Have I bricked my device?

ESPHome
1

Hi

I have a fish feeder from tuya, which i wanted to convert to ESPHome. Its based on a ESP8622 so I used tuya-convert to make it tasmota, then uploaded ESPHome binary via Tasmota.

HOWEVER, I missed the OTA: line in the yaml - and now I cannot wirelessly upload any new firmware, I get connection refused port 8266.

I took it apart, and the usb port only has the powerlines connected, so I cannot get it to appear as a serial port to upload over cable.

I can still get the logs wirelessly, but now cannot change any of the config.

Thanks
Phil.

2

Hi

Well you sort of destroyed the device ! If you can’t find a way to plug an USB/serial adapter on it, you won’t be able to reflash the ESP now :frowning:
OTA: line must be a default in all your sketch !

Vincèn

3

Hi,
What is you level of electronic knowledge please?

The answer to is it “bricked”, is thankfully NO, but without a way to connect over the WLAN network, it likely can only be re-flashed via the serial programming pins on the ESP8266 - many designs have these as a row of internal pins on the PCB to allow flashing in the factory.

I’ve flashed many, many, devices with Tasmota, ESPhome, Arduino, etc but the first few can be frustrating needing research to trace the micro-controller, pin-out, programming and serial pins, before a few attempts at flashing. It is possible, and persistence does work.

A good resource is Blakadder’s website - it has both device reverse engineering images, and chip pinouts so you can trace others:

For this type of device, I’d probably solder on temporary jumper wires (Vcc, GND, RX, TX, GPIO0) and experiment with swapping RX/TX and reset until a console appeared.

Worse case, you could work out what GPIO pins operate the device, and replace the microcontroller but as you already have loaded Tasmota/ESPhome once, it should be possible again.

If this helps, :heart: this post!

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4

Use a USB to serial adapter (Like this one), bring the ESP8622 to flash mode (bridge GPIO0 and gnd) and upload/install manually via RX/TX

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5

So no captive_portal: line either?

6

I have workign in IT my whole life, so have fairly good electronic knowledge, but not very good at soldering.

The chip is TYWE3S - tuya’s own version of ESP 8622. (chip data).

I can see which pics are Tx/Rx/Vcc/GND so maybe i will have to resort to that.

The firmware i uploaded is doing what i want for now, but just can never change any setting in the future.

Thanks.

7

Zoogara - unfortunately not, schoolboy error. I should have opened it up first to see how it was wired. Im used to ESPHome where I can just resort to usb/serial if neccessary.

8

With most USB serial boards (available from the usual scumbags), you can use pre-made breadboard jumper wires, and jam the ends into PCB holes - with luck, and a few tries, you can get a clean flash upload without soldering (Blu-Tak can help).

Here’s a few links…

If this helps, :heart: this post!

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9

as previously suggested, you’ll need a USB to serial adapter, connecting RX, TX, VCC and GND, bring the ESP8266 in flash mode and you’re good to upload a new firmware.