Tag Archives: Sonoff

IT & Networks

Sonoff to Homebase Air Conditioning Unit – 636212

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I’ve had a Homebase portable air conditioning unit (Model 636212) for ages, the unit removes 9000BTU of heat and is ideal for my home office, especially with the hot weather we are experiencing at the moment (May, June July 2018).

Homebase AC

I have a number of Sonoff devices so I thought I’d add remote control to the air conditioning unit, using a Jog Switch (SKU437888).

Jog Switch

The Homebase unit is turned on and off via a simple push to make button, wiring the Sonoff relay normally open contacts in parallel across the on/off switch allows a single pulse from the relay contacts to either start or stop the air conditioning unit.

on/off

The low voltage to the Sonoff is from the internal Power Supply Board, this gives out 17v DC which is well within the operating range of the device (7v -30v AD/DC).

unboxed

The picture above shows the unboxed module fixed for testing,  total cost was £6.50 and took about 30 minutes, what makes this more impressive is that the EWeLink App allows ‘Scenes’ to be setup with other Sonoff devices.

I have set the Server Cabinet Sonoff which operates the internal fan to trigger the air conditioning at 34°C, turning OFF when the temperature falls below 31°C.

IT & Networks

Sonoff POW – Power Measuring WiFi Switch

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Sonoff POW is a WiFi switch with the added facility of monitoring power consumption to the load it switches also it can run trends over time and give instantaneous readings.

I currently use a Belkin power meter inline with my home network UPS so the Sonoff POW is a great addition enabling remote monitoring.

The first job was to attache the IEC plug and socket to the Sonoff POW, I had a small IEC extension cord which I simply cut in half and used that.

cord

Stripping the cable back, I used bootlace ferrules on the wires going under the spring connection terminals for a neat job.

connections

Once the connections were made, the lid was fitted which has integral cable grips to keep the cable from being pulled out.

lid

Making sure that the socket is used for the Input and the plug for the Output, I powered the unit up and paired it with my iPhone and the internet.

phone

To connect to the UPS, I simply unpluged the IEC plug suppling the UPS and placed the Sonoff POW inbetween, using the plug from the Sonoff POW output to reconnect to the UPS and thats it!

in line monitoring

The reading from the Sonoff POW and the Belkin seem to tally up, so well pleased, regarding the On/Off switching function, I will be using this test the operation of the UPS by simulating mains failure, the Sonoff App software allows for a detailed schedule to be created, so may well automate this as some point.

Electronics

Sonoff Basic Voltage Free Relay Changeover Modification

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What is Sonoff –

Home automation is “The Internet of Things”. It simply means the way all devices or appliances are networked together to provide customers with a seamless control over their home equipment.

Sonoff is an affordable device that provides users with smart home control. It is a WiFi based wireless switch that can connect to a wide range of appliances. Sonoff transmits data to a cloud platform through the WiFi router, which enables users to remotely control all the connected appliances, via the mobile application eWeLink. The cloud server of Sonoff is Amazon AWS global server.

Sonoff makes all home appliances smart. As long as the mobile has network, users can remotely control the appliances from anywhere at any time. Another feature available is to set timing schedules for the appliances, which can include countdown, scheduled on/off, and can thus, help users maintain an easy life.

ios
wifi
sonoff

The unit I needed to modify was the Sonoff Basic, this is a simple WiFi enabled unit which will switch 230v on or off, however, the application I needed was for it to switch a set of voltage free contacts, as these cost less that £6.00 each, its worth a go with the soldering iron.

The unit is very compact and before starting, I paired it with my mobile phone and checked that it worked correctly.

Sonoff open

The top simply clips off the base and the PCB comes apart without any fixings after cutting the paper security seal.

top
bottom

The relay has the Sonoff sticker on it and the mains is switched through the relay, the board uses double sided tracks for this.

Removed

The relay was desoldered and removed from the PCB, this then allowed access to the tracks which were cut with a Dremel.

bottom cut

The picture shows the bottom of the PCB with the tracks cut from the 230v input and a shorting link to complete the relay switching circuit.

top cut

This shows the relay back in place and the top tracks cut, the modification now allows a voltage free changeover which will be used to bring on my low voltage triggered external lighting.

Lighting Sonoff

Sonoff installed and connected to controller.

Electrical & Security

Sonoff Power Switching & Hive Light in Workshop

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Sonoff Power Switching & Hive Light in Workshop

I’ve wanted to do a few tweaks to the home workshop for a while, and today I finally got round to it.

The easiest job was done first, this was to install an additional light fixture to house a Hive Smart Light, this has been added to the global Group ‘Lights’ in the Hive App, by the simple Alexa command ‘Lights On’ or Lights Off, all Hive lights and sockets with connected lights operate, this is really handy feature should we hear any noises in the night.

The light can also be turned on independatly via the Hive  App or via interfaces to other Apps’ or IFTTT.

hive light

I bought a cheap and cheerful circular light fitting for the Hive light as it’s very easy to wipe clean.  In the application I was using the hive light for, the lamp required an unswitched mains supply.

