Padawan: Which upgrade for legacy ProMatic & LilyGo T-Internet-POE (ESP32-WROOM)?

[Eagle3386]

Hi, @14yannick!

Thanks for all your hard work - much appreciated. Honestly!
However, being a fresh house owner & HA fan, I struggle with finding solid answers to these 2 questions:

1. Upgrade ProMatic to SupraMatic E3 or 4?

Installed in 2005, our garage door is powered by a very old ProMatic (blue remote control buttons, hence 868 MHz with fixed code), hence no proper HA integration possible.
That being said, a motor upgrade is inevitable - that's at least what I told my wife & she greenlighted it without further questions! 😎🥳

However, I was convinced that 3rd gen SupraMatic remains the highest possible series as newer ones are deemed incompatible due to harder encryption - but that was before I discovered #6 where it sounds like series 4 is possible?!

Can you clarify this to me, please? Because SupraMatic E3 with its 22 cm/s would not only by fast enough for my needs, but probably also cheaper than any series 4 motor, right? 😉

2. HCP-Bridge @ PoE-only ESP board - will it blend?

On the HA-side of life, I'm trying to reduce "wireless smog" as much as possible, hence there's Ethernet when- & wherever possible - including PoE for cameras & even HA itself (got me a Yellow with PoE kit).

Being an absolute Padawan on the ESP-side of life, I bought me a LilyGo T-Internet-PoE board to not only power its ESP-WROOM solely via PoE, but also both connected measuring heads for electric & water meters.
Since that's supposed to let their measurement data easily flow into HA, I thought of "copying" it for the garage door.

Is it possible to run your app (with all its services, e.g. toggling SupraMatic's lights & venting) on the LilyGo (flashing it with Tasmota is claimed to be a piece of cake)?
Because if so, I'd love to order one more & run your app like that instead of using a wireless connection between the HCP-bridge & my home network where HA is running.

Sorry for these possibly dumb questions, but as I said: I'm nothing but a Padawan when it comes to ESP-SoC, HA, etc. 😅🙈

[14yannick]

Hi, you are Welcome here already some informations.
Hörmann has two version of the BUS Protocol HCP (Hörmann Communication Protocol).
This Overview tells you which device support which protocol. Where the UAP (Universal adapter Platine stands for version 1) and UAP-HCP stands for the second version.
Both Protocol have been fully reverse engineered and are existing for an ESP board.

I have worked in the last weeks to get a nice ESPHome port for E3 protocol you can find it under my Repo you will see that this projects really to a custom PCB with a PIC16 handling the communication with the motor. then a second Firmware on the ESP Chip to give command to the PIC16 chip and handling the networking. I have also done one of this board swapping the ESP8266 chip with an ESP32 ethernet board.

Then you have the newer Protocol really coming from the original project of hkiam where the Gifford47 and Tyson's Repo are currently still maintained. I also worked on it but have moved to ESPHome.

Esphome offers you much more flexibility to use different hardware, Sensor, Custom automation, without the needs to create any change in you code.

For the motor of choice I would go for an Supramatic E4 I don't now if you will find any E3 as I think there are phased out since 4 Years.

Yes you should be able to run the Esphome project on your device. There even exist an Example . Try to create a new Esphome project upload it to your Board and check if it runs with PoE.

If this steps works you can go ahead buying an RS485 converter like this (Never tested this specific one). This has even the needed 120 Ohm resistor included. Then connect it to your Motor and Board . I saw that the board has no proper 5v pin but 5v is present on the board (a Bit soldering on the board will be needed). Take the part of the YAML related to the Garage door adjust pin settings and you are ready to got.
For this part I can assist you.

I hope this helps you.

Don't hesitate to come back to me if you need any more informations.

[14yannick]

Btw the motor provide already power so maybe the lyligo T-ETH-Lite ESP32 S3 in combo with an m5stack stamp rs485 will be better suited.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-use-w5500-ethernet-module-with-esphome/581414/13

[Eagle3386]

First of all: Thanks sooo much, Yannick! You're help is of invaluable worth, especially to me! ❤️

Secondly, I wanted to press that Sponsor button, to sort of give back, but that would sponsor the original author, not you. Is there some other "Buy me a beer/coffee/whatever" for me to support you?

