[Announce] node-red-contrib-esphome

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1

Hello,
I’d like to introduce

This is Alpha release, support Native API Component — ESPHome

there is no support for bt proxy and encryption, if possible, test the node

2

Interesting. What configuration do you need on the ESPhome side?

I use MQTT throughout since that is easy with ESPhome. Sensor data goes to a standardised topic structure. Inputs generally use existing topics because I've not actually implemented any external controls as yet. If I did, I would choose a standardised topic structure aligned to the output structure.

3

the ESPhome protocol supports the announcement of the services that are in the equipment, you see, for example, all the operating modes of the air conditioner ( supportedFanModesList, supportedCustomPresetsList) as far as I know, mqtt and mqtt discovery (HA MQTT discovery ) does not announce this

well, the main idea is to communicate directly with esphome

4

Ah, the native api thing, I see. I've skipped over that before because I don't use Home Assistant.

Not sure all of their listed advantages over MQTT stack up.

Efficiency isn't an issue unless you need ms level responses or are sending crazy amounts of messages (in the hundreds of thousands at least).

"One less single point of failure" - you could equally argue that you now have N points of failure where N is the number of ESP devices :slight_smile:. You now have to monitor multiple devices for failure. With MQTT, while the broker going down stops all comms, a device going down is automatically registered on MQTT through the use of the Last Will and Testament feature. With a sensibly chosen topic structure, a single, simple flow in Node-RED can monitor and alert on all devices.

"Stability" - never had any problems with ESP device stability since I moved to ESPhome! Nor with MQTT stability.

I think MQTT discovery is an HA thing only? MQTT doesn't have native discovery and this could indeed be useful when handling dozens to thousands of devices. Thankfully, not something I need to do - I have around 5 or 6 :rofl:

Sorry, not trying to undermine what you are doing, it is a great addition. Just trying to get my head around the different ways of working.

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5

Off topic from this post, but @TotallyInformation I am intrigued about your (home?) automation solution. If you don't use HA, what do you have for controling/measuring or centralization of you devices? Do you have a post about it?
Just to know :slight_smile:
Thanks
Jav