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ESPHome

esphome.io

11–20 of 174 posts

Re: ESPHome

#11
post #2

I don't use this, personally, but it strikes me as a fantastic idea. I made a sensor board and wrote my own firmware for it, maybe I'll see if I can easily configure ESPhome to run on it. The only thing I'd need that my thing already has is pull-based OTA updates. Right now I just copy a firmware to a folder, and all my sensors around the house automatically update to that firmware via an HTTP server. With ESPhome, I…

The web interface has an 'update all' button thats just as convenient. I find if theres ones i want to not update i just temp break their yaml file with an unexpected keyword and it fails to compile and then update.

Re: ESPHome

#12
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?

That's what I do at home. I have little Xiaomi LYWSD002MMC and LYWSD003MMC devices (the latter with custom firmware - pvvx) and my radiators are switched on or off (via their pilot wire) by an ESP device, using a few rules to lower the temperature when nobody's there. It works much better than the radiator's own thermostat.

I control my devices (I have a lot more than just for the radiators) through a kind of interface that I wrote myself (PHP and only very few, reliable dependencies) because I hate maintaining Home Assistant.

Re: ESPHome

#13
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?

I have one over complicated in floor heater that requires 2 signals to control, one for opening radiator valve and second to enable fan to blow air through it. there is only few thermostats dedicated for such setup that are extremely expensive and I decided to make my own that is also better. i have 2 temperature sensors connected, one to monitor room temperature and the second touching radiator inside, then I'm able to open valve when room temperature is below threshold and wait until radiator is hot enough and we are trying to heat for few minutes (without fan this will also work but less efficiently, but will be silent) then when temperature is reached I close valve and keep fans on until radiator cools down.

I also have temperature reported to home assistant where I have pyscript automation that controls AC based on multiple temperature sensors, open window sensors, humidity, presence, time, etc to most efficiently cool down my apartment

if you need to get signal on a wire, you can output it from the same device, from other esphome device or through home assistant using integration.

Re: ESPHome

#14
post #2

I don't use this, personally, but it strikes me as a fantastic idea. I made a sensor board and wrote my own firmware for it, maybe I'll see if I can easily configure ESPhome to run on it. The only thing I'd need that my thing already has is pull-based OTA updates. Right now I just copy a firmware to a folder, and all my sensors around the house automatically update to that firmware via an HTTP server. With ESPhome, I…

The web interface has an 'update all' button thats just as convenient. I find if theres ones i want to not update i just temp break their yaml file with an unexpected keyword and it fails to compile and then update.

Hm, I wasn't aware of this web interface. Is it some sort of management panel? Do I have to deploy it on prem?

Re: ESPHome

#15
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…

can you share details of the weather station please? ive been looking into gathering wind data on the cheap...

Re: ESPHome

#17
One of my favorite projects in all of FOSS. The only big thing missing is power management!

I just wish there was a little more native hardware. I wonder if there's enough interest to do a run of PLC-like units?

Re: ESPHome

#18
Dove into this when I flashed my AirGradient device. At first I had a hard time understanding how everything integrated together (does ESPHome need a hub? how does HomeAssistant work with this?). After (mostly) figuring things out I discovered how powerful it is to have configurability ranging from OTA updates to MQTT support.

My only gripe right now is the lack of documentation and confusion on the HomeAssistant side. The ESPHome addon turned out to be a red herring for getting everything set up.

Re: ESPHome

#19
post #15
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…

can you share details of the weather station please? ive been looking into gathering wind data on the cheap...

I built mine using a Hydreon Rain Gauge sensor (RG11 in my case) and combined it with an off the shelf wind sensor from AliExpress, presumably sold by Adafruit's supplier, which closes a reed switch every rotation. Everything is powered through PoE, controlled by wESP32. I spent a couple hundred bucks at most including all the mounting hardware.

It all controls an aluminum "awning" in my house that's supposed to open above certain wind speed, close when it rains.

Re: ESPHome

#20
post #2

I don't use this, personally, but it strikes me as a fantastic idea. I made a sensor board and wrote my own firmware for it, maybe I'll see if I can easily configure ESPhome to run on it. The only thing I'd need that my thing already has is pull-based OTA updates. Right now I just copy a firmware to a folder, and all my sensors around the house automatically update to that firmware via an HTTP server. With ESPhome, I…

> I don't use this, personally, but it strikes me as a fantastic idea. I made a sensor board and wrote my own firmware for it, maybe I'll see if I can easily configure ESPhome to run on it.

I've done pretty much the same, but last I looked there were very few resources (other than reading the code for the ESPHome project) to help on creating custom firmware for a new board with multiple sensors. It seemed easier and faster to simply write the firmware to talk to a simple backend.

I'm also curious about how they get the code for esp32 devices to fit: on a device with 4MB flash, you effectively have a 1MB program limit if you want OTA (which you do). A simple program that does nothing but make calls to the libraries for GPIO, ADC, UART, Wifi, https, https server, interrupts, FreeRTOS, mqtt, nvs, chip info, logging, OTA and functions in the standard library (scanf alone uses 30kb) already takes you over the 1MB limit.

Compiling with all the logging turned off can get you a roughly 800kb program, which is still close to the limits considering that doesn't include program logic.

I'll have to look at this again when I next require some remote monitoring thing.

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