I’ve been using Tasmota smart plugs for a couple of years, but I’ve recently started migrating them to ESPHome. The migration can be done entirely over-the-air and does not require physical access to the smart plug.

I prefer ESPHome for a couple of reasons:

  • The integration in Home Assistant is better.
  • You don’t have to manually configure an MQTT broker on the device.
  • Updates can be done on multiple devices directly through the Home Assistant add-on (there is the TasmoAdmin plug-in, but I didn’t have a good experience with that).
  • I already have a couple of ESPHome devices, so they’ll integrate nicely.
  • The configuration of ESPHome devices is driven through a config file instead of a web UI.
  • ESPHome is much more powerful in terms of configuration and customization. Example: I have a plug where I disabled the physical switch, using it only for power monitoring.

These instructions should work with all Aoycocr-X10S-based smart plugs. I’m using the awesome CloudFree Smart Plug 2 which I strongly recommend – that plug is solidly built, costs only $13 as of March 2023, includes power monitoring, and is rated for up to 15 A / 1800 W. For other Tasmota devices the steps will be roughly the same, but the configuration file has to be different. Check out ESPHome Device for a collection of ESPHome configurations for various devices.

Installation

The first step is to flash the minimal Tasmota firmware instead of the regular build. If you try to flash ESPHome with the regular Tasmota firmware, you’ll get an “Upload Failed. Not enough space.” message in Tasmota. Go to your Tasmota plug’s web UI, select Firmware Upgrade and upgrade by web server using the http://ota.tasmota.com/tasmota/tasmota-minimal.bin.gz OTA URL.

Next, go to the Home Assistant ESPHome add-on, click New Device, give the configuration a name, and select the device type (ESP8266 for the CloudFree P2 plugs). Don’t install it yet.

Now you have to edit the configuration. I’m doing it based on the config that’s outlined in the ESPHome Device page about Aoycocr-X10S but with slight modifications to the latest ESPHome firmware (2023.3.1 as of this writing). We’re starting off with the default configuration that ESPHome created for you, which will already include a lot of the best practices, secrets, and WiFi configuration.

  1. Add restore_from_flash: true to the esp8266 section. This writes each state change to flash for switch or light with restore_mode, check out the documentation for more info.
  2. Leave the logger, api, ota, wifi, and captive_portal section as-is.
  3. (Optional) Add a comment to the esphome section to describe the device (e.g. comment: CloudFree Smart Plug 2, based on Aoycocr-X10S Plug)

  4. Apend the following config:

     # Enable time component for use by daily power sensor
 time:
   - platform: homeassistant
     id: homeassistant_time

 binary_sensor:
   # Reports when the button is pressed
   - platform: gpio
     device_class: power
     pin:
       number: GPIO13
       inverted: True
     name: Button
     on_press:
       - switch.toggle: relay

   # Reports if this device is Connected or not
   - platform: status
     name: Status

 sensor:
   # Reports the WiFi signal strength
   - platform: wifi_signal
     name: WiFi Signal

   # Reports how long the device has been powered (in minutes)
   - platform: uptime
     name: Uptime
     filters:
       - lambda: return x / 60.0;
     device_class: duration
     unit_of_measurement: min
     state_class: total_increasing

