Flashing the Sonoff NSPanel with ESPHome - how to get a custom UI for Home Assistant!

[@ChrisMasto]

I started a Wiki on GitHub where we can collect useful links, tips and tricks, etc. Feel free to contribute to it: github.com/masto/NSPanel-Demo-Files/wiki

[@TradieTrev]

You legend! There's so many possibilities with this device! My mind goes straight to gutter and I'm going to have titty girls on mine hahaha

[@ricardoramirez-ue5li]

Great stuff at the wiki! & a million thanks for sharing all this :)

[@jonny11bonk]

THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR 2 MONTHS, the custom UI. 😍 Sorry for caps.

[@EngineerK]

You have a great pace with how you present, not wasting time on trivial stuff. Good job. I think we need lovelace-mini for this device.

[@jordancoleman1608]

Fantastic video, and great timing for my two NSPanels that just arrived. Looking forward to getting them connected to Home Assistant with custom UIs. Thanks!

[@andybgrant33]

Oh boy. I can see GUI development becoming quite the rabbit hole. Can't wait!

[@michiganmitten]

Same here! Thankyou! Great video walkthrough!

[@jasongoldenberg973]

i am playing with these too jordan!.. you running HA at home? I cant fit all my code on one page, which is your must have!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

I know this is old, but it was EXTREMELY helpful for me as a newcomer to HA looking to get a first screen hooked up. I really appreciate the guidance and will look for other videos with updates!!

[@qbranchrg]

Superb, thank you. This has helped me to make the decision to use an NSPanel for my home display. I already use ESPhome for my own ESP32 / ESP8266 boards, so this is perfect!

[@tedev]

omg. i admire your patience man. i am a software developer and when i saw this video i was like "no way. i am not doing all that just to make a poorly-made wall-monitor-switch useful! but ... as i said. good work. i believe it was very detailed

[@schulz461]

Absolutely amazing video! I have no intention of ever using this product, and I find most other home automation tutorials to be either extremely slow and boring, or, too quickly paced with little or poor explanation of what was actually done. You explained everything perfectly and I look forward to watching your future content! THANK YOU! ❤

[@cam_DA_Hawkdriver]

Good video! I bought two for a house I’m building and wanted more info after I received them. I stumbled upon your channel. Now, I’m waiting for your next video that makes this thing prettier after you custom load with ESP Home.

[@tankgrrl]

This was a fantastic video. Thanks! I have two panels set up now and, after braving Nextion Editor and my anti-virus freaking out over one of its files, I got some nice displays set up. Thanks!!!

[@ChrisMasto]

Glad it helped!

[@sekt1953]

Just one more thing: Your documentation on github is great, keep it up. Thanks

[@NathanOKane]

Great job! I've grown to like esphome over tasmota at this point. I really wish stuff like this could be more approachable, but with the way you organized the video I can follow it. Looking forward to trying this with similar products.

[@Dean_Smith]

What a great walk through - Thank you very much ! I have my Kickstarter EU version on the bench. Torn between keeping the Sonoff HMI and waiting for the ESPHome component to implement all the Widget functionality, or diving in with the Nextion Editor. Now if only Sonoff would go the whole way and release their HMI and we could amend the default with the nice graphics !

[@TheMoistpotato]

Same here, i just got mine today, and currently just having it idle using the stock eweelink firmware. It will be great once these becoming more widespread and all the ESPhome/tasmota features/goodies become implemented.. I basically for now just want the stock UI with the realtime weather, time, and room temp. but eventually would like some slick customization. Vids like this though are great that there is hope to fully unlocking and enjoying these LCD smart switch units. I definitely want to put these in all my rooms considering that once we put open flashed firmware, these units basically become a local lifetime unit without worrying about shutdown cloud services.

[@marl0wd]

@@TheMoistpotato @Dean Smith I know this is from a year ago, do you know if ESPhome has now implemented the widgets for home assistant? Wondering if you can now use the stock GUI but add devices / scenes from other sources (not ewelink)?

[@OdisHarkins]

Great job love the detail, excited to see somthing other than a tablet hanging from the wall for HA

[@tankgrrl]

Thanks!

[@ChrisMasto]

Thank you!

[@tjalkuip]

Don't comment that often, but here I am : great video, thanks!

