Home Automation - Smartkit

[Rocket-Boy]

So, I set the state to KEEP, flipped the power off and on (it is powered by 5V USB supply) and the gate opened.


It is, sorry my mistake, I meant that the Sonoff bridges the remote hardwired switch connections on the D5 (the wire runs from the D5 to the button in the house, where the Sonoff bridges it)

QUESTION: What firmware are you running? I'm using Ewelink, firmwares 3.0.1 and PSF-B01-GL

Im not super familiar with that particular sonoff model, do you have to connect to a specific GPIO on it or is it already connected via terminals? I know with ESP chipsets if its connected to a certain pin then it gets pulled high or low at boot depending on which it is.

I have had similar issues in the past but I was using home assistant and mqtt at that time and it was related to retain flags being set.
Im pretty sure its a similar issue you are having but I dont know that type of setup you are using well enough to say where to change things.

 

[Goobie]

Im not super familiar with that particular sonoff model, do you have to connect to a specific GPIO on it or is it already connected via terminals? I know with ESP chipsets if its connected to a certain pin then it gets pulled high or low at boot depending on which it is.

I have had similar issues in the past but I was using home assistant and mqtt at that time and it was related to retain flags being set.
Im pretty sure its a similar issue you are having but I dont know that type of setup you are using well enough to say where to change things.

It looks like this with dedicated terminals

 

[Rocket-Boy]

It looks like this with dedicated terminals View attachment 680845

Hmm it must be software defined then, normally that kind of thing happens if you build it yourself from say a nodemcu and a relay and then connect the signal to GPIO0 or similar.
Im assuming there must be an option in ewelink, but if that fails you could always flash it with Tasmota and then have full control over the actions.

Its a bit risky with something like that happening in a garage door or gate motor, you dont want it opening those in the middle of the night if the power fails!!

 

[Tinuva]

Hmm it must be software defined then, normally that kind of thing happens if you build it yourself from say a nodemcu and a relay and then connect the signal to GPIO0 or similar.
Im assuming there must be an option in ewelink, but if that fails you could always flash it with Tasmota and then have full control over the actions.

Its a bit risky with something like that happening in a garage door or gate motor, you dont want it opening those in the middle of the night if the power fails!!

An easier option is to just get battery backup power for the Sonoff no?

 

[Rocket-Boy]

It looks like this with dedicated terminals View attachment 680845

This is what I did for my garage and front gate, I used a remote that has a separate button for each of those, then I built up a nodemcu with a 2 channel relay and also added a hall sensor that meets up with a magnet on the garage door motor. This way it tells me if the door is open or closed and I have some automations built in home assistant to notify me if the door is open after a certain time.
The 18650 battery acts as a UPS for power failures, which helps a ton. It can run the whole thing for about 12 hours.

The view from home assistant with the garage open and closed.


I find this to be a much more robust and easier to customize solution than say an SV or Shelly, but only really for this application.

*edit*
I forgot that I also have a BME280 on that which does temp/baro pressure/humidity. The humidity and temp helps a lot when Im doing epoxy resin projects so I can tell if its going to affect the curing.
That is all logged to an influxdb and graphed using grafana for statistics.

 

[SauRoNZA]

So I thought I was very bright to use the Sonoff inching switch (https://www.smartkit.co.za/product/1-channel-inching-self-locking-wifi-wireless-switch-5v-12v/?attribute_voltage=5V/12V) to operate my gate motor remotely for visitors. I did this by allowing the sonoff to bridge the remote button on the Centurion D5 gate motor. It works very well. I press the button in the eWelink app and the sonoff "pushes" the button for 1 second and the gate opens. Push it again and it closes.

Little did I know that when the sonoff looses power and powers up again it momentarily latches the relay as part of the booting cycle in the process opening up the gate. (The power on state IS set to OFF in the eWelink software).

Thing is, I had this set up for more than a year and only notices it now. Could this have been introduced via a new firmware update. I am pretty sure it wasn't always like this.

Can somebody else confirm this as normal?

Thanks

Are you using a magnetic sensor/reed switch with it?

When using Tasmota there is a problem with false triggers when using a switch from a sensor and all you do is setup a second false relay to make it go away.

Maybe that problem isn't actually Tasmota at all and actually a board level issue with the Sonoff?

I have it on my SV and had to do this to make it work...

GPIO4 is fake, it's just a software setting.

Can't find the source for why this was the case but I know it's an issue and experienced it myself.

 

[Goobie]

So I logged a ticket with Itead about this. I hope they respond. A google search shows some people on the web also experiencing this, but I'm yet to find a post with a fix

 

[spikegv]

So, I set the state to KEEP, flipped the power off and on (it is powered by 5V USB supply) and the gate opened.


