ESP8266 as MySensors nodes instead of Arduino + nRF24L01

[Hareesh M U]

I have been using the MySensors Serial Gateway and Arduino+nRF24L01 Sensor nodes. Recently I saw the ESP8266 support as WIFI Gateway.
I was wondering is there any way we can use ESP82266 as a Sensor Node also instead of Arduino+nRF24L01. So that we can remove the nRF24L01 radio network from both gateway and sensor nodes.

[rejoe2]

@Hareesh-M-U Imo this isn't the route to go for MySensors.
If you want to have WiFi as a transport layer you may have a look at the ESPEasy-project, that seems to offer almost comparable options with this type of mc.

I personally do not like to mesh up Home-automation things with WiFi, that requires additional infrastructure. Therefore I just use a serial nRF-GW and also a seperate serial GW for RS485 to avoid radio transmission at all.

Beside that, the ESP-chips are not designed for battery-use and have/had some disadvantages wrt. to time-critical applications (as RF- or IR-receiver). (This may be overcome to a large extend now).

[Hareesh M U]

@rejoe2 Thank you for your quick reply. Since I'm having the range issues with nRF24L01 and board failures, i was thinking about the wifi connectivity. Since wifi router will have the great coverage compared to nRF24L01. I will explore the ESPEasy-project as you suggested and will check if suites my requirements.

[Yveaux]

@Hareesh-M-U MySensors supports sensors on gateways, so you can always create standalone gateways with sensors directly attached.
You need a controller supporting multiple WiFi MySensors gateways and you're good to go!

[Hareesh M U]

@Yveaux Yeah... that's an interesting idea. Thank you for bringing that out. BTW, I'm using Home Assistant as the controller.

[AffordableTech]

@rejoe2 said in ESP8266 as MySensors nodes instead of Arduino + nRF24L01:

I personally do not like to mesh up Home-automation things with WiFi

While I understand your personal preference not to mesh Home Automation with WiFi, I've seen so many people seeking to use the ESP8266 as a node, without adding an RF device. I.e. you prefer not to, but many others (including myself) would love to have the option.

While there are 'work-arounds' to add a sensor to an ESPGateway, it's a very impractical solution if you want to have many WiFi nodes. I believe MySensors is the most complete and functional project of this type, but the lack of this feature is forcing people to use other projects like EspEasy as recommended by @ejoe2.

I've been delving into the MySensors code and the only issue I find is the need for a 'WiFi Transport' to be added to the existing RF radio choices e.g. MY_RADIO_WIFI. All the low level transport code is already written and used in the gateway transport, it just needs to be re-configured as a node transport as I see it? I have considered trying to implement it myself, but it needs a far greater knowledge of the MySensors core than I have, to implement it without breaking other transports etc.

Reading through this forum, this is something that has been sought after since the ESP8266 first appeared and I think would greatly enhance the popularity of MySensors as it would make it so easy for the novice to get a MySensors network up an running.

A typical 'starting' network of one ESP8266 Gateway, plus a few ESP8266 sensor nodes would just require flashing a few NodeMCU's and you are in business, no messing around with proto-boards, wiring radios, adding capacitors etc, which has frustrated and/or put off so many newbies before they even started. The dreaded 'wiring' would then be as simple as plugging in USB cables, opening up this very 'practical hobby' to a lot more people. you might even call it 'Plug and Play' (Jeesh.. I might patent that term ).

This would be a great way to introduce non technical users to the world of micro-processors, and Arduino boards would then be a far less scary proposition.

I'd appreciate some form of 'official' feedback as I feel I am currently at crossroads because I have a a pressing need for multiple WiFi nodes and would like to find out if there is no intention of marrying WiFi into the MySensor network.

Many thanks,

Paul

[ericvdb]

@AffordableTech

MySensors = node --> gateway --> HA Controller

If you want to use ESP8266 it is as easy as: ESP8266 node --> MQTT broker --> HA Controller

The MQTT broker can run on a RPi (mosquitto for example)

Regarding the ID assignment that will be DHCP if you want

Just my 2c