Welcome to ESP-Parking-Assistant Discussions! #18
Replies: 5 comments 32 replies
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Hello and many thanks for the video and the article. I created this for my garage and it works perfect. Although there is some issue with it connecting to HomeAssistant via MQTT. I provide all the details of my MQTT broker, and saved, but I dont see anything in Home Assistant. Just curious if you could help me with this. Thanks. |
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Its weird that I am doing exactly what you mentioned, but still dont see any topics on MQTT explorer. Do you suspect that it might be an issue with the D1 mini ? Although everything else, works just the same as you show in the youtube video. My bad that I didn't test MQTT before soldering everything. In any case its not a deal breaker for me. I am still happy with the system, and would use it without having a sensor in HA. |
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If the parking assistant is on your wifi (and I'm assuming it is since you can get to the web interface) and this is the same network as the MQTT broker, there is no reason that MQTT shouldn't be working. I'm glad to try to help you troubleshoot if you like. First, can you grab a screen shot of your MQTT settings in the parking app: Then can you also include the connection settings that you have setup in MQTT Explorer: I'd really like to figure out why your MQTT isn't working. I don't think it is an issue with the firmware (you are running the latest release, v0.44, right?), but it is always possible there is something unique in your setup that I haven't accounted for. Along those lines, what are you using for your MQTT broker? The Home Asssistant add-on, or do you have a standalone broker of some type? |
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Sure, here are the details.
I am glad to provide any information you need. Thanks. |
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OK... sorry for the basics. Just wanted to eliminate anything simple at this point. You may not want to take these next steps if the parking assistant is already installed and/or if you are not familiar with using the Arduino IDE, but you can try connecting the D1 Mini via USB and enabling serial monitoring. You'd have to modify the .ino file and re-upload the modified sketch to do this. And since the TF-Mini is also using UART, it would be disabled for this test, but if serial monitoring is enabled, you'd be able to see output of the D1 Mini connecting to wifi and MQTT. It would output a message that it successfully connected to MQTT or that it failed and was unable to connect. Then you'd have to disable serial monitoring again and re-upload to enable the TF-Mini again. Yeah... it's a lot and you may not be willing to take it this far. One other little thing just to try in the interim is to issue the OTA and reboot commands... just to verify that the D1 Mini is receiving (this is independent of MQTT). You can enter in the IP address of your device in a browser followed by /otaupdate or /restart (e.g. http://192.168.1.105/otaupdate) and see if the device responds. For an /otaupdate, the LEDs should change to alternating red/green. Don't worry if you don't upload anything.... after around 20 seconds without receiving a file, it will return to normal operation. And of course a /restart will reboot the device and you'll see the normal LED start up sequence. This is just to assure that the device is able to receive. I'm at a bit of a loss at this point as to what could be occuring. If you want to try the serial debug and need more info, just let me know. |
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I am not familiar with Arduino IDE. Is there any tutorial or steps I can follow to do this. I installed the IDE but I am confused about how to proceed. The tried the other thing otaupdate/restart. they work just fine. There is one more issue though, which I am not sure is something to do with this. I am able to connect to the parkassist IP address only with my iPhone browser. But when I try the same with macbook browser, I doesn't connect, I tried a lot but could never connect. |
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If you aren't familiar with, and haven't used the Arduino IDE, this could be a little tough to get through.... as you'll need to install the ESP8266 board supports, the various libraries for the parking assistant, etc. But if you want to take a shot, this article is a good starting point: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/how-to-install-esp8266-board-arduino-ide/ Do note that you don't need an FTDI programmer in your case, because you can just use the USB port. Out of curiosity, what IP address are you using to access the parking assistant web interface? I'm wondering if there is some sort of network thing going on since you should be able to access the parking assistant from any device on the same network/subnet. But I did note that your MQTT broker (and I'm assuming Home Assistant) are on a 192.168.4.x subnet. Are you running VLANs or anything else unusual on your network? And you are sure that the parking assistant is joining your wifi... and you aren't accessing via the initial broadcast hotspot. Since the initial hotspot also uses 192.168.4.1, I'm wondering if the parking assistant isn't truly on your wifi network and therefore cannot talk to the broker. It should be connected to your local wifi SSID and you should not be accessing it via the ESP_ParkingAsst hotspot. |
