You guys/gals need an option to send over our own bin or even just sell Tasmota preflashed ones. You couldn't keep them in stock after that... Money on the table waiting.
Thanks for the post, replacing some Tuya crap that i could not flash and did not work right on localtuya. Love Tasmota, will be nice to start flashing again. 12 bulbs coming in the mail, and we did use your links.
Love these videos, I was shopping for a Bulb and it looks great, I've got a Kasa but would definetly give this one a try next time, should've looked at your channel before making the purchase, LOL
@@digiblurDIY Yeah, they change so often that the same amazon listing will have entire different hardware. Might have to stock up on these once I get the first set up and running.
a couple notes in case it helps anyone for Windows computer . In Command prompt - I had to type esptool flash_id to get it to work ( instead of esptool.py flash_id ) . Also I had trouble getting the Chrome to load Tasmota - I had to select the Esp32C3 on the first screen ( instead of ALL) and then not erase to get it to finally load. Seems like the last time I did a bulb it flashed fine with your original instructions.
Great video. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks. FYI, I ran into a little snag...after flashing my device it kept on cycling. It turns out my FTDI USB device didn't have enough power to run Tasmota. Everything worked great once I put it all back together and plugged it into the socket.
Very common there especially with an FTDI etc. They don't have enough power for the esp32 and wifi on it. So the brownout detector kicks in and reboots.
Loving the videos! started my home assistant journey early this year and every time i look up something you seem to pop up! Just to let you know though, the link for "products we use/recommend" doesn't work for the UK amazon store.
@@digiblurDIY I flashed the two I ordered earlier - no problems using your detailed instructions. I just ordered 4 more - maybe will give them as gifts after I reflash those. Can't beat the price of $5.60 each - no way you could even buy the esp32c3 for that let alone the rest of the parts !
Thanks for the detailed walkthrough. Hoping for E1.31 support and was looking towards WLED implementation. From what I see, WLED support for ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S2 is not stable yet.
I tried this with the CT CapeTronix bulb, totally impractical unfortunately, just a heads up to those that have them. I am personally going to buy those lamps in the link already flashed. Thanks for that Travis.
that you for doing what you do, always informative. question do you know of any a15 bulbs that can be flashed. I cant use the bigger bulbs in the fixture. I assume no becuase its probably to small to fit the controller but thought I would ask. thanks again
The high power "DC" in simple IoT devices typically has a bit of the mains frequency left, and if that close to resonates with the PWM, the MOSFETs may cut the waveform at sliding points, giving unevenness. Clearly most at lower frequencies, and may not be jarring when going higher.
Thanks for the video and the templates Travis. Bought and flashed 12 of these. There are a few gotchas that may be helpful for others who want to do this: 1. The esp32 has brownout issues with specific usb to serial adapters. This will make it seem like it was soldered incorrectly when that was not the case. This took a while to figure out. Ended up flashing them using a raspberry pi zero w ... which worked... not sure if that was a healthy thing to do to the pi though. 2. If not using the web flash, be sure to flash with the factory bin file. Commands that were used to flash: esptool.py --chip esp32-c3 erase_flash esptool.py --chip esp32-c3 --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dout --flash_size detect 0x0 tasmota32c3.factory.bin 3. Putting the led board back on didn't feel right most of the time. It doesn't go back on evenly (especially on the non-pro models -- it seemed to rock a bit). Had to clean out the white silicone? from the bulb and focus on pushing where the pins go through to get it to fit decently. 4. When troubleshooting, wanted to verify that binging 9 low was boot mode. Searching around, this is commonly 0. Nine is right as shown in the video. There is a spec sheet that shows this out there. This was key as it finally lead to trusting the solder job and finding out the issue stated in #1.
Thank you very much for this great tutorial. Looking at the link, I couldn't help but notice white warm is marked as PWM_i (instead of PWM) on GPIO03 and couldn't find find any definition for PWM_i online. What is the difference between PWM and PWM_i?
