Tasmota support for ESP32 - Ethernet based on W5500 chip

[FulvioSpelta]

HI all,
I've seen reference to the W5500 chip in the file of PHY support:
https://github.com/tasmota/arduino-esp32/blob/main/tools/sdk/esp32/include/esp_eth/include/esp_eth_phy.h

but I'm not able to find any reference to it in the Tasmota sources.

Question: is this chip supported?
Thank a lot
f

[barbudor]

No
There is no reason to support this chip while the ESP32 already has a built in ethernet controller
W5500 is not a phy. It's meant to be used with MCU that do not have an built in ethernet controller
I have no idea why Espressif have that into their SDK.

[Hedda]

W5500 is not a phy. It's meant to be used with MCU that do not have an built in ethernet controller

Not all ESP32 models have a built-in ethernet controller as I understand, or at least not ESP32-H2 (which does not even have WiFi)?

https://www.espressif.com/en/news/ESP32_H2

https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-h2

FYI, Espressif just launched/released a new official ESP32-H2 + ESP32-C3 combo development board kit marketed as ESP Thread Boarder Router / Zigbee Gateway with optional Ethernet daughter-board/sub-board sold separately that is based on WIZnet W5500:

https://github.com/espressif/esp-thread-br

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/esp32/

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005005688193617.html

https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/06/20/espressif-esp-thread-border-router-board-combines-esp32-h2-esp32-c3-wireless-chips/

https://www.hackster.io/news/espressif-launches-a-kit-to-turn-its-esp32-modules-into-certified-thread-border-routers-for-matter-c61db0fce050

W5500 Ethernet daughter-board/sub-board designed to be pared with ESP Thread Boarder Router / Zigbee Gateway V1.2

Could you use the older WIZ Ethernet Library for Arduino IDE 1.5.x?

https://github.com/Wiznet/WIZ_Ethernet_Library

https://www.wiznet.io/product/tcpip-chip/

[s-hadinger]

Unfortunately W5500 requires SPI support. W5500 is indeed supported by esp-idf, but the way esp-idf manages SPI is not compatible with the way Arduino manages SPI. So until Arduino uses the native esp-idf SPI management, we can't use W5500

[FulvioSpelta]

I understand and approve your analysis: they started years ago producing boards based on arduino leonardo cpu so the W5500 was a great choice in term of permormance due to the embedded cpu.
Nevertheless currently they are still producing nice devices that are "home and industrial grade" and it's IMHO a pity that we can't use tasmota to drive them.

I'm not able to estimate the effort needed so take this thought as a small talking taking a coffee.
:-)

[sfromis]

In principle, it would be doable to take Tasmota without the Ethernet support, and then add support for W5500 as a completely different networking strategy, with only superficial similarities to the existing implementations for Wifi or Ethernet. This could (my uninformed guess) be a way larger effort than the relatively simple act of adapting a few settings to support another PHY type with the Ethernet MAC support in base ESP32 chips.

One argument could be to observe that Espressif decided to not include the Ethernet MAC feature of the original ESP32 in ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3. They seem to be suggesting niche cases of wanting this as good candidates for having a dedicated chip for Ethernet support via SPI. It does also look like ESP-IDF includes CONFIG_ETH_SPI_ETHERNET_W5500 in at least 4.4.1.

My point with using "niche case" is that devices needing Ethernet (RJ-45) connection are usually not the ones benefiting much from a SOC to minimize chip count, as they are not very compact anyway. This may be why Espressif did not see the MAC feature as important to newer ESP32 variants, instead prioritizing other features useful for a compact SOC.

As usual with open source, a core question is who has the combination of desire, time and skills to do such a project.

[michcfr]

Hello,
Another point is pin count reduction using the W5500 with SPI.
Can you please give some advices about parts of the Tasmota code that should be modified/replaced to support the W5500? thank you

[arendst]

W5500 is already supported using Arduino Core 3. No changes needed. Just compile Tasmota using core 3

[FulvioSpelta]

@michcfr May I kindly ask you to share your experience and an "how to" ? I'm available for testing too

The use of W5500 is very interesting for me too; currently i'm using WT32-ETH01 but having more pins free is a value.

[arendst]

This is a typical working config for W5500 on an ESP32C3-mini running "Core":"3_0_0" using

 * Used SPI W5500
 * SPI_MOSI
 * SPI_MISO
 * SPI_CLK
 * SPI_RST = Tasmota ETH_POWER
 * SPI_IRQ = Tasmota ETH_MDIO
 * SPI_CS  = Tasmota ETH_MDC

NOTE: before activating config execute command EthType 8 to select W5500.

[ortegafernando]

@arendst

Sorry for offtopic. But after reading this: "W5500 is already supported using Arduino Core 3. No changes needed. Just compile Tasmota using core 3".... does it means also that we could get an access point with a ESP32/ESP8266 + W5500 module? Do you know about this? Thanks

[sfromis]

It means that you can have Tasmota as client on an Ethernet network, just like with with ESP32+PHY already supported for a long time, as long as it is ESP32. Not sure what you mean by "get an access point". If you mean range extender backhaul via Ethernet, no.

[FulvioSpelta]

Thanks a lot

[michcfr]

Great! thank you
Would it also work with ESP32-C6 + W5500 to build a ZigBee Coordinator to Ethernet gateway?

