AutoConnect VS Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266

And for Wifi management on ESP32, this awesome repo that "does it all": https://hieromon.github.io/AutoConnect/ -- this repo creates its own access point you can connect to with your phone to pop-up a "captive portal" (like you see at hotels or airports) to enter your own Wifi credentials -- this is only done once -- after that, the ESP32 will connect to the last known good Wifi network. If you don't want that, just use the built-in Wifi functions to create a local Wifi hotspot to connect to. Then creating web pages on the ESP32 is easy -- you can use the "PageBuilder" JSON syntax, or host regular HTML/JS/CSS files on the SPIFF/LittleFS partition and server those in response to incoming requests.

Or if you don't want to have a hardcoded ssid and password in your program, you can use the AutoConnect library

I want the device to be portable, so I want the esp32 to automatically reconnect to Wi-Fi every time I switch it off and back on. I have used this library, and it serves the exact purpose of what I want to do in my project : https://github.com/Hieromon/AutoConnect

I want to save power on a battery powered sensor but I also want to have AutoConnect set up to set up and configure the wifi. Since having the wi-fi running it can take up a lot of energy I would like to make sure that none of the battery is used during the programming set up. I was thinking that the AutoConnect would only run when it detects that it is plugged into a 5v usb port. I also want a switch so that the usb can power either the sensor (lower power) or the wifi configuration (high power) parts of the program. How would I best accomplish this?

It is this one right: https://github.com/Hieromon/AutoConnect ?

The feeling of creating your own accessories is awesome! Though, I have been using Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266, cause an ESP32 feels like overkill.

Are you into programming? If yes look at this lib: Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266 Otherwise you can setup a Raspberry Pi with HomeBridge or ioBroker with the yahka-adapter. But that's probably only worth it if you want to add more accessoires in the future.

Hey, i tried to turn on an LED through the apple home app and it worked perfectly. I tried tweaking the code a bit and it stopped working so i went back to the original code ( that worked in the first place ) and it never worked the again even when i use it untouched straight from the examples i got from - https://github.com/Mixiaoxiao/Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266 - So what may be the problem? I am making sure that i am setting the wifi SSID and password correctly. Can it be because the board i am using is cheap ( from ali express ). I am using an esp32.

I used an Arduino, heatpumpir, and HomeKit ESP8266, it works great

https://github.com/Mixiaoxiao/Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266 you mentioned above, is a port of the espressif lib to nonos/arduino core. It shares the wolfssl lib used by espressif, but as it is portrd to nonos, wifi disconnects during srp and devices cannot connect to it. There’s an improved version here: https://github.com/Yurik72/ESPHap which have patched wolfssl that I have changed to prevent wifi disconnections on SRP calculations. Yuri (the Author) made a great job improving original port, like memory management, moving pairings storage to the file, and so on. It still has wolfssl, which is at least redundant as arduino core already have bearssl bundled. Also, this lib has a memory leak during the pairing process, which is not so important as pairing usually made just once. I am currently trying to find where this leak is, but looks like it is somewhere in between the lib and wolfssl. So, I’d like to replace wolfssl with bundled bearssl, if I’d have a free tome to do that.

From there, you can use a standard 12V power pack connected to an ESP8266 (eBay, like $10). You can flash these with a homekit compatible firmware (https://github.com/Mixiaoxiao/Arduino-HomeKit-ESP8266), and you magically have a Homekit powered lock ..

I have found another solution. I am going to send a pulse using an esp8266 and a relay. The esp8266 can be made HomeKit enabled. If somebody is interested here is a link to a GitHub project

There’s also this project

this was written specifically to work with the NodeMCU in the picture.