Cheap smart socket switches
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Glen Beestone
Jun 14, 2020, 9:41:42 AM6/14/20
to north-east-makers
I just bought a pair of these off Amazon for £11
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DCSGBF4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6uI5EbBRXVP9R
which is the absolute cheapest I've seen any "socket" smart switch.
They are made by a company called Tuya in China but sold to resellers to rebrand and sell on. so there are lots of different units out there that are essentially the same,under different brand names.
They are esp8266 based and run a firmware called Tuya
you can usually tell this by what the advert tells you the download to control it. Usually smart life or Tuya smart. (This particular one wanted an app called efamilycloud.)
they all have the same problem that to get them running you have to register on a cloud server in China and they don't appear to have any "local" control I suspect even Alexa commands are routed out of your network and back in again.
There is however a piece of software called tuya-convert which can be installed on a Linux based system or run as a docker plug-in that sets your laptop up to spoof the Tuyacloud server and establish communication to the device without having a break it open and access the serial port. You can then flash Tasmota or ESPurna custom firmware to the device and bring it back under local control. (As well as ad d loads of other features such as mqtt control)
I have just successfully done this with one of the units and it was a breeze.
Tasmota firmware
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/
Tasmota page on Tuya-convert with links
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/
The supported device I found on their page that looked like the ones from Amazon, to convince me they were a Tuya based device and risk buying them.
https://templates.blakadder.com/anoopsyche_SP15.html
Hope this is of use to somebody looking for cheap smart switches
Glen,
--
Sent from my Android phone with mail.com Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DCSGBF4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6uI5EbBRXVP9R
which is the absolute cheapest I've seen any "socket" smart switch.
They are made by a company called Tuya in China but sold to resellers to rebrand and sell on. so there are lots of different units out there that are essentially the same,under different brand names.
They are esp8266 based and run a firmware called Tuya
you can usually tell this by what the advert tells you the download to control it. Usually smart life or Tuya smart. (This particular one wanted an app called efamilycloud.)
they all have the same problem that to get them running you have to register on a cloud server in China and they don't appear to have any "local" control I suspect even Alexa commands are routed out of your network and back in again.
There is however a piece of software called tuya-convert which can be installed on a Linux based system or run as a docker plug-in that sets your laptop up to spoof the Tuyacloud server and establish communication to the device without having a break it open and access the serial port. You can then flash Tasmota or ESPurna custom firmware to the device and bring it back under local control. (As well as ad d loads of other features such as mqtt control)
I have just successfully done this with one of the units and it was a breeze.
Tasmota firmware
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/
Tasmota page on Tuya-convert with links
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/
The supported device I found on their page that looked like the ones from Amazon, to convince me they were a Tuya based device and risk buying them.
https://templates.blakadder.com/anoopsyche_SP15.html
Hope this is of use to somebody looking for cheap smart switches
Glen,
--
Sent from my Android phone with mail.com Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Alistair MacDonald
Jun 14, 2020, 10:03:24 AM6/14/20
to north-ea...@googlegroups.com
Just a note on the Tuya and Smart Life platform. Tuya is an IoT
messaging/brokering platform and hardware manufacturers pay a fee to
them for each device they add to it. They do not make hardware
themselves.
If you use the Tuya app then you are running through a server in
China. The Smart Life app (that is the Tuya app reskinned) is running
on a server outside of China (I presume the US). They also have a
white labeling service so some companies have their own apps that do
the same thing and can have any Tuya compatible hardware attached to
it.
Sadly the IFTTT integration is being phased out that is a little
annoying. They do have an API that is becoming better documented that
I do need to look at. Also I had an issue as half of my devices were
added with one app and on the CN server, and half the other server.
This confused the IFTTT and Alexa integration. I needed to delete all
the accounts and start again with one app to fix it. It was debugging
this that I found out so much about the Tuya setup.
Thanks to a Chirsitmas present I already have enough remote sockets
for now, but if I need more then using my own firmware on these seems
a good option. Thanks for flagging them up as a good option for that.
All the best,
Alistair
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messaging/brokering platform and hardware manufacturers pay a fee to
them for each device they add to it. They do not make hardware
themselves.
If you use the Tuya app then you are running through a server in
China. The Smart Life app (that is the Tuya app reskinned) is running
on a server outside of China (I presume the US). They also have a
white labeling service so some companies have their own apps that do
the same thing and can have any Tuya compatible hardware attached to
it.
Sadly the IFTTT integration is being phased out that is a little
annoying. They do have an API that is becoming better documented that
I do need to look at. Also I had an issue as half of my devices were
added with one app and on the CN server, and half the other server.
This confused the IFTTT and Alexa integration. I needed to delete all
the accounts and start again with one app to fix it. It was debugging
this that I found out so much about the Tuya setup.
Thanks to a Chirsitmas present I already have enough remote sockets
for now, but if I need more then using my own firmware on these seems
a good option. Thanks for flagging them up as a good option for that.
All the best,
Alistair
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "North East Makers" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to north-east-mak...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/trinity-3516be5e-eb6a-4deb-be8b-01ca20ce36c4-1592142100793%40msvc-mesg-gmxus010.
Glen Beestone
Jun 14, 2020, 10:55:55 AM6/14/20
to north-east-makers
Thanks for the extra info.
Just to confirm that the device listed on the tasmota site that these units from Amazon look just like..
https://templates.blakadder.com/anoopsyche_SP15.html
Contains the correct configuration module (correct assignment of gpio pins to LED, Relay and button) to get them operating correctly under Tasmota
Regards,
Glen
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/CA%2BA%2BpoKRQyh%3D8E9YqSCSwy_cxoW2JGJZTe3%2BYx%2BYCXCRziDEWw%40mail.gmail.com.
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