ESPHome Ethernet connectivity feature request

ESPHome
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I’ve committed to Home Assistant as the UI platform best suited to my requirements. Most of my current IoT modules are ESP8266 based, flashed with Tasmota integrated to HA via mqtt discovery. Works a treat, albeit a tad unstable at times. Lots of flexibility. Excellent system monitoring & admin options. However the ESP8266 does not have an Ethernet MAC and I need Ethernet IoT connectivity - primarily for stability and lowering network quiescent power consumption.

ESPHome is offering a real alternative to Tasmota and support for the ESP32 to boot, which does have an Ethernet MAC. How to marry these two? The best potential solution I’ve encountered is the wESP32, but the default firmware shipped with it is MicroPython.

@OttoWinter as a feature request for ESPHome, how difficult would it be to provide for Ethernet MAC connectivity in the form required by the wESP32 as an option during start-up?

Pardon my ignorance, but is this as simple as choosing the Silicognition wESP32 board option at the point of ESPHome compilation?

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2

Have been thinking about this. Want to redo my alarm system but Konnected is all built upon esp8266 and I don’t want to rely on wifi for the alarm to work

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@d101au04 Not sure if you are looking for a hardware platform to use, or are enquiring about how to use ethernet in esphome.

If the latter, https://esphome.io/components/ethernet.html

If the former, then the page above refers to two chipsets. It refers to two products, the wesp and the olimex. But if you search on the chipsets, you’ll find boards like this https://www.waveshare.com/lan8720-eth-board.htm

The clincher of course would be POE :slight_smile:

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Exactly what I was looking for @nickrout, the former that is. Thanks. Should have perhaps Googled a bit harder before resorting to the Forum. Nevertheless I trust it might aid spreading the word on the wESP32.

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@nickrout would you know if it is mandatory to set-up a WiFi configuration as the Add-on wizard requires, or can this be commented out once you’ve added the Ethernet configuration component to the resulting device’s .yaml file?

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No I do not know the answer sorry.

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It can be commented out later on.

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8

Did you try this?

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and this at 15 euyro shipped

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/ESP32-D-veloppement-Conseil-ESP-32-ESP-WROOM-32-S-rie-Wi-Fi-Bluetooth-Ethernet-IoT/32885930023.html?spm=a2g0w.search0104.3.2.2ff1744fUPGua0&transAbTest=ae803_5&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0%2Csearchweb201602_3_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103%2Csearchweb201603_80%2CppcSwitch_0&algo_pvid=04c89ecc-2182-484c-b514-28185b101786&algo_expid=04c89ecc-2182-484c-b514-28185b101786-0

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Thanks @klagio. the olimex board has some problems imho and the other board doesn’t mention an ethernet chipset.

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Can you outline what problems it has, I’m thinking of ordering a few of them.

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Under the heading Comparisons.

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Thanks, looks like I’ll need to think again about my choice!

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I have a wESP32 sitting here on my desk and looking for a way to get started with it. I have also been looking at the ESPhome vs. Tasmota situation/conversation. I guess this is my project for the next rainy weekend… :slight_smile:

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I just want to start by saying that hardwired connectivity is a good option to have. But for those of you who are considering it over WiFi for reliability, I do want to offer another way of looking at it. Depending on how your network is laid out, in my opinion WiFi might actually be more resilient.

If you only have a single WiFi AP then hard wired is probably the way to go.

However, if you have something like a mesh network and the mesh is able to stay up when one of the devices is removed, then I would say that the WiFi would actually be more reliable if you are covered by more than one AP. It eliminates some single points of failure over Ethernet. Just something to consider.

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The thing your missing is the power part. If power goes your still dead in the water. Battery based sensors are just limited, No tow ways around it. PoE offers the ability for flexible power and 100/1000 connectivity. Power on an esp will always be a single point of failure. Not everyone has a ton of PoE but I work in IT and have business needs for a Big Lab environment at home so I am going to go for it… :slight_smile:

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Oh. I didn’t know that this would add PoE to it. In that case yes, PoE is going to make things way better because in a house, power is your biggest downtime for most people. I didn’t realize that this was adding PoE. I was just talking about hard wired Ethernet vs WiFi.

1 Like
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Check it out… https://wesp32.com/

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I haven’t done much with it yet, but I have gotten esphome loaded onto the ESP32-POE-ISO.

edit:

esphome:
  name: doorbell
  platform: ESP32
  board: esp-wrover-kit

ethernet:
  type: LAN8720
  mdc_pin: GPIO23
  mdio_pin: GPIO18
  clk_mode: GPIO17_OUT
  phy_addr: 0
  power_pin: GPIO12
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@nickrout I think the ‘problems’ you talk about are exaggerated. I’m happy with the olimex poe-32. One thing you need to think about is not to connect both USB and PoE. That’s all according to me. And to pay 40 Euros more only for that?