Newbie - getting it to work

[nickelliott]

Please could you help a newbie out?
I would love to build this project. But how?
-The notes say I can do this from within Home Assistant, if I am running Home Assistant Supervisor. Am I? I am just using the basic HA OS install on a RPi. I think that means Supervisor is running?
-I have almost no idea what a Docker is. I see it mentioned almost constantly, and yet it is never really explained.
-Which directory on the RPi do I copy the files into?
-I worked out that I need to install the SSH/Terminal add-on to get a command line in HA.
-When I type the command esphome there I just get bash: esphome: command not found. Do I need to specify a path to it or something?
-I gave up with that and tried installing Python and then esphome on my Windows PC (for which I first had to install 6GB of C++).
-I then got the compile error 'ota requires a platform key but it was not specified'. I found that a platform: esphome line had to be added in the .yaml
-It compiled, and I uploaded it to a fresh board. The board then goes into a wifi scan. Was I supposed to enter my wifi details in the yaml prior to uploading? Or was I supposed to have prepared the board for first use with web.esphome.io first?

Many thanks!

[JNSwanson]

I find it easier to run ESPHOME from windows. Follow the instructions here: https://esphome.io/guides/installing_esphome
then copy the source files to some directory on your PC. Run

/esphome compile iboost.yaml

You will get an error, so copy the CC1101_RFx.cpp file to .esphome/build/cc1101/src. The CC1101_RFx.h file should already be in this directory. run:

esphome run iboost.yaml

and upload to the hardware.
One of these days I will merge the cpp file into the header which will prevent these problems.

[JNSwanson]

The platform is a new thing in the latest esphome which broke older scripts. Yes you need to put your wifi details in the yaml script here:

wifi:
ssid: "YOUR_SSID"
password: "YOUR PASSWORD"

[nickelliott]

Many thanks!
I wonder whether it would be worth mentioning the need to edit the yaml before building in your instructions? It's probably blindingly obvious when you are familiar with this, but as someone building an ESPhome project for the first time, it wasn't! 🤦‍♂️

Once the upload and bootup process has finished, I am left receiving bits of information from the board in the command line window. Is there a safe/graceful way to exit that, or am I just supposed to yank the board out?

If I then take the board upstairs, and power it up right near the hot water tank, HomeAssistant sees it, but all the sensors remain Unknown, and pressing the Manual Boost START has no effect on the iBoost. Am I supposed to pair the board to the iBoost somehow? Or is there something wrong with my radio board perhaps? How often is the iBoost box sending out data?

I have an iBoost Buddy, but have never actually switched it on and linked it up. Would doing that help?

[nickelliott]

I've double-checked the connections, and they match. There is continuity from the ESP pins through to components on the 1101. And yet I don't get anything when I plug the board in. HA just reports all the fields as Unknown. Where do I go from here debug-wise? Is there a way to interrogate the radio and confirm that board is alive? Or do I just have to order another 1101 and try again? Ta!

[JNSwanson]

Are you seeing "radio ok" in the output? If so it is probably the xtal that is off frequency. There is a section in the readme about this.

[nickelliott]

I'm not sure. Where would I see the output? In Home Assistant I just see "Unknown" against all the sensors. I am not sure how to interrogate the board to check what it is doing.

[JNSwanson]

If you compile from the command line, you will see the output after it has uploaded or you can connect the usb to a pc and you should see a serial port.
You can also add:

web_server:
   port: 80
   version: 1

To the yaml file and see it from a web browser.
See:
https://esphome.io/components/web_server.html

[nickelliott]

Ah, I see. I do see "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM5)" in Windows Device Manager, but I'm not sure how to read data from that port in Windows. Sorry, I'm actually reasonably tech-savvy, but I'm totally out of my comfort zone with this, I guess!

However, I tried re-uploading, and this time with 868350000 Hz, and it immediately started receiving data!
I'm getting LQI values around 115, but the board is plugged into my computer, downstairs, and the actual iBoost is in the airing cupboard upstairs.
If I connect the board to my laptop, and position it right next to the airing cupboard, how do I start reading the debug data without re-uploading to the board? Is there a CLI command I can run to do that?
Thanks for all your help. I bought you a coffee for your efforts! :-)

[JNSwanson]

You can use PuTTY https://www.putty.org