Feature request: please finish your work on the ESP32 replacement hub!

[chris24walsh]

Title says it all, please could you finish the code for the replacement hub built from an esp32 and the MRF module? I had a go at it myself; I bought a MRF module and printed the PCB shield and put it all together. But I couldn't get anywhere with it, the code as-is hangs during initialisation for me :(
So if you could be at all tempted to pick up this project again, that would be amazing! Or help me to get somewhere with troubleshooting and extending the code written, I will try again if so.

[flyize]

Man that would be awesome.

[Akinspy]

Hey @plambrechtsen i recently ran pethublocal and was able to get into the hub and download all my settings up until the firmware download. I'm a real noob at all this but i don't know if is this means anything but i notice that the external DNS ip changes when you start the new connection to get the firmware and i have the ip address.

[plambrechtsen]

Hey @chris24walsh, @flyize and @Akinspy I am happy to test anything you build or take PRs on the code. And I have a number of test devices. My problem is my hub works fine so spending the time to get the ESP32 code working will take a fair bit and my work and home life is pretty hectic.

[heisenberg2980]

@plambrechtsen I want to thank you for your work and effort to try to get local control of our catflaps and other devices from surepet. I believe the best way forward is to convince surepet that it is unaceptable from a user perspective to depend on their servers, so I am asking everyone to write a negative review in their trustpilot mentioning the reason for the negative review is the lack of a local API. I believe this is the only way they will listen to us and develop such an easy thing as a local API is, you can follow the details here: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/local-deployment-for-sureflap-surepetcare-connect-using-only-local-mqtt-broker/274494/480

By the way, as I mention in the last comment of that post it seems it is working as people have started to receive emails from surepet asking them for details, let´s see if we can finally get what we have been asking for years.

@chris24walsh @flyize @Akinspy FYI

[chris24walsh]

@heisenberg2980 I've already come across your rally cry on the above thread, and posted a 1-star review asking for a local API. I think I even cast the first stone from the mob :)
Good initiative though, keep spreading the word, I agree that enough 1-star reviews will force some change. Just make sure to encourage people to challenge them on their promise of 'an open API', to ensure that they can't avoid the request as one for a non-local API. I'd guess they still want to sell our data, and that's why they are wriggling around admitting it as such.

[heisenberg2980]

To be honest I am happy for them to sell my data as long as they give us a local API, the device could still send data to their servers as other companies do. I can´t really understand why they don´t develop this simple concept when it could benefit them by making their app fly in comparison to the current response time, which is horrendous.

[flyize]

@plambrechtsen I want to thank you for your work and effort to try to get local control of our catflaps and other devices from surepet. I believe the best way forward is to convince surepet that it is unaceptable from a user perspective to depend on their servers, so I am asking everyone to write a negative review in their trustpilot mentioning the reason for the negative review is the lack of a local API. I believe this is the only way they will listen to us and develop such an easy thing as a local API is, you can follow the details here: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/local-deployment-for-sureflap-surepetcare-connect-using-only-local-mqtt-broker/274494/480

By the way, as I mention in the last comment of that post it seems it is working as people have started to receive emails from surepet asking them for details, let´s see if we can finally get what we have been asking for years.

@chris24walsh @flyize @Akinspy FYI

FWIW, I also put in a one star. In my case, they literally created a dangerous situation for my pets.

[plambrechtsen]

I have bitten the bullet and purchased a Zigbee ESP32 off AliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007030739752.html will move the code to the pethublocal organisation as a separate repo and build from there once they arrive.

[chris24walsh]

@plambrechtsen why not continue development of the ESP32/MRF combo, I already bought one :) But if this Zigbee module can handle the MiWi traffic instead, that would be fantastic.

[chris24walsh]

I have bitten the bullet and purchased a Zigbee ESP32 off AliExpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007030739752.html will move the code to the pethublocal organisation as a separate repo and build from there once they arrive.

@plambrechtsen any update on this? eagerly waiting...

[flyize]

You're probably on your own here. IIRC, he's posted elsewhere that his works and that his time is very limited these days.