Esp32 board not connecting

ESPHome
1

I am trying to connect up an esp32 devkit v4 to home assistant via ESPhome, but when I restart the esp32 the red bar in Home Assistant stays red (does not go green) - i.e. it does not connect.

the closest match I can find in the list of supported boards is the following: PlatformIO Registry
is a
DOIT ESP DEVKIT V1

(When I use that board type in the Arduino IDE to build a non-Home Assistant project it works).

Here is my yaml file:

esphome:
name: esphome-garage-door
platform: ESP32
board: esp32doit-devkit-v1

#esp32:
#board: esp32doit-devkit-v1
#framework:
#type: arduino

#Enable logging
logger:

#Enable Home Assistant API
api:
encryption:
key: “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=”

ota:
password: “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”

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

#Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
ap:
ssid: “Esphome-Garage-Door”
password: “xxxxxxxxxxxx”

captive_portal:

and here are the results of the log following the install and a reset of the ESP32 board:

ets Jun 8 2016 00:22:57

rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
mode:DIO, clock div:2
load:0x3fff0018,len:4
load:0x3fff001c,len:1044
load:0x40078000,len:10124
load:0x40080400,len:5828
entry 0x400806a8
[I][logger:243]: Log initialized
[C][ota:461]: There have been 0 suspected unsuccessful boot attempts.
[D][esp32.preferences:113]: Saving 1 preferences to flash…
[D][esp32.preferences:142]: Saving 1 preferences to flash: 0 cached, 1 written, 0 failed
[I][app:029]: Running through setup()…
[C][wifi:037]: Setting up WiFi…
[D][wifi:373]: Starting scan…
[D][wifi:388]: Found networks:
[I][wifi:432]: - ‘xxxxxx’ [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:433]: Channel: 3
[D][wifi:434]: RSSI: -33 dB
[I][wifi:432]: - ‘xxxxxx’ [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:433]: Channel: 3
[D][wifi:434]: RSSI: -64 dB
[I][wifi:432]: - ‘xxxxxx’ [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:433]: Channel: 3
[D][wifi:434]: RSSI: -64 dB
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[D][wifi:437]: - [redacted] [redacted]▂▄▆█
[I][wifi:248]: WiFi Connecting to ‘xxxxxx’…
[I][wifi:505]: WiFi Connected!
[C][wifi:353]: Local MAC: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
[C][wifi:354]: SSID: [redacted]
[C][wifi:355]: IP Address: 192.168.xxx.xxx
[C][wifi:357]: BSSID: [redacted]
[C][wifi:358]: Hostname: ‘esphome-garage-door’
[C][wifi:360]: Signal strength: -31 dB ▂▄▆█
[C][wifi:364]: Channel: 3
[C][wifi:365]: Subnet: 255.255.255.0
[C][wifi:366]: Gateway: 192.168.xxx.x
[C][wifi:367]: DNS1: 192.168.xxx.x
[C][wifi:368]: DNS2: 0.0.0.0
[D][wifi:514]: Disabling AP…
[C][ota:085]: Over-The-Air Updates:
[C][ota:086]: Address: esphome-garage-door.local:3232
[C][ota:089]: Using Password.
[C][api:025]: Setting up Home Assistant API server…
[I][app:062]: setup() finished successfully!
[I][app:102]: ESPHome version 2022.8.3 compiled on Sep 11 2022, 15:18:49
[C][wifi:491]: WiFi:
[C][wifi:353]: Local MAC: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
[C][wifi:354]: SSID: [redacted]
[C][wifi:355]: IP Address: 192.168.xxx.xx1
[C][wifi:357]: BSSID: [redacted]
[C][wifi:358]: Hostname: ‘esphome-garage-door’
[C][wifi:360]: Signal strength: -32 dB ▂▄▆█
[C][wifi:364]: Channel: 3
[C][wifi:365]: Subnet: 255.255.255.0
[C][wifi:366]: Gateway: 192.168.xxx.x
[C][wifi:367]: DNS1: 192.168.xxx.x
[C][wifi:368]: DNS2: 0.0.0.0
[C][logger:275]: Logger:
[C][logger:276]: Level: DEBUG
[C][logger:277]: Log Baud Rate: 115200
[C][logger:278]: Hardware UART: UART0
[C][captive_portal:088]: Captive Portal:
[C][mdns:094]: mDNS:
[C][mdns:095]: Hostname: esphome-garage-door
[C][ota:085]: Over-The-Air Updates:
[C][ota:086]: Address: esphome-garage-door.local:3232
[C][ota:089]: Using Password.
[C][api:138]: API Server:
[C][api:139]: Address: esphome-garage-door.local:6053
[C][api:141]: Using noise encryption: YES

The signal strength for the network I am connecting to seems good and there are no errors that I can see in the log that indicate what the problem might be.

