ESPHome - slick way to easily program ESP8266 and ESP32 boards

[drhtmal]

I wasn't sure what form to post this in. Since it uses MQTT I figured Michael McSharry mcsMQTT was the best spot.

A friend on mine who uses Home Assistant turned me on to ESPHome https://esphome.io. ESPHome makes it incredibly simple to build, compile and upload firmware images to ESP8266 and ESP32 boards. It has a slick web based interface to build YAML based config files that can be uploaded to the ESP via USB. After the initial upload you can do future uploads via OTA.

It took me about 30 minutes to load up ESPHome on my Linux HomeSeer box, wire up an Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 board with a DHT22 tempature/humidity sensor and upload the firmware to the board. The ESP8266 communicates with HomeSeer via MQTT

Here is the YAML config I used.

esphome:
  name: test2
  platform: ESP8266
  board: huzzah

wifi:
  ssid: 'your_SSID'
  password: 'your_password$'

# Enable logging
logger:

mqtt:
  broker: 192.168.x.x
  birth_message:
    topic: myavailability/topic
    payload: online
  will_message:
    topic: myavailability/topic
    payload: offline

ota:
  password: 'test2'

sensor:
  - platform: dht
    model: DHT22
    pin: 2
    temperature:
      name: "Living Room Temperature"
      filters:
      - lambda: return x * (9.0/5.0) + 32.0;
      unit_of_measurement: "°F"
    humidity:
      name: "Living Room Humidity"
    update_interval: 60s

Here is the wiring from Adafruit

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-...arduino-wiring

[drhtmal]

Here is a screen shot of the ESPHome web interface

[Michael McSharry]

I have thought of ESPHome as s HomeAssistant customization of EspEasy, Tasmota, Espurna or other firmware. For those that do not use HomeAssistant what advantage does ESPHome have over the others?

[drhtmal]

I am just starting to use ESP8266 abd ESP32 boards so I am not sure what advantages/disadvantages ESPHome has over the others.

Here are a few of the things I liked about ESPHome

1. Easy to install web UI for programming and loading firmware

2. Tons of components/sensors available. The ESPHome web site lists dozens of components listed. Many of the components have links to data sheets with examples of how to hook everything up. There are links to Adafruit and Sparkfun and other vendors to purchase the sensors.

3. Easy to wire up the sensors. I am a big fan of Adafruit so I have a bunch of their breakout boards. It is easy to hook all this up with standard solderless breadboard jumpers.

The entire process was fairly easy. I think it would be simple for people that might not have a lot of experience with DIY electronics to build some of this stuff.