[@ThAt0n36Uy]

Really enjoyed this informative video, been waiting for someone to go in depth on this device and custom firmwares. I would definitely look forward to any future videos on this exact subject in the future if you're so inclined.

[@ChrisMasto]

I plan to do one about the Lanbon L8 with OpenHASP, since that may be a better choice to avoid fighting with the Nextion Editor.

[@NoiseEverywhere]

Thank you for this video. I'll try to use the Esphome configuration 'concept' on a different panel.

[@calebjpryor]

Sonoff Needs Software Panel.. AKA NSPanel. :D. I'm glad to see you present a solution for a product looking for one. the EWW app as I call it is really not good. I'm very happy to hear you call out it as a downside.

[@shadowpuck99]

thank you for posting this video - i now have some new hardware to check out! thank you also for posting the tools and such that you are using.

[@AnisKadri]

Great video! Very funny at times too :) Thanks for sharing this.

[@stephenwatson2509]

Great to see progress on these! The form factor looks perfect a couple of bottoms for the frequent items and soft buttons for the less frequent. Throw in 2 built in relays and a temp sensor is almost just a bonus. I hope they get certified for Australian market.

[@sven1858]

Great video - thanks for this, being able to flash these panels makes me realise the potential for these 👍👍 {i've never looked at ESP home before}

[@clairerovic]

Late to the game, will order some panels today. How much fun, this will be. Looking at this video I might be forced to change my 20+ Tasmota devices to ESPHome.

[@boomsig9069]

Awesome tutorial! Was looking for a light switch display solution that works with HA for my entrance way. Thanks for sharing!

[@JanicekTrnecka]

Hmm, finally a panel that can be "easily" added to HA and fully customized. I am definitely going to order one and try my luck with it.

Awesome Video and very well explained! Just got mine, and this weekend will be fun! Thank you! Cheers!

[@ddean3732]

Keep grinding Chris... Don't give up. Great vid!

[@TwanJaarsveld1]

Simply the best video about the NSpanel

[@mrmike1972]

Cool, I just bought a couple panels, downloaded all the software. Can't wait to try it out.

[@Lmoooo]

Thank you for a great tutorial! Got me started with my custom HMI and HA integration. Great work!

[@kevinbodell5092]

Great video! I have 4 nspanels and have not jumped into setting this up with home assistant, but now I will be. Your video save me a lot of time, thanks! Would love to see your final screen for use with home assistant.

[@mikesmods317]

Absolutely great video thank you very much for posting it I’ve been thinking about getting with these this makes the decision for me

[@krelis77]

That cable out of a PC is a analog audio cable which must be connected from your cd-rom drive to your intern soundcard back in the days. Nice topic 👍💪

[@qwarlockz8017]

What what a great video! you did a spectacular job taking a cool piece of hardware and showing how it can be totally customized! Brilliant. Seems like it is a bit raw still. Maybe someone will come out with a cool integration a bit more like lovelace. But this was cool!

[@andybgrant33]

This was excellent. Thank you for the great reference.

[@MarionMakarewicz]

What a sweet project. Thanks for the detailed instructions. Definitely something I'd like to look into.

[@jmorris644]

Thanks so much for this video. It gets me everywhere with the exception of my final 2 steps. I do not use HA so I need to research how to load tft files using Tasmota and I also need to figure out how to send the actions via MQTT.

[@jflecool]

Very good video cant wait to receive mine and watch your video again!!

[@jenslyn42]

Great video! If/when this gets a bit cheaper I'm definitely going to try this too!

[@scpowered]

Awesome! Gives me motivation to get back to work on my home automation setup!

[@SurfSailKayak]

Thanks for showing this off. I may have to pickup one to play.

[@PM13501]

Great video with lots of details!!

[@stevechilvers5631]

Thank you for this video. Managed to download my own screens and integrated into home assistant in a couple of hours. I did get stuck at one point but looked at your GIThub and noticed I was missing the dependency to the github assume this is for the nexition support as I was seeing communication errors before I added this.

[@FelixMoBu]

I had an eye on this things for a few months and your video made me bying one. I only use Hue devices and I am hoping to make this thing a 'friend of Hue' by my self ^^

[@UnaKarlsen]

Excellent work! Thank you so much for sharing. I look forward to trying this in my own setup in the not too distant future.

