Tasmota – TDM, Tasmotize and TasUI

Peter ScargillGeneral75 Comments on Tasmota – TDM, Tasmotize and TasUI
Tsmota Elliot

This is a never-ending story about Theo Arends’s much-loved alternative firmware for IOT (http://ota.tasmota.com/tasmota/tasmota.bin.gz) as Tasmota is now at stable release version 8.5.1 “Hannah” (update October 2, 2020) and development version 9.0.0.1 – I’ve upgraded my various ESP8266-based devices including Itead Sonoff BASIC, TH10, 4CH Pro, ProR2, Powr2, Shelly One, Blitzwolf and others). Warning, there are SOME devices out there which cannot accept Tasmota or other alternative firmware. My overall advice would be to avoid them where possible unless you wish to rely on cloud services). This entry will assume you want local control of devices.

Tasmota on a Costco lamp

Well, as, until recently in the UK, the bars were closed and we still can’t really travel freely over there, sitting at home updating Tasmota seems a sensible (and safe) way to pass time. Be sure to check the Tasmota docs site for upgrades etc. and for COMMANDS in Tasmota go here.

Noteably, with Tasmota “Elliot”, we can now leave off all sensor checking if we don’t have any sensors – and the number of .bin file permutations has gone up… and I’ve just added a DHT22 sensor to a Sonoff Basic board (rev 2, the ones currently going for a song). I used gnd, 3v3 and RX pins on the 4 way header and included a 10k pullup for the data line. For this I used tasmota-sensors.bin – if I were not using any sensors I’d use tasmota-lite.bin

The new Tasmota docs site replaces the older WIKI and there is also a new flasher utility therein. Firstly we have the updates to Tasmota itself (9.0.0.1 development version) and the Tasmota Device Manager software (TDM) version 0.2.6 and now TASMOTIZE as a Windows executable (tasmotizer-1.2.exe) – for flashing Tasmota onto various IOT devices. But not just flashing – EASY flashing – with WIFI, MQTT and module setup all in the same place. For TDM, if you want the Windows EXE versions then head directly to the RELEASES page.

I grabbed TASUI on Dec 21, 2019 but not done a lot with it… http://tasui.shantur.com – and what is THAT I hear you ask? Well, it is a web-browser based UI for Tasmota devices – apparently for Tasmota 7.0.2.4 or later so please don’t bother until you update your devices… my friend Antonio confused the hell out of me by referring to “CORS http://tasui.shantur.com” – what is that I asked. Well if you want to have a play, just take that text without the quotes, paste it into the CONSOLE in one or more of your Tasmota-equipped devices to test – and immediately they know about this new UI (even after a reboot). In a browser on your local network, enter the link (top of this para) and the UI will start up.

Then, tell the UI about your local IP network subnet range for your devices i.e. 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.200 or whatever you use). Then tell the page to go searching for your devices. Once done save them. That’s it. You now know as much as me about /TASUI. There was supposed to be a LOCAL version of this UI coming out but here is the Github link – still not documented in February 2021 – https://github.com/IOTReboot/TasUI/tree/1d928ab

Let’s back-track for a second for those new to the subject… when it comes to controlling devices from simple WIFI-controlled on-off switches through to RGB lighting, LCD displays and so on, Tasmota is one of several free firmware alternatives to the almost endemic numbers of (largely) cloud-based IOT solutions. I should point out that font support remains very limited in Tasmota (Feb 2021).

For obvious commercial reasons, many manufacturers of IOT products would like us to use their own proprietary solutions, often relying on their own control APPS and cloud-based storage/control. Some folk don’t trust cloud-based solutions (for a variety of reasons). Another issue is that every manufacturer seems to have their reasons why you should use THEIR cloud solution. I’m happiest with local control (Tasmota most of the time for ESP8266 – and using Node-Red on a Raspberry Pi for my central controller).

