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ESPHome

esphome.io

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Re: ESPHome

#71

Post by kkielhofner »

darkwater wrote: post #46
sen wrote: post #5

I've got 20+ devices running ESPHome, about 3/4 of them are part of my Home Assistant network, and maybe 6 or so that are standalone and just using ESPHome to talk to MQTT for other stuff (cheap Chinese weather station that I replaced the insides of with an ESP32, etc). I've got my rain water tanks monitored, my soil moisture in my greenhouse, the temperature and humidity in all different parts of the house, air qual…

Now you MUST share more details on the hardware (case, power etc) and process you followed for all of those devices.

I am a VERY low-effort hardware person (even soldering is um, not my favorite) but for years my approach has been:

1) Go to Amazon and buy a three pack of ESP32 dev boards with headers[0]. They're always some random seller, etc but I've probably had one DoA/failure after buying dozens from random sellers over the years.

2) Get a dupont wires variety pack[1].

3) Optionally (but good to have) get some breadboards [2].

4) Familiarize yourself with various supported temperature/motion/humidity/relays/etc. Esphome has a supported list[3].

5) Search for the chip name, etc on Amazon. Example[4].

6) Familiarize yourself with the ESP32 dev board pins, GPIO, etc. Most sellers will include a picture that looks something like this[5] and most of them are pretty "standard" these days.

7) Wire stuff up, configure with esphome.

8) Once you have things up and running, shove everything in an old box (iPhone boxes are especially sturdy). Other options are various project boxes[6], 3D printing, etc. It's usually easy enough to cut out/drill whatever you need.

At the end of the day you can do some pretty impressive things like directly combining temperature sensors, humidity, presence detection, PIR motion, air particulate, relays, etc even on a single board thanks to ample GPIO and esphome. All for (typically) something like $10 per "location" where you need the stuff. Even less if you buy from Aliexpress, etc.

Of course for "install" you'll need power supplies and (typically) USB-A to micro-USB power cables but most of us have drawers full of these things from old phones, etc. Good news is ESP32 boards absolutely sip power (something like 100mW or less) even with all of your "stuff" attached.

[0] - https://www.amazon.com/ESP-WROOM-32-Development-Microcontrol...

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/EDGELEC-Breadboard-Optional-Assorted-...

[2] - https://www.amazon.com/Breadboards-Solderless-Breadboard-Dis...

[3] - https://esphome.io/index.html

[4] - https://www.amazon.com/Teyleten-Robot-Digital-Temperature-Hu...

[5] - https://lastminuteengineers.com/esp32-pinout-reference/

[6] - https://www.amazon.com/LeMotech-Plastic-Electrical-Junction-...

Re: ESPHome

#72

Post by kkielhofner »

Asmod4n wrote: post #36
lostlogin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with everything here, except the $10 of hardware. You must be running some very fancy chips! For extra savings the ESP8266 might be as low as $4us. It really is amazing.

Or you could buy a rpi2040 for 99 cents.

You can get a three pack of esp32 dev boards (with headers) for $6 from Aliexpress. For that you get:

1) Wifi.

2) Much more robust ecosystem, including esphome (the subject of this post).

Re: ESPHome

#73

Post by blutack »

macropin wrote: post #25
sen wrote: post #5

I've got 20+ devices running ESPHome, about 3/4 of them are part of my Home Assistant network, and maybe 6 or so that are standalone and just using ESPHome to talk to MQTT for other stuff (cheap Chinese weather station that I replaced the insides of with an ESP32, etc). I've got my rain water tanks monitored, my soil moisture in my greenhouse, the temperature and humidity in all different parts of the house, air qual…

How do you power them? I've used ESPHome previously to scrape my solar analytics for consumption in Home Assistant using $3 Wittycloud ESP8266's. But as yet I haven't found an elegant solution for powering them other than using a USB adapter. It would be nice to find an elegant battery solution for outside sensors.

The Olimux ESP32-POE / wESP32 boards have a proper ethernet connection and PoE support. Means you don't need to worry about wifi coverage or power as long as you can get an ethernet cable to it - and those are cheap & easy to find in ludicrous lengths for outdoor use.

ESPHome also has deep sleep support - so for some use cases you can just wake up every x minutes/hours, connect to wifi, do thing, back to sleep for x minutes. In deep sleep a decent ESP32 board (firebeetle or tinypico) will last for months on a small lithium cell. For a quick sensor, the whole wake up/read sensor/update HA/sleep again takes a second or so depending on wifi configuration.

