Bricked Smart plug during reflash from Tasmota to ESPhome?

steelcityuk

Hi.
I think that I’ve bricked one of my smartplugs whilst trying to swap it over from Tasmota to ESPhome. I was following the guide and video but after flashing it with the minimal ESP firmware linked in the guide, the plug is unresponsive. There’s no obvious signs of power and it it can’t be seen by my router. What did I miss in the guide and is there a way to recover it?

Thanks.
Steve.

RebeccaH

Hi steelcityuk

Below you’ll find a video showing the process of switching between Tasmota and ESPHome. Could you please confirm which firmware you tried to flash? Did you mean the minimal version of ESPHome or Tasmota?

steelcityuk

Hi.

The file I flashed was localbytes-plug-pm-esp8266.bin.gz. It was the smaller of the 2 files and the video said you could use gz files.

Thanks.

Steve.

RebeccaH

Hi steelcityuk

That is the correct file. In your original post, you mentioned that you flashed a minimal firmware. Could you confirm which minimal firmware you tried to flash? As the video mentions, flashing Tasmota minimal will brick your device. However, if you got to the stage of flashing the ESPHome firmware, I’m not totally sure what you mean by the “minimal firmware.” 🙂

steelcityuk

The software I flashed was the smaller bin.gz package. I took this to be minimal firmware as it is smaller. I didn’t flash minimal Tasmota onto the device, it was already running Tasmota. Sorry for the confusion.

Steve.

RebeccaH

steelcityuk

Thank you for clearing that up! Can you please tell me at what point of the process the plug became unresponsive?

BezzaBob

I have the same problem how is this cured?
I think the localbytes video is NOT good, it assumes too much knowledge finding the correct file for flashing is glossed over. I used the minimal file for flashing (esphome-localbytes-plug-1.2.tar.gz) copied from the github repository. When powered the plug led does not illuminate even if pressed to turn on and I do not see the plug on my wifi connection list.

RebeccaH

Hi BezzaBob

Thank you for your feedback.

You do not want to flash the .tar.gz file. The file containing the firmware should be .bin.gz.

Unfortunately, if you’ve flashed the wrong file (the .tar.gz file doesn’t contain compiled firmware) the device is unlikely to be recoverable. I’ve replied to your email to discuss next steps.