   # Reports the Current, Voltage, and Power used by the plugged-in device (not counting this plug's own usage of about 0.7W/0.02A, so subtract those when calibrating with this plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type meter)
   - platform: hlw8012
     sel_pin:
       number: GPIO12
       inverted: True
     cf_pin: GPIO5
     cf1_pin: GPIO14
     current_resistor: 0.001 #The value of the shunt resistor for current measurement. Defaults to the Sonoff POW’s value 0.001 ohm. Verified on https://fccid.io/2AKBP-X10S/Internal-Photos/X10S-Int-photo-4308983 that we use "R001" = 0.001 ohm
     voltage_divider: 2401 #The value of the voltage divider on the board as (R_upstream + R_downstream) / R_downstream. Defaults to the Sonoff POW’s value 2351. From the pic we use 2x "125" = 2x 1.2Mohm for R_upstream and "102" = 1kohm for R_downstream, so (1,200,000+1,200,000+1,000)/1,000 = 2401
     # but those don't fix the measurement values, probably because we actually have a BL0937 chip instead of a HLW8012, (and part variance aswell) so we have to manually calibrate with a known load or a load and a Kill-A-Watt type meter. My values used below will only be +/-10% of yours I think.
     # The comments about the voltage divider were taken from the AWP04L template. I was unable to verify the voltage divider in the Aoycocr X10S plug.
     power:
       name: Power
       unit_of_measurement: W
       id: wattage
       filters:
         - calibrate_linear:
             # Map 0.0 (from sensor) to 0.0 (true value)
             - 0.0 -> 0.0 #Need to keep 0 mapped to 0 for when connected device is not drawing any power
             - 67.6 -> 11.0 #Tested using a Kill-A-Watt meter and LED bulb minus 0.7W from just this plug with LED bulb off
         - lambda: if (id(relay).state) return x; else return 0;
     current:
       name: Current
       unit_of_measurement: A
       filters:
         - calibrate_linear:
             # Map 0.0 (from sensor) to 0.0 (true value)
             - 0.0 -> 0.0 #Need to keep 0 mapped to 0 for when connected device is not drawing any power
             - 0.12 -> 0.08 #Tested using a Kill-A-Watt meter and LED bulb minus 0.02A from just this plug with LED bulb off
     voltage:
       name: Voltage
       unit_of_measurement: V
       filters:
         - calibrate_linear:
             # Map 0.0 (from sensor) to 0.0 (true value)
             - 0.0 -> 0.0
             - 322.4 -> 118.3 #Tested using a Kill-A-Watt meter, value while connected LED bulb was on
     change_mode_every: 1 #Skips first reading after each change, so this will double the update interval. Default 8
     update_interval: 10s #20 second effective update rate for Power, 40 second for Current and Voltage. Default 60s

   # Reports the total Power so-far each day, resets at midnight, see https://esphome.io/components/sensor/total_daily_energy.html
   - platform: total_daily_energy
     name: Total Daily Energy
     power_id: wattage
     filters:
       - multiply: 0.001 ## convert Wh to kWh
     unit_of_measurement: kWh

 text_sensor:
   # Reports the ESPHome Version with compile date
   - platform: version
     name: ESPHome Version
   - platform: wifi_info
     ip_address:
       name: IP Address

 switch:
   - platform: gpio
     name: Switch
     pin: GPIO4
     id: relay
     restore_mode: ALWAYS_ON
     #RESTORE_DEFAULT_OFF (Default) - Attempt to restore state and default to OFF if not possible to restore. Uses flash write cycles.
     #RESTORE_DEFAULT_ON - Attempt to restore state and default to ON. Uses flash write cycles.
     #ALWAYS_OFF - Always initialize the pin as OFF on bootup. Does not use flash write cycles.
     #ALWAYS_ON - Always initialize the pin as ON on bootup. Does not use flash write cycles.
     on_turn_on:
       - light.turn_on:
           id: blue_led
           brightness: 100%
     on_turn_off:
       - light.turn_off: blue_led

 output:
   - platform: esp8266_pwm
     id: blue_output
     pin: GPIO2
     inverted: True

 light:
   - platform: monochromatic
     name: Blue LED
     output: blue_output
     id: blue_led
     restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF #Start with light off after reboot/power-loss event.
     disabled_by_default: true

 status_led:
   pin:
     number: GPIO0
     inverted: true
  5. Adapt the restore_mode of the switch section to your preferred switch behavior. See comments for descriptions of the different options.

Next, remove the old Tasmota device from Home Assistant, otherwise it mix with the new ESPHome device. Since we already downgraded to the “minimal” Tasmota firmware, it will no longer publish MQTT messages to the MQTT broker. There are a couple of ways to do this, the easiest being purging the respective topics in the MQTT broker. I use MQTT Explorer to delete the topics /tasmota/discovery/XXXXXXXXXXXX and /tele/tasmota_XXXXXX for the device.

Now install ESPHome. Click Install, Manual download, Legacy format, and download the bin file. Go to your Tasmota plug’s web UI, select Firmware Upgrade and upgrade by uploading the bin file. The plug should reboot and run ESPHome! The final step is to adopt the device in Home Assistant which is easy since Home Assistant auto-detects the new device.

All future updates can be done directly through the ESPHome add-on.

