ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller Firmware v2026-05-17: Relay Inversion and OTA Updates

A firmware update is available for the ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2 that adds two features requested by the community.

What’s new in v2026-05-17

1. Relay Inversion Per Zone

Most 24VAC dampers fall into two camps: spring-open/power-close, or spring-close/power-open. If your damper works the opposite way to how the controller expects, you previously had to rewire it or build a custom YAML template. Now, each zone has a configurable invert_relay option:

zone_1:
  relay_pin: GPIO12
  invert_relay: true    # flip the logic — no rewiring needed

Set invert_relay: true on any zone and the relay logic flips. Your Home Assistant automations don’t need to change — the inversion happens at the switch template level, so the climate entity behaves the same either way.

2. OTA (Over-the-Air) Updates

No more pulling the controller out of the roof to flash via USB. The V2 now supports ESPHome’s native OTA component with password authentication. Update your YAML, compile in the ESPHome Dashboard, and push wirelessly.

ota:
  platform: esphome
  password: !secret ota_password

3. Misc Improvements

• Tuned PID sampling window for slower damper motors (less overshoot on older actuators)
• Cleaned up YAML validation warnings from the v1 config

Technical Details

• Platform: ESP32 (ESP32-WROOM-32E)
• Framework: ESPHome 2026.5.x
• OTA: Standard ESPHome OTA component with password auth
• Relay inversion: Switch template level — no breaking changes to HA automations
• V2 GPIO pins: GPIO12, GPIO14, GPIO27, GPIO26, GPIO25, GPIO33, GPIO32, GPIO4

Note: GPIO12 and GPIO4 are boot-sensitive ESP32 pins. The firmware handles boot state correctly, but keep this in mind if modifying YAML manually.

Download & Setup

Firmware: tekonline-8zone-controller-v2-v2026-05-17.txt — download and rename to .yml before adding to ESPHome.

Setup guide: ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2 Setup Guide

V1 firmware: tekonline-8zone-controller-v1-v2026-05-17.txt — same relay inversion feature, different GPIO pinout.

V2 product page: ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2 — $150 AUD

Questions or feature requests? Get in touch or find us on the Home Assistant Community.