v15 - ESP32, Bluetooth, and HTTP Interface Support

[thorrak]

v15 BrewPi-ESP Firmware

This firmware contains a number of significant changes and enhancements, as compared to the previous wide release (v11):

• File system initialization enhancements
• Substantial refactoring and upgrades (e.g. JSON handling)
• Unified handling of Serial and WiFi output
• Add ability to add human-readable names to probes (Thanks @speshak)
• Swap SPIFFS for LittleFS for ESP8266 Builds
• Fix message displayed with temperature control is set to “OFF” (rather than IDLE)
• Added WiFi information command to get signal strength
• Add support for ESP32 and ESP32-S2 modules
• Add Bluetooth scanning support
• Add support for using Tilt Hydrometers as a temperature sensor
• Add support for using TPLink Kasa WiFi switches
• Add mandatory confirmation to firmware to prevent accidental EEPROM resets (“network scanner” bug)
• Add support for TFT LCD Displays on ESP32
• Add support for "extended settings" not traditionally part of the BrewPi firmware
• Added a new HTTP interface for quick sensor assignment & settings updates
• Adds ability to configure minimum delays for heating/cooling

Firmware Versions / Targeted Hardware

There are six separate versions of this firmware:

• esp32_wifi_tft - ESP32 firmware for TFT displays
• esp32_wifi_iic - ESP32 firmware for IIC displays
• esp8266_wifi - ESP8266 firmware for WiFi connections (see note below!)
• esp8266_serial - ESP8266 firmware for serial connections (see note below!)
• esp32_s2_wifi - ESP32-S2 firmware for wifi connections (S2 version of the similarly-named ESP8266 firmware)
• esp32_s2_serial - ESP32-S2 firmware for serial connections (S2 version of the similarly-named ESP8266 firmware)

The ESP32 firmware is intended to run on standard ESP32 chips. The ESP32-S2 firmware is intended to run on ESP32-S2 chips, such as the Lolin S2 Mini. Bluetooth sensors are only supported on the ESP32. TPLink Kasa WiFi Switches are only supported on ESP32 and ESP32-S2 WiFi firmware.

Note about future support

v15 will likely be the final official release of this firmware for the ESP8266 microcontroller. Although there may be future releases, it is highly recommended that the ESP32 be used for new builds, and existing users that want to use new, upcoming features should explore migrating to the ESP32-S2 which - in builds using Lolin's D1 Mini - has a pin-equivalent board available that may be a direct, drop-in replacement. For discussion as to why, please see this post.

Note about the project name

As a result of the migration away from the ESP8266, the project is also going to undergo a name change from BrewPi-ESP8266 to BrewPi-ESP.

New Contributors

• @mp-se made their first contribution in Fixed problem with strings not being printed on LCD display (only fir… #31
• @speshak made their first contribution in Add Doxygen documentation #51

Full Changelog: v11...v15

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This discussion was created from the release v15 - ESP32, Bluetooth, and HTTP Interface Support.