UART debug sensor to Home Assistant

ESPHome
1

I added UART debug logging to my device

and the information perfectly shows in the webinterface.
however I would like to have this send to HA as well so I can analyze the data later.
Is this possible?

usually when my device shows an error I don’t have time to immediately examine,
I would be great if I can use history to see the previous statusses

2

You could publish the messages to a text sensor.

    - lambda: |-
          UARTDebug::log_string(direction, bytes);  //Still log the data
          
          int sensorID=0;
          float sensorTEMP=0; 
          
          //Example to convert uart text to string
          std::string str(bytes.begin(), bytes.end());

          //watch for potential problems with non printable or special characters in string
          id(rawString).publish_state(str.c_str());
3

When I try this my esphome device crashes,
I think it’s because I’m reading hex data instead of string.

4

Can you show your logs and yaml?

You can probably adapt the code from the hex logger into your lamda.

Eg instead of ESP_LOGD do a publish_state.

https://esphome.io/api/uart__debugger_8cpp_source

void UARTDebug::log_hex(UARTDirection direction, std::vector<uint8_t> bytes, uint8_t separator) {
   std::string res;
   if (direction == UART_DIRECTION_RX) {
     res += "<<< ";
   } else {
     res += ">>> ";
   }
   size_t len = bytes.size();
   char buf[5];
   for (size_t i = 0; i < len; i++) {
     if (i > 0) {
       res += separator;
     }
     sprintf(buf, "%02X", bytes[i]);
     res += buf;
   }
   ESP_LOGD(TAG, "%s", res.c_str());
   delay(10);
 }

Alternatively you can do it the custom sensor way.

5

really really cool,
that works

    debug:
      direction: BOTH
      dummy_receiver: true
      after:
        delimiter: "\n"
      sequence:
        #https://community.home-assistant.io/t/uart-debug-sensor-to-home-assistant/722853
        - lambda: |-
            static const char *const TAG = "uart_debug";
            uint8_t separator = ' ';
            std::string res;
            if (direction == UART_DIRECTION_RX) {
              res += "<<< ";
            } else {
              res += ">>> ";
            }
            size_t len = bytes.size();
            char buf[5];
            for (size_t i = 0; i < len; i++) {
              if (i > 0) {
                res += separator;
              }
              sprintf(buf, "%02X", bytes[i]);
              res += buf;
            }
            ESP_LOGD(TAG, "%s", res.c_str());
            id(UartStatus).publish_state(res.c_str());
            delay(10);

then luckily HA now has the export function since the value updates really rapidly.

not sure what you want to see in the log,
it’s a bunch of hex messages to control my coffee maker.

21:10:07	[D]	[uart_debug:058]	

>>> 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11

21:10:07	[D]	[uart_debug:058]	

>>> 00 00 00 11 36 05 24 24 04 14 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00

21:10:07	[D]	[uart_debug:058]	

<<< D5 55 00 07 07 07 07 00 00 00 00 00 38 00 00 00 00 37 28

21:10:07	[D]	[uart_debug:058]	

>>> 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11

21:10:07	[D]	[uart_debug:058]	

>>> 36 D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 A0 64 FE D5 55 00 01 02 00 02 00 00 00 11 9B

but I’m glad it works,
the next time my machine shows an error I can write down the time and then later check the data of byte[15]

[edit:] unfortunately about after 10 minutes the ESP8266 still crashes,
I think maybe the amount of logging is just to much to handle for the ESP.
so for now I keep it at weblogging.

1 Like