Updating the Openinverter ESP8266 Web Interface [SOLVED]

[tensa]

Hi All,
I have 2 open inverter boards using the esp8266 board, one for my small drive unit and another for my Gen2 charger. I can already access the web UI on 192.168.4.1.
I have been looking for detailed steps to update the web interface from the old UI to the new one on Git, but there don't seem to be proper step-by-step instructions on how to do it here. I tried the Platformio approach, but that did not work.

Does anyone have detailed steps on how to do it?

[Scrappyjoe]

Hi tensa,

I had quite a lot of trouble as well a few months ago. In the end, what worked was to actually just bite the bullet and update via UART.

I posted my feedback here if you need a bit of guidance. If I were to do it again I would just go straight to UART reflash.

viewtopic.php?p=80706#p80706

[johu]

If you only want to update the UI you can just upload all files in "/data" one-by-one with the button that usually updates the inverter. Alternatively you can use curl as featured by Scrappy. No real need to use any of the OTA/UART paths.

Some versions tell you "Only .bin file" but you can ignore that.

[tensa]

Thought I'd share how I solved this thanks to the prior thread by @scrappyjoe and the tip above by @johu

1. Install WSL if using a Windows machine. This can be found on the Windows Store.

2. Complete the WSL setup and run the commands below to update and upgrade it, IF required.
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

3. Install and set up the required Python environment by running the command below;
sudo apt-get install python3.12-venv

4. Download and install Platform.io
curl -fsSL -o get-platformio.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platf ... tformio.py
python3 get-platformio.py

5. Set up shell commands for platform.io by running the commands below after the install above (Step 4) is successful
sudo ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/platformio /usr/local/bin/platformio
sudo ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/pio /usr/local/bin/pio
sudo ln -s ~/.platformio/penv/bin/piodebuggdb /usr/local/bin/piodebuggdb

6. Now you can run the command to check which version of platform.io you have installed by running the command below;
pio --version

7. Next, you need to create a project folder, enter the folder and create a project for platform.io using the command below;
mkdir project_folder
cd project_folder
pio project init

8. Next edit the platform.io.ini file as advised by @scrappyjoe by using the commands below;
nano platformio.ini

Enter the line below at the bottom of the file and save by pressing Ctrl+X, Y, then Enter
upload_port = 192.168.4.1

Now we are done with the Platform.io setup.

9. Now we can download the GitHub repo for the new web interface and move to the folder using the commands below
git clone git@github.com:jsphuebner/esp8266-web-interface.git
cd esp8266-web-interface/

10. Navigate to the /data folder, which has the web files
cd /data

11. Next, we create the bash script to upload the web files
nano upload_webfiles.sh

Add the script below to the file above and save using Ctrl+X,Y, then Enter
#!/bin/bash
IP=192.168.4.1
for file in *
do
echo "$file"
curl -F 'data=@'$file http://$IP/edit
done

12. Edit permissions for the file to allow its execution
chmod +x upload_webfiles.sh

13. Now go to your inverter/charger and connect to it using Wifi to be able to access it at 192.168.4.1

14. Once successfully connected, execute the bash script by running the command below;
./upload_webfiles.sh

15. Watch the progress outputs printed on screen until the prompt returns. You can now access your updated web UI on 192.168.4.1. Enjoy!