Helpful links:

Full Configuration Example

Here’s a full config example I’m using for my espresso machine’s smart plug:

esphome:
  name: cloudfree-p2-espresso-machine
  friendly_name: CloudFree P2 Espresso Machine
  comment: CloudFree Smart Plug 2, based on Aoycocr-X10S Plug

esp8266:
  board: esp01_1m
  restore_from_flash: true

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

ota:
  platform: esphome
  password: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Cloudfree-P2-Espresso-Machine"
    password: "XXXXXXXXXXXX"

captive_portal:

# Enable web server
web_server:
  port: 80

# Enable time component for use by daily power sensor
time:
  - platform: homeassistant
    id: homeassistant_time

binary_sensor:
  # Reports when the button is pressed
  - platform: gpio
    device_class: power
    pin:
      number: GPIO13
      inverted: True
    name: Button
    on_press:
      - switch.toggle: relay

  # Reports if this device is Connected or not
  - platform: status
    name: Status

sensor:
  # Reports the WiFi signal strength
  - platform: wifi_signal
    name: WiFi Signal

  # Reports how long the device has been powered (in minutes)
  - platform: uptime
    name: Uptime
    filters:
      - lambda: return x / 60.0;
    device_class: duration
    unit_of_measurement: min
    state_class: total_increasing

  # Reports the Current, Voltage, and Power used by the plugged-in device (not counting this plug's own usage of about 0.7W/0.02A, so subtract those when calibrating with this plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type meter)
  - platform: hlw8012
    sel_pin:
      number: GPIO12
      inverted: True
    cf_pin: GPIO5
    cf1_pin: GPIO14
    current_resistor: 0.001 #The value of the shunt resistor for current measurement. Defaults to the Sonoff POW’s value 0.001 ohm. Verified on https://fccid.io/2AKBP-X10S/Internal-Photos/X10S-Int-photo-4308983 that we use "R001" = 0.001 ohm
    voltage_divider: 2401 #The value of the voltage divider on the board as (R_upstream + R_downstream) / R_downstream. Defaults to the Sonoff POW’s value 2351. From the pic we use 2x "125" = 2x 1.2Mohm for R_upstream and "102" = 1kohm for R_downstream, so (1,200,000+1,200,000+1,000)/1,000 = 2401
    # but those don't fix the measurement values, probably because we actually have a BL0937 chip instead of a HLW8012, (and part variance aswell) so we have to manually calibrate with a known load or a load and a Kill-A-Watt type meter. My values used below will only be +/-10% of yours I think.
    # The comments about the voltage divider were taken from the AWP04L template. I was unable to verify the voltage divider in the Aoycocr X10S plug.
    power:
      name: Power
      unit_of_measurement: W
      id: wattage
      filters:
        - calibrate_linear:
            - 0.0 -> 0.0
            - 196.48288 -> 35.0
            - 3642.32764 -> 622.0
            - 6980.42383 -> 1208.0
            - 7041.69287 -> 1215.0
        - lambda: if (id(relay).state) return x; else return 0;
    current:
      name: Current
      unit_of_measurement: A
      filters:
        - calibrate_linear:
            - 0.0 -> 0.0
            - 0.51565 -> 0.46
            - 7.02498 -> 7.91
            - 12.91727 -> 10.96
        - lambda: if (id(relay).state) return x; else return 0;
    voltage:
      name: Voltage
      unit_of_measurement: V
      filters:
        - calibrate_linear:
            - 0.0 -> 0.0
            - 280.19351 -> 110.7
            - 302.31186 -> 119.7
            - 306.06781 -> 123.3
    change_mode_every: 1 #Skips first reading after each change, so this will double the update interval. Default 8
    update_interval: 10s #20 second effective update rate for Power, 40 second for Current and Voltage. Default 60s

  # Reports the total Power so-far each day, resets at midnight, see https://esphome.io/components/sensor/total_daily_energy.html
  - platform: total_daily_energy
    name: Total Daily Energy
    power_id: wattage
    filters:
      - multiply: 0.001 ## convert Wh to kWh
    unit_of_measurement: kWh

text_sensor:
  # Reports the ESPHome Version with compile date
  - platform: version
    name: ESPHome Version
  - platform: wifi_info
    ip_address:
      name: IP Address

switch:
  - platform: gpio
    name: Switch
    pin: GPIO4
    id: relay
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    on_turn_on:
      - light.turn_on:
          id: blue_led
          brightness: 100%
    on_turn_off:
      - light.turn_off: blue_led

output:
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    id: blue_output
    pin: GPIO2
    inverted: True

light:
  - platform: monochromatic
    name: Blue LED
    output: blue_output
    id: blue_led
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    disabled_by_default: true

status_led:
  pin:
    number: GPIO0
    inverted: true