Nextion display plugin

[ThomasB]

Sorry I can't help with Domoticz specific coding. It is vastly different than Openhab.

- Thomas

[BertB]

No problem. Maybe you can help me with that some time later. For now, I am sorting out with blockly.

[ThomasB]

I was granted wiki edit privileges and have created the information page for the revised Nextion plugin. It's a web page that can be seen by clicking the ? symbol in the Nextion plugin. The direct link is: https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/Plugin75

It is mostly intended to be a technical reference for the plugin rather than a how-to. It includes a link to BertB's wiki that covers the latter.

- Thomas

[BertB]

Beautiful

[grovkillen]

Nice one! The plugin 75 page should be a redirect to a "Nextion" page but I can do that if you want.

[ThomasB]

Thanks for the kind feedback on the wiki.

@grovkillen:
Go ahead and do whatever is needed to maintain a standardized wiki URL. If you create the redirected paged, and need me to copy the text/photos over to it, then just let me know. Or you can do it all if you prefer.

EDIT: @grovkillen, I was able to redirect the wiki to a "Nextion" page and moved all content to it.

- Thomas

[CHK_BLN]

Hello,
with http://192.168.2.69/control?cmd=NEXTION ... txt="Hallo "
can I write in the text field t.2, on Page0, the text Hello.
How can I realize this via MQTT?
This is my config from the ESP

Best regards

[ThomasB]

@CHK_BLN: I'm using HTTP command reads so I can't offer any specific instructions for the MQTT equivalent. However, the wiki has MQTT command syntax information. It also says to install MQTT as the first controller (in Controllers tab).

- Thomas

[TD-er]

It is also outdated info about MQTT controller to be set as first controller.
Maybe I should start reading/updating the wiki too.

You can only have one MQTT controller active though.

[ThomasB]

Maybe I should start reading/updating the wiki too.

@TD-er: Sure, you can do that in your spare time.

- Thomas

[CHK_BLN]

Hi
my first controller is an OpenHAB MQTT.
So far that's right. I can also switch a GPIO via MQTT.

What must the command for the Nextion Modul look like?

PIC.PNG (32.1 KiB) Viewed 189755 times

[TD-er]

Maybe I should start reading/updating the wiki too.

@TD-er: Sure, you can do that in your spare time.

- Thomas

That's a great idea.

[BertB]

+1

[CHK_BLN]

Thanks for support and help

[ThomasB]

@CHK_BLN: The Nextion plugin has few users. So I don't expect you will get the exact answer to your MQTT command question.

The Wiki information for command usage is here: https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/inde ... _Reference

When I follow the wiki information the MQTT command statement for your installation would probably be something like this:

Code: Select all

ESP_Easy69/cmd NEXTION,page0.t2.txt="Hello World"

Like you, my Home Automation system is OpenHab2. My installation sends commands to ESPEasy's Nextion using HTTP; I don't use MQTT to send commands to Nextion so I cannot confirm if my suggested MQTT statement works. No doubt you will need to experiment to find the winning solution.

- Thomas

[ThomasB]

@CHK_BLK:

I used the "MQTTlens" chrome browser plugin and tested sending MQTT commands to Nextion. It works as expected.

My ESPEasy Nextion device is called ESPEZ_Laundry. The text field on page 0 has attribute g1. The screenshot below shows how I setup the two fields (Publish & Message) and sent "Hello World" to the Nextion screen.

- Thomas

mqtt.jpg (83.11 KiB) Viewed 189655 times

[CHK_BLN]

Hello Thomas,
as you describe it works.

Thanks for your effort

Christof

[smartsoldier]

I am attempting to use ESPEasy (mega-20180809 version) which has Display - Nextion [TESTING] as a device. I'm using soft serial and GPIO-0 and GPIO-2 (D3 and D4 on my NodeMCU). I am unable to communicate with the display. I cannot send txt updates and I cannot receive presses from the screen. A wiki post a few pages ago mentioned needing a pull-up on the RX (or maybe it was TX). Anyway, I don't have that option in my device setup even though other people seem to. I was able to communicate between these devices with other non-ESPEasy software so I don't think my hardware is the issue.

[ThomasB]

@smartsoldier: GPIO-2 is the LED drive pin. Assign that pin to the WiFi Status (Hardware tab) and use another pin for Nextion.

The sensor "Pullup" check box found on earlier versions of the Nextion Plugin was a placebo. It didn't do anything, so it has been removed.

BTW, I don't recommend soft serial. There's plenty of discussion/explanation on the possible serial data corruption that may occur. The latest Plugin has introduced hardware serial to eliminate the problem.

