ESPHome in Home Assistant Core Connection Issues

I recently installed ESPHome and I am having a real hard time getting my first ESP off the ground in ESPHome. I run Home Assistant Core (Hassio) in docker. I am using the Hassio add-on.

I bought this to use: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QCP2451/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The error I get is:
ERROR Connecting to X.X.X.44:3232 failed: [Errno 111] Connection refused
(the "X"s are just obscuring my subnet)

I have tried it without setting a static then I get:
INFO Successfully compiled program.
INFO Resolving IP address of esp_humidor.local
INFO Address in use when adding 169.254.104.237 to multicast group, it is expected to happen on some systems
INFO Address in use when adding 172.17.0.1 to multicast group, it is expected to happen on some systems
ERROR Error resolving IP address of esp_humidor.local. Is it connected to WiFi?
ERROR (If this error persists, please set a static IP address: https://esphome.io/components/wifi.html#manual-ips)
ERROR Error resolving IP address: Error resolving address with mDNS: Did not respond. Maybe the device is offline., [Errno -5] No address associated with hostname

Not sure what to do to clear this up.

Here is the current config I am trying I have also tried it as a ESP32s NodeMCU board but the result was the same.

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

wifi:
  ssid: "<SSID>"
  password: "<password>"
  fast_connect: true
  

  # Optional manual IP
 # manual_ip:
#    static_ip: X.X.X.44
#    gateway: X.X.X.1
#    subnet: 255.255.255.0

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Esp Humidor Fallback Hotspot"
    password: "<the autogenerated one>"

captive_portal:

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:

esp32_ble_tracker:

sensor:
  - platform: xiaomi_lywsdcgq
    mac_address: 58:2d:34:39:82:87
    temperature:
      name: "Humidor Temperature"
    humidity:
      name: "Humidor Humidity"
    battery_level:
      name: "Humidor Battery Level"

I believe that IP’s in the 169.254.xx.xx subnet are an indication that they haven’t found a DHCP server and are self-selecting an IP in that range. You need to check on why your ESPHome device is not getting assigned an IP on the same network as your HassIO server.

Hope this helps

for a start, take out fastconnect.

Yeah that was an attempt to make anything work. I think I am on a path to figuring this out based off @idbaker comment. I changed the drop down in the right to USB… I didn’t know that it needed to be changed from the default. Now I am getting “A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP32: Invalid head of packet (0x1B)” but I think this board has a button you need to hold to flash it so I will try that when I get home. Thanks to you both taking the time to take a look :smiley:

Yes that usually means you need to hold a button down.

Okay I got it working. It was the button. I thought I still had issues but found they were related to the antennas on the device. They seem to be pretty terrible. Is there a good esp-32s you would recommend by chance?

I really appreciate both you @idbaker and @nickrout for your advice on this one!