Installation guide for IDE novices

[foltymat]

Hi @Jeroen88,

I saw your comment on one of the HA Community forums and your code looks amazing. I would love to try it out.
The problem is, like in #8, I'm more of an ESPhome kinda guy and I never worked with Arduino IDE.

I'm learning the very basics right now but cannot get a solid grip on things.

Would you be open to describing in a bit more detail how to actually set all the variables needed (pins, WiFi, etc.), compile the code and upload it to an ESP board? I'm sure a lot of people will thank you for that, if they come across your repo :)

Thanks and keep up the great work!

[foltymat]

For example, I think I finally realised I need to use that MQTTAdvancedThermostat, change the pins, Wifi, and MQTT credentials, but the file does not want to compile. Saying the WiFi.h is not included.

Yes, I learned from a quick google search, that I need to add support for the ESP8266 boards by including a different library and extending my boards selection, but even after all of that, and selecting the Generic ESP8266 board, I still get the same issue.

This is the sort of details I cannot fix by myself and a quick tutorial would be so useful! :)

[Jeroen88]

Hi @foltymat I am planning to introduce a ESPhome version with native API support so that MQTT is not necessary anymore. But I am working on another project right now, so don't hold your breath.

I will make a short instruction and add it to the repo. Maybe I extend it to the ESP8266, but why don't you get yourself an ESP32-S2 mini? It is cheap on Aliexpress and saves you the hassle of adapting the code. If you still want to use an ESP8266 you need to include ESP8266WiFi.h instead of WiFi.h. I never tested the code nor compiled it on an ESP8266.

If you want to use the thermostat in Home Assistant you'd better use the Advanced_Thermostat in the examples. In the examples directory you also find the README.md already with the most important steps to take to get it running.

But you'd best first test if the communication between your boiler and the thermostat board and ESP is working correctly using Test_Boiler_Communication.ino.

[foltymat]

I know they are dirt cheap. The thing is, I have a bag of free ESP8266 boards, but no ESP32, so that's why :)
I do appreciate your work towards ESPhome, but for the meantime I will happily try out this method.

[Jeroen88]

Hi @foltymat, instead of a new instruction I updated both README.md's, the primary and the one in the Examples.

I added support for the ESP8266. The library and the Advanced_Thermostat.ino program are tested now on a ESP32-S2, an ESP32-C3, and ESP32S V1.1 NodeMCU and a ESP8266 NodeMCU Amica. I tried it on an Aliexpress WeMos D1 Mini Pro V3.0 NodeMcu, but it keeps crashing on WiFi.begin(), even on a powered USB hub. I believe this has nothing to do with the library nor the examples. I bought a few other variants today and will test them when they arrive. What ESP8266 are you using and could you report back if it is compiling and/or running?

I saw your comment on one of the HA Community forums and your code looks amazing.

Could you help me and post some comments or even a link to this library in the forums you are active? :)

[foltymat]

Hi @Jeroen88, yeah I couldn't get it to compile either. I guess I'll just bite down and buy the ESP32 board so there are no issues :)

And to your question, I found your original comment here:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/esphome-opentherm-compilation/470305/12?u=foltymat

[foltymat]

Oh and what board type did you select for the compile?

[craigsbits]

Hi, @Jeroen88 and @foltymat (we meet again!). I have this compiling on wemos d1 mini clone ok ish but not sure about the pins for tx/rx terminology with diyless master shield. Problem I had compiling was with the computer folders i used. Easy way is set esp82 board info http location in Properties (i assume you did this already) select board then File/'new script' and install library easyopentherm. Use this folder to select the .ino scripts as it includes the local libraries. @Jeroen88 I have a coding error with a line in the openthermhelper.h(?) library but not at my computer now I will post details later. Does not stop compiling though. Why does the Dallas have to loop through the mqtt system and not go straight to pid?

[craigsbits]

@Jeroen88
Thermostatemachine.h
line 76 got this....
warning: iso c++ forbids converting a string constant to 'char*' [-wwrite-strings]

char * _state_c_str = "Waiting for secondary configuration";

googled & changed to:

char const *_state_c_str = "Waiting for secondary configuration";

Absolutely no idea what I am doing but it worked!!

[Jeroen88]

Hi @craigsbits, seems your compiler warnings are more strict than mine. Thank you for sharing. The change you made is OK, it just tells the compiler that it is not allowed to change the value the pointer is pointing at ("Waiting for secondary configuration"). I will change it in a next release.