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content/posts/smarthome-soldering-iron-homeassistant-esphome.md
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---
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title: 'Smarthome Soldering Iron with Home Assistant and ESPHome'
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description: 'Learn how to create a smart soldering iron using Pinecil with Home Assistant and ESPHome.'
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date: 2023-03-28T19:01:25-04:00
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draft: false
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categories: [Home Automation, DIY]
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tags: [Pinecil, Home Assistant, DIY, RISC-V, Blisp]
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---
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About a year ago, [wesdottoday](https://hachyderm.io/@wesdottoday) told me to
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buy a Pinecil and, once they came back in stock before the holidays.. I did just
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that... Fast forward a couple months and I've got a
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[copr](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/neil/blisp/) for flashing the
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Pinecil's firmware (IronOS), and am spending my weekends playing around with
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Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Home Assistant to automatically turn on my fan
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when I start tinkering at my desk, lest my lungs die from the fumes.
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By popular demand, I'm writing a blog post about the Pinecil, how to flash the
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latest firmware, and then what you can (currently) do with bidirectional
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communication to your soldering iron.
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We'll also go over two Pinecil community projects offering in-browser
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experiences (PineSam and Joric's 'Pinecil'), and lastly some instructions on
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using an [ESP32](https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32) and
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[ESPHome](https://esphome.io/) to send Pinecil data to
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[HomeAssistant](https://home-assistant.io/) so you can do everything from
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visualize your soldering statistics, to automatically turn on an exhaust fan
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when you start working.
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## The Pinecil
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The [Pinecil](https://www.pine64.org/pinecil/) is an open-source soldering iron
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based on the RISC-V architecture produced by Pine64. There are two versions of
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Pinecil - v1 and v2. Pinecil v1 does not have a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chip,
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whereas Pinecil v2 does. In this blog post, we will focus on Pinecil v2. Pine64
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does not distinguish between v1 and v2 except for on the PCB as a revision. If
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you're buying a Pinecil in 2023 or beyond, and it's from an official source, it
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is a v2.
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You can find more information about the Pinecil in the links below, including
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where to buy. Check the Pinecil Wiki for up-to-date information on where to buy
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a genuine Pinecil, and how to avoid fakes.
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### Links
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- [Pine64.com](https://pine64.com/) - Offical store for Pine64 devices. Ships
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from China and takes 3-4 weeks for delivery
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- [Pine64.org](https://pine64.org) - The community associated with Pine64
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devices. Check out the Discord/Telegram chat for a great group of tinkerers,
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and if you have any trouble with your Pinecil or associated tools
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- [Pinecil Wiki](https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil) - Lots of tips and
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tricks, as well as up to date purchasing and troubleshooting information.
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- Shout out to River-Mochi for their _awesome_ work on keeping this up to date
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and useful
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## Blisp
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Blisp is a flashing tool used to flash ironOS on Pinecil v2 that stands for
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'Bouffalo Labs In-System Programming'. It's used to flash the Bouffalo BL706 MCU
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that was integrated on the v2 Pinecil. You can find the source code for Blisp on
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[GitHub](https://github.com/pine64/blisp).
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I also maintain a Fedora COPR respository for it
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[here](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/neil/blisp/), where you can find
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packages with precompiled binaries for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (8/9). I am
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working with Pine64 to make it easier to get it packaged for Fedora and other
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Linux distributions down the road.
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### Flashing the beta firmware with blisp
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Until version v2.21 of IronOS ships, a beta firmware is required to use the BLE
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functionality of the Pinecil v2. There has been a significant amount of testing
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and development on the BLE stack on the main tree in the last few months and the
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developers have been making sure the BLE features are ready before they are
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released to a much larger audience.
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Once v2.21 is released, binaries can be retrieved from the
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[IronOS Releases](https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS/releases) page.
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#### Steps to download and flash
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These steps assume you have a compiled version of `blisp` in your system path,
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either by installing from my COPR, or compiling on your own using the
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instructions in the repository.
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1. Find the latest sucessful actions run on the blisp repo
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[here](https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS/actions/workflows/push.yml?query=branch%3Adev+event%3Apush).
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2. Download the `Pinecilv2_multi-lang` binary for that run, and unzip it
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3. Plug your Pinecil into your computer while holding down the 'Minus' (-)
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button. The screen should **not** turn on. If on Linux, `dmesg` should report
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seeing the BL706 as a serial device.
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4. Run the following command to flash the firmware to your Pinecil:
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```
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blisp write -c bl70x --reset /path/to/Pinecilv2_multi-lang/Pinecilv2_EN.bin
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```
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5. Un-plug and plug the Pinecil back in to boot the new firmware
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### Pineflash
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[Spagett1](https://github.com/Spagett1) is working on a new tool which allows
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for a non-command-line experience for flashing new versions of IronOS on the
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Pinecil, similar to the Pine64 updater utility for the v1 Pinecil. You can find
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more information on the PineFlash
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[GitHub repo](https://github.com/Spagett1/PineFlash). Feel free to check it out
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and give them feedback!
