v.3.3 - New improvements and some issues fixed

[Blackymas]

Support this project

As always, we would like to thank everyone who donated to this project and remind you that every donation helps to support this project - so if you haven't made a donation yet, now would be a good time ;)

 

General

We still counting the stars and this repository have now crossed the 500 threshold. Thanks a lot for that!!
In this release we fixed tons of bugs and tried to make easier to setup the panel, with improvements to the UI in the blueprint settings, a new button to make possible uploading a TFT file without painful changes in yaml, a better support for different weather integrations, some important performance improvements and lots of other smaller new features.

 

Updating

Since in this update lots of input to the blueprint changed, we highly recommend you review your settings and make sure all fields have the correct selection. We did our best to support your legacy settings and avoid breaking your system, but please double check your settings if you see something not working as expected.

Files that need to be reloaded:

1. nspanel_blueprint.yaml - v3.3
2. nspanel_eu.tft or nspanel_us.tft - v3.3
3. nspnale_esphome.yaml - v3.3

Instructions

You can find the update procedures with the following links:

• (EN) HowTo - All important thing you should know - Update
• (DE) HowTo - Alle wichtigen Dinge die man wissen sollte - Update

 

Breaking changes

1. UI changes on the Blueprint settings may require you selecting these inputs again. The blueprint will try to handle the existing settings when possible. This affects the panel and date format selections in the general settings, and icons selections (in many places).
2. Although you can now use the native Home Assistant icon selector and with that choose any MDI icon, the blueprint will only support the HASP icons. If a non-supported icon is selected it will be shown as a text.
3. sensor.xxxxx_currentpage was replaced by sensor.xxxxx_nspanel_event and provides more info (in a json formatted string).
4. sensor.xxxxx_settings_entity now have it's data in a json formatted string.
5. switch.xxxxx_nextion_inites was replaced by binary_sensor.xxxxx_nextion_display.
6. switch.xxxxx_sleep_modus was renamed to switch.xxxxx_sleep_mode.
7. nspanel_blank.tft will show a QR code in replacement of the full white screen.
8. Remembering states of switches was changed with ESPHome 2023.4 and it the new format is now fully supported by this project, however your previously selected state won't be remembered when you first install this version and you will have to set it again.

 

Overview of all changes

1. Select a panel from a list of devices, by @edwardtfn (Change panel selector to built in device selector #674)
2. Using native icon selector from Home Assistant, by @edwardtfn (Use Home Assistant icon selector for icons #657)
3. New "Exit reparse" button, by @deejaybeam (fix: button to exit reparse-mode on factory-device #675)
4. Support to select baud rate, by @edwardtfn (Add support to change baud rate with Nextion #662)
5. A new nspanel_blank.tft file, by @edwardtfn (Replaces the white screen by a QR code #701)
6. A new service for wake-up your panel, by @denes44 (Wake up panel service call #734)
7. Wake-up panel when sleep mode is disabled, by @edwardtfn (Wake-up panel when sleep mode is disabled #698)
8. Improved support for other weather integrations, by @edwardtfn (Code refactoring - Weather & Climate #525, Removed "Weather integration" selection from setup #615 & Improved weather pages #679)
9. More accurate time update, by @edwardtfn (Update clock at the beginning of each minute #543)
10. A few more options for date & time formatting, by @albinmedoc (fix: corrects date_format #568)
11. Show cover's battery level from battery entity", by @edwardtfn (Add cover battery when not as an attribute #601)
12. Support for opening & closing states on buttons, by @edwardtfn (Support for opening & closing states on buttons #613)
13. Added "Croatian" as a new supported language, by @ajghor (Add "Croatian" as supported language #632)
14. Support to select baud rate, by @edwardtfn (Add support to change baud rate with Nextion #662)
15. Fixed translations to Bulgarian, by @EnginDzhemil (fix bulgarian translation #669)
16. Sleep modus" renamed to "Sleep mode", by @edwardtfn (Rename 'Sleep mode' switch #714)
17. Switch "Nextion inited" is now "Nextion display" sensor, by @edwardtfn (Changes to nextion_inited to become a sensor #715)
18. A new "Show pages while loading" mode, by @edwardtfn (Introduces show_while_loading mode #731)
19. Support for opening & true states on chips, by @edwardtfn (Chips to support boolean entities #748)
20. Fixed outside temperature units, by @Blackymas & @edwardtfn (Temperature display on the home page #755)
21. Remembering of switch states are back, by @deejaybeam (#8ca8875)

 

Details of all changes

1. Select your panel from a list of devices

The selection of your panel now uses the native device selector from Home Assistant, making much easier to find your panel and the blueprint will take care of all the rules for the name of your panel.
This will make a bit easier to onboard users, specially the new ones, as selecting the panel name was a typical place for issues reported by new users when first setting up a panel.

