Installing

From a bare board to lights in Home Assistant takes about ten minutes. The flasher page carries a short version of this; here is the long one, with the buttons and the things that catch people.

What you need

• A board from the Boards page and a USB data cable (some cables carry only power; if the computer never sees the board, try another cable).
• A computer with Chrome or Edge. Flashing uses Web Serial, which Firefox, Safari and phones do not have. Windows, macOS and Linux all work; no driver is needed for the boards in the table.
• A 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network and its password. The ESP32 radio does not do 5 GHz. A combined network that serves both bands is fine.
• Your amaran account, or the amaran desktop app signed in to it, for the Importing step.
• Home Assistant on the same network, with the ESPHome integration (it is built in).

1. Flash

1. Open the flasher page. The firmware version it will install is shown under the button.
2. Plug the board in by the port the Boards table names: the one that is not labeled UART or COM. Boards with one port use that one. The Boards page has a photo of each board with its ports and buttons.
3. Put it into install mode. On most boards: hold BOOT, tap RESET, release BOOT. On the ATOMS3 Lite: hold its side button for about two seconds until the LED turns green. This only opens the board for installing; it clears nothing.
4. Press Connect. In the browser's port list pick USB JTAG/serial debug unit (on Windows it may show as a COM port with that name). If the list is empty, see Troubleshooting.
5. Choose Install amble-home. On a board that has never run amble-home, check Erase device when offered; on a box you are updating, leave it unchecked. Let it run: one to three minutes, depending on the board.
6. When the page says Installation complete, tap RESET once (the ATOMS3 Lite: a short press of its side button), or unplug and replug the board. A board put into install mode by hand stays in that mode after the flash until it is reset, and the page would otherwise offer to install again.

2. Wi-Fi

7. Press Connect again and pick the same port. The dialog now offers Connect to Wi-Fi. Choose your network and give its password. The page talks to the box over the USB cable, so nothing is typed into a web form that leaves your computer.
8. Once the box is on your network the dialog shows Visit Device. Press it: the box's own Home page opens in a new tab.

Skipped the Wi-Fi step, or no computer at hand? The box starts its own network, named amble-home- plus six letters and digits. Join it from a phone; a setup page appears (or open http://192.168.4.1/), pick your network and enter the password. The box joins it and the setup network goes away.

From then on the box is http://amble-home-xxxxxx.local/ on your network, where xxxxxx is its own six characters, and http://amble-home.local/ also works when you have one box. Your router's device list shows it under the same name if .local names do not resolve for you.

3. Import your fixtures

9. On the box's Home page press Edit. Choose a door: sign in to your amaran account, or open the amaran desktop app's database. Check the fixtures this box should control and press Save. The box stores the keys and the list and reboots. The Importing page has every detail, including where the database file lives on macOS and Windows.

4. Home Assistant

10. Under Settings → Devices & services, Home Assistant offers a discovered ESPHome device named after the box. Press Configure. Your lights are there, one per fixture you checked. The Home Assistant page explains what you get.

What the box's Home page tells you

The Home page is status only. The line at the top says whether the mesh is up and gives the box's own node address. Each fixture row shows a lamp drawn in the color the light is showing: a filled lamp is a light the box has heard from and is driving, an outline is a light that is off, a dashed outline is a light the box has never heard. A fixture that stays dashed is out of range, powered off, or not on this mesh (Troubleshooting).

Two boxes

Every box has its own name and its own mesh address, so two boxes on one network and one mesh do not collide. Give each box its own fixtures on the Edit page; a fixture checked on two boxes will be driven by both.