- Thomas

[BertB]

I use

Code: Select all

 http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/control?cmd=NEXTION,page0.vLight.val=1

kind of commands to control my ESP.
For some reason it works out ok in the ESP, but I get an error in Domoticz.

I vaguely remember it used to work fine in the past.

EDIT
When I do this:

Code: Select all

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/control?cmd=GPIO,13,0

in the browser I get

Code: Select all

log	"GPIO 13 Set to 0"
plugin	1
pin	13
mode	"output"
state	0

And with domoticz I get no error

[ThomasB]

@BertB: Unlike GPIO, Nextion does not reply to HTTP writes. So you won't see a status response to your Nextion commands sent by the browser.

I suggest you retest with the browser and send commands that update some text fields (so you can verify HTTP writes to the display). If browser access is able to change text fields then the plugin is running Ok.

- Thomas

[BertB]

@BertB: Unlike GPIO, Nextion does not reply to HTTP writes. So you won't see a status response to your Nextion commands sent by the browser.

I suggest you retest with the browser and send commands that update some text fields (so you can verify HTTP writes to the display). If browser access is able to change text fields then the plugin is running Ok.

- Thomas

I see. Well the HTTP call writes to the screen, so it is running ok.
Is it possible to build the HTTP reply in the Nextion plugin? I rely on HTTP calls to send updates to the display.

[ThomasB]

@BertB: Try this:

Find the code shown below in Nextion.ino's PLUGIN_WRITE: section:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Change it to:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);
            SendStatus(event->Source, log);           // Send status to http or controller.

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Your browser should now reply with a copy of the sent write action.

- Thomas

[BertB]

@BertB: Try this:

Find the code shown below in Nextion.ino's PLUGIN_WRITE: section:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Change it to:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);
            SendStatus(event->Source, log);           // Send status to http or controller.

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Your browser should now reply with a copy of the sent write action.

- Thomas

Yep, that did it.
Thanks

[BertB]

I managed to develop an easy way to update elements in the NEXTION, with HTTP messages send by domoticz.
It uses a small dzVents (LUA) script and the attributes of the devices in domoticz.

This can be handy if you want to sync with domoticz after a reset of Nextion.

[smartsoldier]

@smartsoldier: GPIO-2 is the LED drive pin. Assign that pin to the WiFi Status (Hardware tab) and use another pin for Nextion.

The sensor "Pullup" check box found on earlier versions of the Nextion Plugin was a placebo. It didn't do anything, so it has been removed.

BTW, I don't recommend soft serial. There's plenty of discussion/explanation on the possible serial data corruption that may occur. The latest Plugin has introduced hardware serial to eliminate the problem.

- Thomas

I have taken your advice and switched up my TX/RX pins to 13 and 15 (D7/D8 on my NodeMCU) so I can use hardware serial. I disabled Serial Log File in Tools and now I can communicate just fine!! I didn't get the PNP Transistor yet, so I assume if I attempt to restart the NodeMCU ESPEasy will fail on boot. Would someone be able to link me to a place to buy this transistor? I googled and there is a million different kinds...

[BertB]

I have taken your advice and switched up my TX/RX pins to 13 and 15 (D7/D8 on my NodeMCU) so I can use hardware serial. I disabled Serial Log File in Tools and now I can communicate just fine!! I didn't get the PNP Transistor yet, so I assume if I attempt to restart the NodeMCU ESPEasy will fail on boot. Would someone be able to link me to a place to buy this transistor? I googled and there is a million different kinds...

Any small signal pnp transistor will do. I used a BC517 which I bought at Conrad or Farnell or any local Radio Shack type of store.

[smartsoldier]

Thanks for the advice again. You rock. Mind if I keep it coming?
I am testing the communication between Home Assistant and ESPEasy/Nextion. I am using ESPEasy MQTT Import to pull in some simple sensors, but then how do I post those values to my Nextion? Do I need to do some rule that will send the imported MQTT values through http to my Nextion (http://192.168.1.XXX/control?cmd=NEXTIO ... ure#Value1%)? I tried to use the Lines in the actual Nextion Device tab, but the %BedroomTemperature#Value1% isn't pulling the actual value, its just displaying that entire string.

Edit: Side note, I setup my NTP north america pool and set my longitude and latitude but I'm still getting a system time that is 4 hours ahead of my time. Can I adjust that somehow?

Edit2: I tried this rule

Code: Select all

on BedroomTemperature#Value1 do SendToHTTP http://192.168.1.158/control?cmd=NEXTION,page0.n0.val=13 endon

but it didn't work. That is supposed to update an element on my panel to 13 every time that MQTT topic is received. I'm watching the log and it is being received exactly as I have it written.