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I just wanted to follow up with you on this as I just release an update (v0.45) that includes Home Assistant discovery, which will automatically add a device and related entities to Home Assistant without the need to create any YAML or do any configuration on the Home Assistant side. As long as your MQTT broker information is correct and the parking assistant is able to communicate with your MQTT broker, all the Home Assistant integration will be done for you as soon as you enable MQTT discover via the parking assistant app. Let me know your current status and if I can help out any further. |
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Hello. Thanks for the update. I did an OTA update with v0.45 and enabled the MQTT discovery. It worked out fine. |
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Outstanding... and thanks for letting me know. Since I've only tested the MQTT discovery myself (and that's why I consider it beta at this point), I am looking for feedback from others to verify that the discovery process worked for them. So it is really helpful that you let me know that it worked fine for you. I'm working on some additional updates to the parking assistant that is going to upgrade the original wifi onboarding process and modernize how the configuration is stored... and maybe add an additional option or two, but not sure when that will be ready for release. But I do really appreciate the feedback on the MQTT discovery process. |
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That's the least I could do in return for all the knowledge I get from your videos :) Would be waiting for your next update. |
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Hello, |
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I created a custom PCB a few years back with an integrated 74ahct125 and power module etc.., however I did not use D6 (PIN 12). I could compile from your source, I just never had much luck with the arduino IDE and mostly stick to ESPHOME and Tasmota. I could probably fiddle with VsCode. Ok my question, would it be as simple as changing line 35 from PIN 12 to PIN 13? Anywhere else I would need to modify. BTW: Great work. I enjoy your videos |
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GPIO13 or GPIO15? In the initial post, you mention that you want to use pin 13, but in this follow up, you say pin 15. I can probably recompile the most recent version for you with a different GPIO pin, but need to know whether you want that pin to be 13 or 15. |
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thx GPIO15 |
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OK... I compiled a version for GPIO15. Unfortunately, I cannot attach .bin files here in the discussion (or issue) section. What I have done temporarily is to add a binary to the latest release (0.46). So if you go to the latest release from the main code page, you should see a new binary 'ParkingAsst_ESP8266_Pin15.bin'. Download this file and flash it to the D1 Mini. The LEDs will then use pin 15. Please let me know when you have downloaded the file because I'd like to remove it from the release. I won't be able to support multiple versions moving forward and simply won't have time to create custom binaries for everyone. |
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You Rock sir! worked perfectly. Now I'll get things installed and tuned. thx again |
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Fantastic! Glad it worked and I'm happy to have helped a bit. Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to remove the _Pin15 binary from the release, but let me know if you need it again for some reason. |
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After the Arylic amp the next project in line was the parking assistant and I have to say it works better than I expected it to! I am now in testing phase and all seems to be in a good shape and the MQTT integration allowed me to set up an automation where after crossing a given threshold it plays a sound on the garage Arylic amp no less :) One note I would have for an update to consider is maybe to add an option to set a static IP at WiFi onboarding, since I am not allowed to enter my router's settings (thanks to my ISP) and I need to go into the browser and check all consecutive IPs after I reboot the router. So thank you very much again for your excellent work and two coffees are on the way!
