Sonoff

With the emergence of dynamic ’time of use’ electricity tariffs like Octopus Agile - where the unit price you pay every half hour is tied to wholesale prices and varies throughout the day - there’s the opportunity to charge power hungry devices like electric cars to take advantage of really cheap (and greener!) electricity rates. Under 5p/kWh often, which equates to the under 1p/mile bargain prices. TLDR: The Zappi charger can be made smarter with a Sonoff smart switch to trigger charging on a programmable schedule. [Read More]

A minor annoyance, but one that plagues me: when you put a wash on, forget about it finishing, only to discover the damp washing hours later festering in the washing machine. There’s only one thing to it - a massively overengineered smart home solution! Sonoff POW This is a smart device that can be had from Chinese online retailers for ~$9 - bargain. In it there’s a wifi microcontroller, the venerable ESP8266, a mains relay and a current/voltage sensor to measure power usage. [Read More]

This is a tutorial about how to flash custom firmware onto the ESP8266 in the Sonoff Wireless Smart Switch. The Sonoff is a low cost mains relay with a fully customisable ESP8266 inside. Great for home automation hacking! Parts list Sonoff TH10 or TH16 A USB to TTL dongle CH340G (FT232RL or PL2303 based will also do), to flash the new firmware. A 3.3V breadboard power supply (only required for testing, safer than using mains! [Read More]