN5BD5P4J5RAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTAOBTGU4TANRXGQ5US43TOVSTWNJTHAYTKOJTGU2THILWAI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: <francescopace/espectre/issues/168/5746145460 ***@***.*** com>

[HACS-bank]

@francescopace , the Traffic Generator app turns out to be a great tool for seeing what is happening in general.

I suggest changing its name to ESPectre Manager before it goes wider, because in some ways it reminds me of a WiFi analyser phone app; it might grow e.g.

• column view controls allowing any diagnostic value to be (de)selected, including espectre code versions
• alternative visualisations, e.g
  -- graphical view with scrolling lines
  -- icon view with colour changes (traffic lights for signal quality)
  -- spatial view
• recommendations based on data
• espectre version management
• easy access to documentation
• etc

None of these are requests per se but just reasons to make the name more general, my instinct being that in the long term the app will become the starting point for Home Assistant users, not just an optional extra.

[HACS-bank]

I just found the game and other tools like CSI visualisation which are on the espectre.dev website.

The app could in time include many of these tools and toys 😀

I assume they rely on the ESPectre API being active?