You will require a working MQTT broker alongside your HomeAssistant installation. HomeAssistant provides documentation on how to install and configure an MQTT broker.

Installing AppDaemon

The recommended backend application for this firmware is written in a python for AppDeamon. This means it requires a working and running version of AppDaemon.

The easiest way to install it is through HomeAssistant's Supervisor Add-on Store, it will be automaticly connected to your HomeAssistant Instance.

Installing Studio Code Server (optional, recommended)

You will need a way a way to edit the apps.yaml config file in the appdeamon folder. Install Studio Code Server from ome Assistant's Supervisor Add-on Store to easily edit configuration Files on your HomeAssistant Instance.

Installing HACS (optional, recommended)

HACS is the Home Assistant Community Store and allows for community integrations and automations to be updated cleanly and easily from the Home Assistant web user interface. It's simple to install the appdeamon app without HACS, but keeping up to date requires manual steps that HACS will handle for you: you will be notified of updates, and they can be installed by a click on a button.

If you want to use HACS, you will have to follow their documentation on how to install HACS.

Installing AppDeamon Backend Application

With HACS (recommended)

To install Qolsys Gateway with HACS, you will need to make sure that you enabled AppDaemon automations in HACS, as these are not enabled by default:

Click on Configuration on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
Select Devices & Services
Select Integrations
Find HACS and click on Configure
In the window that opens, make sure that Enable AppDaemon apps discovery & tracking is checked, or check it and click Submit
If you just enabled this (or just installed HACS), you might have to wait a few minutes as all repositories are being fetched; you might hit a GitHub rate limit, which might then require you to wait a few hours for HACS to be fully configured. In this case, you won't be able to proceed to the next steps until HACS is ready.

The Backend Application for this project is not yet in the default applications available in HACS. You will need to add Qolsys Gateway as a custom repository in HACS. In order to do so:

Click on HACS on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
Click on Automations in the right panel
Click on the three dots in the top right corner
Select Custom repositories
In the form that appears, write joBr99/nspanel-lovelace-ui as repository, and select AppDaemon as category
Click on ADD
Qolsys Gateway is now available to be installed and managed with HACS

Now, to install Qolsys Gateway with HACS, follow these steps:

Click on HACS on the left menu bar in Home Assistant Web UI
Click on Automations in the right panel
Click on Explore & download repositories in the bottom right corner
Search for nspanel-lovelace-ui, and click on NSPanel Lovelance UI in the list that appears
In the bottom right corner of the panel that appears, click on Download this repository with HACS
A confirmation panel will appear, click on Download, and wait for HACS to proceed with the download
The Backend Application is now installed, and HACS will inform you when updates are available

Manually

Installing the Backend Application manually can be summarized by putting the content of the apps/ directory of this repository (the qolsysgw/ directory) into the apps/ directory of your AppDaemon installation.

Installation - NSPanel Part

Flash Tasmota to your NSPanel

Configure Tasmota Template for NSPanel

Setup your MQTT Server in Tasmota

Upload Berry Driver to Tasmota

Flash Firmware to Nextion Screen

Configuration

Configuring the MQTT integration in AppDaemon

Configure your NSPanel in AppDaemon

Old Docs

The general idea is that the Nextion Display cycles though a page counter and the esp32 tells the display what to do. If you are changeing the page the nextion display will send and event to the esp32 and it has to answer with the messages, that will update the current page with it's desired components. This enables easy changes, without touching the HMI Project.

How to install

0. Flash Tasmota

Follow the inststructions to flash tasmota onto the esp32 of your nspanel, make sure to use 'tasmota32-nspanel.bin'.

Before uploading berry driver (nspanel.be/autoexec.be) continue with this guide.

https://templates.blakadder.com/sonoff_NSPanel.html

1. Install Nextion Tasmota Berry Driver

Create and edit new file named autoexec.be with a line load("nextion.be") and upload nextion.be from tasmota folder of this repo.

Upload "nextion.be" from tasmota folder of this repository and rename to "autoexec.be"

2. Flash tft File

Upload the tft file from HMI folder to a Webserver (for example www folder of Home Assistant) and execute the following command in Tasmota Console. Webserver needs to support HTTP Range Header Requests, python2/3 http server doesn't work

FlashNextion http://192.168.75.30:8123/local/nspanel.tft

3. Setup your Backend

The Backend answers to commands from NsPanel and send's content to display on the screen.

3a. AppDeamon Backend (Recommended)

Installation

App Configuration

nspanel-1:
  module: nspanel-lovelance-ui
  class: NsPanelLovelanceUIManager
  config:
    panelRecvTopic: "tele/tasmota_your_mqtt_topic/RESULT"
    panelSendTopic: "cmnd/tasmota_your_mqtt_topic/CustomSend"
    timeoutScreensaver: 15000
    #brightnessScreensaver: 10
    brightnessScreensaver:
      - time: "7:00:00"
        value: 10
      - time: "23:00:00"
        value: 0
    locale: "de_DE"
    timeFormat: "%H : %M"
    dateFormat: "%A, %d. %B %Y"
    pages:
      - type: cardEntities
        heading: Example Page 1
        items:
          - cover.example_cover
          - switch.example_switch
          - input_boolean.example_input_boolean
          - sensor.example_sensor
      - type: cardEntities
        heading: Example Page 1
        items:
          - button.example_button
          - cover.rolladenterasse_cover_1
          - light.schreibtischlampe
          - delete
      - type: cardThermo
        heading: Exmaple Thermostat
        item: climate.example_climate
      - type: cardMedia
        heading: Exampe Media
        item: media_player.spotify_user

key	optional	type	description
`module`	False	string	The module name of the app.
`class`	False	string	The name of the Class.
`config`	False	complex	Config/Mapping between Homeassistant and your NsPanel