Voice Preview fails to connect to HA

So I got my Voice Preview initially connected to HA and ESPHome updated the firmware but ever since it is pulsing in blue (occasionally red).

Factory resetting it got me as far as ESPHome detecting it but upon trying to add it, I end up with

Can’t connect to ESP. Please make sure your YAML file contains an ‘api:’ line.

This is my first ESPHome device so I suspect I am missing something really obvious.

Am I supposed to be able to ping the Voice Preview (because that also fails)?

I have a similar issue. I can’t get the device to join HA, I keep getting:
image
I don’t know why it’s trying with host 192.168.1.12
I can’t even get it to factory reset (pressing the button continously for 22 seconds does nothing). It’s quite a frustrating start

I have seen several reports with this error, and don’t really know what the problem is, but some have reported that they need to reflash the VAPE, but other reports which seem to make a little more sense is that the ESPHome integration is trying to discover the VAPE and can’t (thus the pop up asking for host address), and this is because the VAPE was not given a 2.4GHz WiFi network/credentials that allow it to connect to the same LAN as HA.

In my case it was that my HA instance is available at homeassistant.lan (not .local), explicitly setting Home Assistant URL in the network settings fixed it.

FWIW: If the WiFi credentials were wrong, how could ESPHome detect it in the first place?

You are right, I don’t think it can.

Isn’t it detected via BT initially?

Sort of, but that only triggers the wifi setup. I don’t think esphome talks Bluetooth itself

just speculating here…on the other hand, if HA is discovering the VPE via the LAN, then I don’t think it should be presenting a pop asking for an IP address. This leads me to guess that the Companion App is the one providing the discovery path (telling HA of a new VPE) and HA is in turn trying to contact the VPE via the LAN and when that fails, it presents the popup.

Mobile app is the route I took. If it is of interest, I can reset it again and try to see what happens if the BT adapter plugged into my Green detects it.

The IP was correct in my case, FWIW.