How to install the esphome‐bianca firmware on the open‐lcc board - variegated-coffee/documentation GitHub Wiki

How to install the esphome-bianca firmware

Following steps have been tested on a Macbook M3 with macOS 14.1. It should be very similar for other OS that have python and pip installed.

There are at least two ways to install the esphome-bianca on the open-lcc board. The first (via the esphome-cli version) is suggested. But there is also the possibility to install it directly from esphome installed on a homeassistant device.

How to install esphome-bianca via esphome cli version

  1. Install correct version of esp home pip install "esphome==2023.10.0".
  2. Install correct version of pillow that is needed by this version of esphome with pip install "pillow==10.0.1"
  3. Connect the open-lcc board to the debug board
  4. Plug the USB-cable into the ESP32 micro-USB port on the debug board.
  5. Create the a secrets.yaml file in the same directory as the esphome.yaml. For the usage in homeassistant you need to create a BASE64 32 byte API-Key. There are many online key generators. Add your information to the file as follows:
# Your Secrets
wifi_ssid: "YOURSSID"
wifi_password: "YOURPASSWORD"
api_key: "YOUR_API_KEY_FOR_HOME_ASSISTANT"

  1. Execute the command esphome run esphome.yaml same directory as the esphome.yaml. Thiss will install esphome-bianca on the open-lcc board

  2. Now the open-lcc should be connected to your WIFI and the WebGui should be accessible via the browser.

  3. Once the open-lcc is in your network, updates can also be uploaded over wifi, during the installation process you will be promted to choose. You can also force the upload port as follows esphome esphome.yaml run --upload-port http://[YOUR_ESP_IP]

Possible Errors you might encounter during installation:

No module named 'chardet'

Execute these commands (taken from here):

  • cd /Users/[YOUR-USER]/.platformio/penv/.espidf-4.4.5/bin
  • . ./activate
  • pip install chardet
  • deactivate

st7789v_fast_st7789v was not declared

You don't have installed the correct version of esphome, run esphome version and it should output Version: 2023.10.0

Unresolved adress

You can set the IP adress to a fixed one in the esphome.yaml according to the esphome documentation esphome documentation

Install esphome-bianca via HomeAssistant

  1. Install Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi (or any other supported device)

  2. Install the ESPHome version that Magnus used (2023.10.0). The legacy versions of ESPHome are hosted here: esphome-legacy-addons. Follow the instructions in the "How to install section".

  3. Install the Visual studio code addon on Home Assistant to handle the files more easily (You can also edit the file with another editor).

  4. Add new ESPHome device in the ESPHome addon, do not install yet but copy the key.

  5. Move all the relevant files into the esphome folder, open VSCode and move them here: /config/esphome

  6. Edit the yaml file with following edits:

    • Add a secrets.yaml to the same directory where the main yaml lives with the wifi password, SSID, and api key. This file could look like as follows:
    # Your Secrets
wifi_ssid: "YOURSSID"
wifi_password: "YOURPASSWORD"
api_key: "YOUR_API_KEY_FOR_HOME_ASSISTANT"
    • Change the path to the custom partiontions csv to "/config/esphome/custom_partitions.csv"

  7. Plug in the open-lcc via the debug board into the raspberry pi running the HomeAssistant

  8. Install the YAML on the ESP with the esphome addon, takes about 5 minutes or so...