TDM

Tasmota started off as an alternative to control Itead Sonoff and other boards, something you could (can) freely download and “flash ” onto said boards and then either control your devices via simple web commands or something like MQTT. There are other solutions: “Espurna” comes to mind as well as “ESP-GO”. The latter is covered extensively earlier in this blog and I spent many months developing this with help from Aidan Ruff and others.

Recently, Tasmota has been coming on in leaps and bounds and is now THE dominant alternative IOT (ESP82666) device firmware as it now supports a WIDE variety of IOT WIFI-controlled devices not to mention Zigbee and features which are growing constantly.

SO, here we are, Tasmota can be installed on, for just one example, Itead Sonoff BASIC (110v-220v power control) boards and used to control them over WIFI, even adding lots of different sensors for the more ambitious. In my case this is all controlled centrally using a Raspberry Pi running Node-Red and MQTT protocol. Others may prefer to control devices directly via a browser as the Tasmota WebUI is in fact excellent.

What’s new? Well, Tasmota now offers support for a LOT of devices, has a NICE interface as well as TASMOTA DEVICE MANAGER (TDM), a new website putting it all together, TASMOTIZER, software to easily FLASH (program) boards with Tasmota – and it is all getting easier by the day. And NOW we have TasUI – lovely.

Flashing (reprogramming) IOT boards is nothing new and started back in the dark ages with various attempts at Python language code (more familiar perhaps to Linux rather than Windows users) – Tasmotizer is now available as a Windows .EXE file as is TDM. A fellow who goes by the name of Faziaty on “Discord” and Jziolkowski on Github is, it would seem, responsible for both Tasmotizer and TDM.

Tasmota supports up to two access points and for this I’ll point you to the docs referred to above and in particular the “AP” and “SSID” commands.

Tasmota is easy to install on various devices using (in some cases TUYA-CONVERT or a serial convertor (FTDI) and is also easily upgradeable “LIVE” via OTA – I have many devices, some hidden away in the loft, some in another country – all of which I can now safely update while they are running using TDM – which in my case runs on Windows 10.

Talking of devices in another country – especially one with less than perfect electric power – you should be aware in the Tasmota commands referred to above – SETOPTION commands… “setoption 13 1” disables special button tricks like long press and double press – always do that (once only, non-volatile) if you don’t NEED that. Another non-volatile command “SETOPTION65 1” – set this once a controller is in place and working – the option defaults to 0 to get you out of a jam if you tend to mess up passwords etc, but can also result in Tasmota returning to default settings after repeated power cycling. Set “SETOPTION65 1” to STOP this from happening.

Backups – this is still in progress you might like to check it out.

75 thoughts on “Tasmota – TDM, Tasmotize and TasUI”

  1. I feel a Node-Red flow for Tasmota configuration management coming on… tried all of the above, and none provide me with the adaptability I like to have :(.

    1. Do let me know if you come up with something good. I no longer mess with TasUI and as far as I know, the project is now dEAD, Tasmotize I swear by, and I use TDM but it is far from perfect…. being written in an interperted language it is SLOW if you have lots of devices on the net.

      1. cheeky plug – did you see generic Bluetooth Low Energy landed formally yesterday in TAS – 6 weeks of my time on making it good. Certainly will let you know if I do a Node Red flow.

  2. TDM looks really marvelous, but fails for daily operation due to it crashing. Checked the authors github website and unfortunately its development seems no longer to be continued since x-mas 2019.
    crashes e.g. when performing the following:
    – 1) Sonoff T1 2CH with current firmware Tasmota 9.0.0.2
    – 2) hit the “Timers” Button in the menu bar
    – 3) wait a moment as TDM will crash

    1. It does seem, looking around that TDM has not been updated since december 2019 – maybe because people pass comment in the likes of my blog and other places instead of contacting the author directly on his GitHub site. Why not get in touch with him and ask him if he has plans to fix the issues you;ve mentioned.

      Personally I’d like to see it speeded up.

