6.9 KiB
M1730-ESP32
ESP32 firmware that drives one or more M1730 analog panel meters (moving-coil ammeters) via PWM, with a web configuration UI and Home Assistant integration over MQTT.
Table of contents
- How it works
- Hardware
- Building and flashing
- First-time Wi-Fi setup
- Web UI
- MQTT / Home Assistant
- HTTP API
- Configuration reference
How it works
Each meter needle is controlled by a PWM signal on a GPIO pin. The firmware maps a 0–100 % value to a PWM duty cycle, scaled by a per-meter Max Duty percentage that you calibrate for full-scale deflection. All settings are stored in LittleFS (/config.json) so they survive reboots.
needle position = (currentValue / 100) × (maxDuty / 100) × 1023 ticks
PWM runs at 5 kHz with 10-bit resolution (0–1023).
Physical range mapping
Each meter has configurable Min / Max values that define its physical range (e.g. 0–50 A). The firmware normalises to 0–100 % internally, but MQTT publishes and receives in physical units — Home Assistant never has to deal with percentages.
Hardware
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| MCU | ESP32-S3 DevKitC-1 |
| Meter | M1730 moving-coil panel ammeter (or any PWM-driveable analog meter) |
| Max meters | 8 simultaneous (ESP32 LEDC channels 0–7) |
| PWM freq | 5 kHz |
| PWM resolution | 10-bit |
Connect the meter coil (via a current-limiting resistor sized for full-scale) between a GPIO pin and GND. Find the correct resistor value by raising Max Duty slowly until the needle reaches full scale. 660
Building and flashing
The project uses PlatformIO.
# Build
pio run
# Flash
pio run --target upload
# Open serial monitor (115200 baud)
pio device monitor
Board target: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
First-time Wi-Fi setup
On first boot (or when stored Wi-Fi credentials are missing), the device starts an access point named M1730. Connect to it with any phone or laptop — a captive portal will appear automatically.
- Enter your Wi-Fi SSID and password.
- Optionally change the Device hostname (default:
m1730). - Click Save. The device connects to your network and restarts.
After connecting, the device is reachable at:
http://m1730.local(mDNS, works on most local networks)http://<IP address>(shown in the serial monitor on boot)
Web UI
Browse to the device address to open the configuration page.
Info panel
Shows the current hostname and IP address.
Hostname
Sets the mDNS name (<hostname>.local) and the MQTT device name. Saved across reboots.
Meters
Use the Meters dropdown to add or remove meters (1–10). Each meter has:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Pin | GPIO pin number connected to the meter coil via current limiting resistor |
| Name | Label shown in Home Assistant and the web UI |
| Unit | Optional unit string shown in Home Assistant (e.g. W, A, °C) |
| Min / Max | Physical range of the meter (e.g. 0–50 A, 0–3000 W). MQTT publishes and receives values in this range; HA discovery uses these as the number entity min/max |
| Max Duty | PWM duty at full scale, as a percentage (0–100). Calibrate this so the needle just reaches full deflection |
| Output slider | Moves the needle live (0–100 % of the configured range). Also sent to MQTT |
Click Save to persist all settings. Changing the meter count also triggers an immediate save and meter re-attach.
MQTT / Home Assistant
Enabling MQTT
In the MQTT section of the web UI:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable | Toggle MQTT on/off |
| Broker | Hostname or IP of your MQTT broker |
| Port | Default 1883 |
| User / Pass | Broker credentials |
| Prefix | Topic prefix (default m1730) |
Home Assistant auto-discovery
On connect, the device publishes discovery payloads to homeassistant/number/…/config. Each meter appears in HA as a Number entity with min/max taken from the meter's configured physical range and a step of 0.1. The entities are grouped under a single HA device named after the hostname.
Value mapping
Internally the firmware works with a 0–100 % duty value. MQTT publishes and receives physical values — the percentage is transparently mapped to the meter's Min–Max range:
physicalValue = percentage / 100 × (rangeMax - rangeMin) + rangeMin
For example, with Min=0 and Max=50, the slider at 50 % publishes 25.0 to MQTT, and a command of 25.0 on the /set topic moves the slider to 50 %.
Topics
| Direction | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Published | <prefix>/meter/<n>/current |
Current meter value in physical units (retained) |
| Subscribed | <prefix>/meter/<n>/current/set |
Set meter value in physical units |
| Published | <prefix>/status |
online: true on connect, online: false as LWT |
<n> is the zero-based meter index.
Reconnection
The firmware probes the broker TCP port before attempting a full MQTT connect. If the broker is unreachable, it retries every 30 seconds without blocking the web server.
Example HA automation
automation:
- alias: Show solar power on meter
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: sensor.solar_power_w
action:
service: number.set_value
target:
entity_id: number.m1730_solar
data:
value: "{{ trigger.to_state.state | float | round(1) }}"
# Values are in physical units — if the meter Min=0, Max=3000, the HA
# number entity directly accepts watts, no conversion needed.
HTTP API
GET /set?i=<index>&v=<value>
Immediately moves meter <index> to <value> (0–100), updates PWM, persists the value to flash, and publishes to MQTT. Used by the live slider on the web UI.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
i |
integer | Meter index (0-based) |
v |
float | Value 0–100 |
Returns 200 OK on success, 400 on bad input.
GET /
Returns the full HTML configuration page.
POST /config
Saves all configuration from the HTML form and re-applies PWM to all meters. Responds with the updated configuration page.
Configuration reference
Config is stored as JSON in LittleFS at /config.json.
{
"hostname": "m1730",
"mqtt": {
"enabled": true,
"host": "192.168.1.10",
"port": 1883,
"user": "ha",
"pass": "secret",
"prefix": "m1730"
},
"meters": [
{
"pin": 4,
"maxD": 72.5,
"current": 45.0,
"name": "Solar",
"unit": "W",
"rangeMin": 0.0,
"rangeMax": 3000.0
}
]
}
The file is written by the web UI and should not need manual editing. To reset to factory defaults, delete the file or erase flash with pio run --target erase.