Thirdly, so it not only comes down to SupraMatic 3 = UAP & SupraMatic 4 = UAP-HCP, but also both protocols are reverse engineered nowadays? - That's awesome! 😍

Since I want to use ESP Home via HA (Home Assistant), too, I'd prefer that as well. But there's already another question popping up: do I need to flash the LilyGo with Tasmota first & then integrate it into HA's ESP Home or can I go straight to integration via ESP Home which then flashes the LilyGo, if needed?
I can't test it, yet: shipment was released by customs just yesterday & Deutsche Post probably takes 5-7 days to carry it from Frankfurt to my letterbox - that's what you get for Ali Express shipping via "Warensendung".. 😅

Regarding the motor, I've got the option of getting a 6-year-old E3 for 150 € only ~30 minutes away from my home. It's a used one, yes, but a brand-new E4 would cost 285 € incl. shipping & VAT.
However, if you tell me that E3 normally last ~15 years in total, I'd happily buy the E4 & enjoy 6 more worry-free years. 😉

But let's step back to the "RS485-board-motor-thing" for a second:

1. I'm rather bad at soldering (connecting a pin-LED to some wires is doable for me, but SMD & company is like "rocket science" to me 🙈).
2. When you wrote "take the part of the YAML related to the garage", you meant this part:
   

   esphome-hcpbridge/example_hcpbridge.yaml

   Lines 37 to 41 in 33f5494

   	hcpbridge:
   	id: hcpbridge_id
   	rx_pin: 18 # optional, default=18
   	tx_pin: 17 # optional, default=17
   	#rts_pin : 1 # optional RTS pin to use if hardware automatic control flow is not available.

   
   Did you?
3. Regarding your second comment, would 2. still be necessary then or would be more like "buy RS485 'stamp', stick them together & grab 'some' voltage from the motor to power the thing"?
   If so, where do I get the 5V from the motor, because I thought it runs on 230V?!

Oh boy, I brought even more questions to you. 🙈 I'm sorry for being that "dumb" when it comes to embedded stuff - I'm just a C# / Blazor developer, you know.. 😅

[14yannick]

You are welcome. Maybe I should one day subscribe for the github sponsorship program.
Yes for the details of the protocols and command you can have a look here UAP, UAP-HCP
Regarding Firmware of your LilyGo. Using the Esphome Add-on in Home Assistant You can create your Firmware and directly upload it to your Board. One done you can then update your device Over the Air. You can have a look here how to get put esphome on it. Basically the same way you would put tasmota on your board you can flash it with Esphome.
Your starting yaml will look like something like this.

substitutions:
 name: "lilygo-gd"
 friendly_name: "Lilygo Garage Door"

esphome:
 name: "${name}"
 friendly_name: "${friendly_name}"
 platform: ESP32
 board: esp32dev

ethernet: #adjust based on your board.
  type: LAN8720
  mdc_pin: GPIO23
  mdio_pin: GPIO18
  clk_mode: GPIO0_OUT
  phy_addr: 0
  power_pin: GPIO04

api:
 ota: 
 - platform: esphome

logger:
 level: DEBUG

Once you flash it to your board and it's online it should be displayed as online in the add-on and should be discovered by the integration.
Regarding the motors it's up to you. If you choose an E3 make sure to choose and Supramatic and not an Promatic.
The connection will depend on your motor. Let's have a look on this components.

On the left we have our custom PCB emulating the UAP for the E3 series on it you have

• Step-Down converting the 24v input voltage you get from the bus Port of the motor.
• Then you have the part responsible for converting the signal to rs485.
• the Pic16 as interface between the door and the esp. He will send the status back to the ESP and send the commands to the motor.
• the you have the esp handling wifi and integration in Esphome

On the right you have the DIY version I started for the E4. You have more or less the same stuff (step-down, RS485 and ESP). The only big change it that the communication with the door it's directly handled by the ESP not by a different chip like the PIC16 on the E3 Board. This was also the tricky part as the door send really often a slave status request and if the board do not reply you get an error on the motor. It's the reason why you need a dual core ESP32. The code handling the communication with the door is put on a different core as the rest to be sure not being busy doing other stuff and fail to reply on time. I can tell that it's not anymore an issue. I have running my device since month without having any issue. And I have some automation and other stuff running on my device (Proximity, Temp, Distance,...)

