Sound Effects

LCARS-style audio feedback for card interactions and HA UI events

LCARdS can play sounds for card taps, navigation, dialogs, alert mode changes, and more. It's opt-in — everything is off by default until you create the helpers and enable them.

Setup

Open any LCARdS card editor → Config Panel → Sound tab → click Create All Helpers.

This creates the six HA input helpers that store your sound settings. You only need to do this once.

Alternatively, add the helpers manually in configuration.yaml:

yaml

input_boolean:
  lcards_sound_enabled:
    name: LCARdS Sound Effects Enabled
    icon: mdi:volume-high
  lcards_sound_cards:
    name: LCARdS Card Interaction Sounds
    icon: mdi:gesture-tap
  lcards_sound_ui:
    name: LCARdS UI Navigation Sounds
    icon: mdi:navigation
  lcards_sound_alerts:
    name: LCARdS Alert & System Sounds
    icon: mdi:alert-circle

input_number:
  lcards_sound_volume:
    name: LCARdS Sound Volume
    min: 0
    max: 1
    step: 0.05
    mode: slider
    icon: mdi:volume-medium

input_select:
  lcards_sound_scheme:
    name: LCARdS Sound Scheme
    options:
      - none
    icon: mdi:music-box-multiple

Enabling Sounds

Sounds won't play until input_boolean.lcards_sound_enabled is turned on. Toggle it from:

The Sound tab in the Config Panel
Your HA dashboard directly
An automation

The three category toggles (lcards_sound_cards, lcards_sound_ui, lcards_sound_alerts) let you enable/disable each group independently. All three default to enabled once the master is on.

Sound Schemes

A scheme maps every event to an audio file. Select your scheme from the Sound Scheme dropdown in the Sound tab (or via the input_select.lcards_sound_scheme entity).

Built-in scheme: lcards_default

Covers all event types with LCARS-style beeps and tones. Additional schemes become available when sound packs are installed.

Set to none to disable all sounds without turning off the helpers.

Per-Event Overrides

You can assign a different sound (or silence) to any individual event, independent of the active scheme.

Per-browser setting — overrides are stored in localStorage on the current device. If you use LCARdS on multiple devices or browsers, you'll need to configure overrides on each one separately.

In the Sound tab, find the event in the overrides table and pick an asset from the dropdown, or set it to — (use scheme default) to revert. When any overrides are active, a Reset all to scheme defaults button appears above the table to clear them all at once.

What Events Are Covered

Card Interactions

Event	When
Card Tap	Tapping any LCARdS card or standard HA card
Card Hold	Hold action
Card Double-Tap	Double-tap action
Card Hover	Mouse hover (desktop only)
Toggle → On / Off	Toggle state changes
Slider Grab / Release	Grabbing or releasing a slider
More Info Open	Opening the more-info panel

Event	When
Menu Expand / Collapse	Hamburger menu button
Page / View Navigation	Moving between dashboard views and sidebar nav items
Dialog Open	Any HA dialog opens
Dialog Close	Any HA dialog dismissed
Dashboard Edit Start	Entering dashboard edit mode
Dashboard Edit Save / Done	Exiting dashboard edit mode

Alerts & System

Event	When
Red Alert	Alert mode set to `red_alert`
Yellow Alert	Alert mode set to `yellow_alert`
Blue Alert	Alert mode set to `blue_alert`
Gray Alert	Alert mode set to `gray_alert`
Black Alert	Alert mode set to `black_alert`
Alert Clear	Alert mode cleared (back to normal)
System Ready	LCARdS initialization complete
System Error	System error condition
Notification	General notification

Silencing a Specific Event

In the overrides table, set the event's asset to Silence (the explicit silence option, distinct from "use scheme default"). The active scheme may also silence events — slider_change is silenced in lcards_default to avoid sound on every value tick.

Notes

Sounds require at least one user click before they'll play (browser autoplay policy). The first tap on any card unlocks audio.
Volume is shared across all events — there's no per-event volume.
Overrides are per-browser. If you use multiple devices, configure each separately.
The sound scheme helper's option list updates automatically as you install sound packs — no manual YAML edits needed.

Sound Effects ​

Setup ​

Enabling Sounds ​

Sound Schemes ​

Per-Event Overrides ​

What Events Are Covered ​

Card Interactions ​

HA UI Navigation ​

Alerts & System ​

Silencing a Specific Event ​

Notes ​