[FR] P025 ADS1x15, add support for comparator operation with alert pin

[bartgrefte]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
If lacking a feature is considered a problem, then yes.

Describe the solution you'd like
The addition of support for configuring comparator operation on ADS1x15 ADC's, this so that the ADC can keep an eye on an analogue input value and then trigger something by setting the alert-pin high.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Ditching ESPEasy and write an Arduino Sketch, see below.

Additional context
See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-4-channel-adc-breakouts/arduino-code#comparator-operation-2974137 for example code.

[TD-er]

I did a quick peek at the datasheet (page12)
It seems you need to have the ADS running in continuous mode and I think we're now using the ADC in single shot mode (need to check the code to be sure).

So it will require a bit more than "oh let's add a high/low threshold and a combobox + GPIO selector" to implement this.

I for sure see the value of this feature, but it needs to wait till I have finalized the WiFi/network rewrite which takes a few weeks to finish I guess (hopefully less).

[bartgrefte]

@TD-er Okay, thanks :)

Good luck with the WiFi/network rewrite, I'm guessing it's because there are now ESP's with WiFi 6 and support for the 5GHz-band?

[TD-er]

Nah, the 5 GHz WiFi for the C5 and WiFi6 for the C6, C5 and C61 is already implemented :) (in my PR)
That was the easy part.

The reason for the complete wifi/network rewrite is because in the past 7-8 year there have been so many patches added to work-arounds to make it work, that it was not maintainable anymore.
Also the Ethernet code was added as an after-thought, which resulted in interwoven code for WiFi and Ethernet, etc.

Now I have it completely separated so you can add network interfaces just like you do with tasks and controllers in ESPEasy.
So you can have like WiFi STA, WiFi AP, Ethernet via RMII and Ethernet via SPI + PPP LTE modem all on the same node if you really would want to (upto 3 Ethernet devices even :) )
And configure NAPT between WiFi-AP and any other networking device, etc.

So this was 'just' an accumulation of 7+ years of WiFi code frustration which now needs to be 'done right'.
The changes to Arduino and ESP-IDF code of the past 2 years also has made this possible as that code also is now infinitely more structured, which makes it way easier to add new MCUs. For example last week I added support for the ESP32-C61 which took me less than 2 hours to get it running, which is to me a good indication we finally have reached the right level of hardware abstraction.

If you like, you can already play around with the new code, as long as you install it on nodes which can be accessed locally and are not put behind wall panels etc. :) (also settings may no longer be compatible with older builds, so make sure you have a backup if you plan on going back to the older builds)
Test builds can be found here: https://td-er.nl/ESPEasy/beta/