Smart 360° Photo Turntable with ESPHome & Home Assistant

A WiFi-controlled 360° photography turntable powered by ESP32 and ESPHome, fully integrated with Home Assistant. Features start/stop control

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)5 hours63

Smart 360° Photo Turntable with ESPHome & Home Assistant

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Adafruit HUZZAH32 – ESP32 Feather Board

ESP32, such as ESP32-S2 Mini or other

Digilent Stepper Motor

Stepper Motor (28BYJ-48) + ULN2003 Driver Board

DC Power Connector, Jack

5.5 x 2.1 mm barrel jack socket

DFRobot Gravity:Digital Push Button (Yellow)

Basic momentary switch 12 x 12 x 7.3mm recommended

Digilent 5V 2.5A Switching Power Supply

5V regulated, DC jack, ideally 1A or more.

Jumper wires (generic)

All connections are made with Dupont wires, no soldering required.

Software apps and online services

Espressif ESP-IDF

ESPHome

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Hot glue gun (generic)

Story

I wanted a simple, repeatable way to capture smooth 360° product photos and videos for electronics demos, dev boards, and maker projects. I’d already built a 3D-printed motorized turntable using an Arduino Nano, but I’m using ESP32 for almost everything now — so I decided to upgrade it into a WiFi-connected, automation-ready photography tool.

By swapping in an ESP32 and running ESPHome, I could integrate the turntable directly with Home Assistant. This means I can control it from my phone or computer, automate spins for timelapse or video shoots, and even fine-tune the speed live from a dashboard slider.

How It Works

You can find full step-by-step build instructions, wiring diagrams, and the complete ESPHome YAML configuration here:

Smart 360 Photo Turntable — ESPBoards.dev Full Guide

ESP32 + ULN2003 driver board control a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor for precise, smooth rotation.

A momentary push button offers local manual control (short press to spin/stop, long press to return to home).

ESPHome handles all the motor control logic and exposes controls to Home Assistant over WiFi.

The Home Assistant dashboard provides:

Start/Stop buttons
Return to Home buttonAdjustable speed slider

This combination lets me run the turntable completely hands-free — perfect when my hands are busy with the camera.

🎥 Demo Video

(This video was filmed using the turntable itself — Home Assistant triggered, ESP32-controlled, and completely hands-free.)

Code

ESPHome Configuration

esphome:
  name: 360-pod
  friendly_name: 360_Pod

esp32:
  board: esp32-s2-saola-1
  framework:
    type: arduino

logger:

api:
  encryption:
    key: "YOUR_GENERATED_API_KEY"

ota:
  password: "YOUR_OTA_PASSWORD"

wifi:
  ssid: "YOUR_WIFI_SSID"
  password: "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"

captive_portal:

globals:
  - id: is_spinning
    type: bool
    initial_value: 'false'

stepper:
  - platform: uln2003
    id: my_stepper
    pin_a: GPIO9
    pin_b: GPIO7
    pin_c: GPIO5
    pin_d: GPIO3
    max_speed: 250 steps/s
    step_mode: HALF_STEP

binary_sensor:
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: GPIO12
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
      inverted: true
    id: control_button
    on_click:
      - min_length: 50ms
        max_length: 1500ms
        then:
          - script.execute: toggle_spin
      - min_length: 1500ms
        max_length: 5000ms
        then:
          - script.execute: go_home

number:
  - platform: template
    name: "Stepper Speed"
    id: stepper_speed
    min_value: 50
    max_value: 1020
    step: 10
    unit_of_measurement: "steps/s"
    initial_value: 120
    optimistic: true
    on_value:
      then:
        - stepper.set_speed:
            id: my_stepper
            speed: !lambda 'return id(stepper_speed).state;'

button:
  - platform: template
    name: "Toggle Spin"
    on_press:
      then:
        - script.execute: toggle_spin

  - platform: template
    name: "Reset to Home"
    on_press:
      then:
        - script.execute: go_home

script:
  - id: toggle_spin
    then:
      - if:
          condition:
            lambda: 'return id(is_spinning);'
          then:
            - stepper.set_target:
                id: my_stepper
                target: !lambda 'return id(my_stepper).current_position;'
            - globals.set:
                id: is_spinning
                value: 'false'
          else:
            - globals.set:
                id: is_spinning
                value: 'true'
            - stepper.set_target:
                id: my_stepper
                target: !lambda 'return id(my_stepper).current_position + 4096;'

  - id: go_home
    then:
      - stepper.set_target:
          id: my_stepper
          target: 0
      - globals.set:
          id: is_spinning
          value: 'false'