I'm new to smart bulbs, but have been playing around with esp stuff for awhile now. If I put one of these in a ceiling light fixture, do you then typically wire in something like a Shelly 1 behind the switch in the wall and then go into the Shelly's settings and decouple the switch from the relay? Which would then allow the bulb to always have power? I think I'm having a hard time with the fact that smart bulbs can have power that isn't switched (so, constant), but then you can tell a microchip inside the bulb that it is "off" or "on"... rather than add or remove power through a switch like a traditional bulb. Out of curiosity, what is the typical use case for these bulbs?
hi there, im from across the pond and as mentioned in a previous comment, this specific bulb doesnt seem to support 220v. i was wondering how you figured out this bulb was using the esp 32 c3? what do i look for in the item description on other listings like on maybe some chinese webshops. thanks in advance
Has anyone made a programming dongle clip for this / 3d model? I've tried with some tiny pogo pins and a 2mm pitch proto PCB board with a clip but it's pretty ghetto and hard to get it in the right spot.
Do you have the list of which esp32 gpios control which leds, and is there a separate on/off gpio or does that just turn all the PWMs to 0? Also it looks like it's straight PWM and no LED drivers right? I may want to make a sketch from scratch. Thanks.
I wonder if you could power the board using the header connector. Edit: I think flashing without soldering should be possible if you use a piece of tape to hold the jumper wires together. I've flashed all my Sonoff stuff without a soldering iron that way😂
Is anyone else not able to find the template? The template link takes me to pretty much back page (there are no templates on the page). I did a google search for the template and found a link for digiblur.com but I get a Error 522 for the page.
sorry the website is in the stage of moving over to a new wiki style. I'm working on redirecting links and such this week fixing things. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Vont A19 Bulb RGBW backlog template {"NAME":"Vont ESP32-C3 A19 RGBW","GPIO":[0,0,0,0,419,418,416,417,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":1} ; Delay 1 ; Module 0 Vont A19 Bulb RGBCT backlog template {"NAME":"Vont ESP32-C3 A19 RGBCT","GPIO":[0,0,0,452,419,418,416,417,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":1,"CMND":"so92 1"} ; Delay 1 ; Module 0
I only had one lohas die so far and it was outside in the heat and humidity of the south for a few years so I might not be a good gauge here. Their issue they had on some runs was bad capacitors. Time will only tell on these to be honest.
Cool! Are the Kauf/Cloudfree/Athom bulbs using the same hardware? Aside from the ESP32 chips, are the LEDs good quality? EDIT: looks like the Kauf and Athom are not ESP32. Any idea about the Cloudfree?
I was able to flash mine but does anyone know why my bulbs don't come on till like 20%. I have some switchbot bulbs I flashed and they come on right away at 1-2%
Great tutorial, I picked these now. I wish they could use BLE only, looking forwards any tutorial to offload WIFI and use BLE only for these bulbs from homeassistant.
Thanks for this video. I flashed tasmota using the web installer using the Release Tasmota and managed connect to the hotspot to log into the GUI to set my home wifi and password. After power cycling it appears to connect to my home wifi and get an IP address but I cannot connect to the webUI. I tried loading the config via the serial port and tried many other things but could not get the webUI to show up. Any thoughts?
Yep. You can actually use this as the OTA URL as long as the device can access the internet. github.com/tasmota/install/raw/main/firmware/unofficial/tasmota32c3-bluetooth.bin
I am having an issue with your rgbct template. When I enter it into the console, it just hangs and prints RESULT = {"Module":{"1":"ESP32C3"}}. It does not reboot or have any other effect. The rgbw template does work but does not offer give any control of the color temperature. Any advice?
@@digiblurDIY thanks, your message helped. I think there was a copy/paste error that I could not see, and browser autocomplete perpetuated it. I eventually got it all to work.
@@digiblurDIY Cool, thanks. I'll have to check that out. Never heard of DPP until now, seems like that could work fine and hopefully they'll support the the C-3 Chip in the next build !
I think it it scheme 5 or 6. Use the discord link in the video as a bunch of guys on my server use it along with the developer who added it to Tasmota for use with wled is there.
can a shelly switch talk to tasmota light bulb using webhooks, i really don't want to flash my shelly devices with tamsota , i just want my light bulb to work while home assistant is down
@@digiblurDIY can i do something similar using mqtt?? i have an idea to setup 2 automtion for the switch to control the light one in home assistant and one in node red, then add a condition to the node red automation to only work if home assistant is down , the chance of both home assistant and node red down at the same time is almost impossible , i think this is a good solution as long as node red is installed separately from HA.
