ESP32-C3 devices as BLE Proxies

[DJBenson]

If like me you want to use your Athom ESP32-C3 devices as BLE proxies then you'll probably know you can't do this without switching to the esp-idf framework and (generally) you can't do that OTA, it's recommended you do it via serial which is not possible with certain devices due to them being sealed units.

I have just managed to convert my UK v3 smart plug from the arduino framework to the esp-idf framework OTA - instructions below;

Amend your existing config to include the snippet below;

esp32:
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
  flash_size: 4MB
  partitions: "partitions.csv"

Create a file named partitions.csv in the root of your esphome directory with the following content;

padding, data, undefined,    ,       0x4000,
phy_init, data, phy,     ,        0x1000,
otadata,  data, ota,     ,        0x2000,
app0,     app,  ota_0,   ,        0x1C0000,
app1,     app,  ota_1,   ,        0x1C0000,
nvs,      data, nvs,     ,        0x6D000,

Build and flash the firmware OTA.

Once the device has rebooted, build and flash it again! This replaces the secondary OTA slot with the new partition scheme.

Some notes;

• Do this at your own risk - if you brick these devices there is no non-destructive way to fix them
• You will lose the ability to flash the devices via the web portal as that isn't supported by the esp-idf framework.

Since doing this my tumble dryer smart plug has started relaying BLE traffic to Home Assistant which it didn't before.

[pyrodex]

First off great work and write-up!

For the comment:

• You will lose the ability to flash the devices via the web portal as that isn't supported by the esp-idf framework.

Can you explain this? I would assume you can still, from the ESPHome dashboard, do a normal ESPHome based update via OTA right?

[DJBenson]

Yeah it's just the upload firmware capability of the web portal you lose. I use this for rescue purposes but it's mostly not required.

I expect this will be fixed soon as the esp-idf framework appears to be on the way to becoming the default framework.

[TommySharpNZ]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this...

[laurentfignon]

Thank you and this seems super but I have a question -- does the rest of your config still work the same as before converting to esp-idf?

[DJBenson]

With the exception of losing the webflash option yes.

[laurentfignon]

Got this working thanks to your help -- I'm finding that it's not nearly as responsive as a m5 atom lite device, though. Seems to maybe not be maintaining a BLE connection, rather re-negotiating it each time it's needed. Is this anyone else's experience? If not, any ideas what's going on? Thank you!