Stuck with customizing firmware to change calculation method

[FabsFabios]

Hi,

I am feeling defeated after having spent an entire day and not gotten any further in my endeavor to add a simple line of code because I don't understand how to customize the firmware. I am trying to follow the guide in the FAQ about abrupt consumption with solar and tried to implement method: Left , but I have no idea how to.

I installed Home Assistant Glow and it shows as adopted in ESPHome. When I edit my home-assistant-glow-28e9a8.yaml packages (3 YAML files) are listed and refer to Github. One of those contain the pulse_meter.yaml file where I need to add method: left. I downloaded the file and added the line. However, how am I going about compiling the firmware from ESPHome with the modified pulse_meter.yaml file when my home-assistant-glow-28e9a8.yaml keeps referring to the online packages?

Or do I completely miss something and customizing the firmware is a lot easier than I think it is?

[phlexss]

This worked for me on Windows:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/compile-esphome-firmware-updates-on-a-windows-computer/675385

• download glow package from github
• make the changes you want
• follow this guide to install python: https://esphome.io/guides/installing_esphome.html
• run "esphome config esp32.yaml" to check the config file (if you're using esp32, yaml is located in folder "home-assistant-glow")
• run "esphome compile esp32.yaml" to compile the package
• I then used the ESPhome Flasher Windows (https://github.com/esphome/esphome-flasher/releases) to flash the new firmware (home-assistant-glow.esphome\build\home-assistant-glow.pioenvs\home-assistant-glow\firmware.bin)
• configure wifi using https://web.esphome.io/

[klaasnicolaas]

If that's not possible I am wondering though, whether this could be added as a user changeable option in the same menu where the IMP/kWh can be changed?

I don't quite understand what you mean. But no, this is not an changable option that you can use in the web server.

As an example, suppose you want to change something in the pulse_meter component, which is in a separate file from the repository and which is automatically imported during firmware compile.

You then copy the entire pulse_meter component from the import and place it at the bottom of the YAML config file (which is very compact) of your Home Assistant Glow in the ESPHome dashboard. You can then make the desired adjustments and then start the install sequence in your ESPHome dashboard to get the adjustments on your Home Assistant Glow.

[phlexss]

Hi @klaasnicolaas, thank you for all the info but so far I have no idea to what config file on Home Assistant you are referring.

Do you mean it's possible to make a change directly on HA somewhere (so there is no need to recompile) or are you talking about, for instance, adding the changes to the bottom of esp32.yaml before compiling?

....it would be great if it was possible to make these kind of changes without the need to recompile and flash. Is it possible?

It would be really be helpful if you can be a bit more specific about where/how to make these changes!

Thank you!

[klaasnicolaas]

If you add the Home Assistant Glow to ESPHome dashboard (device adoption), a separate YAML file is created. You can access this, for example, if you press the "edit" button. This is what I refer to all the time.

are you talking about, for instance, adding the changes to the bottom of esp32.yaml before compiling?

No, not the esp32.yaml, the device YAML config in your ESPHome dashboard.

Changes you make in the YAML config of your ESPHome device must always be recompile and flashed again...

./Klaas

[phlexss]

I understand now. I didn't know about the adopt option in ESPhome (glow is my first esphome implementation).

Thanks for the info!

[phlexss]

One more question: I see now how I can edit the config from ESPhome dashboard.....I copied entire contents from pulse_meter.yaml to the config like you said. But when I "Install" I get errors:

Duplicate key "api"

If I remove the api part and install I get:

ID button_reset_total redefined! Check button->1->id.

How to fix this? How to make it overwrite the existing configuration because it's seeing the entities in the config already exist.

Thanks!

[klaasnicolaas]

FYI: I've created a PR (#420) which makes it easier to make adjustments in ESPHome, because from now on the entire config will be imported into your dashboard after adoption.

[phlexss]

Great!

[phlexss]

Is it correct that editing the yaml config and compiling from within HA doesn't work? ....because I get duplicate key errors when I recompile.....

[phlexss]

I haven't tried this in v4.01 yet....so I'll do that first....