In the middle we have the M5Stamp RS485 this handle the function of the Step-down and the RS485 conversion. I put also and ESP32 S3 for reference in your case it would be the Ethernet board with an ESP on it.

So in case you go for the E3 you will need the PCB but I will not solder the esp32 chip on it but add some pin header there you can then get power, gnd, tx and rx. See here I have already done it once with an other Ethernet board.

If you go for the E4 variant you will need the part handling the rs485 conversion and step-down. What can be done by the Stamp PWR485. I'm located in Switzerland so if you need I can send you a prepared PWR485 with 120Ohm resistor and cable to connect it to your motor.

Regarding the yaml for the garage door relating part.
for the E4 it's at least this

hcpbridge:
  id: hcpbridge_id
  rx_pin: 18 # optional, default=18
  tx_pin: 17 # optional, default=17
  #rts_pin : 1 # optional RTS pin to use if hardware automatic control flow is not available.

cover:
  - platform: hcpbridge
    name: ${friendly_name}
    device_class: garage
    id: garagedoor_cover

And in the E3 will be

uart:
  id: uart_bus
  tx_pin: GPIO15
  rx_pin: GPIO13
  baud_rate: 19200

uapbridge_pic16:
  id: garage_door_comp
  uart_id: uart_bus

cover:
  - platform: uapbridge_pic16
    name: ${friendly_name}
    device_class: garage

[Eagle3386]

So, finally we're making progress - okay, I make progress, you already crossed the finish line. Probably last year or so.. 😉😅

Maybe I should one day subscribe for the github sponsorship program.

Please, do so! I'd love to honor your contribution to both, my knowledge as well as actual project progress & since I can't give something back in terms of code, let me at least donate some money towards your efforts. 😎

Also, thanks for the links regarding the protocols - much appreciated!

About the firmware: well, building it was pretty easy, especially due to the YouTube video you've linked to.
However, the video's author isn't completely right (anymore) or maybe LilyGo changed something in the most recent board revision:

1. There's no need for the jumper on the "programming board" (see below), just press the little button labeled BOT (not the RST one on the other side 😉) while the actual ESP32 board ("mainboard", pun intended 😅🥳) gets powered on.
2. The configuration he provides lacks NTP retrieval, the basic web UI & the newer esp32 block instead of esphome (at least HA's Studio Code Server told me so 😅) - so, for reference, here's my actual configuration:

api:
  encryption:
    key: "<my key>"

button:
  - entity_category: DIAGNOSTIC
    name: "Safe Mode"
    platform: safe_mode

esp32:
  board: esp32-poe
  flash_size: 4MB
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
  variant: ESP32
  
esphome:
  name: <my hostname>
  friendly_name: <my display name within HA>

ethernet:
  clk_mode: GPIO17_OUT
  manual_ip: # I prefer static IPs for my HA setup
    dns1: 192.168.<my subnet>.1
    gateway: 192.168.<my subnet>.1
    static_ip: 192.168.<my subnet>.<my IP>
    subnet: 255.255.255.0
  mdc_pin: GPIO23
  mdio_pin: GPIO18
  phy_addr: 0
  type: LAN8720

logger:
  level: DEBUG

ota:
  - password: "<my password>"
    platform: esphome

time:
  - id: homeassistant_time
    timezone: "CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3" # Europe/Berlin
    platform: homeassistant
    update_interval: "1d"

web_server:
  port: 80

Though, direct upload wouldn't work, because LilyGo, in all its glory, decided to use the USB-C port for power only - you're required to connect the "programming suite" mini-board & connect to either USB-C (which I chose) or micro-USB-B of that mini-board.
But despite the video claiming USB-C on both cable ends won't work, it did for my setup. 😎🥳

Other than that, there wasn't any need for Tasmota or something like that. ESP Home did what you promised, so I'm very glad & deeply thankful for your assistance & hints. 👏🏻👍🏻
Especially for that hint regarding substitutions - that helped a lot! 😍

Now, regarding the motor, her majesty didn't decide yet. But she promised "until Sunday". 😅
Nonetheless, I'm probably going for the E4 since it's newer, hence I expect more lifetime span from it than from the used E3 one.