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## Bluetooth Low Energy
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Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a wireless communication protocol that is designed
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to consume less energy than classic Bluetooth. There is upcoming support in
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browser APIs to allow access to BLE devices, and so there are a handful of
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options for how to get your Pinecil talking to your computer.
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## PineSAM and Joric's UI
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PineSAM (Pinecil Settings and Menus) started out as an in-browser way to see and
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change settings. It's served a multitude of uses from helping people with
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cracked or non-functional screens, all the way to adding really helpful
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accessibility features to those who struggle to read the small screen on the
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Pinecil. It's is a Python and Vue-based application that has to have a server
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component running locally--along with a machine that has bluetooth. You can find
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the source code for PineSAM on [GitHub](https://github.com/builder555/PineSAM/).
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< insert pic of PineSAM ui >
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Another project is a more simple web UI that uses in-browser Bluetooth support
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(currently only really well supported in Chromium/Firefox, and even then it's
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not universal or without bugs. This UI shows a nice graph of your Pinecil's
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temperature and power supply information, but is limited to devices supporting
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WebBLE, and also is unable to change settings on the device. You can also find
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the source code for Joric UI on [GitHub](https://github.com/joric/pinecil).
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< insert pic of Joric UI>
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PineSAM allows the user to not only see the live temperature, wattage, and
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voltage of their device but change the settings and temperatures at a click.
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Uniquely, it allows users to set temperature presets for one-click changes
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between temperatures--for example to switch between leaded and unleaded solder.
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< insert pic of PineSAM on Mobile >
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The PineSAM project is working to integrate a "Work" screen which takes
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inspiration from Joric's UI. Due to this, it's likely these two projects will
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end up combining into one, in my opinion, despite their distinct mechanisms for
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retrieving BLE data from the Pinecil.
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### Setting up PineSAM
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See the
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[project readme](https://github.com/builder555/PineSAM#i-using-pre-made-binaries)
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for the most up-to-date instructions. If you run into any trouble, come find us
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in the #pinecil channel on Pine64's Discord or Telegram chat.
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### Setting up Joric's UI
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No setup needed! Just browse to
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[https://joric.github.io/pinecil/](https://joric.github.io/pinecil/) in a
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compatible browser. I've personally tested Firefox and Chromium on Fedora 37,
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but I know others have got it working on Windows and MacOS, too.
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## Home Assistant Setup with ESPHome
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If Home Assistant (HASS) is more your speed, read on below. Be warned to get
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this setup, you will need some sort of ESP32 device to read data from your
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Pinecil and report it to Home Assistant. I used one of the
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[WROOM ESP32 dev boards](https://www.amazon.com/ESP-WROOM-32-Development-Microcontroller-Integrated-Compatible/dp/B08D5ZD528)
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I've had in my closet for a few months (not an affiliate link).
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If you're not familiar, Home Assistant is an open-source home automation
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platform which can inte grate with ESPHome, another open source system to
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control your ESP8266/ESP32 using just YAML configurations. In this section, I'll
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walk though how to setup an ESP32 with will show you how to create a smart
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soldering iron using Pinecil with Home Assistant and ESPHome.
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To make this work, we'll use an
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[ESPHome configuration file]((https://github.com/TomW1605/esphome_pinecilv2_ble/blob/main/esphome_pinecilv2_ble.yaml))
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put together by Pine64 community member TomW1605. Thank you again, Tom!
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## Requirements
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- ESP32 device (Non affiliate link:
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[ESP-WROOM-32 Development MCU on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/ESP-WROOM-32-Development-Microcontroller-Integrated-Compatible/dp/B08D5ZD528)
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- Home Assistant already setup
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- ESPHome already setup
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## Steps
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1. Login to ESPHome
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2. Import
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[this ESPHome configuration file](https://github.com/TomW1605/esphome_pinecilv2_ble/blob/main/esphome_pinecilv2_ble.yaml).
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3. Modify and set up the configuration file as follows:
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1. Change board in esp32 section to your board.
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- If using the WROOM 32 I linked above, use `nodemcu-32s`
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2. Setup an encryption key. This must be a base64-encoded, 32 bit string.
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- You can create one on the CLI using `openssl rand -base64 32`
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3. Change OTA password to desired
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4. Change wifi SSID and password for your network
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5. Change wifi access point fallback settings to desired
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6. **Important** - Change ble_client mac address to your Pinecil's MAC. This
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can be found in the settings as well as in logs from the above tools
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(Joric/PineSAM)
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4. Flash the firmware to the ESP32 device
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5. Add the device to Home Assistant
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6. Create a Home Assistant dashboard to control and monitor your smart soldering
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iron.
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- An example dashboard can be found at
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https://gist.github.com/NeilHanlon/83d6e2cdc6eb83cb205b617f80c2a7c3
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< insert pic of dashboard >
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Now that you've got that setup, you should start to see data coming in about
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your Pinecil's settings! Go on and automate thy solder.
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