Hey y’all, just wanted to share a little MagicBand+ project I’ve been working on that gives real world use both when you’re in the parks, but also at home.
Bringing Home the Magic with MagicBand+
The thread title is a slight divergence from what’s in the article, but the gist of this project is that the Bluetooth signals that Disney sends in the parks to MagicBands are reusable for home use. I got tired of purchasing MagicBands that had no use outside of the parks and when I started reading information about the reverse engineering of Bluetooth signals to the bands, I knew there’d be some value outside of the “Hey Disney” Alex skill.
Once I got a prototype web interface working with what’s called an ESP32 development board(the thing that emits the Bluetooth signals) and started sending animations like the same ones Fantasmic, Happily Ever After, and the Electrical Parade use in the parks, I knew it was game on. Since the ESP32 lives on my home network, I can access it via my Home Assistant(open source software that lets you connect various wifi devices all in one place, not dissimilar to Smart Things or HomeKit) server and trigger various automations that send these signals to my MagicBand+.
You can see some examples in the linked article, including me telling Alexa to turn off my lights, which then sends a notification to my MagicBand+, but I’m excited about the other possibilities this has. Per the thread title, there’s a Home Assistant integration that pulls in live wait time data, just as accurate as TouringPlans provides, which can trigger notification signals to the MagicBand+.
Although the article explains more, I’m open to any and all questions about the project because I’d love to hear ideas that people come up with!
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