Hey everyone! I wanted to share my recent success with flashing Tasmota on my ME81H thermostat. I know some of you might be struggling with getting non-Tuya firmware to work, so I thought I’d walk through my journey in case it helps someone else out there.First off, I’ve been trying to get this thermostat to work with Tasmota for a while now. I came across a few GitHub repos and templates, but nothing seemed to stick. The thermostat would either not report any temperature data or the relay would only toggle the display on and off. Frustrating, right? But hey, that’s part of the learning curve!I started by trying out the Tasmota template from Blakadder. It looked promising, but as soon as I flashed it, I couldn’t get any temperature readings via MQTT. The thermostat just wouldn’t budge. I tried different templates and even messed around with some custom settings, but nothing changed. I was stuck.Then, I stumbled upon this GitHub repo by Klaus Ahrenberg. It was designed for Beca thermostats, but I thought, why not give it a shot? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? I flashed the firmware, and guess what? I got some temperature data! The thermostat was reporting current and target temperatures. But here’s the catch – the data didn’t update when I manually changed the thermostat settings. It was like the thermostat was stuck in its own little world.I wasn’t ready to give up, though. I decided to try another firmware from fashberg. This one was supposed to work with Home Assistant autodiscovery. I flashed it, and to my surprise, Home Assistant did discover the thermostat without any issues. But the data was all over the place – I was getting null values and random readings. It was like the thermostat was speaking a different language altogether.After a few days of frustration, I decided to take a step back. I remembered someone mentioning that sometimes the original firmware can work better with local-Tuya or the official Tuya integration. So, I thought, why not give that a try? I flashed the original Tuya firmware back onto the thermostat, and voilà! Everything started working seamlessly. The thermostat integrated perfectly with local-Tuya, and I could control it through my Home Assistant setup without any hiccups.Now, I’m not saying that non-Tuya firmware isn’t worth trying. If you’re up for some tinkering, go for it! But if you’re looking for a reliable, hassle-free experience, sticking with the official Tuya integration might just be the way to go. Plus, it saves you from having to solder wires again if something goes south.I hope this little journey helps someone out there. If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, feel free to drop a comment! Happy tinkering, everyone! 