So i have followed this video on the Vont bulb and having no luck. I have both the PRO and Regular bulb. I have tried on both, i have 2 different FTDI serial to USB boards ive tried. I have switched the TX and RX with no luck. My pc acknowledges the device when i connect, and get COM7, when i sent the esptool.py flash_id the board flashes like its sending and receiving data, but on screen after a few seconds, get cannot connect error. The one thing i have not tried is to flash the bulb without first checking the flash_id. Has anyone run into this problem, i can provide a complete error tonight when i can try again. But wanted to ask now. I bought about 16 bulbs for around the house(they were on sale) so i picked up the PRO versions. and i think my total was like $40 or $50, something cheap.. But not im wondering if i should send them back if i cant get passed this issue.
@@digiblurDIY As in other Vont bulbs, yes. As in shelly1 or sonoff yes those as well.. So the exact error im getting is the following: COM7 failed to connect: Failed to connect to Espressif device: no serial data received. A fatal error occured: could not connect to an Espressif device on any of the 1 available serial ports.
The 2 FTDI boards i have are the red one with the 3.3v or 5v switch on it and then the adafruit blue friend + extra board... I was reading either down below or elsewhere that maybe there is not enough power being supplied via the USB cable to maybe try separate power source, which i have not tried and would need to find my variable power supply.
So i was able to use my serial / usb to flash one of my sonoff plugs without problem, so the FTDI is working. There has to be something im doing wrong or something is not right on the device.
It kind of works the same except GPIO 9 is the held to ground for bootloader. It is known that the esp32 requires more power the older FTDI adapters are known for having issues. I prefer the cp2102 ones.
Thanks for featuring your Vont Smart Bulb! We're delighted you like it!💙💡
You guys/gals need an option to send over our own bin or even just sell Tasmota preflashed ones. You couldn't keep them in stock after that... Money on the table waiting.
@@digiblurDIY I would love a Tasmota version!!
Please provide a link to more, can't find them for sale.
Great instructions on flashing tasmota. I bought four and got WLED working on them.
Great to hear!
Thanks for all of the help on Discord too!
Happy to help!
Thanks Travis.
Thanks for the post, replacing some Tuya crap that i could not flash and did not work right on localtuya. Love Tasmota, will be nice to start flashing again. 12 bulbs coming in the mail, and we did use your links.
Thanks! And I do fully agree about the local Tuya stuff as it just isn't fully local and buggy which is why I never covered it. So many issues.
Love these videos, I was shopping for a Bulb and it looks great, I've got a Kasa but would definetly give this one a try next time, should've looked at your channel before making the purchase, LOL
I'd probably recommend the no solder method of the Switchbot bulbs. ua-cam.com/video/iTexFQ0Th0I/v-deo.html
Thank you. Always enjoy your videos. I watch everyone. Will try and get some of these delivered to the UK.
Nice! Last bulbs I bought had one of those other (non-esp) chips running them. Definitely going to pick up some of these.
I was floored when I popped these open a while back to see that esp32c3 inside.
@@digiblurDIY Yeah, they change so often that the same amazon listing will have entire different hardware. Might have to stock up on these once I get the first set up and running.
I have been swapping out a few myself to these types. Never know when they decide to switch to something else.
a couple notes in case it helps anyone for Windows computer . In Command prompt - I had to type esptool flash_id to get it to work ( instead of esptool.py flash_id ) . Also I had trouble getting the Chrome to load Tasmota - I had to select the Esp32C3 on the first screen ( instead of ALL) and then not erase to get it to finally load. Seems like the last time I did a bulb it flashed fine with your original instructions.
Thanks for this. I am looking to replace some Lifx bulbs to something not connected to the internet
Nice!
Hi, can you do a video for 6" LED Recessed Lights where you add an esp32 c3 to it ? Thanks
Great video. Exactly what I was looking for, thanks. FYI, I ran into a little snag...after flashing my device it kept on cycling. It turns out my FTDI USB device didn't have enough power to run Tasmota. Everything worked great once I put it all back together and plugged it into the socket.
Very common there especially with an FTDI etc. They don't have enough power for the esp32 and wifi on it. So the brownout detector kicks in and reboots.
Loving the videos! started my home assistant journey early this year and every time i look up something you seem to pop up! Just to let you know though, the link for "products we use/recommend" doesn't work for the UK amazon store.