      🙂

      Pete

      1. DISCORD – TDM – go in there – theres a conversation going on – the author hsa little time, some folk have offered their time – 0.3 is coming out any time soon in the dev branch for testers and possible contributors. Anyone looking in here with the necessary skills should head over to discord….it looks like he really does want help.

    1. TASUI? No, could be anything right now, maybe the developer is sick or off work due to the virus – or maybe he got a job and no longer has time to develop it? I didn’t end up really using it anyway. Right now I’d like to know why I could update Tasmota to 9.0.0.1, updated several boards and then that dev update disappeared – right now I can “only” find the release version at 8.5.0.1 and that’s it. When I find out I’ll pass on the info.

        1. Thanks Antonio – after talking to you earlier, I’ve now upgraded several Tasmota-loaded devices to 9.0.0.2 by downloading the minimal version then the full Tasmota – these boards would previously not OTA directly. Still, beats the pants off getting the soldering iron out.

  4. DEW POINT in your dht22, and other sensors, is a new addition of tasmota 8.2
    firmware bin count is pretty much the same, the sensor was present even before, but they now moved ALL the sensors which are not PRESENT in an actual device, out of the tasmota.bin file and to the tasmota-sensors.bin one…

    by this i mean, if a proper device is present in the MODEL select combo box in tasmota web gui, then ITS sensors are present in tasmota.bin file… so as devices exist which has power monitoring, most of THAT type of sensors are included in the standard bin file… as is included support for ws2812 rgb serial leds, because devices with those are DIRECTLY supported by the firmware, and NOT require and AD HOC template to be pasted in the OTHERS web gui section… and SO for example the DS18b20 IS included in tasmota.bin as supported by the itead sensors sold with the sonoff TH series, as are included the DHT ones, BUT the BME/BMP ones are NOT…

    if you just have a BASIC device, not intended as a sonoff basic but including it, and adding whatever device which has just a relay, a led and a button, then you’re just fine using the LITE bin file… using smaller bin files makes them faster in response, you can notice this in reducing the time a sensor needs to react: using sensors bin file i can’t get to go below 1 second response time for a pir or ping sensor, while compiling just the bare minimum i got 0.2 seconds… because tasmota have to check ALL the sensors included in firmware, in rotation, 1 at a time, so it just wastes time… not a tasmota fault, absolutely, it works as such to guarantee that all of them are included, in the appropriate build… speaking of BUILDS, here you can find every and each of them, with the included features of any…

    https://tasmota.github.io/docs/#/Builds

    oh, new addition is the presence of gzipped, compressed, bin file now, on http://thehackbox.org/tasmota/
    using them, once you are in a recent build supporting this as 8.0.1.11 and the new 8.2.0.x one, the device can do a firmware upgrade in a single run, without having to automaGically download the minimal and then the desired bin file…

  5. Tasmota RELEASE version 8.2.0 just out, codename ELLIOT:
    https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota/releases/tag/v8.2.0

    changelog:

