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ID Buzz Camp Control

The camping companion the ID.Buzz should have shipped with.

The VW ID.Buzz is one of the best electric vans for camping — but its software leaves you hanging when you actually sleep in it. No night heating cycles. No way to keep the cabin warm without draining the battery. No camping-optimized charge management. And no way to control any of it from your phone while you're in your sleeping bag.

ID Buzz Camp Control fills that gap. It's a self-hosted automation system that turns your ID.Buzz into a proper camper van — with intelligent sleep comfort heating, one-tap camping mode, battery-aware temperature management, and a full dashboard on your phone, Apple CarPlay, or even through an AI assistant like Claude.

Why this exists

  • You're camping in your ID.Buzz and it's 3°C outside. You want the heater to run for 15 minutes every hour — not all night, just enough to stay comfortable. VW doesn't offer this.
  • You want different heating strategies for different weather: aggressive on freezing nights, gentle on cool evenings, automatic based on conditions. VW doesn't offer this.
  • You want to see battery SoC, charging state, and heating schedule from your phone while lying in bed. VW's app can't do this in real-time.
  • You want to say "Hey Claude, it's freezing — set sleep comfort to Cold Night" and have it just work. Now it does.

Key features at a glance

  • Smart Sleep Comfort — 3 intensity presets + Auto mode, works for both heating (winter) and cooling (summer)
  • Camping Mode — one toggle for stealth settings, reduced charge current, 230V keep-alive
  • Full Dashboard — real-time status on phone, tablet, CarPlay, Android Auto, and widgets
  • AI Control — natural language control via Claude Desktop or Claude Code (MCP protocol)
  • Emergency Stop — one button kills all heating instantly
  • Configurable — every temperature, timing, and threshold adjustable from the dashboard
  • Self-hosted — runs on a €4/mo VPS, no cloud lock-in, your data stays yours
  • Open source — MIT licensed, built for the ID. family community

Features

Sleep Comfort (Night Climate)

Automated climate cycles to keep the cabin comfortable while sleeping — heating in winter, cooling in summer.

  • Auto mode — reads battery temperature and picks intensity based on how far conditions are from comfort zone (works for both cold and hot nights)
  • Intensive — maximum climate time for extreme conditions (default: 30min on / 30min off)
  • Standard — balanced comfort and battery use (default: 15min on / 45min off)
  • Eco — minimum runtime for mild conditions (default: 15min on / 75min off)
  • Target temperature per tier is adjustable — set 25°C in winter, 20°C in summer
  • All temperatures, durations, and Auto thresholds configurable via dashboard
  • Auto mode has separate cold and heat thresholds (default: ≤8°C or ≥28°C → Intensive, ≤12°C or ≥24°C → Standard, otherwise → Eco)
  • Full schedule display showing all planned cycles with countdown
  • Morning auto-off at configurable wake-up time
  • Push notifications on start and on emergency stop
  • Emergency STOP ALL HEATING button

Camping Mode

One toggle to configure the car for overnight stays:

  • Disables climate-at-unlock (no lights when opening doors at night)
  • Reduces charge current to 8A for campsite power
  • Sets camping-specific charge limit
  • Enables 230V keep-alive

Additional Automations

  • Battery temperature auto-heater — starts climate when battery gets too cold
  • Interval heater — repeat heating on a schedule
  • Keep-alive — prevents car from sleeping to keep 230V outlet powered (not fully tested, may not work reliably)
  • Departure pre-heat — weekday/weekend scheduled climate start
  • Morning wake-up heat — pre-heat before your alarm

Dashboard

Pre-built Lovelace cards for:

  • Sleep Comfort status with live schedule and countdown
  • Sleep Comfort settings panel (all tiers adjustable)
  • Camping mode controls
  • Vehicle status, battery, charging
  • Manual climate controls

Dashboard header with camping features Sleep Comfort mode and schedule settings Eco settings and charging status

Auto mode cold and heat thresholds Intensive, Standard, Eco tier settings Vehicle status and lights

CarPlay / Android Auto / Widgets

Through the Home Assistant Companion app:

  • Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support — control your camp setup from the car's infotainment screen
  • iPhone widgets and Android widgets — quick access to sleep comfort mode, battery SoC, and camping toggles right from your home screen

Currently only tested with CarPlay and iPhone widgets.

