SimHub firmware for ESP8266 and ESP32

Head over to the discord server to discuss this firmware: https://discord.gg/zw377qhj9c

What is this?

Firmware source code for ESP8266 that is compatible with SimHub. It's derived from what SimHub lets you setup, but tweaked with a thin compatibility layer for the ESP8266.

Why would you want to do this?

ESP8266 is cheaper and more powerful that most arduinos boards and fairly popular in the IoT Community.

How To

Download this code
Install VSCode and Platformio
Open with VSCode
Adjust it however you need
Upload it to your device

Why Platformio?

It's better in almost every way than Arduino IDE, but more generic and more strict. It's worth learning it, trust me.

How does the SimHub WiFi connection works?

SimHub assumes there is a serial port that it can talk to, and a certain protocol that accounts for errors Automatic Repeat Request.

Instead of having a local device connected to the computer directly, we create a "virual com port" that forwards all communication to a certain IP.

On the Microcontroller side, we modify the code to create a socket server receiving data on the right port, and we put that data in a buffer (similar to the serial port) and we allow the modified Arduino SimHub client to consume it from the buffer, as if it was a normal seial connection.

How to configure the firmware to use WiFi

Set the preprocessor directive called INCLUDE_WIFI to true (in src/main.cpp). Set TCP_DEBUG to true as well, and set monitor_speed = 115200 in platformio.ini.

How to connect the ESP to your WiFi

Upload a WiFi enabled firmware. Connect USB to computer and open the serial monitor with 115200 baud rate (to catch debug messages). Power the ESP up. It will itself create a new WiFi network (SHC-{a bunch of letters and numbers}) that you can connect to from your phone or computer. Connect and expect a captive portal. Pick the option to "scan".. scan the available WiFi networks, pick the one you want to connect to and proceed.

Once the ESP is connected to a network, it won't create its own. The device should output the IP address it's using, write it down, you'll need it.

If you have access to your router settings, it's worth setting a static ip address or a DHCP reservation to the ESP.. that way you won't have to reconfigure the virtual port every few reconnections.

How to configure the virtual port

Download Perle TruePort. Install it. Configure a new COM port. Forward the data to the IP address of your ESP. Check the manual on the section called "Configuring the COM Port Connection" > "Access Device Server Serial Port" Follow the instructions to set it up in LITE mode. .. and that should be it.

How to configure SimHub to use the virtual port

SimHub should see the virtual port as a normal COM port, and it should be able to "scan it" and do the normal handshake process to query and use it. After confirming everything works, you can upload a new ESP firmware without debug logging.

ESP32 Support Caveats

Some Arduino APIs for the ESP32 are different, so not everything will work out of the box, but I got the WiFi bridge working and the ShakeIt fans with some effort, as you need to use different includes etc. It's very likely that other features that I haven't tested will need tweaks. But if you're willing to experiment with this, feel free to do so. Checkout this PR eCrowneEng#1 as an example of the things you need to do to achieve compatibility.

How to enable ESP32

Open platformio.ini, comment out the ESP8266 env and Uncomment the ESP32 env. Also specify your board in the env, by default is set to something like esp32doit-devkit-v1 because I owned this board, but there are tons of boards for the ESP32, as you can see here. Click on one and it will show you what's its id.
Go to lib/BoardDefs.h and comment out #define ESP8266 and uncomment #define ESP32.
Check the pin definitions in that file, because they will likely not match your board, but this is what the code maps to, feel free to tweak them to your liking. If a pin is defined incorrectly it may cause the ESP to crash, so if you're debugging weird issues, you can remove all of them and tweak the code to use the pin number directly (10, 11, 15...), instead of these aliases (D1, D2, D5.. etc).

apostarn / ESP-SimHub