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Created 2022-06-18
Hacking
Code
ESPHome
Home Automation
I have a few project ideas currently pending parts, budget, time, etc. and I wanted to write some of them down so they can get out of my head! There is a lot of ESP stuff in here ...
[TOC]
This is documented elsewhere on the site, but as it stands I've not got any further mostly due to the lack of Raspberry Pi availability, and my falling out with the 3d printer I was baby sitting (which has since been returned)
I'd still like to make it ... but the MNT Pocket Reform seems to be becoming a reality and might be a better idea
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> minute CEO of MNT Research
For some time I've had a 100% solar powered APRS setup. But it's possible to have an ESP act as a web server, and they use basically no power, and you can get MicroSD card things for them, and this entire site is currently +checks+ 21M so could easily fit on an microSD. There also exists a "wide input" thing that would happily take the variable 12-ish-volts from the solar system to run the ESP.
I could then get my VPS to connect back into my house, check if the ESP is online or not. If so, proxy that, if not, fall back to serving the site in the same way it does now. Could easily have a solar subdomain that always (tries) to serve from the ESP.
Sure, I *could* use the raspberry pi that's doing the APRS thing ... but ...
The APRS station isn't actually online right now.
A few things failed, and I haven't got it all back (yet / ever?)
Firstly, the 12v -> USB converter seems to have failed in a way that kills raspberry pis - which isn't ideal. The Pi was working, until I had to (re)boot it, then it wasn't. I assumed SD card issues, which was the case. New SD card, still no boot. "Spare" Pi, new SD, boot success! But it only stayed on the WiFi for a few minutes, then vanished, and then wouldn't boot anymore.
The SD was ok, and when I connected it to the only Pi I had left not already doing something (although I did have plans for it, just not this) it booted OK on a different power supply. neither of the other PIs would boot with the same SD and power supply.
When I connected up the third Pi to the solar system I didn't use the pi-killing-converter and went for a wide-input-shim[1] I'd got for using with the 3d printer and octopi. So far this has worked fine and I would absolutely recommend using something like that over an ebay sourced buck converter.
I've also set up log2ram[2] so hopefully that SD card and Pi will survive for longer than the last two. Although to be fair, the original solar powered pi did run consistently (but not constantly, night time and winter in the UK isn't great for 100% solar things) for at least a year but was let down by the power supply.
If anyone knows how I might bring the other two Pis back to life, that would be great!
One key thing the solar setup is missing now is some way to monitor it all. I was using three INA260s which worked really well. But now they seem to have decided to stop working. One has a short to ground on the clock pin and the other two don't respond to i2cdetect (and make it run super slowly) my eBay basket has some INA226 modules - but they are nearly £7 each and I'm not sure I care enough about this specific project right now.
However, it would be super good to get this working again, and combined with the ESP Server idea I could do something like LOW<-Tech Magazine[3] and show the battery charge level somehow, like how they use the background.
This one is potentially really easy to do, and also useful!
LILYGO make an ESP32 camera device with PIR, camera, button, etc. It's basically screaming to be made into a video doorbell
petrepa/ESPHome-VideoDoorbell[4] exists and uses this device
I started this and it half works...
Take an ESP8266
Connect an HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance measuring module
Connect a tilt switch to the reset pin
attach it to the inside of the laundry basket lid
code it to read the distance and send that over MQTT then go into deep sleep
Make HomeAssistant show that distance and alert me when the basket is getting full
Some problems, probably of my own making...
Ultrasonic distance sensors work by using sound. Which is absorbed by fabric. Which leads to unreliable distance readings (especially when the distance is short / basket is getting very full)
Doesn't seem to actually ... do it more than once? The tilt-to-reset doesn't seem to work as expected and deepsleep for 60 minutes never seems to wake up (yes I have the pins connected)
I should probably just use ESPHome
not everyone is careful when shoving stuff into the basket and the pins have been bent and connections pulled out quite often
I have a PiZeroW powered e-paper display in the hall. It runs various python scripts on a cron defined schedule and can do things like:
Show everyone's calendar and weather forecast in the morning
Provide random Aeropress recipies at 10am
Show charts of energy use, temperature, solar power (if it was working), grid fossil fuel %, etc. every hour during the day
Various info about stuff to summarise the day in the evening
It can do all of this on-demand too using a 6 key mechanical keyboard (each key runs a differnt script, some depend on the time of day), plus some other stuff only on-demand:
Show a random image from pexels.com
Show an image uploaded to it
Check and show if my computers/Pis/servers are online and if they have updates
fetch car Tax/MOT status from DVLA
tell me how many visitors my website has had recently (on Gopher, Gemini, and HTTP)
It would be very cool to have a remote screen that can display some/all of this but from another location, for example a friend or relative's house (yes, I'm being vague for privacy reasons.)