[arendst]

As long as you use special zigbee hardware yes; Tasmota won't support zigbee on C6 hardware (yet)

[michcfr]

what zigbee modules would works? until the support on C6

[arendst]

Search our docs

[michcfr]

ok got it :-)
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Zigbee/
zigpy/zigpy#584
thank you Theo

[s-hadinger]

There are no plans right now to support zigbee on C6. We already support ZNP and EZSP, and most commercial devices are based on one of those.
Also as the market is moving to Thread, this is where C6 could become interesting for us

[michcfr]

IMHO, in the short and mid term zigbee and thread will coexist. Because thread based devices are slow in coming and there are already a plentyfull of ZigBee devices that does the job and are cheap.
There would be also high interests for commercial devices to have ZigBee co-located with the ESP: price reduction (only one chip in the device) and Thread upgreadability that is not possible (to my knowledge) with other existing ZigBee modules

[s-hadinger]

To our knowledge, wifi and zigbee can't be used at the same time, which is consistent with the fact that there is a single radio stage on the chip. C6 can be wifi or zigbee, but not both concurrently. Or with switching between both protocols, with bad results.
It could use Ethernet instead of wifi, but this would increase the price.
So we don't expect any wif/zigbee gateway based on a single C6

[FulvioSpelta]

This is a typical working config for W5500 on an ESP32C3-mini running "Core":"3_0_0" using

 * Used SPI W5500
 * SPI_MOSI
 * SPI_MISO
 * SPI_CLK
 * SPI_RST = Tasmota ETH_POWER
 * SPI_IRQ = Tasmota ETH_MDIO
 * SPI_CS  = Tasmota ETH_MDC

NOTE: before activating config execute command EthType 8 to select W5500.

About this details, do they apply to ESP32-WROOM-32 ?
I'd like to test it, at first, using ESP32-Devkit and then use this one:

Thanks

[sfromis]

It should apply to any ESP32, including the older version there.

[FulvioSpelta]

Thanks! I'll try asap.

[FulvioSpelta]

I share my successful test configuration.
I've spent time to map devkit pins on tasmota/wiring configuration so i hope that this sharing help someone to save time.

Tasmota: 13.4.0.1 with core v3 compiled by myself using the tasmota32-arduino30 env.

I kindly ask for comment if something can be better done.
I've found examples that use less wires between esp32 and w5500 module:
https://mischianti.org/it/esp32-ethernet-w5500-con-chiamate-standard-http-e-ssl-https/
(sorry it's in italian but it's very easy to understand the schematic)

Can this wiring be used with tasmota too? (2 wires will be avoided because it uses only CS, SCK, MISO, MOSI)

My running configuration:

[FulvioSpelta]

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I didn't want to waste your time so, before asking I checked, using the Arduino IDE, that the examples posted were really correct and that they worked. I don't know how it handles SPI but I can confirm that it works.
Not a problem, i understand and approve the decision to not change the library.

Save GPIOs can, sometimes, be useful developing special purpose devices avoiding the use of I/O extender so reducing the complexity.

Really thanks again.

[stsch83]

I share my successful test configuration. I've spent time to map devkit pins on tasmota/wiring configuration so i hope that this sharing help someone to save time.

Tasmota: 13.4.0.1 with core v3 compiled by myself using the tasmota32-arduino30 env.

I kindly ask for comment if something can be better done. I've found examples that use less wires between esp32 and w5500 module: https://mischianti.org/it/esp32-ethernet-w5500-con-chiamate-standard-http-e-ssl-https/ (sorry it's in italian but it's very easy to understand the schematic)

Can this wiring be used with tasmota too? (2 wires will be avoided because it uses only CS, SCK, MISO, MOSI)

My running configuration:

Hi, can you explain witch project you compiles from the tasmota project. I'm not able to configure the w5500 with tasmota 14.0.0

[FulvioSpelta]

Hi, i've done the test using the environment published above
Tasmota: 13.4.0.1 with core v3 compiled by myself using the tasmota32-arduino30 env.

What do you mean with "I'm not able to configure the w5500 with tasmota 14.0.0"

[stsch83]

Hi, i've done the test using the environment published above Tasmota: 13.4.0.1 with core v3 compiled by myself using the tasmota32-arduino30 env.

What do you mean with "I'm not able to configure the w5500 with tasmota 14.0.0"

If i use the offical tasmota32.bin 14.0.0.0 i'm able not able to configure the w5500. I set the EthType to 8, Restart the ESP32. Then i configure the SPI und CS and it will not work. If i do this in 14.0.0.3 self compiled, then it is working.

[FulvioSpelta]

It seems a little strange because the official is built using core3 (from readme).
It could be interesting if you can post a startup log (better using serial i/f after setting up level 4 using seriallog 4 command for both the tests.

[nikito7]

Working 4 wires.

ESP32-S3-MINI-1U

[FulvioSpelta]

Interesting, could you kindly post all info? Modules used, detailed wiring, source version and setup ?
thanks

[nikito7]

Default firmware should work.

Eth mdc is connected to w5500 spi CS
EthType 8

After this I changed pins.

Do not try to ota upgrade over ethernet. Here fail. #14168 (reply in thread)

Ota upgrade over wifi works fine.

Custom PCB

[FulvioSpelta]

Thanks !
I'll try.

[worayoot]

I followed your eth-w5500 connections then my ethernet work good but quite slow speed when access WebUI if compare with Wi-Fi. How can I change spi speed up or It normal speed that should be?