YAML config syntax help

[shadowclaw (Christopher Sammet)]

Was previously using a custom component to read data from uart (the general uart_read_line_sensor.h file) and feed it to a text sensor. Since custom components are going away I found an example of how to do this using the debug component. However something with this file is causing the compiler/editor to throw a not helpful syntax error message. In the first line “esphome” has the red line under it and gives the message:

while parsing a block collection
in “/config/esphome/theater-projector.yaml”, line 49, column 3
expected , but found ‘?’
in “/config/esphome/theater-projector.yaml”, line 53, column 3

I have been trying everything I can think of to figure out what its not happy with but after several hours I haven’t found anything and would appreciate some help.

My yaml file:

esphome:
  name: theater-projector
  friendly_name: Theater Projector

esp32:
  board: m5stack-core-esp32
  framework:
    type: arduino

# Enable logging
logger:
  level: VERBOSE #makes uart stream available in esphome logstream
  baud_rate: 0 #disable logging over uart

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "**********"

ota:
- platform: esphome
  password: "**********"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret **********
  password: !secret **********
  domain: **********

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Theater-Projector"
    password: "**********"

captive_portal:

uart:
  tx_pin: GPIO19
  rx_pin: GPIO22
  baud_rate: 9600

# https://www.reddit.com/r/Esphome/comments/1js47go/serial_read_custom_component_to_external_component/?ref=share&ref_source=link
text_sensor:
  - platform: template
    name: "UART Readline"
    id: uart_readline
    update_interval: never

interval:
  - interval: 10s
    then:
      - uart.write: "pwr?\r"
      #- uart.write: [0x70, 0x77, 0x72, 0x3F, 0x0D]
  debug:
      direction: RX
      dummy_receiver: true
      after:
        # Carriage Return (https://ss64.com/ascii.html)
        delimiter: [0x0D]
        timeout: 2000ms
      sequence:
        - lambda: |-
            std::string uart_bytes(bytes.begin(), bytes.end());
            id(uart_readline).publish_state(uart_bytes.c_str());

switch:
  - platform: template
    name: "Project Power"
    lambda: |-
      if ((id(uart_readline).state == ":PWR=01") || (id(uart_readline).state == ":PWR=02") || (id(uart_readline).state == ":PWR=03")) {
        return true;
      } else if((id(uart_readline).state == ":PWR=00") || (id(uart_readline).state == ":PWR=05")) {
        return false;
      } else {
        return {};
      }
    icon: mdi:projector
    turn_on_action:
      - uart.write: "PWR ON\r"
    turn_off_action:
      - uart.write: "PWR OFF\r"

[zoogara (Daryl)]

Your debug: block needs to go into the uart: component - you can’t use it inside the interval: block.

Have a read of this post - you are on the right track but need to move some things around:

[How to] UART read without custom component

The UART Bus component provides a write action but no read actions. Typically the UART read is implemented in a custom component that also does the processing. The UART debug sequence can be exploited to act like a call back function whenever there is received data to process. So basically instead of creating a small custom component a large lambda call can be used in the UART debug yaml. This is shared to hopefully help make implementing UART devices a bit easier for average users. It seems t…

[shadowclaw (Christopher Sammet)]

Thank you! That fixed it. I think misunderstood how the debug block was operating, I thought it needed to be under interval such that it would be run periodically instead of the module itself (uart in this case) taking care of that for me.

I’m still a lot more use to working with the code directly instead of simply configuring it one layer up with a yaml file.