Installing Tasmota onto a device such as a Sonoff is usually done using esptool.py, which is a powerful command line utility but it can be a bit confusing if you’re not used to it. Now it’s been paired with an amazing graphical interface called Tasmotizer that gives you point-and-click convenience, and adds some handy features for configuring your devices:
Resources
Install Tasmotizer
The Tasmotizer page has good installation instructions, with three options given.
- If you use Windows, download the executible and run it.
- On Linux or MacOS, you can install using Pip.
- If you want the absolute latest development version you can clone the Git repo and install manually.
Use whichever method suits you best. I used Pip to install it on my iMac, my Macbook Pro, and my Ubuntu desktop, and the process went smoothly on all of them. Make sure you have the latest version of Pip, and then use it to install Tasmotizer:
pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install tasmotizer
Launch Tasmotizer
If your Python installation is set up so that new programs are automatically available, it should be possible to simply type in the name and press “Enter”:
tasmotizer.py
However, you may not be so lucky. You may have to find where Pip installed it. Pip can tell you where the files are for a specific package, but its output has horrible formatting that’s hard to interpret. Run this command to see a list of all the files in the Tasmotizer package:
pip3 show -f tasmotizer
The output will include a line called “Location” which shows the directory where the program is located. On my iMac, Pip installed Tasmotizer at:
~/Library/Python/3.7/bin/tasmotizer.py
But on my Macbook, it was installed at:
/usr/local/bin/tasmotizer.py
And on my Ubuntu desktop, it was installed at:
~/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/tasmotizer.py
It’s a pity that Python’s installation management is such a mess, and produces unpredictable results. Hopefully you can find the location for your installation without too many problems.
Once you’ve discovered its location, paste in the appropriate command and press “Enter” to launch Tasmotizer.
Connect the device to your computer
Your target device needs to be connected to your computer using USB, either by directly plugging in a cable or by using a USB-to-Serial adapter. Some devices such as Wemos D1 Mini boards have built-in USB. Sonoff boards don’t have USB so you’ll need to make up an adapter to suit the programming header for your specific board. I’ve done many videos and guides for reflashing various Sonoff models, and the Tasmota site has excellent documentation so follow the appropriate guide to make the connections.
Most Sonoff models use a simple 4-pin header, so I designed the Sonoff Programming Adapter to make it easy to plug in a 3.3V USB-to-Serial adapter with a standard 6-pin header.
Place device into bootloader mode
The ESP8266 / ESP8285 processor needs to be placed into a special bootloader mode before it can have Tasmota installed. This is done by powering it up while the GPIO0 pin is held at 0V, which is usually done using the control button. The sequence is:
- Press and hold the button.
- Connect power.
- Wait a couple of seconds, then release the button.
The device then stays in bootloader mode, waiting for new software to be loaded.
Select device in Tasmotizer
Click the “Refresh” button so Tasmotizer will scan for connected devices and update its list. Use the drop-down to find your target device.
Select the firmware image
Tasmotizer gives you three options for selecting a firmware image.
If you have your own binary, such as a version of Tasmota or some other firmware that you’ve compiled or downloaded, click the “BIN file” radio button and select the file from your local disk.
If you want to install the current release version of Tasmota, click the “Release” radio button and then use the drop-down menu to select the specific flavour of Tasmota for your device.
If you like to live on the edge, you can click the “Development” radio button and use the latest development code that hasn’t been released yet.
Set flashing options
If you want Tasmotizer to make a backup of the existing software on your device, click the “Backup original firmware” option. This will allow you to put it back onto the device later if you change your mind.
If you want to make sure the entire memory of the device is cleared, click the “Erase before flashing” option. This makes sure there is nothing remaining from the previous firmware still left on the device, such as saved configuration options. This is a good idea to make sure you have a fresh start and Tasmota won’t read data from a previous installation.
Flash the firmware
With the correct firmware image selected, click the blue “Tasmotize!” button. Tasmotizer will download the selected image (if required) and install it onto your device.
You’ll see a progress bar as the image is installed. Once it’s done, you’ll be prompted to restart it.
Congratulations! Tasmota is installed.
If you want to configure it manually you can do that by following the usual Tasmota instructions. However, Tasmotizer can save you a lot of time by allowing you to do some basic configuration via USB while it’s still connected to your computer.
Select config options
Click the “Send config” button to open a configuration window.
WiFi setup
Click the check-box to enable the WiFi section, and enter your WiFi network name and password.
Module/template setup
Click the check-box to enable module/template setup, which gives you options to either select a pre-defined module or apply a template. Applying a module profile or a template allows your device to be configured entirely from Tasmotizer.
If you have a common device, select “Module” and find the device in the drop-down list.
If you have a device that has a template provided for it, select “Template” and then paste the template into the text box. There are more than 1000 templates provided at the Tasmota Device Templates Repository.
MQTT setup
If you use MQTT in your home automation system, click the check-box to enable MQTT setup and put in the address of your MQTT broker.
You can manually define the topic for this device (such as “bedroom1”) but my personal preference is to allow the device to generate the topic based on its own internal ID. That way all devices come up with their own unique topics, which can then be referenced in the home automation system.
To do that, change the “Topic” setting to add the extension “-%06X”, like this:
tasmota-%06X
What this will do is take the last 6 hexadecimal digits of the device ID and append them, so the topic will be something like “tasmota-6A0B15”. This value is then used to generate the FullTopic value below it automatically, by replacing the “%topic%” placeholder. The result will be full topics that look similar to:
cmnd/tasmota-6A0B15/POWER tele/tasmota-6A0B15/TEMPERATURE ...etc
I like this approach because it means that all my Tasmota devices can have the same configuration, but they still end up with unique MQTT topics.
Send config to device
With all your preferred options set, click the “Save” button. Tasmotizer will send your configuration to the device, and you’re all done. This step is a bit strange, because it happens so fast that it seems like it couldn’t possibly have done anything, but if you get a confirmation dialog then you’re all set.
Finished! Your Tasmota device will now reboot and apply the settings that you configured, so after a few seconds it will be on your network. Just follow the Tasmota documentation to learn how to link it to your home automation system.