[@PaulMorley1]

Fantastic video. Thank you so much for all the effort. This has definitely inspired me to buy one of these panels.

[@AmonReich]

Thank you ❤️ Best quote: Like in a cooking show I ve prepared something 🤣 👨‍🍳🥧🍽️🥘🍽️

[@Robbrown92]

mine is stuck on the splash screen on boot and wont load into the display, it now spams in the logs nextion is not connected

[@JBR.1974]

thanks for the video...really enjoyed seeing your steps...and has given me lots of ideas....subscribed too so looking forward to your future videos

[@ChrisS-oo6fl]

Thank you! More videos like this will definitely warrant a sub.

[@shaneduffy4853]

Great video - thanks for the content would love to see more like this on your channel

[@fonte935]

Awesome, thank you! Looks both fun and maddening at the same time, but a great learning opportunity for sure.

[@marcoernst22]

Excellent tut. Thanks!

[@etiennedeklerk]

oh wow nice. This is awesome, thanks for the vid. !

[@jonny11bonk]

You can set the 2 buttons to do something else by going into the scenes and add a smart device after pressing the physical button. But, I would like to see that thing in the ESPHome or a Tasmota to control the Sonoff light bulbs.

[@ChrisMasto]

Thanks! I only spent 30 seconds with their app, so I probably missed a lot of features it has. I knew I had no plans to keep it around.

[@robotron3000]

Fantastic attention to detail, super inspiring!

[@skaramicke]

15:49 I've been unable to measure continuity between two pins pushed deep into the holes on my smaller version NSPanel so I doubt that "metal" is conductive. It's perhaps a metal plastic RF shield that has the plastic side facing the board?

[@ChrisMasto]

Better safe than sorry?

[@Lup3r]

Great video, I learned a lot! Thank you for the tutorial

[@Poundy]

interesting looking device, thanks for doing the vid!

[@HERPDEDERP49]

do people sell these pre-flashed?

[@seadbutkovic8014]

Thank you so much for this Tutorial

[@stronati]

Great video and marvellous guide. Thanks a lot.

[@alconaft4343]

Awesome video, has ordered for myself for test.

[@treestuffer]

Great video! could I use the interface to create a puzzle for a door lock keypad as part of an escape room?

[@rmbr]

Excellent video, thank you very much for it!

[@nilsbebelaar]

Amazing video, works like a charm! Do you know what Nextion screen model the EU version uses, or how I can find out which version to select in the Nextion Editor?

[@nilsbebelaar]

I just realized that even though the US version looks bigger, the EU version uses the same screen type, positioned in landscape.

[@pista01slk]

Excellent video! Well done!

[@TecSanento]

You could use this to power the valve of the floor heating system for that room

[@slarti4242]

Thank you very much, this helped a lot with my 2 early bird units. Does anyone have any clue how sonoff have implemented the swipe to change page in their UI?

[@ChrisMasto]

Don't know how they did it, but here's an example from the excellent unofficial forum: unofficialnextion.com/t/how-to-implement-swipe-up-down-using-sendxy/1383/3 It gives some feel for the level of hackery you have to go through to get a Nextion to do anything outside of its basic functionality. I would guess that the Sonoff custom UI is thousands and thousands of lines of spaghetti code.

[@serhioromano]

If I flash this panel with tasmota, will I still be ably to flash with TFT?

[@kamilosxd678]

Amazing video - exactly what I wanted!!!

[@jeffeberl12]

I wish there were more people doing portrait designs. I want to eventually make my own HMI, but I would like to have a decent HMI to start with that is in portrait mode. Most resources are for the landscape EU version, and even your newer videos have moved to the landscape mode.

[@martynaslukas4340]

All good, but i hesitated to back them up on crowd fund just because they have only black option... Would love to have white one. Have a bunch of sonoff devices with esphome flashed

And how to use a signal cable insted of wifi from device. So we have a fail safe if wifi going down.

[@SidYoung-au]

10A relay but 2A tracks... you could add thicker wiring but best to use a Contactor, just to be safe.

[@chrisgardner4144]

Thank you, that was hard !!!

[@geneliverman6827]

Awesome job, this is super helpful!