The besa box Tee above the Exocutor had the ‘loop in, loop out’ wiring for the suspended light, the new fixture was simply fed from permanent live from this and was up and running within 5 minutes.

The second job is something that I have wanted to for ages but the cost of the technology was prohibitive, until now!

workshop

The picture above shows my conversion of a garage into a workshop, this was done in 2007, after the walls were lined, the dado trunking and socket outlets were installed, you can make out that I have used Red and White sockets, the Red ones are not switched via a contactor, whereas the white ones are.

white red

Operating any of the three ‘Emergency Off’ latching buttons, will disconnect the sockets and non Red fused connection units.  A Red LED indicator by the bench  illuminates when the Power to the sockets is ON.

stop

The existing arrangement works fine , but I have always wanted an easy remote ‘power off’ ability, as I have had to check on countless occasions if I have left a soldering iron ON, my usual ‘gotcha’ is the compressor ‘kicking in’, in the middle of the night.

With the cost of internet enabled and Alexa compatable WiFi Smart switches coming down to a ridiculous price of £4.39, now was the time to make the addition of remote operation.

iso

To the left of the change-over switch is the consumer unit feeding the Garage sockets via a 20A MCB, a 3A MCB is for the contactors control circuit via the latching stop buttons.

The idea was to install a Sonoff Basic WiFi Smart Switch to switch the supply to the contactors control circuit.

wires

Cables fished in, Left side is the supply to the Sonoff, the Right side is the Sonoff’s switched output.

box

Sonoff connected and cables dressed in to consumer unit.

finished

Completed job with Sonoff showing link to server established, before starting the work I configured the Sonoff in the house and enabled the power to be ON by default, once this was done I checked that it work in the Garage.

The configuration is very easy and the App is EWelink, also this is linked to Alexa, the image below is a screen shot of the EWelink App.

app

The blog on the Rig switching is HERE.

Update – 5 Jan 18, E-WeLink servers have failed this means that control of the Sonoff devices is not possible, no time given as to restoration of service 🙁

14 Jan 18 – Service back up and running and all Sonoff devices now working.

Ham Radio

Sonoff 4Ch Pro WiFi/Internet Switch Linked to Alexa

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Sonoff 4 Channel Pro

sonoff

I have had an Amazon Dot for a while and use the interactive plugs and lights all the time, one of the plugs is for my Ham Radio PSU, so I have been looking for a relay interface which will work with the Amazon Dot, one of the key requirements is that the relays must be able to pulse on then off.

The Sonoff 4Ch Pro costs ~£25 and has 4 programmable relays including the ability to ‘inch’ a relay (pulse on then off), the reason this is important for me,  is that it allows a momentary trigger to the PLC controlling my automated mast.

The Sonoff 4Ch Pro is well made and can be powered from either the mains or 5 – 24v DC, relays are all voltage free.

The Sonoff App is EWeLink and allows direct control of the relays from anywhere, this App is then linked to the Amazon Alex App to allow voice control of the relays,m if you want to use voice control from your smartphone, Reverb is good.

EWeLink App needs an account setting up, once this is done, follow the instructions to pair with your router.  The default pairing LED flashing sequence did not work for me, I had to keep my finger on a relay button until the blue LED rapidly flashed and then followed the instructions.

Once paired, the blue LED remains steady, after a power down, WiFi locks within 20 seconds.

Sonoff Enclosure

I decided to mount the Sonoff 4Ch Pro in a 220 x 150 x 96mm ABS enclosure (£9.70 eBay), in Visio I drew the cutting stencil and transferred this to the enclosure.

The width of the Sonoff needing trimming slightly to make a snug fit, the get the correct height I packed the unit with 25 x 25mm wood off-cut.

enclosure

Using a Dremel equivalent, the lid was cut to accept the Sonoff.

enclosure

The IEC plug and socket stencil was attached to the side of the enclosure, using a scalpel, the cutting pattern was transferred.

cut

cut

Wired Sonoff 4Ch Pro, Relays 1 & 2 momentarily switch +24v as a trigger input to either Raise or Lower my mast, Relays 3 & 4 latch to supply individual IEC outlets.

The Relays and outlets are rated at 10A, the feeding plugtop has the appropriate fuse fitted.

wired

Finished unit tucked behind a PSU, LEDs show that Relay 3 is energized and WiFi is connected.

finished

The label below is the remind instructions on the voice commands (prefixed with ‘Alexa’) and how to change the relay names.

operating instructions

Update –

Had a huge headache trying to get this unit to re-pair once I had done some modifications to my home network and access point, looking through the help forums a large number of others are having the same problem, the solution which worked for was to put the iPhone in ‘Airplane Mode’ and follow the process to pair an Android phone (Touch) and not AP which had worked previously. What didn’t help was an unannounced outage of the European Sonoff servers!

The second issue which came to light was relay 4 would randomly operate, the fix was very simple, press and hold the internal S5 button to erase any pre-enabled RF switches.