NodeMCU with sen0311 sensor on uart lockups up

ESPHome
1

Hi everyone,

I’m having a hard time getting a specific sensor (sen0311) working with my NodeMCU-32S / esphome.
I’ve tried a lot, but this seems to be getting way above my experience level.

So i bought this sensor because it looked like it was pre-integrated in esphome.

Relevant yaml configuration:

uart: 
  id: uart3
  baud_rate: 9600
  rx_pin: GPIO16
  tx_pin: GPIO17

sensor:a
  - platform: "a02yyuw"
    name: "Distance"
    uart_id: uart3

When i compile esphome and upload/restart the nodemcu/sensor the whole nodemcu won’t boot. (no ping, no webserver, etc)
Disconnecting GPIO16 and powercycling makes the nodemcu work properly but obviously without any sensor data as GPIO16 is disconnected

So i tried hot-plugging GPIO16 after the nodemcu was booted.
This results in data being received for a short while, but after some seconds the nodemcu locks up. (Webinterface inaccessible, no more debug messages)

14:23:34 [D] [sensor:094] 'sensor_distance': Sending state 150.00000 mm with 0 decimals of accuracy 
14:23:34 [D] [sensor:094] 'sensor_distance': Sending state 101.00000 mm with 0 decimals of accuracy 
14:23:34 [D] [sensor:094] 'sensor_distance': Sending state 67.00000 mm with 0 decimals of accuracy
14:23:34 [D] [sensor:094] 'sensor_distance': Sending state 77.00000 mm with 0 decimals of accuracy
14:23:34 [D] [sensor:094] 'sensor_distance': Sending state 77.00000 mm with 0 decimals of accuracy

So then i found the esphome page that describes how to debug uart integrations:

So i removed the sensor definition from the yaml and changed the uart yaml to:

uart:
  baud_rate: 9600
  rx_pin: GPIO16
  tx_pin: GPIO17
  debug:
    direction: BOTH
    dummy_receiver: true
    sequence:
      - lambda: UARTDebug::log_string(direction, bytes);

This results in debug console messages:

14:42:49 [D] [uart_debug:158] <<< "\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE"
14:42:49 [D] [uart_debug:158] <<< "\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE\xFF\x02\xD1\xD2"
14:42:49 [D] [uart_debug:158] <<< "\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE\xFF\x02\xD1\xD2"
14:42:49 [D] [uart_debug:158] <<< "\xFF\x02\xD1\xD2\xFF\x02\xCD\xCE\xFF\x02\xD1\xD2"

But now the kicker, without any nodemcu lockups, it just keeps going for hours.

So my first thought was that the sensor must be flaky, so i bought a second one.
Unfortunately that one show exactly the same behaviour.

So now i’m stuck, i’ve identified two possible routes to follow;
1 - Troubleshoot to see why platform: “a02yyuw” locks up
2 - Create a parser based on raw uart data

But with my limited experience both are way above my comfort zone.
Anyone care to help? and give me a push in the right direction?

Thanks!
Z