I have double-checked the firewall rules and the IP addresses of the Home Assistant box (Raspberry PI) and the ESP32 board have access to each other.

I also tried changing the board to
esp32dev
but still no love.

Also, once the ESP32 restarts although it doesn’t connect to Home Assistant, I can successfully ping it from another computer.

Any guidance or support would be appreciated.

3

OK - I made some progress, but it was painful.

My home network is divided into two networks, let’s call them Network1 and Network2.

Network1 I use for all my IOT devices. Network2 I use for our family computers and cell phones.

When I originally set this up I pointed the new esphome connection for my esp32 to Network1.

Once done, while I could ping my esp32 running esphome from Network2. However, I could not get ESPHome to show it as connected.

I then decided to change my secret ssid and password so the esp32 would be defined on Network 2 instead of Network 1. I installed it, and restarted the ESP32. It still did not connect.

However, after looking at the log I realized the ESP32 was still trying to connect to Network 1 - even though the secret file was pointing to Network 2.

I tried installing it again (several times) but it kept pointing to Network 1.

I tried the ‘Clean Build Files’ - it still didn’t work - continued to point to Network 1.

I also tried hardcoding the SSID and Password for Network 2 in my config file, reinstalling it, restarting the esp32, but the log file continued to show it trying to connect to Network 1.

I eventually deleted my ESP32HOME app and the ESPHOME service completely from Home Assistant and restarted the Home Assistant itself.

After that, I reinstalled ESPHOME and tried to set up my app again. To my surprise, I did not have to re-enter my Secret SSID and Password as it was retained even though I had deleted the prior esp32app and ESPHOME from HomeAssistant.

Regardless, I installed the same app as before ( board esp32dev ) and it connected to Network 2. However, while the bar is no longer red, it is gray not green??

I would still prefer to have it working on Network 1. I found this post, ESPhome over VLAN - hostname resolving which may have something to do with it, but it is above my pay grade.

If anyone has any insights, I would be happy to hear them.

4

If you have mDNS working across your network esphome should work as expected (including the dashboard online indication).

The FAQ on esphome.io got you covered about this topic: Frequently Asked Questions — ESPHome

I think grey is the new green (someone with :green_apple: logic probably was in charge for that change…)

Important to know is that the api connection is initiated from HA to the esphome node (that acts as a server in that case) - many people only allow connections the other way around and that obviously can’t work.

5

Thanks, that was helpful - esp. knowing that gray is the new green.

One note: following up on my earlier difficulties, I have found that if when updating the esp32 device ( after the initial install) if I used an usb connection for the install then it did not work - even though it says it did. It would say erasing … 1% to 100% … completed successfully. However, when I looked in the log traces of the old setup were there. More specifically I originally had a temperature sensor added, but after I deleted it from the yaml and did the install via usb (which reported as successful) the temperature sensor was still referenced in the log. I did find however if I did an OTA update the updated worked as one might expect - and the reference to the temperature sensor was no longer there.

Regardless, what is now happening is I can see the sensor updated in the log from the ultrasonic sensor which I added in; however, I can’t see / link the sensor as an entity in the dashboard.

Here is the yaml

esphome:
name: esphome-garage-door

esp32:
board: esp32doit-devkit-v1
framework:
type: arduino

#Enable logging
logger:

#Enable Home Assistant API
api:
encryption:
key: “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=”

ota:
password: “6a3d58e4e3492c110b113a0be6341538”

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

#Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
ap:
ssid: “Esphome-Garage-Door”
password: “xxxxxxxxxxxx”

captive_portal:

sensor:

  • platform: ultrasonic
    trigger_pin: 15
    echo_pin: 12
    name: “Ultrasonic Sensor”
    update_interval: 5s
    filters:
    • filter_out: nan
6

never mind I’ve figured out, or at least am figuring out, getting the dashboard updated.

7

Please, if you’re going to post your yaml, post it properly. How to help us help you - or How to ask a good question