Integrate Annex-ESP into Homeassistant the easy way

[efalken]

hello, quite interessting setup.
I've also got several routers and repeaters in my mesh, but all under one main router.
Maybe two HA instances are an answer for you or even a simple esp-now link sending important notification messages from one network to the other.

image.png

[Electroguard]

Thanks for that.
Yeah, I expect I will need to change things, but I am very limited for viable options.
I developed my own EasyNet protocol way back (long before EspNow was developed) in order to allow all my Annex devices to be able to communicate with each other by name, without the restriction of having to communicate using specific designated IP addresses.

The EasyNet nodes can be addressed by their unique nodename, or by their groupnames (which can consist of multiple concatenated names needing only a partial unique match), or by their IP address, or just by the last node address byte.

The Annex main Sentry alarm (which receives wired sensor signals from the gates 50m away) is inside a cctv control room on a mezzanine floor inside a large metal hanger (previously a commercial vehicle workshop) which prevents radio comms.
We are another 50m behind that big faraday shield which blocks sight and sound of anything/anyone at the gates.

The Sentry alarm has TTS, RTC and SD modules, so whenever the sensors are triggered it speaks text-to-speech announcements through distributed AV cables to several locations. and logs the time of event triggers to a log file.
The crucial functionality is backed up by another Annex device also connected to the sensor wires, which runs exactly the same Sentry program, but falls back to quiet 'standby' mode while the main Sentry is responsive. The standby doesn't have a TTS module, but sends networked alert messages to a third identical Sentry program running in 'Announcer' mode with its own TTS module all inside an amplified speaker, which can be placed wherever is most appropriate.
So if there is a problem with the main Sentry or audio distribution, the standby sentry will promote itself to Main Sentry and send alert announcments to the Announcer across the isolated subnet.

The active Sentry maintains RTC time and acts as a network time server by responding to the groupname "TimeServer" and the instruction "TimeSync".
It also responds to groupnames of "LogServer" and "Announcer", so any networked devices can ask it by name to log time-stamped events and/or issue spoken announcements, without needing to know its specific nodename or IP address.
If the main Sentry stopped responding, the standby sentry would announce and log its change of status then respond to all relevant groupname requests.
IP address are irrelevant, so no IP configuration changes are required.
In fact any module could be transparently replaced or swapped out at any time, which is very different to EspNow.
Although none of the devices need to be aware of any IP addresses, unfortunately I need to connect to them all by their individual IP addresses.
So I'm hoping that after I find a solution to the wifi subnet snobbery, I may be able to bring things together into some handy HA control panels.

BTW, my subnet diagram is several years old now, so much has changed, but the attention to detail just for wifi channel separation speaks volumes.

[efalken]

Wow, impressive. Hope you will find a solution for all of this with HA.
greets
Erhard

[Basicboy]

Hi
My fridge is playing up freezing food and I want to make a homemade thermostat for it hence my interest in this thread.

I want to connect DS18B20 temperature sensor inside the fridge to ESP32 then turn fridge on/off depending on the temperature inside. Programming wise it's easy but I want to know how to turn electricity on/off to the fridge using the ESP32.

I am thinking of buying this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005298261294.html

But how do I communicate with it using ESP32?

Do I have to rely on wifi or talk to a server with ESP32 or can I simply send signals from ESP32 to the plug using wires?

This is an urgent "project" for me but there's 220V involved so I'd rather be sure I'm doing exactly the right thing.

Your feedback is much appreciated!

[peridot]

If you are using HA I think Tuya devices are supposed to be able to talk to Home Assistant. Alternatively I would prefer Tasmota, See https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... html] Here these look like the same devices pre flashed with Tasmota. Point being if you use Tasmota you can communicate with them directly from ESP32 with MQTT or HTTP.
You could also try Tuya convert to reflash the Tuya ones to Tasmota.



I

[Basicboy]

If you are using HA I think Tuya devices are supposed to be able to talk to Home Assistant. Alternatively I would prefer Tasmota, See https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... html] Here these look like the same devices pre flashed with Tasmota. Point being if you use Tasmota you can communicate with them directly from ESP32 with MQTT or HTTP.
You could also try Tuya convert to reflash the Tuya ones to Tasmota.
I

Thanks for your reply
Is there any coding example here on how to do this as I've never done this before

[BeanieBots]

Unfortunately TUYA devices no longer use ESP chips, so newer devices cannot be flashed. (at least, not with Annex)
I have no idea how you can tell, other than buying one, taking it apart and looking. Be warned, you may be dissapointed.
Also, typical fridges use highly inductive motors. I've never seen a product ever come out of China with the faintest hint of relay arc suppression.
(some of them do at least state, resistive loads only and I'd bet a serious amount of money that your fridge is NOT resistive)
If you use a relay contact to switch an inductive load frequently, it MUST have contact suppression. (you'll maybe get a few hundred switches before they weld or burn out).
Suppression is quite a complex topic, so my advice would be to use an appropriately rated zero-crossing solid state relay. You will need to dig deep into the datasheets to make sure it is suitable for switching a fridge. The rear plate on the fridge should give a figure for load impedance but that depends on which country and when it was bought.
Sorry to sound so negative but as I stated earlier, when it comes to mains, if you don't know, you probably shouldn't.
At least you're asking rather than ploughing in and getting it wrong.