    Change default my_user_config.h driver and sensor support removing most sensors and adding most drivers to tasmota.bin
    Change DHT driver (#7468, #7717)
    Change Lights: simplified gamma correction and 10 bits internal computation
    Change commands Prefix, Ssid, StateText, NTPServer, and FriendlyName displaying all items
    Change Zigbee command prefix from Zigbee* to Zb*
    Change MQTT message size with additional 200 characters
    Change display of some date and time messages from “Wed Feb 19 10:45:12 2020” to “2020-02-19T10:45:12”
    Change IRremoteESP8266 library updated to v2.7.4
    Fix PowerDelta zero power detection (#7515)
    Fix White added to light status (#7142)
    Fix WakeUp ignores provided value (#7473)
    Fix RGBWWTable ignored (#7572)
    Fix commands Display and Counter from overruling command processing (#7322)
    Fix Sonoff Bridge, Sc, L1, iFan03 and CSE7766 serial interface to forced speed, config and disable logging
    Fix Improved fade linearity with gamma correction
    Fix PWM flickering at low levels (#7415)
    Fix LCD line and column positioning (#7387)
    Fix Display handling of hexadecimal escape characters (#7387)
    Fix exception 9 restart on log message in Ticker interrupt service routines NTP, Wemos and Hue emulation (#7496)
    Fix Hass sensor discovery by Federico Leoni (#7582, #7548)
    Fix MaxPower functionality (#7647)
    Fix relation between Wifi RSSI and signal strength
    Add command SetOption79 0/1 to enable reset of counters at teleperiod time by Andre Thomas (#7355)
    Add command SetOption82 0/1 to limit the CT range for Alexa to 200..380
    Add command SetOption84 0/1 to send AWS IoT device shadow updates (alternative to retained)
    Add commands SetOption85 0/1 and DevGroupShare supporting UDP Group command using GroupTopic without MQTT by Paul Diem (#7790)
    Add command SetOption86 0/1 for PWM dimmer to turn brightness LED’s off 5 seconds after last change
    Add command SetOption87 0/1 for PWM dimmer to turn red LED on when powered off
    Add command SetOption88 0/1 for PWM dimmer to let buttons control remote devices
    Add command SetOption89 0/1 for Zigbee distinct MQTT topics per device for SENSOR, allowing retained messages (#7835)
    Add command ShutterButton to control shutter(s) by to-scho (#7403)
    Add commands SwitchMode 8 ToggleMulti, SwitchMode 9 FollowMulti and SwitchMode 10 FollowMultiInverted (#7522)
    Add commands SwitchMode 11 PushHoldMulti and SwitchMode 12 PushHoldInverted (#7603)
    Add commands SwitchMode 13 PushOn and SwitchMode 14 PushOnInverted (#7912)
    Add command Buzzer -1 for infinite mode and command Buzzer -2 for following led mode (#7623)
    Add command HumOffset -10.0 .. 10.0 to set global humidity sensor offset (#7934)
    Add support for AdcParam parameters to control ADC0 Current Transformer Apparent Power formula by Jodi Dillon (#7100)
    Add optional parameter to command Scheme , to control initial start color
    Add web page sliders when SetOption37 128 is active allowing control of white(s)
    Add SerialConfig to Status 1
    Add BootCount Reset Time as BCResetTime to Status 1
    Add WifiPower to Status 5
    Add most SetOptions as defines to my_user_config.h
    Add optional Wifi AccessPoint passphrase define WIFI_AP_PASSPHRASE in my_user_config.h (#7690)
    Add SoftwareSerial to CSE7766 driver allowing different GPIOs (#7563)
    Add rule trigger on one level deeper using syntax with two # like on zbreceived#vibration_sensor#aqaracubeside=0 do …
    Add Zigbee attribute decoder for Xiaomi Aqara Cube
    Add ZbZNPReceivedand ZbZCLReceived being published to MQTT when SetOption66 1
    Add Zigbee enhanced commands decoding, added ZbPing
    Add Zigbee features and improvements
    Add Zigbee support for Hue emulation by Stefan Hadinger
    Add HAss Discovery support for Button and Switch triggers by Federico Leoni (#7901)
    Add Dew Point to Temperature and Humidity sensors
    Add optional support for Prometheus using file xsns_91_prometheus.ino (#7216)
    Add support for gzipped binaries
    Add support for Romanian language translations by Augustin Marti
    Add support for sensors DS18x20 and DHT family on Shelly 1 and Shelly 1PM using Shelly Add-On adapter (#7469)
    Add support to BMP driver to enter reset state (sleep enable) when deep sleep is used in Tasmota
    Add support for DS1624, DS1621 Temperature sensor by Leonid Myravjev
    Add support for NRF24L01 as BLE-bridge for Mijia Bluetooth sensors by Christian Baars (#7394)
    Add support for MI-BLE sensors using HM-10 Bluetooth 4.0 module by Christian Staars (#7683)
    Add support for FiF LE-01MR energy meter by saper-2 (#7584)
    Add support for Sensors AHT10 and AHT15 by Martin Wagner (#7596)
    Add support for Wemos Motor Shield V1 by Denis Sborets (#7764)
    Add support for La Crosse TX23 Anemometer by Norbert Richter (#3146, #7765)
    Add support for Martin Jerry/acenx/Tessan/NTONPOWER SD0x PWM dimmer switches by Paul Diem (#7791)
    Add support for UDP Group control without MQTT by Paul Diem (#7790)
    Add support for Jarolift rollers by Keeloq algorithm
    Add support for MaxBotix HRXL-MaxSonar ultrasonic range finders by Jon Little (#7814)
    Add support for HDC1080 Temperature and Humidity sensor by Luis Teixeira (#7888)
    Add support for ElectriQ iQ-wifiMOODL RGBW light by Ian King (#7947)