Thanks! I will check it out and get it corrected.
They had a nice deal on them on Amazon so I just ordered a couple Vont bulbs. It is always fun to hack stuff ! Thanks for the video.
They have some good deals on these from time to time. Still great bulbs.
@@digiblurDIY I flashed the two I ordered earlier - no problems using your detailed instructions. I just ordered 4 more - maybe will give them as gifts after I reflash those. Can't beat the price of $5.60 each - no way you could even buy the esp32c3 for that let alone the rest of the parts !
Thanks for the detailed walkthrough. Hoping for E1.31 support and was looking towards WLED implementation. From what I see, WLED support for ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S2 is not stable yet.
Tasmota does have DDP support now.
@@digiblurDIY Oh, this makes my day!
I think it is is scheme 5 or 6 that turns that on.
Need to complile the option though #define USE_NETWORK_LIGHT_SCHEMES or tasmota specials full rules bin
I tried this with the CT CapeTronix bulb, totally impractical unfortunately, just a heads up to those that have them. I am personally going to buy those lamps in the link already flashed. Thanks for that Travis.
There's also switchbot bulbs too digiblur.com/wiki/devices/bulbs/switchbot_e26_w1401400
that you for doing what you do, always informative. question do you know of any a15 bulbs that can be flashed. I cant use the bigger bulbs in the fixture. I assume no becuase its probably to small to fit the controller but thought I would ask. thanks again
I haven't seen those. The smallest I have seen is GU10 which was surprising. You might check on the Zigbee side to see if they are available there.
When selecting PWM frequency, risk of flickering tends to be a bit lower if you use a prime number
Interesting.. Googling for the why now...
The high power "DC" in simple IoT devices typically has a bit of the mains frequency left, and if that close to resonates with the PWM, the MOSFETs may cut the waveform at sliding points, giving unevenness. Clearly most at lower frequencies, and may not be jarring when going higher.
Thanks for the video and the templates Travis. Bought and flashed 12 of these. There are a few gotchas that may be helpful for others who want to do this:
1. The esp32 has brownout issues with specific usb to serial adapters. This will make it seem like it was soldered incorrectly when that was not the case. This took a while to figure out. Ended up flashing them using a raspberry pi zero w ... which worked... not sure if that was a healthy thing to do to the pi though.
2. If not using the web flash, be sure to flash with the factory bin file. Commands that were used to flash:
esptool.py --chip esp32-c3 erase_flash
esptool.py --chip esp32-c3 --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dout --flash_size detect 0x0 tasmota32c3.factory.bin
3. Putting the led board back on didn't feel right most of the time. It doesn't go back on evenly (especially on the non-pro models -- it seemed to rock a bit). Had to clean out the white silicone? from the bulb and focus on pushing where the pins go through to get it to fit decently.
4. When troubleshooting, wanted to verify that binging 9 low was boot mode. Searching around, this is commonly 0. Nine is right as shown in the video. There is a spec sheet that shows this out there. This was key as it finally lead to trusting the solder job and finding out the issue stated in #1.
Thanks for the detailed info! Glad to see you using the full factory bin of Tasmota as well, definitely the way to go.
Thank you very much for this great tutorial. Looking at the link, I couldn't help but notice white warm is marked as PWM_i (instead of PWM) on GPIO03 and couldn't find find any definition for PWM_i online. What is the difference between PWM and PWM_i?
Inverted
Hi, thanks for sharing. I find it very inspiring. Do you by any chance have the schematic diagram of the board inside this bulb?
No, sorry. That would be a manufacturer question
Thanks for another vid. How about Tasmota zigbee
Should be an update on that in a month or two.
SO92 is not listed on the tasmota 11.1.0 documentation page. Did a new setting take it's place perhaps?
No SO92 hasn't changed and probably won't for a long time given it would be a breaking change and Tasmota is pretty good about not doing that.
I'm new to smart bulbs, but have been playing around with esp stuff for awhile now.
If I put one of these in a ceiling light fixture, do you then typically wire in something like a Shelly 1 behind the switch in the wall and then go into the Shelly's settings and decouple the switch from the relay? Which would then allow the bulb to always have power?
I think I'm having a hard time with the fact that smart bulbs can have power that isn't switched (so, constant), but then you can tell a microchip inside the bulb that it is "off" or "on"... rather than add or remove power through a switch like a traditional bulb.
