New ESP Easy plugin for ESPNOW

[FanOfHue]

Also converted the ESPNOW code to ESP Easy, plugin P204. Added to the other stuff:
https://github.com/FanOfHue/Other

I can now get a sensor response from ESP Easy (doorsensor) to a normal ESP Easy (NodeMCU) in about 1 second.

But it currently works only for a few seconds , until the receiving ESP Easy connects to Wifi AP. ESPNOW and Wifi can't be used at the same time (AFAIK)
And I don't know how to stop ESP Easy from trying to connect to AP or start an AP by itself.

Is there a setting or command to keep ESP Easy from using normal Wifi
So it should not connect and should not start an AP mode to keep ESPNOW working.

[TD-er]

There is not yet such a command, but I guess I should help on integrating it.
Can you also make an issue for this, so we can also discuss it there, on GitHub.

[enesbcs]

But it currently works only for a few seconds , until the receiving ESP Easy connects to Wifi AP. ESPNOW and Wifi can't be used at the same time (AFAIK)

You are correct. This is why i commented out the whole wifi part from my ESPNow hack. There are no collisions anymore. And the compiled binary size is 418k.
https://github.com/enesbcs/EasyESPNow

[FanOfHue]

But it currently works only for a few seconds , until the receiving ESP Easy connects to Wifi AP. ESPNOW and Wifi can't be used at the same time (AFAIK)

You are correct. This is why i commented out the whole wifi part from my ESPNow hack. There are no collisions anymore. And the compiled binary size is 418k.
https://github.com/enesbcs/EasyESPNow

I'm using SmartNodeRules so i have total control on wifi connect at boot time.
The door/pir sensor detects the build-in setup button and will switch to normal Wifi when the setup button was pressed. If not, they will use ESPNOW
The ESPNOW serial gateway is connected to a normal ESP unit. That unit can instruct the gateway on serial port to boot into ESPNOW mode or normal wifi mode.
One firmware for sensor/gateway/normal units.
I'll stick with my own firmware.

But it would be nice if it could be done for ESP Easy as well, although i'm not sure if anyone is still interested. If not, the developers don't have to waiste time on that.
I have posted an issue on GitHub, but i saw that there are 553 issues pending . If they work on the other 552 issues first, then we will have to wait for a very long time i guess. Maybe developers could use some sort of voting mechanism for issues posted?

[TD-er]

[...]
But it would be nice if it could be done for ESP Easy as well, although i'm not sure if anyone is still interested. If not, the developers don't have to waiste time on that.
I have posted an issue on GitHub, but i saw that there are 553 issues pending . If they work on the other 552 issues first, then we will have to wait for a very long time i guess. Maybe developers could use some sort of voting mechanism for issues posted?

I am for sure interested, but the main focus right now is to get the bugs out to get a release out the door.
The last "stable" for ESPEasy is over 2 years ago and this one is long overdue.

Also please have a look at the number of active developers. You can count them on one hand.
And in the last month I managed to close about 200 issues, which were either no longer an issue, or duplicates.
So it may take less than 553 issues to be fixed. Also the issues are not dealt with in the order they are created.

I am also looking into WiFi mesh, so that's one thing that will collide with your application if I don't take your application into account.
Meaning your issue will be looked at sooner than later, for sure.

[enesbcs]

Also please have a look at the number of active developers. You can count them on one hand.
And in the last month I managed to close about 200 issues, which were either no longer an issue, or duplicates.
So it may take less than 553 issues to be fixed. Also the issues are not dealt with in the order they are created.

I am also looking into WiFi mesh, so that's one thing that will collide with your application if I don't take your application into account.
Meaning your issue will be looked at sooner than later, for sure.

For sure this is very much issue for a few developer. I am not an expert Arduino programmer so i can only make more problems. For example i coded some BLE plugins for ESPEasy but i am struggling with C++ pointers... or the whole ESP32 BLE stack is buggy, or both.
Originally I thought that BLE requires lesser power than WiFi, and even than ESPNow, but it is still not stable enough.

[FanOfHue]

Also please have a look at the number of active developers. You can count them on one hand.

Maybe even one finger as it seems mainly to be you.

When i first came into contact with Letscontrolit, i thought that there would be a lot of developers, considering the various projects. But many projects seem abandoned if you look at the repositories (uPyEasy ??, Nodo ??).
Status of RFLink is unknown, even closed source for some reason. That will certainyly not help anyway to attract other developers.

I started to work on ESPCoreRules as a rule based continuation of ESP Easy R120, but it looks like the user count of this repository is 1.

Is there an overview on all projects, developers and status? The Wiki info that i found seems very outdated.

[TD-er]

Also please have a look at the number of active developers. You can count them on one hand.

Maybe even one finger as it seems mainly to be you.

Well, that's not true (fortunately).
The last few months I do see an increase in pull requests from others and some of them are obviously from people who do have years of programming experience (or are truly gifted )
Also there are other users out there who may not provide many pull requests, but are very actively following every commit I make and point out mistakes I make or help testing.
So these may perhaps not count in the GitHub statistics, but do help out a lot and so I will count them, so I need more bits than 1 finger to count them. (you can count to 32 on one hand, although my daughter of 5 will probably not agree immediately)

When i first came into contact with Letscontrolit, i thought that there would be a lot of developers, considering the various projects. But many projects seem abandoned if you look at the repositories (uPyEasy ??, Nodo ??).
Status of RFLink is unknown, even closed source for some reason. That will certainyly not help anyway to attract other developers.