It is, sorry my mistake, I meant that the Sonoff bridges the remote hardwired switch connections on the D5 (the wire runs from the D5 to the button in the house, where the Sonoff bridges it)

QUESTION: What firmware are you running? I'm using Ewelink, firmwares 3.0.1 and PSF-B01-GL

I have the same firmware on my device. I have connected the sonoff directly to the power supply on the motor (12v)and then wired it to the trigger terminal on the motor.

I wonder if it's because of the 5v USB?

I tried to replicate your problem using my garages (digidoor2) which also supplies the device with 12v but doesn't have a backup battery like the gate motor and it consistently stays off.

 

[Goobie]

I have the same firmware on my device. I have connected the sonoff directly to the power supply on the motor (12v)and then wired it to the trigger terminal on the motor.

I wonder if it's because of the 5v USB?

I tried to replicate your problem using my garages (digidoor2) which also supplies the device with 12v but doesn't have a backup battery like the gate motor and it consistently stays off.

Thank you for testing it. I will try it with a 12V power supply to see if it makes a difference

 

[xrapidx]

Urgh...here we go again - two of my Sonoff devices dropped off the network when I restarted the router - and now won't rejoin. They've set up themselves as APs - and I can get onto them - scan for wifi networks - and see my network at 70% - but - it won't join the network. (Tasmota)

 

[Recallza]

Urgh...here we go again - two of my Sonoff devices dropped off the network when I restarted the router - and now won't rejoin. They've set up themselves as APs - and I can get onto them - scan for wifi networks - and see my network at 70% - but - it won't join the network. (Tasmota)

Happened to me with my sonoff basic, for this reason I've delayed moving over to tasmota on my other devices.

 

[BetaProject]

How often does that happen on Tasmota? I've been using the ESPHome firmware on my Sonoffs for the past few months, and have had no dropouts, but I hear that Tasmota exposes functionality that ESPHome doesn't.

Might buy a few more devices and run Tasmota on them, but if dropouts are a thing, I may just stick with ESPHome.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Urgh...here we go again - two of my Sonoff devices dropped off the network when I restarted the router - and now won't rejoin. They've set up themselves as APs - and I can get onto them - scan for wifi networks - and see my network at 70% - but - it won't join the network. (Tasmota)

Which version?

If not the latest log into the interface and flash them with the latest version OTA.

Minimal first, then the full one.

 

[SauRoNZA]

How often does that happen on Tasmota? I've been using the ESPHome firmware on my Sonoffs for the past few months, and have had no dropouts, but I hear that Tasmota exposes functionality that ESPHome doesn't.

Might buy a few more devices and run Tasmota on them, but if dropouts are a thing, I may just stick with ESPHome.

Never happens to me on the stock firmwares off the website.

Only happens on self-compiled ones so I can only imagine it's something in that config that causes this.

Everything I have now is on the stock firmware directly off the website only and no problems.

 

[Goobie]

I have the same firmware on my device. I have connected the sonoff directly to the power supply on the motor (12v)and then wired it to the trigger terminal on the motor.

I wonder if it's because of the 5v USB?

I tried to replicate your problem using my garages (digidoor2) which also supplies the device with 12v but doesn't have a backup battery like the gate motor and it consistently stays off.

So running it off 12V makes no difference. I have now removed the device until a solution can be found.

The troubleshooting with Itead is going slow. Currently we are at "Please check if there are two different cables. One is to operate turning on and the other one is to operate turning off." I made a video clip (http://bit.ly/sonoff1) and sent it to them, hopefully we can skip over the "make sure it is powered" questions

 

[patrick123]

So running it off 12V makes no difference. I have now removed the device until a solution can be found.

The troubleshooting with Itead is going slow. Currently we are at "Please check if there are two different cables. One is to operate turning on and the other one is to operate turning off." I made a video clip (http://bit.ly/sonoff1) and sent it to them, hopefully we can skip over the "make sure it is powered" questions

I have found that most of the Sonoffs seem to "bounce" the relay during powering up until the software sets it according to specs.
This is the main reason why I removed it as my gate opener and short of me making some form of "buffer circuit" to avoid this, my gate will only be controlled by my remote.

 

[xrapidx]

How often does that happen on Tasmota? I've been using the ESPHome firmware on my Sonoffs for the past few months, and have had no dropouts, but I hear that Tasmota exposes functionality that ESPHome doesn't.

Might buy a few more devices and run Tasmota on them, but if dropouts are a thing, I may just stick with ESPHome.

Not often - just frustrating when it happens - because I then need to stand at the device and try get it back on the network.

 

[xrapidx]

Which version?

If not the latest log into the interface and flash them with the latest version OTA.

Minimal first, then the full one.

No clue - will be different versions, depending on when I bought the devices - I don't update them unless I'm having a known issue.

 

[SauRoNZA]

No clue - will be different versions, depending on when I bought the devices - I don't update them unless I'm having a known issue.

Bought them flashed from Smartkit?

 

[xrapidx]

Bought them flashed from Smartkit?

Flashed myself... I think.

When the time comes, I'll replace them all with Shelly.