Out of curiosity, what is the typical use case for these bulbs?
You are pretty dead on. Wall control is key using device groups is what I do. Check this one. ua-cam.com/video/52ZPROouhOQ/v-deo.html
hi there, im from across the pond and as mentioned in a previous comment, this specific bulb doesnt seem to support 220v. i was wondering how you figured out this bulb was using the esp 32 c3? what do i look for in the item description on other listings like on maybe some chinese webshops. thanks in advance
We looked at the FCC docs on them from what I remember.
personal note : 21:24
Has anyone made a programming dongle clip for this / 3d model? I've tried with some tiny pogo pins and a 2mm pitch proto PCB board with a clip but it's pretty ghetto and hard to get it in the right spot.
I haven't seen one yet. There was one attempt but it needed some work from what I saw.
Do you have the list of which esp32 gpios control which leds, and is there a separate on/off gpio or does that just turn all the PWMs to 0? Also it looks like it's straight PWM and no LED drivers right? I may want to make a sketch from scratch. Thanks.
Look in the configure template screen. It shows the GPIO pins.
I wonder if you could power the board using the header connector.
Edit: I think flashing without soldering should be possible if you use a piece of tape to hold the jumper wires together. I've flashed all my Sonoff stuff without a soldering iron that way😂
might be a little tough to pull off, I tried it with bent pin header and it was kind of problematic
Is anyone else not able to find the template? The template link takes me to pretty much back page (there are no templates on the page). I did a google search for the template and found a link for digiblur.com but I get a Error 522 for the page.
sorry the website is in the stage of moving over to a new wiki style. I'm working on redirecting links and such this week fixing things. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Vont A19 Bulb RGBW
backlog template {"NAME":"Vont ESP32-C3 A19 RGBW","GPIO":[0,0,0,0,419,418,416,417,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":1} ; Delay 1 ; Module 0
Vont A19 Bulb RGBCT
backlog template {"NAME":"Vont ESP32-C3 A19 RGBCT","GPIO":[0,0,0,452,419,418,416,417,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":1,"CMND":"so92 1"} ; Delay 1 ; Module 0
Would you consider paid in advance consulting for home automation? I want to fast track my knowledge with yours.
Possibly as I don't normally charge for helping people with things. Fire off an email to the channel name on the Gmail domain.
Anyone know if these are good quality based on the components? Nearly all the Lohas RGB bulbs I bought last year died in less than 10 months.
I only had one lohas die so far and it was outside in the heat and humidity of the south for a few years so I might not be a good gauge here. Their issue they had on some runs was bad capacitors. Time will only tell on these to be honest.
Cool! Are the Kauf/Cloudfree/Athom bulbs using the same hardware? Aside from the ESP32 chips, are the LEDs good quality?
EDIT: looks like the Kauf and Athom are not ESP32. Any idea about the Cloudfree?
All of those are esp8266. I just included them as mention because I know soldering isn't for everyone.
@@digiblurDIY ah, thanks! And this Vont firmware doesn't happen to be Tuya or something like that..? That would be too fortunate..
No Tuya there as they stopped using Espressif.
I was able to flash mine but does anyone know why my bulbs don't come on till like 20%. I have some switchbot bulbs I flashed and they come on right away at 1-2%
Just the design of the LEDs. You see this same behavior with normal dumb bulbs.
Great tutorial, I picked these now. I wish they could use BLE only, looking forwards any tutorial to offload WIFI and use BLE only for these bulbs from homeassistant.
I assume someone could design a BLE based front end firmware as it is ESP based.
Thanks for this video. I flashed tasmota using the web installer using the Release Tasmota and managed connect to the hotspot to log into the GUI to set my home wifi and password. After power cycling it appears to connect to my home wifi and get an IP address but I cannot connect to the webUI. I tried loading the config via the serial port and tried many other things but could not get the webUI to show up. Any thoughts?
Are you blocking any services?
@@digiblurDIY Figured it out, I was using my guest wifi network which does not allow communication between guests. Thanks again.
Gotcha! Also make sure if you do block internet you need to provide a local ntpserver to it.
If you add the BLE to these can you run blerry on them?
I haven't tried extensively to see how it does after the recent driver fixes in 11.1 but I will in a couple days see how it does.