    1. It’s great that Tasmotizer also sets up the wifi and mqtt credentials for you which only leaves the issue of working out what ip address was allocated. As a tip for anyone using this I find that if I temporarily set the topic to something like tasnew and then have an mqtt in node listening for tele/tasnew/INFO2 it will report shortly after boot on the IP allocated. After that you can set the topic to something appropriate leaving the mqtt in node ready for the next device that you setup.

  7. Peter,
    I’ve just released a docker container for TasUI, for now just linux/amd64 version, soon we will update it with other architectures. Soon a Home Assistant addon will be available too.
    All is managed locally and with an optimized CORS management.

    1. I’ll have that. Doing the usual Xmas driving right now. Blog update later. “Doris” it is. Any significant new features to go with the spiffy nickname?

      1. nothing relevant, no hurry in update… especially for standard stuff like sonoffs which gained most of the benefits by moving to core 2.6.1… most of the newer features are about latest devices, or devies with sensors, or zigbee and other internal reorganization like the settings arrays…

    1. from: https://tasmota.github.io/docs/#/Home

      2019-12-21

      Tasmota v7.2 Constance is released. See changelog for all changes.

      Breaking change: tasmota-basic.bin is renamed to tasmota-lite.bin. Update your OtaUrl accordingly.

      warning warning warning
      This will be the only release that supports fallback from future release 8.0 and development versions 7.2.0.x which will be released shortly. Tasmota v8.0 will have major changes in configuration code and layout which will completely break any downgrade to versions below v7.2.

      p.s.: i use tasmota-lite on all my sonoff “basic” devices, as it’s smaller than the standard tasmota.bin file and as such allows a direct upgrade to newer firmware without needing the minimal firmware step, even though the minimal is automatic thanks to tasmota magicOta mechanism… but why bother of flashing a bigger firmware, which needs 2 firmware upgrades, actually, and 2 reboots, when you’re flashing a device with no sensors and just a button, a relay and an led? 🙂

      1. Hi Antonio – CONSTANCE – sorry just read your comment now – already updated the blog. I discovered too late that I’ve a couple of boards that might need flashing…nice XMAS job.

    1. Yes I tried Tasui but it only found 1 device, maybe it will get better. My solution doesn’t run in a browser like Tas ui though it’s an executable program, I hope to add things like auto detection when I figure out how to do it 🤔

  14. Hi,
    I have also put together my own tool to help setting up multiple Tasmota devices, this works using the Http command so you just need the IP address to work.
    Nothing fancy, the aim was to be able to send the basic commands via http to the device to setup different displays but there are other commands available.
    Still a work in progress but if you’re interesting in trying it here is a link to my onedrive location https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkqVSEM4Y7kDgcxvAUQeeXz3ebzWNg?e=Nelscz

    Cheers

    2. Oh dear Phil – others are correct – Windos flags your ONEDRIVE file as a VIRUS – you might want to change that.

      1. I’ve seen this on the AutoIT forum, others have also seen it as a threat, all I can say is Avira Pro doesn’t see it as a threat and on work PC using Mcafee it’s fine.
        Apparently someone has used AutoIT in the past to write malicious code and therefore some AV scanners say it’s a virus when it isn’t because it was written with AutoIT, strange really because I suppose you have to write malicious code in something and if they banned everything ever used would we’d have nothing to write software with?
        Anyway I don’t think I can do anything about it, I know a few people who have installed it OK and using it on the facebook page.