⇨ Your existing settings using the panel name will still be accepted by the blueprint, although you won't be able to see in the blueprint settings page. We highly suggest you to select your panel again with this new format.

 

2. Icon selector

Now the selection of icons is also following Home Assistant native selectors, making this process much easier. Just type the name of your icon and Home Assistant will show the options available:

⇨ If you have icons previously selected, they will still be used by the Blueprint, however you won't be able to see in blueprint settings in this nice new format. Therefore we highly suggest you to select your icons again.

 

3. "Exit reparse" button

One of the biggest challenges to a new user is to upload the TFT file for the first time. This is due to Sonoff using the Protocol Reparse Mode to control the communication with the Nextion display. This prevents ESPHome to communicate with the display using it's default libraries and therefore prevents installing the new TFT.
With this version you will have a new button named "Exit reparse", which will send a command to the Nextion to exit that mode for a few seconds, giving to the use a chance to then upload the TFT file without the need to change your ESPHome settings or using older Nextion libraries.

Once you have successfully uploaded any of the TFT files from this project (nspanel_blank.tft, nspanel_eu.tft or nspanel_us.tft), the reparse mode will be permanently disabled and this button is not needed anymore.

If you have your panel displaying the Sonoff original screen, please follow the following steps to install your TFT file:

1. Go to the front of your panel with a portable device with access to Home Assistant
2. Open the device related to your panel under Settings > Device & Services > ESPHome
3. Press the new button "Exit reparse" and wait for your panel to change it's screen to another page (which will take around 10s)
4. While the new page is shown (it will be there for just a couple of seconds), press the button "Upload TFT"
5. You should then see the progress bar in your display and after no more than 20 minutes the new TFT will be displayed._

 

4. Support to select baud rate

Enables changing the settings of the communication between ESPHome and Nextion display, just in case. You can add the selected baud rate in the substitutions in your ESPHome yaml (please keep the other entries as it is):

substitutions:
###### CHANGE ME START ######
  baud_rate: "9600"
  ...
##### CHANGE ME END #####

 

5. New nspanel_blank.tft

A QR-Code with a link to this project's repository in GitHub will replace the totally white screen.

 

6. Wake-up service

Now you can call the service esphome.xxxxx_wake_up_display to wake up your panel from sleep mode or to prevent your panel to go to sleep.
Although this service will wake up your panel regardless you use as option, there are two specific calls you should know:

service: esphome.xxxxx_wake_up_display
data:
  option: 'keep_wake'

With this option, the service call also resets the dim and sleep timer option. So, for example, using this with a motion sensor, the display not only wakes up, but if the motion sensor keeps sending this service calls, it will prevent the display to go to sleep or dim.

service: esphome.xxxxx_wake_up_display
data:
  option: 'keep_page'

With this option, you get a similar behavior as with the keep_wake option, but this also resets the page timeout timer every time it is called. So, as for the previous example, if someone keeps moving in front of the motion sensor, it will prevent the panel jumping back to the home screen.

 

Next topics we are currently working on

See here: https://github.com/Blackymas/NSPanel_HA_Blueprint/labels/roadmap

What's Changed

• fix: corrects date_format by @albinmedoc in fix: corrects date_format #568
• Update the correct Nextion variable for sleep modus by @doron1 in Update the correct Nextion variable for sleep modus #667

New Contributors

• @albinmedoc made their first contribution in fix: corrects date_format #568
• @doron1 made their first contribution in Update the correct Nextion variable for sleep modus #667

Full Changelog: v3.2.2...v3.3

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This discussion was created from the release v.3.3 - New improvements and some issues fixed.