Hardware for connecting an RS232 serial device to wifi

What is the baudrate?

according benq it should be 9600…

And just out of curiosity, it doesn’t have a lan connection?

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Projector default is 115200. I tried adjusting it to 9600 in the projector settings, no success. That said, the baud rate in esp-link is fixed at 115200, so it’s unclear if changing the value in my projector’s settings is even capable of having an impact on its own. How would I adjust this in esp-link?

It doesn’t have a discrete network connection. The projector comes with a BenQ-branded Android TV stick that can be installed in a dedicated HDMI port underneath (requires removing the case to install). The stick enables plug-and-play streaming like most smart TVs these days, but the setup process requires linking a Google account and still doesn’t provide projector controls. I don’t want my projector communicating with anything beyond my local network — a sentiment I suspect most people on this board share :grinning:

Hmm…the link I saw it was 9600, but could be 115200…as said, I’m stumbling i the dark here, just trying to think along, but don’t have a projector myself :thinking:

You can adjust it in the console (as well as stop bits and parity)

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Updated to 9600 on both ends to no avail. Figured I’d also try swapping the TX/RX pins again just in case … and it worked!!! BenQ projector integration added successfully! :raised_hands: :tada: :raised_hands:

It’s a little slow and not entirely reliable, but since this will only be used to control power on/off, I’ll take it! I’m monitoring its power consumption as a proxy for status and will build in some retries as needed.

For posterity:

  • In the BenQ projector settings, set baud rate to 9600
  • In esp-link, set baud rate to 9600
  • Wiring between the ESP-12F and the serial bridge is: TX to TX, RX to RX.
  • Assign a static local IP address to the esp-link device
  • In the HACS setup flow, select “network”, then enter the above static local IP address and port 23.

Thanks a ton @aceindy! I really appreciate the troubleshooting help. Hope to pay it forward soon :slight_smile:

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Just mark me as solution :wink:

Hi! Sorry for arriving late at the party. Great to see my BenQ integration is being used. Of course you could have created a GitHub Issue to get your questions resolved, but you figured it out eventually.

Some clarifications on the issues raised.

I don’t own a networked BenQ projector nor do I own a second projector which I can use for testing and development. My only projector is installed on my production HA installation and connected over serial using a serial to USB converter.

I have developed the network support because of popular demand, but since I don’t use it myself I’m dependant on feedback from users who use the integration on a networked projector for further improving the functionality. Also since I only have one projector (which is installed on my ceiling) development and testing is a bit cumbersome.

Port 8000 is used because that’s the port number the networked BenQ projectors are said to work on according to the BenQ documentation, but I never heard from anyone if this works or not. If you use a different solution, like esp-link than the port number of that solution is needed. You figured that out.

Increasing the Baud rate in your projector and the esp-link configuration might improve the responsiveness of your projector.

If you have some Python skills you’re welcome to improve the networking related code.

I’m looking forward to your improvements to the README

Also you can buy me a coffee :wink:

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Hello there, I’d also like to pick up this topic as I’m very new to the whole Home Automation topic and one thing that bugged me the most is to shutdown every device in the living room by hand :smiley:

So I bought myself a ESP32 C3 which to my understanding does not need ESP-Link, right?

I loaded up ESP Home in Home Assistant, set-up the device and I’m also able to connect to it through HAOS or via the ESP Home Web Interface. A static IP is set.

However I seem to be a little bit on the stupid side of things :smiley:

From my understanding the next step is to connect the ESP32 along with the TTL converter to the Projector, boot it up and connect to the ESP32 via Home Assistant.

I keep facing the “Unexpected error” and I think it is also related to the baud-rate of the device? However I don’t know how to change this, as I don’t have this nice Microcontroller Console from aceindy.

Would someone of you mind, guiding me through this? I’d take the chance to write up a step-by-step guide for future use on your github repo, so no-one else asks the questions again :stuck_out_tongue:

I tried setting the BAUD Rate in ESPHome like this, However I had no luck in getting the connection to work:

substitutions:
  name: esphome-web-831570
  friendly_name: Benq_W2700_Control

esphome:
  name: ${name}
  friendly_name: ${friendly_name}
  name_add_mac_suffix: false
  project:
    name: esphome.web
    version: '1.0'

esp32:
  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1
  framework:
    type: arduino

uart:
  tx_pin: GPIO21 
  rx_pin: GPIO20
  baud_rate: 9600

Here is an overview of my setup:

Many thanks in advance!