Home Automation DIY - share yours

Anyone in Randburg/Sandton area who is up for reflashing Sonoff switches with the Tasmota firmware? I don't have the USB jobbie. Prepared to buy one if necessary, but before I do, wondering if there's anyone out there who can lend a hand instead.
 
Sinbad said:
Anyone in Randburg/Sandton area who is up for reflashing Sonoff switches with the Tasmota firmware? I don't have the USB jobbie. Prepared to buy one if necessary, but before I do, wondering if there's anyone out there who can lend a hand instead.
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I can do it, I'm in Malanshof.

FWIW, if you plan to get into the home automation thing, you would probably run into a need for a USB-UART adapter sooner or later, so it's not a terrible idea to get one. Make sure to get one that supports 3.3V logic, though! You can get one that supports both 3.3V and 5V, switchable.
 
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Hi i am willing to getinvolved aswell. I bought my sonoffs from you guys. Busy with my setup. Running custom firmware and also Esp8266 for monitoring and controll.
 
Making slow progress on my pool monitor. Turns out I have an intermittent connection on my flow rate sensor, so I'm missing most of the pulses it should be emitting. It worked for a short while, and then stopped, without any clear explanation, until I put an oscilloscope on it! Had to run a 30m extension to the pool box to have power there first! I'll have to open it up and hope the connections are accessible in the position in which it is installed, so I can solder new wires in place!
 
RoganDawes said:
Making slow progress on my pool monitor. Turns out I have an intermittent connection on my flow rate sensor, so I'm missing most of the pulses it should be emitting. It worked for a short while, and then stopped, without any clear explanation, until I put an oscilloscope on it! Had to run a 30m extension to the pool box to have power there first! I'll have to open it up and hope the connections are accessible in the position in which it is installed, so I can solder new wires in place!
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do you have some pics of your setup?
 
rodga said:
do you have some pics of your setup?
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Not in any real shape, unfortunately. I have an existing switchbox in the pool housing, currently doing its job.

This is the replacement box, with a Sonoff 4CH Pro, and a 220VAC to 12VDC supply for the colour changing pool light in place. I still need to get a DIN rail double pole isolator, and terminal blocks for the live, neutral and earth wires.

I also need to bring out the 5V power and signal lines for the flow sensor from inside the 4CH to outside the power box, making VERY sure to keep them well away from the 220V! I *might* also put a level converter in line with the signal, since it runs on 5V, but the ESP is 5V tolerant (apart from power!), so I might not.
 

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RoganDawes said:
Making slow progress on my pool monitor. Turns out I have an intermittent connection on my flow rate sensor, so I'm missing most of the pulses it should be emitting. It worked for a short while, and then stopped, without any clear explanation, until I put an oscilloscope on it! Had to run a 30m extension to the pool box to have power there first! I'll have to open it up and hope the connections are accessible in the position in which it is installed, so I can solder new wires in place!
Click to expand...

This is why flow meter pulse signals should be normally high, with the pulses being negative, so you can infer a cable fault from too long a low signal.

But I'm not sure if your system will accomodate this. I'm just thinking about it from my perspective, I work with industrial automation and that's how we usually hook up flow meters to PLC's.
 
dhirennaidoo said:
This is why flow meter pulse signals should be normally high, with the pulses being negative, so you can infer a cable fault from too long a low signal.

But I'm not sure if your system will accomodate this. I'm just thinking about it from my perspective, I work with industrial automation and that's how we usually hook up flow meters to PLC's.
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Yeah, I have a simple hall sensor, so am working with what I have.
 
dhirennaidoo said:
Ah, ok, cool. Maybe impeller on the hall sensor is actually getting obstructed? Worth a blast of compressed air if its one of those small hobby hall sensors
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Pretty sure it is a dodgy wire, judging by the attached images (working and non-working). They're a bit difficult to make out, it's tough taking a photo of the scope in bright sunshine! :-D
 

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RoganDawes said:
Pretty sure it is a dodgy wire, judging by the attached images (working and non-working). They're a bit difficult to make out, it's tough taking a photo of the scope in bright sunshine! :-D
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So this is what it looks like mostly constructed.

If something is worth doing, it's worth OVERDOING, right?!

I decided I didn't want a fat transformer for the pool lights, especially since I bought a colour changing LED bulb, so I went with the MeanWell DIN-mounted converter. Unfortunately, it is quite tall, so the 8-way box that I originally got from AliExpress was too shallow, and I had to find another deeper one. Of course, the 8-way also didn't have enough place for the Sonoff AND a double-pole isolator anyway, so I replaced it with a 12-way instead.

The MeanWell being tall, and the Sonoff being shallow made for some interesting arrangements with regards to the DIN rail itself. I ended up with 3 segments of rail, one right at the back with the MeanWell mounted on that, another stretching up to the MeanWell that the double pole isolator is mounted on, and finally a last piece that the Sonoff is mounted on. I used stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers to construct standoffs to get the separation of the rails as I wanted them.

You can see the 3 wires leading to a JST socket. This is for the flow rate sensor. I soldered a power wire to the 5V side of the 3.3v regulator, since the flow sensor only operates on 5-24V, and then put in a level converter to map the signal back to 3.3v, on the SDA pin (GPIO2) on the programming header.

I'm using the Tasmota firmware to switch the relays, and have configured it to operate a counter on GPIO2. It's all reporting back to a Mosquitto server running on my router (OpenWRT).

Once I get reliable results, the next step will then be to set up Node Red or similar to manage it all.
 

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RoganDawes said:
Pretty sure it is a dodgy wire, judging by the attached images (working and non-working). They're a bit difficult to make out, it's tough taking a photo of the scope in bright sunshine! :-D
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's dodgy af. Could even be water in the sensor causing a pull to ground or 5V
 
RoganDawes said:
So this is what it looks like mostly constructed.

If something is worth doing, it's worth OVERDOING, right?!

I decided I didn't want a fat transformer for the pool lights, especially since I bought a colour changing LED bulb, so I went with the MeanWell DIN-mounted converter. Unfortunately, it is quite tall, so the 8-way box that I originally got from AliExpress was too shallow, and I had to find another deeper one. Of course, the 8-way also didn't have enough place for the Sonoff AND a double-pole isolator anyway, so I replaced it with a 12-way instead.

The MeanWell being tall, and the Sonoff being shallow made for some interesting arrangements with regards to the DIN rail itself. I ended up with 3 segments of rail, one right at the back with the MeanWell mounted on that, another stretching up to the MeanWell that the double pole isolator is mounted on, and finally a last piece that the Sonoff is mounted on. I used stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers to construct standoffs to get the separation of the rails as I wanted them.

You can see the 3 wires leading to a JST socket. This is for the flow rate sensor. I soldered a power wire to the 5V side of the 3.3v regulator, since the flow sensor only operates on 5-24V, and then put in a level converter to map the signal back to 3.3v, on the SDA pin (GPIO2) on the programming header.

I'm using the Tasmota firmware to switch the relays, and have configured it to operate a counter on GPIO2. It's all reporting back to a Mosquitto server running on my router (OpenWRT).

Once I get reliable results, the next step will then be to set up Node Red or similar to manage it all.
Click to expand...

That is flippen neat. Used a dremel for the cutouts?
 
dhirennaidoo said:
That is flippen neat.
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Thanks! I think it looks good! Hopefully it will work better than the digital timer I currently have managing the pool pump (that forgets its time every power outage!). The flow rate stuff will just be gravy if it all works!

dhirennaidoo said:
Used a dremel for the cutouts?
Click to expand...

Nope, just a trusty craft knife!
 
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