@@digiblurDIY Is there even a C3 Bluetooth verstion? I tried to install the Bluetooth bin and it gives a install error.
Yep. You can actually use this as the OTA URL as long as the device can access the internet.
github.com/tasmota/install/raw/main/firmware/unofficial/tasmota32c3-bluetooth.bin
none of the links under the video gets into the S3 version but some old ones from 2019 ;-(
Haven't seen any S3 ones yet.
@@digiblurDIY I meant C3
They don't list as C3 of course. Checked the links and they seem to go through but I did leave their direct website as well.
It's possible to integrate Matter, for connect to alexa, google assistant and apple ?
Yes. If you flashed the latest version of Tasmota then mattet will be supported.
@@digiblurDIY thanks a lot, I will try, do you have some video to setup correctly matter or something?
Sorry no. I am using MQTT with Home Assistant and Tasmota
I am having an issue with your rgbct template. When I enter it into the console, it just hangs and prints RESULT = {"Module":{"1":"ESP32C3"}}. It does not reboot or have any other effect. The rgbw template does work but does not offer give any control of the color temperature. Any advice?
Try putting it in without the options part. The only difference in the two is the addition of the 5th color and then the setoption.
@@digiblurDIY thanks, your message helped. I think there was a copy/paste error that I could not see, and browser autocomplete perpetuated it. I eventually got it all to work.
Why not add wled instead?
They didn't have an ESP32-C3 supported bin at the time. Plus I want to use device groups. Always welcome to use whatever your needs are.
Does anyone know if you could you use this bulb with WLED ??
Not directly yet from last I saw but I could see that changing soon. However... Tasmota does support DDP so you could control it that way from WLED
@@digiblurDIY Cool, thanks. I'll have to check that out. Never heard of DPP until now, seems like that could work fine and hopefully they'll support the the C-3 Chip in the next build !
I think it it scheme 5 or 6. Use the discord link in the video as a bunch of guys on my server use it along with the developer who added it to Tasmota for use with wled is there.
can a shelly switch talk to tasmota light bulb using webhooks, i really don't want to flash my shelly devices with tamsota , i just want my light bulb to work while home assistant is down
You could just use device groups if both had Tasmota on them.
@@digiblurDIY can i do something similar using mqtt??
i have an idea to setup 2 automtion for the switch to control the light one in home assistant and one in node red, then add a condition to the node red automation to only work if home assistant is down , the chance of both home assistant and node red down at the same time is almost impossible , i think this is a good solution as long as node red is installed separately from HA.
No 220v AC supported? :(
Doesn't look like it. No idea if it really supports it though.
So i have followed this video on the Vont bulb and having no luck. I have both the PRO and Regular bulb. I have tried on both, i have 2 different FTDI serial to USB boards ive tried. I have switched the TX and RX with no luck. My pc acknowledges the device when i connect, and get COM7, when i sent the esptool.py flash_id the board flashes like its sending and receiving data, but on screen after a few seconds, get cannot connect error. The one thing i have not tried is to flash the bulb without first checking the flash_id. Has anyone run into this problem, i can provide a complete error tonight when i can try again. But wanted to ask now. I bought about 16 bulbs for around the house(they were on sale) so i picked up the PRO versions. and i think my total was like $40 or $50, something cheap.. But not im wondering if i should send them back if i cant get passed this issue.
Do you have any other devices types to test some flashing on?
@@digiblurDIY As in other Vont bulbs, yes. As in shelly1 or sonoff yes those as well..
So the exact error im getting is the following:
COM7 failed to connect: Failed to connect to Espressif device: no serial data received.
A fatal error occured: could not connect to an Espressif device on any of the 1 available serial ports.
The 2 FTDI boards i have are the red one with the 3.3v or 5v switch on it and then the adafruit blue friend + extra board... I was reading either down below or elsewhere that maybe there is not enough power being supplied via the USB cable to maybe try separate power source, which i have not tried and would need to find my variable power supply.
So i was able to use my serial / usb to flash one of my sonoff plugs without problem, so the FTDI is working. There has to be something im doing wrong or something is not right on the device.
It kind of works the same except GPIO 9 is the held to ground for bootloader. It is known that the esp32 requires more power the older FTDI adapters are known for having issues. I prefer the cp2102 ones.
Hmm should HA be involved politically?
That would be a question for their crew.