Useful for something on a schedule like sprinklers or slow sensors (soil humidity or whatever).

You can also wake based on interrupts, which is good for stuff where you are using a low power external sensor that does interrupts (wake ESP up if humidity gets to x) or a GPIO switch (magnetic entry/float switch/etc etc).

Firebeetles and tinypicos both have cell connectors and onboard charging directly for lithium pouch cells. You could also get a cheapo solar power bank, although you'll want to do some research to make sure the relatively light load of an ESP32 will keep it powered on.

Re: ESPHome

#74

Post by gh02t »

hendry wrote: post #33

Requires nerves of steel to navigate Aliexpress.

I've had good luck buying from the Wemos and Lilygo official stores on AX. Have had no problems in many years and dozens of orders. Other sellers are a gamble.

Re: ESPHome

#75

Post by 8A51C »

kkielhofner wrote: post #71
darkwater wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you MUST share more details on the hardware (case, power etc) and process you followed for all of those devices.

I am a VERY low-effort hardware person (even soldering is um, not my favorite) but for years my approach has been: 1) Go to Amazon and buy a three pack of ESP32 dev boards with headers[0]. They're always some random seller, etc but I've probably had one DoA/failure after buying dozens from random sellers over the years. 2) Get a dupont wires variety pack[1]. 3) Optionally (but good to have) get some breadboards [2].…

I had a solar powered project setup with environment sensors in my shed. After a while the bugs moved into the elctronics, corrosion ensued and caused shorts which killed everything. The lesson I learned is to seal project boxes up really well. The whole boxing something up and getting power to it thing is the hardest and least enjoyable bit of hardware projects for me.

Re: ESPHome

#76

Post by pandora-health »

djbusby wrote: post #6

Anyone got this to replace their thermostat? Like sensors in zoneA signal and a device connected to the HVAC triggers ON? Maybe they're on WiFi or Ethernet connection?

If your HVAC supports OpenTherm, check out https://github.com/Alexwijn/SAT

You can have your thermostat in home assistant and make your HVAC run as efficiently as possible at the same time.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40052824

Re: ESPHome

#77

Post by throwup238 »

teekert wrote: post #40
sen wrote: post #5

I've got 20+ devices running ESPHome, about 3/4 of them are part of my Home Assistant network, and maybe 6 or so that are standalone and just using ESPHome to talk to MQTT for other stuff (cheap Chinese weather station that I replaced the insides of with an ESP32, etc). I've got my rain water tanks monitored, my soil moisture in my greenhouse, the temperature and humidity in all different parts of the house, air qual…

How do you monitor your rain tanks? I tried ultra sonic sensors but they invariably oxidize.

Vegetronix water level sensors sensors: https://www.vegetronix.com/Products/AquaPlumb/

They also have good soil moisture sensors that IIRC work via time domain reflectometry which is more accurate and lasts longer in the field.

Re: ESPHome

#78

Post by blutack »

gregwebs wrote: post #62

For networking it says WiFi and BLE. What’s the approach to adding an ESPHome sensor outside of WiFi range?

The Olimux ESP32-POE / wESP32 boards have a proper ethernet connection and PoE support. Means you don't need to worry about wifi coverage or power as long as you can get an ethernet cable to it - and those are cheap & easy to find in ludicrous lengths for outdoor use.

Re: ESPHome

#79

Post by sen »

teekert wrote: post #40
sen wrote: post #5

I've got 20+ devices running ESPHome, about 3/4 of them are part of my Home Assistant network, and maybe 6 or so that are standalone and just using ESPHome to talk to MQTT for other stuff (cheap Chinese weather station that I replaced the insides of with an ESP32, etc). I've got my rain water tanks monitored, my soil moisture in my greenhouse, the temperature and humidity in all different parts of the house, air qual…

How do you monitor your rain tanks? I tried ultra sonic sensors but they invariably oxidize.

Ultrasonic sensors are so cheap I just replace them once a year or so, but I’ve not for a few new prototypes going with ToF sensors and one using a pressure sensor, to look for a less wasteful solution.

Re: ESPHome

#80

Post by RobotToaster »

balloob wrote: post #28

One of the people leading ESPHome here. Let me know if there any questions. Last Saturday we announced that ESPHome is now owned by the Open Home Foundation. The Open Home Foundation fights for privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes. And for every person who lives in one. Learn more at https://www.openhomefoundation.org/blog/announcing-the-open-...

You need to update your homepage, it still says it's owned by Nabu Casa at the bottom of the sidebar :).
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