[@theZ3r0CooL]

I was going to attach headers but I feared they wouldn’t fit under the lid as the existing 8 were in a cutout. So I pushed female duponts onto headers passed through the underside. You also don’t have to attach to that ic, just short IO to ground and hold the reset button on the bottom on the board near the thermistor while powering and connecting the serial UART to usb.

[@tincanpete]

Super helpful, thanks!!!

[@nicazenarosa2834]

If i do that i can now connect my smartlife devices to my sonoff nspanel?

[@martinottolangui4667]

love this ,and perfect as my order turned up weds ,just a couple of q's in my limited knowledge i've got a ft232 usb to serial ,can i use that or does it have to be the 232rl ? then the physical buttons used in combination of either a fibaro dimmer 2 or say a sonof mini ,so the modules dealing with the load and the relays becoming a momentary switch ?

[@memodota]

Hello! Nice! Thanks for manual! Can we edit original sonoff nextion file? I really like their design, but whant to just add some of my own devices through the ha.

[@ChrisMasto]

Unfortunately not. People have figured out how to extract the TFT file, but you can’t bring it back into the editor once it’s been “compiled”. If you are happy with the Sonoff UI, though, you can use jesserockz’ ESPHome component (github.com/esphome/esphome/pull/2702) which lets you add widgets in the same way you can with their app. You can also do this with Tasmota if that’s more your jam.

[@HFSoluciones]

Great guide! All is working fine, but I can´t just get rid of the annoying "[W][nextion:391]: Nextion reported variable name invalid!" Any tip? Thanks!

[@jspafford]

I’ve been seeing this thing around and was curious. Exactly what I expected. I wish apple would make this but with a better screen and iOS. That would be amazing. $99 price point. You could justify that because it’s buying into their ecosystem. The pods and Apple TV and all the accessories.

[@aswinramachandran]

Thank you Christopher

[@19763862]

Nicely done. Wondering if the same can be achieved with the Brilliant Smart Home Control panels?

[@RaphaelLorenzetoAbreu]

Hello, awesome video! I`m just stuck trying to upload the tft to my nspanel. Everytime I run the service I get the log that it is "[nextion_upload:175]: Requesting URL ..." then the display reboots and comes back to the original screen. Did anyone had this issue??

[@Madeyalookdomoz]

Any idea how i push through different HMI files to multiple NSPanels? Development tools only seems to push it to one Panel

[@Nicktals]

Using this as a project to try and learn esphome, as a bit of a HA noob. 🤞

[@rfitzgerald2004]

The cable at 13:20 is a CDROM audio cable :)

[@hamadalmarri2141]

Very cool , this is what I am waiting for . How many pages and buttons I can add ? Is there any limitations ? Excellent video and thanks a lot

[@mrteausaable]

When you turn on/off from the light switch with the status also update the Nextion panel? If not what is the additional codes you need to add.

[@corypechon]

Excellent video!

[@highlights6844]

i keep getting "Failed to initialize. Try resetting your device or holding the BOOT button" although all pins are plugged in correctly to soldered headers, including the "io0-gnd"

[@VAKUL-DC]

Thanks for the tutorial.

[@evanmoore7631]

When I update the YAML file wirelessly after updating the tft upload it just keeps repeating Nextion is not connected and won't finish the update. Any tips?

[@74357175]

Fantastic video! Can you elaborate on your thoughts against using this as a thermostat? How do the Chinese users use it? I was thinking of having a backup thermostat/remote switch in case I'm not around but want to switch the heating on while away. Thoughts?

[@paulvallejo1309]

Hi Christopher, thank you very much. I have a problem by the time I am trying to call the service to uoload the tft file it shows "[E][uart:015]: Reading from UART timed out at byte 0!" I will appreciate if you can help me, I do not know what could be causing this issue

[@ChrisMasto]

I don't know what the problem is off the top of my head, and I can't really troubleshoot individual issues, but there are some forums and other resources listed at github.com/masto/NSPanel-Demo-Files/wiki/Resources where you can look for help.

[@stevenfletcher2222]

Great work and I'm 90% there but cannot get the tft to upload? get the errors you do in the video but connot get around them..so frustrating lol

[@kernelkraut]

Yeah, my tft uploads are not workign either. They all end up with a white screen, on panel reseat you get "System display ERROR!" The only thing I can do is flash back the stock display firware for now. Thats the only thing that works. I think nextion has made some changes to their devices...