Home Assistant Connect AUX-2: a $69 PoE box for Bluetooth, serial gear, audio and a remote Z-Wave stick

Nabu Casa launched the Home Assistant Connect AUX-2 today, November 11, at $69 or €59. It’s a small ESPHome-based box that runs on Power over Ethernet or Wi-Fi and does four jobs: Bluetooth proxy, RS-232 and RS-485 serial bridge, whole-home audio endpoint, and a network home for a Connect ZWA-2 Z-Wave stick. I haven’t run one; this is written from Nabu Casa’s launch post and product page.

Short version: this is a local-first device through and through. It’s added through the ESPHome integration, the bootloader is unlocked, and nothing in the launch material mentions a cloud account. The two jobs I’d buy it for are the Bluetooth proxy and putting a Z-Wave stick somewhere central in the house over one Ethernet cable. Don’t buy it for Thread, which Nabu Casa says isn’t planned, or for Zigbee yet, which the product page lists with a “recommend caution” warning.

What was announced

What stays local, what doesn’t

All of it stays local, as far as the launch material shows. The product page says it is built as “a native Home Assistant device” for full local control, and it joins Home Assistant through ESPHome like any DIY ESP32 board. Nabu Casa says the PCB and 3D files are to be released, and the case opens with four screws.

The Bluetooth proxy is the part with the clearest local-first payoff. Plenty of Bluetooth gear (locks, plant sensors, some thermostats and blinds) ships with a cloud hub or a phone app as the only way in. A Bluetooth proxy lets Home Assistant reach that gear directly from wherever the proxy sits. You could already do this with a cheap ESP32 board flashed with ESPHome, which my ESPHome guide covers. What the AUX-2 adds is a finished, PoE-powered unit with a proper antenna and no flashing.

What to do

• Z-Wave users with a stick on the server. This is the most practical reason to buy one. Plug a Connect ZWA-2 into an AUX-2 and run one Ethernet cable to the middle of the house, instead of a USB extension cable from a server closet. My Z-Wave controller guide already says placement matters in a large home; this is now the tidy way to fix it.
• Bluetooth gear stuck behind a vendor hub. Check that Home Assistant has an integration for the device first. If it does, an AUX-2 near the device can replace the hub.
• Older AV gear with an RS-232 port. Nabu Casa’s example is an LG TV. If your receiver, projector or TV has a serial port and a Home Assistant integration, this is a cleaner bridge than a USB-to-serial cable run back to the server.
• Zigbee. Wait. I run a Connect ZBT-2, and I’d keep a Zigbee coordinator on USB at the Home Assistant host until Nabu Casa drops its own caution on network Zigbee.
• Update first. It needs Home Assistant 2026.9 or later, and 2026.11 for the Zigbee path.

Does this change my picks?

• How to pick a Z-Wave controller in 2026. The pick doesn’t change: the Connect ZWA-2 is still the stick I’d buy. What changes is how to place it in a big house, and I’ll add the AUX-2 to that guide once I can find a US listing in stock.
• No product page or picks list changes today. I’ll add the AUX-2 to the catalog once retailer listings are live and a few Home Assistant users have reported on it.