[ThomasB]

I used a BC517 which I bought at Conrad or Farnell or any local Radio Shack type of store.

Typo? The BC517 is listed as a NPN Darlington, whereas it needs to be a PNP small signal type. The two transistors mentioned in the Nextion Wiki are popular parts found in USA electronic shops. Plus sold by an endless number of suppliers on eBay and Amazon. Typical online price is about 0.15 USD each and often sold by the Chinese vendors in a bag of 50 pcs for $1.00.

I tried to use the Lines in the actual Nextion Device tab, but the %BedroomTemperature#Value1% isn't pulling the actual value, its just displaying that entire string.

Your "Lines" command statement would look something like this:

Code: Select all

page0.n0.val=[BedroomTemperature#Value1]

Your rules statement would look something like this:

Code: Select all

NEXTION,page0.n0.val=[BedroomTemperature#Value1]

The http would be similar to this:

Code: Select all

http://192.168.1.xxx/control?cmd=NEXTION,page0.n0.val=68

I setup my NTP north america pool and set my longitude and latitude but I'm still getting a system time that is 4 hours ahead of my time. Can I adjust that somehow?

Tools->Advanced->Timezone Offset (UTC +): -240

- Thomas

[TD-er]

[...]
Edit: Side note, I setup my NTP north america pool and set my longitude and latitude but I'm still getting a system time that is 4 hours ahead of my time. Can I adjust that somehow?
[...]

Lat/Lon coordinates are only used to compute sunrise/sunset.

[BertB]

Typo? The BC517 is listed as a NPN Darlington, whereas it needs to be a PNP small signal type. - Thomas

ooooooooops
I use a BC327

[ThomasB]

FYI, the Euro BC series transistors have a different pinout than American 2N or PN series parts. So don't follow the Nextion Wiki drawing when using the BC327.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56014696@N08/15559869770

-Thomas

[smartsoldier]

How do I get the Slider to output its value through "idx" or "value"?
I am using

Code: Select all

print "|s,i1,sOn" // Send idx 1 and value 1 to ESPEasy
printh 0a // Required print termination character

for simple on/off buttons.
I have

Code: Select all

cov h0.val,t1.txt,0
print t1.txt

setup right now, which displays the value of the slider (h0) in a text box (t1). It also prints that value as raw number (0, 5, 100) for example. How can I incorporate these two ideas?

Edit: On another note, I can't use the "Resend Values (below) at Interval:" to constantly update a clock on my main page with

Code: Select all

page0.t0.txt="%systm_hm_am%"

because it will also constantly send the latest idx/value and it makes my Home Automation system keep receiving that and it keeps activating the event (in this case toggle lighting).

Edit2: I had another idea about updating my clock. I am trying to do a simple http post at:

Code: Select all

http://192.168.1.158/control?cmd=NEXTION,page0.t0.txt="%systm_hm_am%"

but the log is giving me this:

Code: Select all

NEXTION075 : WRITE, Command is page0.t0.txt='

Why does it work fine in the "Nextion Command Statements (Optional)" section when I add it as a Line, but not when I do http?
Lol if I run the command from the Tools menu I get this:

Code: Select all

NEXTION075 : WRITE, Command is page0.t0.txt='%systm_hm_am%'

[ThomasB]

How do I get the Slider to output its value through "idx" or "value"?

You must convert the Nextion touch move event's slider val to a text string. Like this (see Nextion commands summary for details):

Code: Select all

cov h0.val,t0.txt,0

To use this conversion you would add code to the Touch Move event that is like this example:

Code: Select all

print "|s,i"
cov h0.val,t0.txt,0
print t0.txt
print ",sOff"
printh 0a

I can't use the "Resend Values (below) at Interval:" to constantly update a clock on my main page with page0.t0.txt="%systm_hm_am%" because it will also constantly send the latest idx/value and it makes my Home Automation system keep receiving that and it keeps activating the event (in this case toggle lighting).

Put the page0.t0.txt="%systm_hm_am%" command in the Lines Statement area and select an interval. Disable Resend Values.
Or make a timer rule and send it from the rule file.

Why does it work fine in the "Nextion Command Statements (Optional)" section when I add it as a Line, but not when I do http?

http writes to Nextion plugin do not support ESPEasy system variables. Use Lines or rules if you need to work with the system variables.

- Thomas

[BertB]

@ThomasB

Is there a more natural way to find your information page about Nextion?