  15. Peter, thanks for the prompt reply. Everything I used is the latest version, the Sonoff binary, Tasmotize, TDM. I had set the friendly name, Tasmota topic and host name, but I changed them just be sure but still no joy!
    I plan to Tasmotize another Sonoff basic and a Sonoff 4 channel pro, hopefully they will show up on TDM. To be clear I have TDM running on my Windows 10*64 machine and Mosquitto running on a RPi 3B running Buster.

    1. and did you set up mqtt settings in TDM itself, top left menu? Both tdm and your sonoffs have to connect to the same mqtt broker to be used…

      and… to add some spices 🙂
      if you have AT LEAST tasmota > 7.2.1.4, open their console via web gui and paste this command and hit ENTER:

      CORS http://tasui.shantur.com

      then go on this site: http://tasui.shantur.com/#/findDevices
      and put in your local network range and hit START DISCOVERY…
      wait till it will find all your devices, then click the + sign to add them to the main DEVICES page… now start playing with it, it has lots of the tdm features (but not all, remember that’s still v0.0.1!), it does not need any mqtt broker, and if you think it will ask for a ransom for your devices, just don’t: CORS allows javascript calls which run LOCALLY between your browser and your devices, nothing on that site… source is there, you’ll be able soon to install locally via NPM, too, or ask the author there if you want it sooner: https://github.com/IOTReboot/TasUI/

      1. Hi Antonio, you hit the ‘head on the nail’ I had not correctly set the mqtt settings. I discovered that after my last post. TDM is very useful!
        Thanks for the TasUI information. I tried that following your instructions and it works well. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

  16. Hi folks, I need a bit of help I think. I have Tasmotised a Sonoff basic using the new Tasmotizer under windows, uploaded tasmota.bin no problem. The Tasmota web interface works, I can see the Sonoff output in MQTT-Spy so MQTT is working using a Mosquitto broker running on my Raspi 3B. However, when I run TDM on Windows, installed using the Windows .exe file, there is no device showing up in TDM. Is there anything that needs setting up on the Sonoff to use TDM?

    1. If you have a recent Tasmota on the Sonoff, no you don’t need any changes on the Sonoff to make it show up on TDM, but make sure you are using the friendly name and mqtt topic – I always fill in all three – wifi name, mqtt topic, friendly name.. and I too am using Mosquitto – originally on a 3B, now on a 4 – but that won’t make any difference.

  17. What’s a “Martin Jerry dimmer” ? $24 + £11 shipping to the UK (plus duty and VAT). I don’t think so…

    1. Peter has about a much trust in “the cloud” as I do. Great when it works… but ho wants a cold dark house/office when it doesn’t. Some day, Internet service providers will move into the 21st century – until then. I’ll bet you’re agreeing with this, Antonio, stuck over the weekend with no broadband.

      1. absolutely, the only “cloud” services i use are the xiaomi ones, just because they can’t be hacked AFAIK… some rgb bulbs, a couple of cameras, 2 bluetooth (1 with clock, too) temperature and humidity sensors (which i’ll connect to an esp32 soon), and nothing more… oh, and the shelly switch which commands my blinds, but that is easy to hack, just disable cloud from its stock firmware… if a device can’t be hacked, i sell it 🙂

        1. Agreed. Shelly on local – yes, easy – first thing I did was disable the cloud. I’m looking at selling any of my kit that can’t switch to local – apart from Alexa and Google maps on my phone of course. I have TomTom which is mostly local, but then, it’s also mostly out of date.