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I've had other requests to port this to an ESP32, but it would require replacing a number of libraries and other changes and until I can find the time to integrate both the ESP32 and ESP8266 into a single build, I likely won't do so. I don't want to have to maintain two different builds, one for the 8266 and one for the 32 moving forward as I potentially add features or roll out other updates. Frankly this just isn't a high priority as the ESP8266 is perfectly capable of handling reading a sensor and lighting up the LEDs. I really don't feel that the ESP32 would add anything... at least not until I do something like add a side lateral sensor to the system. Regarding your "lag", I think it is likely due to the smaller number of LEDs. The smaller number of LEDs that you have, the less "sensitivity" you will have. For example, say you have a 12' approach zone and 12 LEDs. Each LED will only light up for every foot of distance traveled. This becomes more apparent as you approach the final park zone. Depending on exact distances, the last "yellow" LED could be lit up for a full foot of travel before you hit the "red" park zone. However, if you have say 36 LEDs, each LED is going to light up for every 4" of travel... giving you much better sensitivity, especially at the approach and parked zone interface. One thing you might try if you haven't, is to use one of the full strip effects (as opposed to in-out or out-in). When using full strip or full strip inverted, you are using the entire number of LEDs (in your case 24 I believe), as opposed to one of the in-out effects that splits that number in half, giving you only 12 LED sensitivity. Try a full strip effect and it should come close to doubling the sensitivity you are seeing. Let me know what you find, but I don't think the issue is due to either lag from the sensor or issues with an "underpowered" ESP8266. |
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Your suggestions is exactly what I have done... I increased the active zone to 190 when I switched to 64 pixels hoping to get a smoother effect. NOTE: 64 individual pixels. IE: Each pixel has an integrated chip versus some of the dense strips that are grouped. |
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Do you know the actual type of LEDs? Are these 5V WS2812b or some other variant? While the library I'm using supports multiple types of LED chips, the definition used in my code specifically uses WS2812b:
There may be unexpected behavior if using a different LED chip. I'm certainly happy to help you try to troubleshoot. I'm just trying to assure I fully understand your particular setup. And as an FYI, increasing the active zone distance will actually decrease the sensitivity. Remember that the code is taking the total distance and dividing by the number of LEDs. The longer the distance, the further that the object must travel before an additional LED lights up. I don't know if you have this installed in your garage yet or are still working on a benchtop, but if it is mounted, then try a simple experiment. With your active distance currently set at 190, take some sort of flat surface (I always used something like a 2' x 2' piece of cardboard) and start only about 3-4' outside the parked zone distance and slowly approach the parked zone and note the sensitivity. Now change that active zone to something less than 1/2 the original distance (say 80-90" or even a bit less) and repeat the same test from the same initial distance. You should be seeing nearly double the sensitivity as you approach the parked zone... assuming something else isn't going on with your system. Let me know what you find and we can take it from there. |
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I absolutely appreciate it... BTF WS2812B ECO Led Pixel Strip 100/m "And as an FYI, increasing the active zone distance will actually decrease the sensitivity." |
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OK... thanks for confirming that the LEDs are WS2812b. That eliminates one possible source of problems. And yes, you are correct... shortening the approach zone distance and/or adding more LEDs will increase the sensitivity... or both. Doing either one of those means that a new LED will light up with a smaller change in distance. And the full strip effects will have approximately double the sensitivity of the in-out effects, as it uses the full count of LEDs instead of just half of the count for the effects that split the strip in half. |
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Just a quick note to say thanks for the parking assistant device. Have it up and running in my garage and find it incredibly useful. Thanks also for the attention to the documentation that goes along with it. I ran into some problems which I was able to overcome thanks to the attention to the documentation you provided along with the system. Many thanks. |
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Thanks for passing along your success! I love to hear it. I still have a few ideas for the future for this project. Was there anything in particular that you ran into that I could either address through documentation and/or through my troubleshooting section on the Wiki? The most common issue I've heard about involves issues getting a good flash. There were a lot of wifi-related issues early on before I replaced the external library with my own onboarding code. Most of the other issues are related to wiring mistakes or failure to follow instructions. Hence if there is a way to improve the documentation and help others avoid these common problems, I'd be happy to add it! Thanks again for letting me know about another successful install. Out of curiosity, are you using the ESP8266 or ESP32 version? And if using ESP32, did you add the side/lateral sensor? Mine has been working fine, but both ESP32 support and side sensing are pretty new so I don't have a of 'real world' results from others yet. |
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No all good. I tried to flash an OTA upgrade to my existing system the other day and screwed it up cause I didn't read your instructions on version compatibility properly. Couldn't get a flash going to install the new version on my demos d1 mini (8266) until I read your post in trouble shooting re the TF-Mini. Once I disconnected it, it was good as gold. Thanks again. |
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