How to Set Up the TekOnline 4-Zone Wall Controller in Home Assistant

If you have just received your TekOnline 4-Zone Wall Controller, this guide will walk you through the first setup and get it connected to Home Assistant.

The process is straightforward:

• power the controller
• connect it to your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
• add it to Home Assistant
• start using the front buttons and relays

What the controller does out of the box

The shipping firmware is designed to be usable immediately.

Each front button:

• controls its matching zone locally
• toggles the zone with a short press
• adjusts the zone level with a press-and-hold
• changes its matching indicator LED
• drives its matching relay output

That means the wall controller can still function locally even if Home Assistant is offline.

What you need before you start

You will need:

• a powered 4-Zone Wall Controller
• a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network
• Home Assistant on the same local network
• a phone, tablet, or laptop

Step 1: Power the controller

Power the controller and wait around 15 to 30 seconds.

If the controller has not been configured with Wi-Fi yet, it will create a temporary setup hotspot called:

TekOnline 4 Zone Setup

This hotspot does not require a password.

Step 2: Join the setup hotspot

On your phone, tablet, or laptop:

1. Open your Wi-Fi settings.
2. Connect to TekOnline 4 Zone Setup.
3. If a setup page opens automatically, continue there.
4. If it does not, open a browser and go to 192.168.4.1.

Step 3: Connect the controller to your Wi-Fi

On the setup page:

1. Select your home 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network.
2. Enter the Wi-Fi password.
3. Save the settings.

The controller will reboot and join your local network.

Step 4: Add it to Home Assistant

Once the controller is on your Wi-Fi:

1. Open Home Assistant.
2. Go to Settings > Devices & Services.
3. Wait for the controller to appear as a discovered ESPHome device.
4. Click Add.

In most cases, that is all you need to do.

If Home Assistant does not discover it automatically

If the controller does not appear within about a minute:

1. Go to Settings > Devices & Services.
2. Click Add Integration.
3. Search for ESPHome.
4. Enter the controller IP address manually.

If you prefer to use the local hostname, the controller hostname format is:

tek-4zone-wall-xxxxxx.local

The xxxxxx section is based on the unique hardware address of that controller.

How the front buttons behave

With the current firmware:

• Button 1 controls Zone 1
• Button 2 controls Zone 2
• Button 3 controls Zone 3
• Button 4 controls Zone 4

A short press toggles the zone between off and its last on level.

A press-and-hold ramps the zone level up or down.

Each change updates:

• the local zone state
• the matching LED
• the matching relay

This gives you simple local zone control straight away, with Home Assistant integration layered on top.

Check the firmware version in Home Assistant

The current public firmware exposes a diagnostic entity called:

4 Zone Wall Controller Firmware Version

The current version is:

2026.05.17-v2-hold-dimmer-unique-spill-invert

The device also exposes the ESPHome build version as:

4 Zone Wall Controller ESPHome Version

If a zone is inverted

If a zone appears backwards, for example turning it off in Home Assistant turns the HVAC output on, use the relay inversion controls.

The current firmware exposes these config switches:

• Zone 1 Relay Inverted
• Zone 2 Relay Inverted
• Zone 3 Relay Inverted
• Zone 4 Relay Inverted

Turn on the inversion switch for any zone that behaves backwards.

Updating over the network

If your controller is already online and running ESPHome firmware, you can usually update it over the network from the ESPHome Dashboard.

Use the current public YAML:

tekonline-4zone-wall-controller-v2026-05-17.yml

If ESPHome cannot find the device by hostname, find the controller's IP address in Home Assistant or your router and temporarily add this to your local copy of the YAML:

wifi:
  use_address: 192.168.1.123

Replace 192.168.1.123 with your controller's actual IP address.

Do not add a private IP address to a public/shared YAML file.

Optional Bluetooth setup

Some phones and Home Assistant setups can also provision the controller over Bluetooth using ESPHome Improv.

If that option is visible in your app or browser, you can use it instead of the temporary hotspot.

If Bluetooth setup is not obvious, use the hotspot method above. It is the most reliable first-time setup path.

If you run into trouble

Check these items first:

• your phone or laptop has reconnected to your normal home Wi-Fi after setup
• your Home Assistant instance and the controller are on the same local network
• your Wi-Fi network is 2.4 GHz
• the Wi-Fi password entered during setup was correct

If needed:

1. Power-cycle the controller.
2. Wait one minute.
3. Check Home Assistant again.

Important note

Button 2 uses an ESP32 boot-related pin, so avoid holding that button down while the controller is powering up or rebooting.

OTA updates only work once ESPHome firmware is already running on the controller and the device is reachable on your network. If the ESP32 flash has been wiped, use USB flashing first.

Need help?

If you need support, contact TekOnline and include:

• your Home Assistant version
• the controller IP address if known
• the firmware version shown in Home Assistant
• a screenshot of any error message
• whether the TekOnline 4 Zone Setup hotspot appeared

Final note

The 4-Zone Wall Controller is designed to be simple to adopt for normal users while still giving advanced users the flexibility of ESPHome and Home Assistant.

If you want help with custom automations, advanced zone logic, or a more tailored setup, contact TekOnline.