          1. there’s tomtom on playstore, which has “free” 250km on 1st run, and 75km each month, and in most cases that’s enough 🙂

            you should try “Here”, too, which is the new name of the old “Nokia Maps” which was very good and completely offline, and allows to download single regions instead of full nations, too

            1. Thanks for that Antonio. My TomTom is the one on Playstore, thats how they do it now – 75km free each month – which for me would be useless, when travelling I can rack up 600-800Km in one day – so I signed up to pay – and really they have not moved on over the years, the updates are not regular enough AND the program pesters you to update up to 1GB maps when you are on MOBILE on the ROAD. How dumb is THAT? I’ve written to them but they take no notice.

              I’d forgottten all about “HERE”. The full name is “HERE WeGo” and as you have brought this to my attention, I loaded it up – it insists on storing maps in internal memory – not on SD – nothing new there, I believe “TomTom Go” does the same thing.

              “Offline Maps and Navigation” on the other hand allows you to use either internal storage or SD. I recently put a “cheap” 256GB SD on my Pocophone and so maps of UK and Europe don’t make a dent. Hell I could put the entire world in there.

              Actually that subject almost deserves a blog entry of it’s own.. maybe elsewhere…

              1. for me the 75km cap is fine, as if i’ve to take an highway and move for, let’s say, 200 or 300km, i really don’t need my phone to tell me “go on, keep going, go go go, always forward, never back!”… 🙂

                and, as said, i’ve other options… not even a problem the internal memory, as my pocophone has 128gb, empty for more than an half 🙂

                1. I don’t need maps in Britain – A1 M1 then a couple of changes at the bottom end of the country… easy… but in Spain (I don’t speak Spanish) in and out of long rural roads and onto and off motorways I may never have used before – definitely.. and this coming January – USA – I don’t have a clue though I may be lucky and escape driving there as Maureen is from Chicago. My Pocophone has 64GB – I was in a rush… I know – I should have waited. Still, with 256GB of SD inside for maps and movies I should manage 🙂

  22. I am very curious whether the MQTT client is found to be more stable with bad WiFi connection.
    I made some patches to PubSubClient and Theo already included my patches in Tasmota builds, even before my nightly build of ESPEasy was started.
    So at least the number of testers of it will be greatly enlarged by this 🙂

    1. i solved all my issues with wifi disconnecting by using a new access point, dedicated to just iot devices, which is just 50cm away from the old one… not a single disconnect or exceptions anymore… just a basic openwrt wt3020 model 🙂

      now that you’re here, Mr EspEasy in person, welcome! 🙂

      a question: i’d like to create an “iot keypad” to have near my desk or bed, from which send out mqtt messages to toggle my various device, or better, let me choose to send mqtt or rest api calls… this to allow me a physical interaction instead of a voice one, as many devices are hidden and their buttons are not easily accessible 🙂

      i was thinking to tasmota, but then this would need to use rules to publish topics on every keypress, and as gpio are limited, this implies using an mcp23017 for example… i’ve seen that your firmware allows to use some keypads, too, directly… this way (or via mcp23017 too, no problem in that), can the mqtt or rest calls be made by editing the devices in your excellent web gui, or are rules needed even in this case?

      any other suggestion is welcome, of course

      1. You can link a task to a controller, to output any value to the controller (e.g. one of the HTTP controllers), but that will be hardly ever be the most flexible solution.
        So you can also have some rules to act on specific key presses.
        A newly generated value from a task will trigger an event and you can catch those in rules. You can even trigger a rule on a specific value of a variable (on pad#value=1 do …), but you can also in a rules block refer to an event-value by using %eventvalue% (or %eventvalue2%… if there are more).
        So, yes it may be possible without rules, but I think it will be a lot easier when using rules. See the documentation: https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Rules/Rules.html#introduction

      2. Antonio, does your dedicated access point have a different range of IP addresses? Say your main LAN has Ip’s 192.168.1.0 to 255, then does your AP have something different like 10.10.1.0 to 255? I would be very interested in knowing how to achieve such a set up for my IOT devices.

