I’m not able to upload the sketch to the ESP32
If you are having problems following the steps of the guide to upload the sketches to the ESP32, please double-check the following points:
- You should be able to solve the error “Timeout waiting for packet header” by disconnecting all the sensor/relays connected to the ESP32, before uploading the sketch. You may need to remove the ESP32 from the protoboard as well.
- Not all USB cables have the same quality and are appropriate to upload sketches to the ESP32. Please try with another cable.
- The same happens with the USB port selected to connect the ESP32 to your computer. We have realized that when using USB hubs or similar devices, the upload from the sketch to the ESP32 may fail. Try connecting the ESP32 directly to your computer. In the best case, to a port placed in the back of your computer.
- If nothing helps, uploading a sample sketch from the Arduino IDE could help to diagnose what is failing. Try to upload a simple sketch to the ESP32, for example, a sketch that makes a led blink, to discard that the ESP32 is faulty.
- If you are not able to manage the problems yourself, please ask in our forum, and we will try to help.
¿Works this project with an ESP8266 instead of an ESP32?
Although we did not test the sketches personally with an ESP8266, many users have reported that they are using an ESP8266 with success. If you are using an ESP8266 with this project, let us know in the support forum.
Why is the client app not receiving data from the thermostat or vice versa?
The android app relies on two main things to work correctly: background services, and push notifications.
Many Android manufacturers (Xiaomi, Nokia, Huawei…) are adding energy management software to their devices, to improve the battery duration. Regrettably, the battery duration will improved at the expense of the background services of the apps: as soon as the app goes in the background, all background services are killed. This may explain why your app is not working well.
If you think that this could be your case, you have to whitelist the app in the energy manager settings. This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. In the following web page you can find many guides for each manufacturer, explaining how to whitelist an app to bypass the energy settings:
Is this app free
For now, the app is indeed free. This project is a hobby project, and we have no intention of monetizing it. Maybe in the future, we’ll come up with a brilliant idea, but given that it requires quite a niche interest to purchase all the components of this project and take the trouble to do the installation, we don’t think there will be many users