[OBSOLETE] Convert Your Wired Alarm System into a SmartThings Smart Home Monitor System for Under $25 with NodeMCU ESP8266 (2017)

I’m so excited to try this, I’ve ordered a variety of things you suggested because, well for $5-10 a component, why not!

The only experience I have really is knowing where my alarm panel is, and basic wiring from setting up my entire house on smartness. This will be a good data point for those with zero experience in home brew developing. More when I’m able to try things out, thanks a ton for your hard work!

edit: @heythisisnate, I’ll read through the growing thread to see if there’s something specific, but is it possible to give the sensors a switch or button capability?

disclaimer - I’m no expert.

The reason I ask is for Google home integration - where you could specifically ask something like “are any windows on/off” to find out if a window is open, etc. if it had a switch capability.

I wired this with screw terminal to make it easier to connect.

Great project. Just wanted to share my approach.

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@ragoss this is hot! Thanks for sharing.

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Am I the only one that had trouble flashing the firmware? I keep getting a syntax error that points at the 2 of the “20” in file name of the .bin file.
esptool.py --port=5/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x00000 firmware/nodemcu-1.5.4.1-final-10-modules-2017-03-23-20-42-52-integer.bin

Also am i putting the port right? Yous aid it may be different but I wasn’t sure what should go there.

You may need to change the port to whatever port the device is connected to
on your machine. What OS are you using?

Windows. It’s connected to port 5. I think I have bigger problems though. How did you install the esptool?

@heythisisnate, i need your expertise. I’m having issues with python. Basically I can’t get any modules or scripts to run. What should happen at the pyhton prompt if I just typed esptool.py?

Sorry Rob, I don’t do Windows.

But fortunately, there’s a self-contained flashing tool for Windows that I believe should solve your problem. Try this instead of esptool: https://github.com/marcelstoer/nodemcu-pyflasher

I’m using OSX so not sure how much help I can be.

I used the python install script in the github repository for esptool to
install.

I am sure there are some Windows users on here that can help you out.

@nate I finally figured it out after much youtubing and googling. Whew that was not easy. It didn’t help that I have 0 experience with python.

Hi Rob,

I used this for windows:

There’s a 32 and 64 bit Release…and it’s just an executable you run.

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Thanks. I finally got it flashed. Did you have any problems running Esplorer? When ever I try to launch it a command window poops up for a split second and then closes and nothing happens.

Are you launching Esplorer.bat?

I got my Esplorer here:
http://esp8266.ru/esplorer-latest/?f=ESPlorer.zip
You’ll need to extract the zip to a folder on your hard drive, then run the .bat file from that location. (Don’t try to run the bat file from inside the zip.)

Yeah I’m running the .bat file after extracting. I’ll try the version in the link you gave.

Oh nevermind that was the first one I tried. I’ve tried the one you linked to and the one from github. Still no luck. What version of Windows are you running?

Windows 10. Do you have Java installed?
https://java.com/en/download/

Yeah. Alright I switched to my home computer which is Win 10 and it seems to be working. I was trying to use my work computer that is Win 7 and I couldn’t get it to work. Should have known it wouldn’t be easy :grinning:

That’s funny because I also tried using my win7 worktop but had trouble with the flasher. I think my usb ports had encryption interfering or who knows what. So I moved over to my surface tablet and it worked. You definitely need Java installed for esplorer to work. I know a worktop can have a lot of controls in place that prevent relatively simple things from working because its considered a vulnerability.

It was definitely a Java issue. I installed it but like you said I think there were some controls preventing it from running properly. I opened up the esplorer batch file and all it does is launch the java program so I tried to run the java program directly but it wouldn’t do it. Oh well, at least it works on my home laptop.