However, regarding the dual-core ESP32: there's the T-POE Pro which is advertised as "upgraded version of T-Internet-POE" & also has an RS485 built-in - but how do I know if it's a dual-core or not? It just says "ESP32"!? 😅🙈
Would the M5Stack thing for RS485 communication be still needed then? - Don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to lower the complexity & amount of required parts here..

And since you (luckily for me, that is 🥳) brought it up: how to integrate sensors for distance, humidity, proximity & temperature?
Because I'd like to automate venting for when there's too much humidity or temperature within the garage, but only while humidity & temperature are within a given range - venting makes no sense when it's raining or too hot outside & HA will receive current values from outside the garage via a local weather station. 😉

Of course, the lights should also turn on only after the door is > 50% open (so either I or my car can actual enter the garage, saving some milliwatts for those couple of seconds) & immediately turn off if either the presence detector notices the car leaving or me closing the garage door (maybe via additional IR sensor?).

BTW: Grüezi in die Schweiz! 👋🏻

Regarding your YAML for the E4: what's that RTS-PIN comment about? Why shouldn't "hardware automatic control flow" be available? 🤔

As always: thanks so much for your assistance on this journey, Yannick! 👏🏻😇

[14yannick]

nice to hear that you get progress.
Your yaml looks great the only thing I never tried is the esp-if framework I have only used the arduino untill now.
T-POE Pro has the a dual core chip inside so it looks all good. This board has every thing needed to emulated the UAP-HCP (step down, RS485 and esp with two cores)

It looks like you have the choice to power the board by poe or vin Input with the 24 you get from the motor (top right connection).
You have an rs485 with automated direction control and a 120Ohm termination resistor between A and B.
If I understood it correctly in any case you need to connect the gnd from the motor to the dgnd of the Lyligo.
The open question mark I have with this board is that there are only two GPIO (IO14 and IO15) pins exposed. Maybe the pin header row in the middle can be used for some additional IOs. because for your described sensor you need at lest 5 (Distance 2, Combined Temp Humidity 2, PIR 1)
The automation part for the venting function was the reason why I started looking for something and I found this project. There I use a BME280 hooked to the motor and one one the outside and starting the vent if it make sense.
Regarding the light one by default it's handled by the motor himself it can probably be deactivated and then handled by the board. But don't know if it's worth it.
Turning the light of as soon no more movement is detected is much easier.
Regarding the rts pin some RS485 adapter (example) has no automatic direction control so the flow control is done by an additional pin.

[14yannick]

Btw go a reply from lyligo the pin header can be used so you should be able to do all what you want with the board.

[fatmacheto]

Hi,

so the T poe board is working smoothly ?

[14yannick]

@Eagle3386 did you get your setup working

[Eagle3386]

Hi all & especially @14yannick!

I'm really into doing it, but moving into the house turned (and still turns!) out way more time consuming (loads of renovations like adding & patching Ethernet cables all over the place & by myself, etc.) than I ever imagined.

TBH, I expect the renovations to conclude no sooner than mid-January. That being said, I assume to pick this up right afterwards (ProMatic 1st generation is too slow anyway).
But trying it out prior to February 1st is technically impossible for me - maybe you can leave this issue open until then?

[Speedyomi]

Hi, @14yannick!

So i was Looking for a solution with an Ethernet Cable connection for my Hörman Garage Door and found this Open Topic.
So i did it and it Works now!!! Many thanks to you.

I was searching for ours until it works because there is an error in the Pin out Picture for the RS485 RX and TX Pins.

The Correct pins are as follow
rx_pin: 32
tx_pin: 33

See also the screenshot from the Wiring Diagram.

Here are the yaml for the LILYGO T-POE PRO Board may it is not perfect but it works.

lilygo-gd.yaml