Recently I had a need for a cheap IR Blaster for Home Assistant climate integration that doesn’t require a cloud to work. After a lengthy google search I found others were able to use a generic round Tuya IR blaster by reflashing them with ESPHome which suites my need. So I decided to get one for Php 390 in one of ecommerce site in my place. This one has a esp8266 chip.

One advantage on going this route instead of creating your own one lets say base on a wemos d1 is that you already have a nice case w/ a superb IR filtering plus a bunch of LED array complete with supporting circuitry so you can focus on high level integration stuff.

esp8266 chip

esp8266 chip

Tools needed.

  1. USB to 3.3V Serial adapter
  2. 5 pcs test leads with needle tip
  3. 3rd hand(s) for holding the test leads

To reflash the ESP chip you need to find the ff pads/pins in the IR blaster.

  1. TX
  2. RX
  3. GND
  4. 3.3V
  5. GPIO0

Wiring usb-to-serial adapter.

Flashing with ESPHome Web.

  1. Plug your usb-to-serial adapter to your PC/laptop. It would show up as port /dev/ttyUSB#
  2. visit https://web.esphome.io/?dashboard_wizard using Google Chrome or Chromium browser
  3. Press Connect and select your usb-to-serial adapter port.
  4. Press “Prepare For Adoption”. This would take several minutes to finish.
  5. Once flashing is done, unplug the usb-to-serial adapter and disconnect GPIO0 from GND.

Configure ESPHome wifi

  1. Plug your usb-to-serial adapter back your PC/laptop to power up the IR blaster.
  2. Wait for 10 seconds for ESPhome to boot up. Esphome will create a wifi AP with a captive portal.
  3. From your PC/laptop scan your wifi for SSID ‘esphome-web-######’. Connect to that SSID.
  4. Visit http://192.168.4.1 to configure ESPHome to connect to your IOT specific wifi network for security, as they say it’s the S in IOT.
  5. At this point your ESPHome IR blaster is will be discoverable in ESPHome Dashboard or from Home Assistant.