What is the best way to install 7 Alarm Panel Pro’s in Home Assistant? ESPHome or the default installation of Konnected?
I think the default installation is easier, since you can choose what you want to do with a connection (binary sensor, temp sensor or switch). But should I consider moving to ESPHome because that’s the recommended install?
I would highly recommend ESPHome now. ESPHome can do everything Konnected’s stock firmware and custom HA integration can do, plus more. We’re not really putting an more into Konnected’s HA component because ESPHome is a lot better in many ways.
Yes, it does seem more complex at first, but we’ve tried to make it easy. You can flash Konnected’s pre-built ESPHome builds for the Alarm Panel family at Konnected Flash Tool - ESPHome - Install Konnected via Web Browser and get going very quickly. You can change the input the sensor types in HA once it’s discovered.
One key difference between ESPHome and Konnected’s firmware is that Konnected’s is configured at run time, where ESPHome is configured at build time. So that means that if you need to change an input to an output (switch, etc) or a digital input (temp sensor, etc) then you have to modify the firmware and rebuild. I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible to do this using ESPHome’s tools by documenting in these articles: Integrations: Connecting to a Smart Home Platform - Help & Support
Key advantages to ESPHome is the speed, reliability, and security as well as the fact that it’s developed under the same parent organization as Home Assistant so it will always have strong built-in support for HA. The ESPHome tools for logging, customizing and updating are also fantastic.
Always happy to answer questions if you go the ESPHome route, and I’m also experimenting with an offering of custom ESPHome services/configuration for a fee.
Nate