LILYGO (them again!) make a 4.7 inch e-paper screen, which has an ESP32 stuck on the back, and buttons, and the ability to run off (and charge!) a 18650 cell.
trombik/esp_wireguard[5] exists, which would allow me to VPN back into my house and download pre-made images for the remote display to display. I could even add an environment sensor to get temperature etc. and scan for devices on the remote WiFi to determine if people I care about got home safely after work and send it all to my Home Assistant! (with their permission of course.)
I got as far as making the display connect to WiFi and download a PNG... but the LILYGO screen is a higher resolution than my Pi-powered one! So it can't just take the image file and display it, some conversion seems required, and I haven't worked out how to do that yet. Plus my C skills are lacking, and the edit-compile-upload-run-debug cycle is VERY SLOW. I could pre-convert the image on the pi, but I have no idea how to make it download and display the `.h` file the example code produces. I've not tried putting WireGuard and the other stuff on yet.
On a similar thread, I have modified a small dinosaur light and shoved some controllable RGB LEDs in it, and connected it up with an ESP8266 and WLED. It's great! I can control it from Home Assistant!
BUT - I want to give this to a friend, so they can have it in their home and it sync with/be controlled by my Home Assistant.
I've repurposed a PiZeroW to use RaspAP[6] to abuse AP-STA[7] so I can connect to their WiFi AND provide an AP for the WLED device to connect to, plus WireGuard to connect everything on that AP back into my home.
But, although it seems to work (I can connect to devices in my home via the AP) I can't work out how to do it the other way around and get Home Assistant to "discover" the remote WLED device. The only suggestion I've had so far it to run another Home Assistant instance and make it a "remote" to my local one, but as I've killed two Pi 3b+ I don't have the spare hardware for that! Until issue 2634[8] is implemented I don't think I'll be getting this working any time soon.
Like the remote display, it's really hard to debug and work this stuff out when you have multiple devices and complex webs of connections. My at home debugging setup was
Laptop connected to RaspAP WiFi
PiZeroW connected to my phone's WiFi hotspot, which connects to Mobile network
PiZeroW using Wireguard to connect to my home network
It's REALLY EASY to not spot when something has re-connected to the better WiFi - aka your home WiFi and is no longer on the Pi's AP. Or the Pi needs to restart something and the AP goes away. Or the phone has weak signal strength so the 3g is very slow. or etc.
I have a dumb dishwasher, I like this. But it is "integrated" so has no external sign that it is running, finished, or whatever. I bought an energy monitoring "smart socket" that has an ESP8266 hiding in it, it was an absolute pain to open up and get to the ESP. Once I had it out I can't get it into flash mode.
I'd LIKE to do something like Giovanni[9] did with their washing machine - but I'd really like the slim profile of something round and about the size of the plug. Not that it matters, it's all hidden in the cupboard anyway 🤷
A more compact device would be more acceptable for devices that have visible plugs though, like a bread machine on the kitchen counter...
ESPHome is great, and I've been using it a lot with commercial devices that have ESPs in them.
But getting ESPHome onto the device is often a pain, involving disassembly and sometimes soldering. Once installed all the updates and configuration can be done over WiFi.
I suspect there is a market for people who want to use ESPHome but don't want to do the initial hardware flashing work. That was me when I first started playing!
I wonder how much luck I'd have with an eBay store selling sonoff and other devices I'd purchased in bulk for less than retail price + a service to flash it with ESPHome and your provided WiFi details and charge people about retail price for the bundle.
Lets say I have some ESPHome powered light switches (I do!) and I wanted a neat way to know the temperature in every room of my house.
Well, I've already got most of the solution stuck to the wall, right?
Can I add a small i2c temperature sensor to the ESP inside my light switches?
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