Home assistant & Esphome through ethernet only

Hello,

I’d like to know whether or not it’s possible to build a system based on HA (on a Raspberry Pi) and EspHome (ESP32 card) where both are connected to my Internet Box in Ethernet (no wifi)?
I know it sounds weird, but I’d like to be wifi independent as I turn it off at night.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: please, be indulgent if this question looks stupid or if the answer is obvious to many of you. I am a fresh user. So far I played with HA (stored on a VM) and EspHome, using only wifi)

Hi

You can without problem use ESPHome with ESPs through Ethernet. It’ll just restrict a little your choice of ESP and not possible for everything (you wonqt find for example sockets with ESP and Ethernet but for other things it’s possible !).
Olimex among others is doing some ESP boards with Ethernet or Kincony too !

Vincèn

Fine! thank you.

The Shelly Pro range all support LAN connections and should be flashable with ESPHome (at least the wifi ones are).

Even if you don’t flash them, you now have another option for integrating into HA without requiring Wifi.

@ShadowFist
Would this kind of board do the job?
I am not sure I understand the problem you raise by “should be flashable with ESPHome”.

I don’t know if that board is up to the job. I was pointing you towards the Shelly products and you sent me a link to an ESP board.

Ethernet and ESP have always been a difficult topic. Most ESP devices and use cases build on WiFi and it’s a niche.

That said, of course there are reliable and well tested development boards with Ethernet out there. A good overview of the boards supported by ESPHome can be found here:

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OK, so I understand that I certainly missed something important.
Why an ESP32 board with an RJ45 port would not do the job? actually this was my first bet (mostly because it is cheap and I know these kinds of boards).

Concerning your link, I cannot find any board with GPIO (needed).

I think we’re misunderstanding each other. I didn’t say the ESP32 board wouldn’t do the job - I said I didn’t know if it would do the job.

Regarding the Shellies, I only mentioned them because I was trying to give you more options for the future, given how there’s not lots of smart devices which support LAN (other than the ESP boards you were looking at).

I have more than 10 wired ESPHome devices, I do not use WiFi at all on my ESP32s.

I have:

  • WT32-eth01: once flashed, a reliable board. I have about 10 always on. That’s the one you linked.
  • T-Internet-PoE: PoE failed on two boards, but apart from that the two that I have always on are working.
  • Olimex ESP32-PoE: I only have one that is working just fine.
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Thanks to all of you guys! that’s great.

@andyboeh: thank you for your experience feedback. Ultimately, i will choose the board providing the largest number of free-to-use gpios.

Yes that is the problem. Free GPIOs are restricted because of the Ethernet. I use QUINLED and works very well. Higher end of quallity

:grin: MCP23017 will be my friend!

This is exactly what I did: I created a base PCB for the WT32-eth01 with MCP23017 and a bunch relays and digital inputs. Working fine for 2 years now.