Would it not be nicer to get to it through the supported sensors part?
I am more than willing to move my How to (under construction) to another part of the wiki.

BertB

[ThomasB]

@BertB:
Sounds great to me. Which Wiki page needs the Nextion plugin link added to it?

- Thomas

[BertB]

This is my page https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/inde ... IONDisplay

If you search for the Nextion here https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/Devices and click the Nextion display, you get your pages.

[ThomasB]

You asked about a more natural way to find information page about the Nextion plugin. How do other plugins do this?

BTW, there's a hot link built into the Nextion plugin. So access to Nextion's technical wiki is click-accessible from within the plugin.

- Thomas

[BertB]

You asked about a more natural way to find information page about the Nextion plugin. How do other plugins do this?

If you go to https://www.letscontrolit.com/, then click ESP Easy and Wiki, then in the left column click ESP Easy and on the next page on 4 Supported Sensors/Actuators. and Again on Supported Sensors/Actuators, you get a whole list of supported devices.

BTW, there's a hot link built into the Nextion plugin. So access to Nextion's technical wiki is click-accessible from within the plugin.

- Thomas

Ah, nice. I did not know that. I was looking for that for quite some time.
I must say, your way is shorter

[ThomasB]

If you go to https://www.letscontrolit.com/, then click ESP Easy and Wiki, then in the left column click ESP Easy and on the next page on 4 Supported Sensors/Actuators. and Again on Supported Sensors/Actuators, you get a whole list of supported devices.

Navigating to the Nextion information isn't convenient, but it is functional. The criticism isn't unique to Nextion since all the plugins' wiki pages are found in the same way. Someone (not me) would need champion the creation of something better.

- Thomas

[BertB]

@BertB: Try this:

Find the code shown below in Nextion.ino's PLUGIN_WRITE: section:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Change it to:

Code: Select all

            String log = F("NEXTION075 : WRITE, ");
            log += F("Command is ");
            log += (tmpString.c_str());
            addLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, log);
            SendStatus(event->Source, log);           // Send status to http or controller.

            success = true;                             // Set true only if plugin found a command to execute.

Your browser should now reply with a copy of the sent write action.

- Thomas

@TD-er, is it possible to add this modification to the plugin?

[ThomasB]

@BertB
FYI, I revised the Nextion plugin with the PLUGIN_WRITE update you requested. I also reduced serial log traffic. But I haven't issued a pull request yet because there's ongoing improvements to fix ESPEasy's instability problems. I think it's best to wait for the developers (@TD-er) to make more progress before introducing any non-critical plugin changes.

I've been testing the new releases and ESPEasy is still not there yet. The memory leak issue appears to be fixed but dropped WiFi and persistent random reboots still occur.

- Thomas

[BertB]

Okay, thanks

[quorle]

Hi guys, I'm new here in this forum and from Germany. Sorry for my bad English. Can I explain one step by step how to set ESPeasy to recognize the display via I2C?
Unfortunately, this does not work for me. Have the current Espeasy Mega flashed in the trial.

[BertB]

Hi guys, I'm new here in this forum and from Germany. Sorry for my bad English. Can I explain one step by step how to set ESPeasy to recognize the display via I2C?
Unfortunately, this does not work for me. Have the current Espeasy Mega flashed in the trial.

Hi Quorle,

Not sure what you mean with I2C. The display only has a plain old fashion serial interface,

[quorle]

I meant the bus with I2C. That's why I always thought I could search the display on the I2C. But it all seems to be more difficult than expected. Especially if you have no idea how to program an ESP8266 yourself and write programs.

[sasso]

You don't need to do anytnihng, select the device plugin (nextion on the TEST or DEV build), select RX & TX, in the fields of the plugin send commands to display. you can use also rules or HTTP commands but the last two options do not work currently.

[quorle]

Ok, I'll try that once in a while. But will there be an official plugin selection in ESP Mega in stable? What is not working on the last two options (http)?

[BertB]

Just have a look here.

https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php/Nextion

[agribaldi]

Hi,
I tried to follow the instructions.
i use espeasy Release mega-20181002+nextion+domotikz.
i tried 2 protocol domotikz http and domotikz mqtt.
as a result, I can only turn off the switch.
2018-10-03 02:59:41.762 MQTT: Topic: domoticz/in, Message: {"idx":5,"RSSI":6,"nvalue":0,"svalue":"3;1"}
2018-10-03 02:59:54.263 MQTT: Topic: domoticz/in, Message: {"idx":5,"RSSI":6,"nvalue":0,"svalue":"3;0"}

tell me what I am doing wrong