I bought an Arlec PC191HA (Beken chips) at Bunnings last weekend and just flashed ESPHome to it. I then copy and pasted an example config, edited for a pin-swap between the WB2S and CB2S modules (P6 looks to be swapped with P8 according to the libretiny docs), and uploaded… This caused the relays to randomly trigger.
What I think is going on is that the button on these is wired to the TX1 pin, which obviously in the real firmware, they just don’t use for serial. I suspect ESPHome is sending logging data out this pin even though it’s defined for something else. This is then triggering the pin to appear toggled at times, and it processes the event for pressing the button, which toggles the relay.
Could someone have a look over my config and tell me if anything stands out… The version I’m posting here currently has logging disabled and UART2 set, which didn’t help at all, but commenting out the whole button section stopped the random relay toggling. It’s getting late here now, so I’m stopping my own experimentation for now.
Config below - top section down to captive portal was generated by ESPHome except the substitutions, which I added to match the copy-pasta that follows beyond captive portal.
esphome:
name: arlec-pc191ha-2
friendly_name: Arlec-PC191HA-2
substitutions:
device_name: "arlec_PC191HA"
name: "ARLEC PC191HA"
bk72xx:
board: cb2s
# Enable logging
logger:
level: NONE
hardware_uart: UART2
# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
encryption:
key: "<removed>"
ota:
- platform: esphome
password: "<removed>"
wifi:
ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
password: !secret wifi_password
# Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
ap:
ssid: "Arlec-Pc191Ha-2 Fallback Hotspot"
password: "<removed>"
captive_portal:
#
# PC191HA basic switch operation - button, relay and LED
#
# button is momentary on - shows "on" in HA except for the moment the button is being pressed
# LED should have same on/off state as the relay.
# there is also a wifi_LED, but it is not seen from outside the case
#binary_sensor: # the button
# - platform: gpio
# pin: P11
# name: ${device_name} button
# id: button
# device_class: window
# # when button is pressed, toggle the switch on/off
# on_press:
# then:
# - switch.toggle: relay
switch: # the relay
- platform: gpio
pin: P8
name: "${name}"
id: relay
restore_mode: always off # default when power is turned on
icon: mdi:power-socket-au
# synchronise the LED with the relay
on_turn_on:
then:
- output.turn_on: button_led
on_turn_off:
then:
- output.turn_off: button_led
output: # the light in the button
- platform: gpio
id: button_led
pin: P26
#restore_mode: always off # default when power is turned on
#
# PC191HA sensors - power monitoring and wifi signal
#
sensor:
- platform: wifi_signal # report wi-fi signal strength from this end
name: $name WiFi Signal
id: ${device_name}_wifi_signal
update_interval: 30s # how often to report wifi signal strength
# PC191HA includes a BL0937 chip for measuring power consumption
# and BL0937 is a variation of hlw8012, but using inverted SEL pin functionality
- platform: hlw8012
model: BL0937 # note that the model must be specified to use special calculation parameters
sel_pin: # I believe that cf_pin reports either Voltage or Current depending on this select pin
inverted: true # determine whether true reports Voltage
number: P24
cf_pin: # current or voltage (ele_pin: 7)
inverted: true # the logic of BL0937 is opposite from HLW8012
number: P7
cf1_pin: # Power (vi_pin: 8)
inverted: true # the logic of BL0937 is opposite from HLW8012
number: P6
update_interval: 15s # How often to measure and report values
# PC191HA measures and returns Voltage OR Current according to the value of sel_pin,
# but it can change the value of sel_pin periodically
initial_mode: "VOLTAGE" # reports VOLTAGE or CURRENT
change_mode_every: 4 # how many times to report before swapping between
# reporting Voltage or Current. Note that the first value reported should be ignored as inaccurate
# Adjust according to the actual resistor values on board to calibrate the specific unit
voltage_divider: 775 # LOWER VALUE GIVES LOWER VOLTAGE
current_resistor: 0.0009 # HIGHER VALUE GIVES LOWER WATTAGE
#
# how the power monitoring values are returned to ESPHome
#
voltage:
name: $name Voltage
id: ${device_name}_voltage
unit_of_measurement: V
accuracy_decimals: 1
filters:
- skip_initial: 2
power:
name: $name Power
id: ${device_name}_power
unit_of_measurement: W
accuracy_decimals: 2
filters:
- skip_initial: 2
# power should simply be current x voltage -- except that the pc191ha doesn't follow that formula.
# Setting current_resistor to give an accurate Amperage does NOT also give the correct Wattage
# so here I calculate current from power and voltage
- platform: template
name: $name Current
id: ${device_name}_current
unit_of_measurement: A
accuracy_decimals: 2
update_interval: "30s"
lambda: |-
return (id(${device_name}_power).state / id(${device_name}_voltage).state);
filters:
- skip_initial: 2
- platform: uptime
name: $name Uptime
id: ${device_name}_uptime
update_interval: "30s"
)- the fix is to set baud rate to 0…