Tested On

Details
Vehicle VW ID.Buzz Pro (2023)
Software ID. Software version 3.8x
Platform Debian 12, Docker

This has only been tested with a 2023 ID.Buzz Pro on ID-Software 3.8x. It should work with other ID. family vehicles (ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7) since they use the same VW API and MQTT topics, but this is unverified. Contributions and test reports from other vehicles are very welcome!

Architecture

┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  VW Cloud    │◄───►│ CarConnecti- │◄───►│    Mosquitto     │
│  (We Connect)│     │ vity         │     │    (MQTT)        │
└─────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └────────┬─────────┘
                                                   │
                                          ┌────────▼─────────┐
                                          │  Home Assistant   │
                                          │  - Automations    │
                                          │  - Scripts        │
                                          │  - Dashboard      │
                                          └────────┬─────────┘
                                                   │
                                          ┌────────▼─────────┐
                                          │  Your Phone       │
                                          │  (HA Companion)   │
                                          └──────────────────┘

All services run in Docker containers. No cloud dependency except the VW API.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • A VPS or home server running Debian 12+ or Ubuntu 22.04+ (e.g., Hetzner CX22, ~€4/mo)
  • Docker and Docker Compose
  • A We Connect ID account with your vehicle registered
  • Your vehicle's VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)
  • Your VW account S-PIN (4 digits, set in the VW app)

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/roromedia/idbuzz-camp-control.git /opt/id-buzz-control
cd /opt/id-buzz-control

2. Configure CarConnectivity

cp cc-config/carconnectivity.json.example cc-config/carconnectivity.json
nano cc-config/carconnectivity.json

Fill in your VW email, password, and S-PIN.

3. Replace VIN placeholder

Replace YOUR_VIN_HERE with your actual VIN in these files:

  • ha-config/scripts.yaml
  • ha-config/automations.yaml
  • ha-config/lovelace-dashboard.yaml (entity names use VIN)
# Replace all at once (Linux/macOS):
VIN="WVWZZZ..."  # Your actual VIN
sed -i "s/YOUR_VIN_HERE/$VIN/g" ha-config/scripts.yaml ha-config/automations.yaml

Note: The dashboard (lovelace-dashboard.yaml) references entity names that CarConnectivity creates from your VIN. After CarConnectivity discovers your vehicle, check the actual entity names in HA and update the dashboard accordingly.

4. Create data directories

mkdir -p mosquitto/{data,log}

5. Choose your setup

Option A: Direct access (no reverse proxy)

cp deploy/docker-compose.yml docker-compose.yml

Access via http://your-server-ip:8123

Option B: With Caddy reverse proxy + HTTPS Use the root docker-compose.yml and configure deploy/Caddyfile with your domain.

6. Start everything

docker compose up -d

7. Initial Home Assistant setup

  1. Open http://your-server-ip:8123
  2. Create your admin account
  3. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → MQTT
    • Broker: mosquitto
    • Port: 1883
  4. Wait ~2 minutes for CarConnectivity to discover your vehicle
  5. Create missing helpers if needed (see Helpers below)
  6. Install the Home Assistant Companion app on your phone

8. VW App setting (important for camping)

In the We Connect ID app, enable "12V battery charging" — this allows the DC-DC converter to automatically recharge the 12V battery from the main battery when it gets low. Without this, the always-on 12V (F52 fuse mod) could drain the 12V battery.

Automated Deploy Script

For quick deployment to a fresh VPS:

./deploy/deploy.sh root@your-server-ip

This installs Docker, clones the repo, and starts all services.

