Both esp32-audio-dock firmware web installer and esparagus boards web installer got a slightly controversial update today: Ethernet-enabled configs.
Let’s start from the basics. The factory image right now is three images for almost every board: (1) default image that relies on WiFi, (2) same but with OLED screen enabled, and (3) Ethernet-enabled image that has Wifi and BLE disabled.
How onboarding looks for Ethernet-only images – not that weird. You just hook it up to a DHCP-equipped network, and it will pick up an IP address, start advertising itself over the network, and will be discovered by the HA. From that point on, it is pretty standard.
Controversial part: based on my testing, despite having more resources to use, this image seems to be less stable compared to the WiFi counterpart. I’d consider it a starting point for investigation and maybe optimisation work, as there is no reason why it should not work perfectly well over Ethernet, compared to the WiFi.
Now, advanced stuff. If you use development YAML configs (like /firmware/esphome/3-louder-esp32/louder-esp32-idf-sendspin.yaml for example), it now supports running two networks at the same time. Amazingly, it can jump from wifi to Ethernet, and back to wifi without a single playback interruption. Working on Eth again, it seems less stable and breaks up once in a while, but I hope it can be addressed in the future.
In case your board doesn’t have Ethernet, the default YAML config will report a failed Ethernet component at startup and work using WiFi going forward. If that bothers you, you can comment out w5500.yaml component from it.
I’d appreciate some beta testers’ help to see if it was slipping for me only, and to provide reports to the ESPHome and SendSpin devs if it slips for you as well.
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