ESPHome

Created: 2023-12-17 18:09:57 -0800 Modified: 2023-12-17 18:27:05 -0800

Quick start

These are just notes for myself for how to start from scratch:

Note: I saved all of this in my secrets folder, so I can just run from there.
Save config.yaml that I have below. Don’t modify anything in it (unless the URLs are wrong).
Save secrets.yaml that I have below. Modify the Wi-Fi stuff. The device password is saved in my password manager.
Run this from the location of the YAML files:
- docker run --rm -p 6052:6052 -e ESPHOME_DASHBOARD_USE_PING=true -v "${PWD}":/config -it ghcr.io/esphome/esphome
- Click the URL that it spits out
- Update config.yaml (i.e. with a text editor) and click “Update all”.

About (reference)

It’s a system to control microcontrollers. I went from never even having heard of it to having my microcontroller up and running in <90 minutes (that was while streaming, so times are generally inflated).

Background

I got this microcontroller (“Wireless Module CH340 CP2102 NodeMcu V3 V2 Lua WIFI Internet of Things Development Board Based ESP8266 ESP-12E”) for $2 and 10 [capacitive touch buttons](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256805794972004.html) for$ 1.

Its pinout is (reference):

Note: I used the 3.3V-out pin for the capacitive button.

Getting started

Note: you need to flash the microcontroller with it connected directly to your computer the first time. After that’s done, you can use the Docker container and do everything over Wi-Fi.
I installed via pip3 (just needed “pip3 install esphome”)
Given the microcontroller that I bought (ESP8266 ESP-12E NodeMcu), I needed to use the NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module) configuration.
I went through the wizard and the documentation and got the device flashed. This is somewhat of a “now draw the rest of the owl” step because I had to hide a lot of what I was doing off-screen for this and didn’t take notes. 😢
After that, I disconnected it from my computer and plugged it in to a USB-to-wall adapter.
To launch the web interface through Docker:
- cd <directory containing the YAML files elsewhere in this note>
- docker run --rm -p 6052:6052 -e ESPHOME_DASHBOARD_USE_PING=true -v "${PWD}":/config -it ghcr.io/esphome/esphome
- Navigate to http://localhost:6052
- You can edit the secrets using the button at the upper right.
- You can edit the YAML for a particular device and then update it over Wi-Fi.

My final config

Here’s my config.yaml for my microcontroller. When you touch the button, it hits a URL, and when you hold it, it hits a different URL:

esphome:
  name: testeroni

esp8266:
  board: nodemcuv2

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  password: !secret device_password

ota:
  password: !secret device_password

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Testeroni Fallback Hotspot"
    password: !secret fallback_wifi_password

http_request:
  useragent: esphome/device
  timeout: 10s

binary_sensor:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 5
    name: "Lights"
    on_multi_click:
    - timing:
        - ON for at least 1s
      then:
        - http_request.get: http://nfc2.bot.land:3000/bedroomoff
    - timing:
        - ON for at most 1s
      then:
        - http_request.get: http://nfc2.bot.land:3000/bedroomon


captive_portal:

Then, my secrets.yaml (saved alongside config.yaml) looks like this:

device_password: hunter2
wifi_ssid: my_wifi
wifi_password: hunter2butonline
fallback_wifi_password: somerandomlygeneratedthingthatIneverneeded