[SOLVED] Just Starting Looking For Ideas (NOOB)

Here’s the S20 on Amazon, for example.

However, if you’ve got something (like a light, or fan) which is on a cable, you could put a Sonoff Basic between the existing 3-pin plug, and the lamp itself. This is a 2 minute job which won’t need the house wiring changed!

And here is the interestingly named Slampher which can go into a ceiling pendant, or directly into a lamp.

Plenty of options, and not too expensive (although more expensive than the RF stuff, definitely - but you get feedback from the Sonoff back into OpenHAB on their status, which can be very useful!

Interesting products and how easy would it be to intergrated these into OH

You said you plan on using these products what are you using now

Very simple to implement - once they have Tasmota or EasyESP on them, and OpenHAB/MQTT configured, they work very well.

I’ve already got 1x TH16 with sensor, and 1x T1 light switch. They are working well so far. The TH16 is only used currently for temp/humidity sensing, and the T1 is in my garage where I have two doors, and only 1 light switch by the main up-and-over door, so before I go in via the side door, I can switch the lights on without having to use a torch and squeeze down the side of the car to get to the light switch!

I’m therefore very likely going to be adding more as I expand my system.

Ok I understand what you mean

How do you go about swapping the OS/Firmware of these devices and did you have to configure the commands your self or did openhab just know what too do once the firmware was changed

Is the th16 just a sensor

My landlords electrician has got to come and fix some things in my house soon so I will speak to him about some of these devices

All the instructions are available from the places you grab Tasmota or ESPEasy from :slight_smile:

Configuring OpenHAB and MQTT and the .items file took a little reading - but if you’re getting involved into home automation with OpenHAB, you’ll need to do plenty of reading - it can be powerful, which means lots of things and options, which means lots of reading of Wikis and this forum!

The TH16 is a 16A capable switching device (some of the others have more limited switching capacity, so be sure to check power ratings), but it has a 3.5mm (headphone) jack on the side to optionally plug a temperature/humidity sensor into.

I figured as I was going to give the Sonoff a try, I’d get the one with the biggest power rating capacity, and the one with the ability to plug extra sensors into, even if it were one of the more expensive ones!

Iv just been having a quick read of this post I think I could learn how to do that not sure about the coding

The link is Here.
I have one with a plastic housing and antenna. I’m using it from the first floor and can reach the ground floor, however that can depend on the plugs used (I got the best reception on the mentioned old ones).
The setup time depends on how fast you can get the correct code to send . That usually takes some time.

RF is cheap, but communication is not bidirectional, so it’s not useful for good home automation. The status in Openhab may differ from the status on the device because the device does not provide feedback.

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I use the Osram Lightify Plug.
It is about 25€ on German Amazon and compatible to the hue bridge.
So if you are planning on doing lighting as well, Hue might be a good option for you anyways, or you buy a bridge on ebay or something, or you go with Osram entirely.

Ikea Tradfri is compatibel too

So if a socket or light was manually turned off openhab would report it as on still using rf

I’m after something that is

  1. cheap (below £40 a socket/light the £15 a socket/light is more in the right range) There is a huge difference in total outlay for an entire house
    10 sockets @ £40 = £400
    10 sockets @ £15 = £150
  2. requires little work (as plug and play as possible)
  3. is functional and reliable
  4. is pretty secure (a lot of worry about hackers and IOT things THIS IS THE MAIN REASON I AM LOOKING INTO OPENHAB I DONT WANT TO TRUST STRANGERS SERVERS AND USE MY OWN)

Yes, RF is “fire-and-forget” - you don’t get any feedback to OpenHAB.

Going cheaper might mean sacrificing point 2 - for me, the Sonoff is the right price range, but requires a little bit of work when you first unbox it to make it work locally. This payoff is worthwhile to me! Is it worth saving of £25 per device to you? :wink:

Yes I agree saving £25 per device is definitely appealing it just seems like quite a complicated job to flash each device and understanding how to add it to OH and setup all the commands confuses me

I don’t think RF is suited to my needs then , I don’t want things to be Maby turned on and off lol

Doesent anybody sell these devices pre flashed ?

Giving this video a try is it the same process for all sonoff devices ?

[EDIT] I have watched the linked video if it’s the same process for all sonoff devices it seems simple enougth up until you start adding it too OH

The soldering looked hard too as the device is so small is it possible to not solder ? I don’t own a solder iron

Not sure about getting the flashing device up and running either

Adding to OH seems hard

(REPLY) Can’t reply directly as the fourm says no more than 3 replys in 1 day wait 3 hours

I understand it’s the same with everything like you say I’m not scared off by words I don’t understand lol

There’s a lot I still need to learn about openhab if got no clue what sitemaps are or what they do I haven’t got a clue how to use a lot of Habpannel and a lot more

Hopefully I will get there but I know I am going have to learn a lot there’s some complicated rules I would like to get up and running eventually

So the method you mentioned OTA Upgrade you just connect the device to your wifi network as is from the box run some special magic software :wink: from my Windows machine and then that’s done apart from adding to OH

Is that process the same for all Sonoff devices it would save buying a flash device and solder iron ect and be easyer to achieve

There’s a way to do it without any soldering now - there’s a script you run to update it over the network, “faking” a genuine update to install the new firmware. There’s instructions to follow, but that’s the case with anything… :slight_smile:

Once you have a single device up and running on OH (there’s plenty of guides and threads here to help), then adding more is a case of pretty much copying and pasting!

There’s a few concepts to learn with OH, until you’ve got a basic grasp of the terminology it’ll seem daunting, but it’s really not!

As you have noticed, whatever kind of device you choose, there will be help either already posted or guys like @Confused (at least that is what I make out of his statements) or me on the forum that are willing to help make it work.

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Yes, the forum here has helped me get the basics up and running, I’m certainly happy to help where I do have knowledge, that’s what these communities are all about.

It’ll all click for you soon, getting hold of a device and making it work will give you a great sense of achievement!

I think I’m going to grab a sonoff S20 and give it a try

Is it possable to make this compatible using the OTA method you mentioned?

Do the buttons on the device allow you to manually toggle the power?

The fourm has already helped me and pointed me in the right direction I’m thankful for the help and look forward to more posts just get some power switches up and running and then I will post my bigger questions that show why I labled myself noob :wink:

Yes the S20 is compatible with Tasmota, and can be installed OTA. The button on the device itself can toggle the power, and that status can be fed back into OH.

You might need to bust out a Virtual Machine with Linux to do the update - this home automation stuff tends to be better suited to Linux than Windows… But that’s another fun bit of learning!!

Keep us updated, and don’t be afraid to ask if you get stuck!

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I have no experience using Linux but spinning up a vm is no worry if I found a guide to follow I’m pretty sure I could do that

Thanks for your help on that I will post a new post when I order the device

What other sensors are you using in your system I’m also interested in some lighting controll , door/Window sensors , Thermometers , motion