ESPHOME NODEMCU: LEDs become unavailable

ESPHome
1

Hi,
I am using LEDs connected to ESPHome NodeMCU 8266 to indicate Arm (Red) & Disarm (Green) state of my manual alarm. The issue is that the LEDs randomly become unavailable and goes off. Logbook:

7:54 AM [Red LED] turned off
7:54 AM [Green LED] turned off
7:54 AM [Red LED] changed to unavailable
7:54 AM [Green LED] changed to unavailable
7:27 AM [Red LED] turned off
7:27 AM [Green LED] turned off
7:27 AM [Red LED] changed to unavailable
7:27 AM [Green LED] changed to unavailable

Below is the configuration file (.yaml)
. . .
esphome:
name: hallway
platform: ESP8266
board: nodemcuv2

wifi:
ssid: “my_ssid”
password: “my_password”
fast_connect: true
manual_ip:
static_ip: 192.168.1.151
gateway: 192.168.1.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0
dns1: 192.168.1.1

output:

  • platform: gpio
    pin: D1
    id: ‘red_led’
  • platform: gpio
    pin: D2
    id: ‘green_led’

light :

  • platform: binary
    name: “Red LED”
    output: ‘red_led’
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
  • platform: binary
    name: “Green LED”
    output: ‘green_led’
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    . . .
    Any advise what’s going wrong here. I am using Call Service (through Node-Red) to switch LEDs on/off.

Thanks,

2

I would turn on the esphome wifi signal strength monitor to see how well your wifi system is being received by the 8266.

3

The signal strength is around -13 dB. In fact, I kept the NodeMCU close to the router to rule out any signal problem but still the issue continues. Interestingly ESPHome shows online on the dashboard but the LEDs goes unavailable.

4

Please format your code properly.

5

Perhaps the 8266 was busy the first time the state was requested or it couldn’t respond fast enough for HA? BTW if you click on the icon </> on the bar at the top of the input text window it created a text section that you can paste your code into and it preserved spaces correctly, etc. Makes reading code easier.

6 
esphome:
  name: hallway
  platform: ESP8266
  board: nodemcuv2

wifi:
  ssid: "myssid"
  password: "mypassword"
  fast_connect: true
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: 192.168.1.151
    gateway: 192.168.1.1
    subnet: 255.255.255.0
    dns1: 192.168.1.1
    
# Enable logging
logger:
  level: VERBOSE

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  password: "mypassword"

ota:
  password: "mypassword"


    
output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D1
    id: 'red_led'
  - platform: gpio
    pin: D2
    id: 'green_led'
    
    
light :
  - platform: binary
    name: "Red LED"
    output: 'red_led'
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
  - platform: binary
    name: "Green LED"
    output: 'green_led'
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
7

Thanks, so much easier to read!

What are your esphome logs saying? Click on Show Logs in the gui, or run

esphome filename.yaml logs

redirect to a file if you want to look through it later or post here

esphome filename.yaml logs > filename.txt
8 
INFO Reading configuration...
INFO Starting log output from 192.168.1.151 using esphome API
INFO Connecting to 192.168.1.151:6053 (192.168.1.151)
INFO Successfully connected to 192.168.1.151
[10:06:04][I][app:096]: esphome version 1.13.6 compiled on Oct 25 2019, 22:01:33
[10:06:04][C][wifi:372]: WiFi:
[10:06:04][C][wifi:254]:   SSID: [redacted]
[10:06:04][C][wifi:255]:   IP Address: 192.168.1.151
[10:06:04][C][wifi:257]:   BSSID: [redacted]
[10:06:04][C][wifi:258]:   Hostname: 'hallway'
[10:06:04][C][wifi:262]:   Signal strength: -49 dB ▂▄▆█
[10:06:04][C][wifi:263]:   Channel: 9
[10:06:04][C][wifi:264]:   Subnet: 255.255.255.0
[10:06:04][C][wifi:265]:   Gateway: 192.168.1.1
[10:06:04][C][wifi:266]:   DNS1: 192.168.1.1
[10:06:04][C][wifi:267]:   DNS2: 0.0.0.0
[10:06:04][C][gpio.output:010]: GPIO Binary Output:
[10:06:04][C][gpio.output:011]:   Pin: GPIO5 (Mode: OUTPUT)
[10:06:04][C][gpio.output:010]: GPIO Binary Output:
[10:06:04][C][gpio.output:011]:   Pin: GPIO4 (Mode: OUTPUT)
[10:06:04][C][logger:137]: Logger:
[10:06:04][C][logger:138]:   Level: VERBOSE
[10:06:04][C][logger:139]:   Log Baud Rate: 115200
[10:06:04][C][logger:140]:   Hardware UART: UART0
[10:06:04][C][light:174]: Light 'Red LED'
[10:06:04][C][light:174]: Light 'Green LED'
[10:06:04][C][ota:029]: Over-The-Air Updates:
[10:06:04][C][ota:030]:   Address: 192.168.1.151:8266
[10:06:04][C][ota:032]:   Using Password.
[10:06:04][C][api:103]: API Server:
[10:06:04][C][api:104]:   Address: 192.168.1.151:6053
9

I have posted the Log output. Thanks to micque and nickrout for looking into this. Based on your inputs that problem can be related to Signal strength, I kept the NodeMCU a bit far from the router. I read that too strong signal (-13dB) can also be an issue. Will monitor for a day and let you know.

10

How did your testing go after monitoring for a day?