Firewall / Ports

Port Service Required
8123 Home Assistant Yes — open this
1883 MQTT (Mosquitto) No — internal only (bound to localhost in production)
80/443 Caddy (if using HTTPS) Only if using a domain

If using ufw:

ufw allow 8123/tcp

Helpers

Some HA helpers need to be created via the UI on first run (Settings → Helpers → Add Helper):

Type Name Options/Default
Dropdown Sleep Comfort Mode Off, Auto, Cold Night, Medium, Mild
Input Datetime Morning Wake-Up Time 07:00
Input Datetime Quiet Hours Start 22:00

Most input_number and input_boolean helpers are created automatically from configuration.yaml.

Dashboard Cards

Pre-built card YAML files in ha-config/cards/:

File Description
sleep-comfort-card.yaml Live status with schedule timeline
sleep-comfort-settings.yaml All tier settings (temps, timings, thresholds)
emergency-stop.yaml Big red STOP button

To use: Edit Dashboard → Add Card → Manual → paste YAML content

AI Assistant Control (MCP Server)

This setup supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) via mcp-server-home-assistant, allowing you to control your ID.Buzz through AI assistants like Claude Desktop or Claude Code using natural language.

Create a Long-Lived Access Token

  1. Open your Home Assistant instance in a browser
  2. Click your profile (bottom-left of the sidebar)
  3. Go to the Security tab
  4. Scroll to Long-lived access tokens
  5. Click Create Token, give it a name (e.g., "Claude MCP")
  6. Copy the token immediately — it's only shown once

Setup for Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "home-assistant": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-home-assistant",
        "--url", "ws://YOUR_HA_HOST:8123/api/websocket",
        "--token", "YOUR_LONG_LIVED_ACCESS_TOKEN"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Setup for Claude Code

Add via CLI:

claude mcp add home-assistant -- uvx mcp-server-home-assistant \
  --url ws://YOUR_HA_HOST:8123/api/websocket \
  --token YOUR_LONG_LIVED_ACCESS_TOKEN

Note: Requires Python 3.10+ and uvx (install via pip install uv).

Example prompts

"Enable sleep comfort in Auto mode"

"Set sleep comfort to Cold Night — it's freezing tonight"

"What's the battery temperature and SoC right now?"

"Stop all heating"

"Turn on camping mode"

"Set the morning wake-up time to 6:30"

"What mode is sleep comfort running in and how many cycles are left?"

The AI assistant can read all entity states, trigger scripts, change input helpers, and control the full camping setup — just by asking.

Fuse Documentation

Detailed fuse box layouts for the ID.Buzz (2022+):

Includes:

  • Main fuse box (SC1–SC67)
  • Rear fuse boxes (SD, SE)
  • Main fuses (SA)
  • F52 always-on 12V mod for camping

Disclaimer

This project is experimental and provided as-is. Use at your own risk.

  • This software interacts with your vehicle through unofficial, reverse-engineered APIs that Volkswagen does not publicly support. VW may change or block these APIs at any time without notice.
  • Automated climate control cycles consume battery power. Monitor your SoC (State of Charge) to avoid draining the high-voltage battery.
  • The authors are not responsible for any damage to your vehicle, battery degradation, warranty issues, or any other consequences of using this software.
  • This is a community project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Volkswagen AG or any of its subsidiaries.
  • Always test new automations while you can monitor the vehicle, and keep the STOP ALL HEATING button handy.

Acknowledgements

This project would not be possible without these excellent open-source projects:

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Especially:

  • Test reports from other ID. family vehicles (ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7)
  • Bug fixes and reliability improvements
  • New automations for camping use cases
  • Dashboard improvements
  • Documentation in other languages

Please open an issue or pull request.

License

MIT

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Camping automation for the VW ID.Buzz — sleep comfort, climate cycles, MCP access to your vehicle and more

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