        1. no, mine was set up as an access point on my network, and the dhcp as relay dhcp (devices ask for ip to it and it just asks to the one on the cabled interface), so they’re all in the same network, just different SSIDs… in your case, if your device allows this and you want a different range, you can set it as a router instead, putting the WAN interface on your actual network range, and creating a new network on the bridge which is formed by the LAN and the WLAN interface…

          doing this with openwrt and with mikrotik is quite simple, i suggest looking for mikrotik, it has a very nice interface (both web and pc gui), or for the Yellow Mango GL-Inet Pete reviewd here a while ago, if you want openwrt… both have wizards to do so, and they allow (the mikrotik for sure, but afaik the openwrt, too) MULTIPLE ssids with different dhcp ranges, which you can bridge to the same physical network or separate via vlans

          price are similar, about 25€:

          mikrotik mAP lite: https://www.amazon.it/Mikrotik-100Mbit-Power-Ethernet-access/dp/B01BMMJVLI/

          hAP mini: https://www.amazon.it/Mikrotik-RB931-2ND-RouterBoard-hAP-Mini/dp/B0711VCLG8/

          hAP lite: https://www.amazon.it/Mikrotik-Internal-White-access-point/dp/B00UR758BM/

          Mango Router: https://www.amazon.it/GL-iNET-GL-MT300N-V2-Pre-Installed-Performance-Compatible/dp/B073TSK26W/

          i’ve a wt3020, pretty similar to the last one, for my iot devices

          there are the CAP versions, too, for Ceiling Access Point, very good, we have them in office

          2. Hi Antonio, I bought the Mikrotik hAP Mini and with a bit of effort I got it set up to provide a second range of IP addresses. It’s looking good so far. Many thanks for your help and guidance.

            1. i like mikrotik because of its config tool, Winbox, which you can run on your pc to configure them… it automatically finds them in your network, but then you can use the web interface which is exactly the same… the good is that the menu organization is pretty much the same of the commands via cli… open winbox, open terminal, then write: “export compact”, and you’ll see all the configs you made, look at them and you’ll see they’re similar to the menu items you used 🙂

              an other think you can do, you can go on mikrotik site and download the extras packages, and from there install the USERMAN one… this allows you to run a local radius server and you can enable a new GUESTS ssid which is open to everyone BUT then asks for a user and password to be entered, as soon as you start surfing… this way you can give your friends access to internet, separating them from your local lan, and have their account expired after 1 day, for example… 🙂

              oh, and you can use CAPSMAN to extend your network across multiple access points in a transparent way, so to cover all your house… but that’s more complicated to explain 🙂

      3. Exactly the same. Moved to a cheap router and no more disconnects – my main AP is a Ubiquiti one). I’m going to look into your alternative suggestions as the router I bought really does not have enough configuration options.

  23. Hi Pete,

    I just wondered if you use Alexa control and if you have tested it in this new version, I have flashed my first one several times a couple of weeks ago and Alexa control was not working no matter which emulation method you used.

    thanks
    Stuart

      1. Will be very interested to see how you get on Pete, will keep my eyes peeled.

        thanks
        Stuart

    2. no problems here, i update all my devices once a week, all working with alexa (all the single relay using Wemo emulation, while the multisocket one uses Hue)… here we can just guess your problems, suggest going to ask in the proper support channels, which for tasmota is: https://discord.gg/Ks2Kzd4

      be prepared for the initial tip you’ll get there: “reset 6” and reconfigure…
      “reset 6” will wipe all settings and memory EXCEPT wifi+mqtt
      “reset 5” is the same, but it keeps ONLY wifi settings…

  24. Really has become quite refined! I prepped 3 x ESP01 relay boards for a friend last week so he had the option of web UI to toggle these or to dabble in some MQTT. In any case the default Tasmota has schedules and more with “bigtimer” styled dawn/dusk options, so many interfacing options.
    Today I updated all three to “BETTY” OTA simply plugging the serial converter into a power bank in front of the TV using a phone. A £1 microcontroller with slick UI and ultimate convenience and a ton of option stuff… we are spoiled by Theo and his supporters!

    G

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