C# on LilyGo PoE-enabled devices via .NET nanoFramework?

[Eagle3386]

Hey guys,

I'm a C# engineer by day & a Home Assistant starter with little knowledge about the "embedded world" by night.
But since the beginning, I do strive for these smart home goals:

• only BT/BLE or EnOcean for any wireless actor/sensor
• wired whenever possible
• PoE whenever possible

That said, I got a LilyGo T-Internet-POE without any PSRAM which is supposed:

• read an IR sensor head mounted to the power meter, connected via GPIO pins
• read the water meter (still need to buy & connect a LoRa antenna to actually be able to read the meter)
• read from & write to 6-11 room thermostats connected via Bluetooth

Additionally, I plan on getting its bigger brother, the LilyGo T-POE Pro which has PSRAM, which is supposed to:

• control a Garage motor, connected via GPIO pins
• read 3 sensors (humidity, presence, temperature), connected via GPIO pins
• control 1-3 LED lights, connected to its power outlets

Any actor/sensor connected to one of the two devices is supposed to be controlled via my Home Assistant Yellow for home automation.

Now, I came here, because I heavily struggle to answer these questions:

1. Given my scenario above, is it even possible to just write C# & use .NET nanoFramework to run the binary output of that code on those devices?
2. If so, what's needed (besides VS extension install, connecting them to my PC, installing drivers, etc.)
   Because up to now, I used the "ESP Home" component of Home Assistant that built & OTA-flashed the firmware on the T-Internet-POE device (had to use the "programmer board" & "ESP web-flasher" via Edge for the initial flash, though).
3. If not, what's needed to make it work?
4. How to disable WiFi on the boards, but keep BT/BLE on?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[alberk8]

1. yes with a lot of constraints if you do not have PSRAM when running BLE
2. & 3) There is no OTA yet with NF, but we can flash the ESP32 via USB to serial (most board have this build in) so essentially you just need a normal USB data cable.
3. No way to completely turn off WIFI, the wifi code still execute on boot but just not connecting to any AP.

[Eagle3386]

1. I might be able to "fix" the BLE need since my current T-Internet-POE board might be unable to support LoRaWan (no shield/adapter to fit on it), hence I'll have to get a new board anyway - with PSRAM then, of course. 😉
   But if I do so, is a "typical" dual-core board powerful enough to handle:

• a door bell (play MP3 sound file upon GPIO-connected button press)
• read electricity meter (IR head via 2 GPIO pins)
• read water meter (LoRaWan)
• get & set 11 BLE-based thermostats
• send all data to Home Assistant (or be queried from it)

not exactly all at once, but one after another & periodically until "forever".

2. Since there's not much to update for these actors/sensors once they're all working, that wouldn't be much of a problem.
3. Well, with ESPHome (Home Assistant add-on), I can use YAML to basically say "no Wi-Fi". If that means it executes 1 or 2 bits upon boot & than sleeps, I'm OK with that. I just don't want the Wi-Fi to constantly try to access some not-even-configured AP, i.e., draw power & transmit radio.

[alberk8]

All can be done, except MP3 sound which will need more storage space and RAM to run. BTW, I have not ever tried MP3 with ESP32, I know it is doable but how performant or troublesome, for that I cannot answer.

[Eagle3386]

I've found this tutorial which claims the ESP32 can do MP3: https://tilman.de/projekte/wifi-doorbell/

Just to be clear: I'm talking about less than 5 seconds & less than 2 MB for the MP3 chime file to be played. Not a full song or something like that. 😅

In case MP3 really doesn't work - would it be possible, if I let Home Assistant "stream" the music to the ESP32 board, so that the latter simply has to play what's coming up?

[Ellerbach]

To play MP3, 'm using a serial player. See https://github.com/nanoframework/nanoFramework.IoT.Device/tree/develop/devices/Yx5300