gbyleveldt
Expert Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2009
- Messages
- 1,276
Seeing as everyone is trying to get a Sonoff POW to switch on their geaser (which is borderline on that one), some of the guys here tracked down the CBI Astute Smart Switch with power monitoring. What's cool about this one is that it's rated for 30A, making it ideal for switching on really heavy loads. It's also DIN rail mount, so easy to install in your DB board.
As others have noticed, these don't use the ESP8266 chips so cannot be made to run Tasmota as it uses the WR3E module which is Tuya only. After I've seen some pics I wondered how hard it would be to rip out the Tuya module and fit an ESP12F module. Well, turns out it's possible, but not super easy. Hold on to your hats...
Parts needed:
CBI Astute switch
https://www.liteglo.co.za/shop/cbi-astute-smart-controller/
ESP-12F Module
https://www.robotics.org.za/ESP-12F
You'll need 2 10k resistors as well, as the above ESP board doesn't have those fitted and the base board does not cater for it. I suggest a 10k 0805 SMD resistor and a 10k 1/4w leaded resistor. It'll be clear in the pics.
They come apart easy enough
Pic of the module that needs to be removed. I have a hot air station to remove multi pin parts; you can do it with solder wick but it's fiddly
Old module removed and base board prepared for the ESP module
To get the ESP to boot properly, you have to fit these resistors as shown. You'll want to flash it with Tasmota at this point as well
Once flashed, the ESP can be soldered to the base board and the 10k 1/4W resistor can be trimmed and fitted neatly. The small black bit top right is the 10k SMD resistor
Once you got it all assembled, you can use the following template to for the module to work correctly:
{"NAME":"CBI Astute","GPIO":[131,56,0,0,0,21,0,0,134,17,132,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":6}
Success! I still need to calibrate the voltage and power settings so the readings are accurate, but that's the case for pretty much any power monitoring device you flash with Tasmota.

As others have noticed, these don't use the ESP8266 chips so cannot be made to run Tasmota as it uses the WR3E module which is Tuya only. After I've seen some pics I wondered how hard it would be to rip out the Tuya module and fit an ESP12F module. Well, turns out it's possible, but not super easy. Hold on to your hats...
Parts needed:
CBI Astute switch
https://www.liteglo.co.za/shop/cbi-astute-smart-controller/
ESP-12F Module
https://www.robotics.org.za/ESP-12F
You'll need 2 10k resistors as well, as the above ESP board doesn't have those fitted and the base board does not cater for it. I suggest a 10k 0805 SMD resistor and a 10k 1/4w leaded resistor. It'll be clear in the pics.
They come apart easy enough



Pic of the module that needs to be removed. I have a hot air station to remove multi pin parts; you can do it with solder wick but it's fiddly

Old module removed and base board prepared for the ESP module

To get the ESP to boot properly, you have to fit these resistors as shown. You'll want to flash it with Tasmota at this point as well


Once flashed, the ESP can be soldered to the base board and the 10k 1/4W resistor can be trimmed and fitted neatly. The small black bit top right is the 10k SMD resistor

Once you got it all assembled, you can use the following template to for the module to work correctly:
{"NAME":"CBI Astute","GPIO":[131,56,0,0,0,21,0,0,134,17,132,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":6}
Success! I still need to calibrate the voltage and power settings so the readings are accurate, but that's the case for pretty much any power monitoring device you flash with Tasmota.