I started to work on ESPCoreRules as a rule based continuation of ESP Easy R120, but it looks like the user count of this repository is 1.

Is there an overview on all projects, developers and status? The Wiki info that i found seems very outdated.

Well there are quite a few users out there still using R120.
A few days ago, I looked on Youtube to see what videos there are on ESPEasy and sadly most of them are dating 2 years back or more.
So it is clear we need a release out as people also keep asking about R120 and R146 and attention for the project is not as big as it used to be.

uPyEasy is run by Lisa and I know for a fact that she is still working on it, but not sure if it will be under the same name or continue under her own (new) brand AurAir. (she started a company around it)
The status of RFLink is unknown to me.
Nodo was the name by which this project started. Remco is still running Nodo-shop, but I am not sure how active that is at the moment.
I do know that he still operates the server running this forum and does react very swiftly when I call/app him.

The Wiki is indeed a bit outdated, as we are in the transition to move the software documentation available in ReadTheDocs format (allowing versioning of the docs and integration of pages in the new UI).

As you may or may not know. I was not the one to start this project, but I got ownership of it (along with Jimmy) about a year ago.
The original creators of the project had less and less time for the project and also other more demanding interests in life at the moment.

[grovkillen]

I dito what Gijs just wrote. I've been developing a framework for the new GUI ground up. So behind the scenes I've been putting many hours into it and it's 75% ready.

We hope to get a revival of the project soon and have a influx of users. We also have a project rolling with a well known router manufacturer and hopefully we can give more information about that soon.

I hope other projects can step up and make sure that this initiative can continue. If no other project is active I see no point of us being the only one here (as in we should make a sole purpose forum). This is not decided or anything, just my personal thoughts.

[FanOfHue]

If no other project is active I see no point of us being the only one here (as in we should make a sole purpose forum). This is not decided or anything, just my personal thoughts.

That might be a very good decision. Looks like most of the other letscontrolit projects are abandoned. Having very old topics and lots of repositories that haven't been touched for years gives a bad first impression for newbies. Same for outdated wiki. Tasmota only has a few issues on the issue list and it seems that the developer just tries to be good at a limited set of features.

Again, please consider this as a positive, trying to be constructive opinion:
Maybe you and TD are just trying to do too many things at the same time and focussing on only one or two short term goals could be the key to success!

[napo7]

Hi

I'm also interrested in this features.
I plan to build my complete home automation network on ESP8266.

At the moment, I've got only a few board counts, and have some stability issues with wifi.

I was wondering if a mesh network such as ESPNOW could be a solution, but the limited node cound could be a problem to me in the future....

So, I plan to do something on node-to-node communication, perhaps a mix of UDP and TCP when I'll have solve my wifi stability issues !

[tim]

With ESPNOW is it possible to connect a doorsensor or PIR sensor to a smart plug without using a Wifi Access Point?

[tim]

So it is clear we need a release out as people also keep asking about R120 and R146 and attention for the project is not as big as it used to be.

I spend some time looking for action LSC stuff firmware. It's all Tasmota today what you see. Not only LSC but all Tuya based stuff. All people convert from china firmware to Tasmota. I do not know all the reasons but seems ESP Easy is not so popular anymore?

[enesbcs]

I spend some time looking for action LSC stuff firmware. It's all Tasmota today what you see. Not only LSC but all Tuya based stuff. All people convert from china firmware to Tasmota. I do not know all the reasons but seems ESP Easy is not so popular anymore?

Tasmota is more friendly to 1M flash devices. Even i compiled my own binary with Tasmota to 460k which works well with one-step OTA.
On the other hand i prefer ESPEasy for more complicated DIY sensors (4M flash of course) which handles multiple device and complex logic.

I found old ArduinoEasy project very interesting, compiled to 200k binary for my STM32, and a minimal 104k size binary for Maple Mini. Because size matters.

[tim]

Because size matters.

Totally agree

This may also be the reason that people switch to Tasmota because it has good support for 1M flash with OTA
Last time i did a check, ESPEasy did not compile to a size that can be used with OTA. And i do not think we need 600k to toggle a smart plug?

I looks like ESPEasyMega is now ESPEasy4Mega
But i think there will be nice stuff with ESP8285 modules for some time. These modules are so small! You will find them in smart plugs and light bulbs where a normal 4M module will be to big.

That is why i'm looking at ESPCoreRules for my LSC smart plugs (they have the ESP8285 module with only 1M flash). I already use that firmware on the LSC doorsensor.

I prefer ESPCoreRules compared with Tasmota because it has the same Rule Engine as ESPEasy. So i do not have to learn new things. Only the configuration is new, but easy copy paste text file from other units.

Negative point is that ESPCoreRules only has limited plugins and the ESPEasy plugins do not work with it.

[FanOfHue]

Think it would be better to start a new topic if you want to discuss on 1M modules, Tasmota and other things are really out of scope for this topic on ESPNOW plugin.

[FanOfHue]

Negative point is that ESPCoreRules only has limited plugins and the ESPEasy plugins do not work with it.

Well, no one has asked for other plugins that i'm aware of.