pete_c
Guru
Purchased the SonOff S31 with energy monitoring from Amazon for $18.99- one day delivery.
Sonoff S31 Wi-Fi Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring UL Listed, Smart Socket Outlet Timer Switch, Compatible with Alexa & Google Home Assistant, IFTTT Supporting,
Note too that this is more of a US designed switch rather than an EU designed switch.
This one has a smaller footprint and includes energy monitoring. Note that this is my first endeavor that includes energy monitoring (using MQTT).
From the Tinkerman site:
It's not that other Sonoff products are not “serious” business, but there are a number of design changes in the Sonoff S31 that make this new product a world apart. For the functional point of view it looks like a S20 with POW-powers, but they have redesigned the product completely. The result is very very interesting.
The device itself is kind of pretty, compact and robust. It has some appealing design choices (outside and inside) and the way everything fits together (see more pictures below) is great.
Aside from the male and female type A plugs, you have a ON/OFF button on the dark gray side and two LEDs. The red LED closer to the side shows the relay status and the blue one, closer to the plug is used for notifications.
Opening the case to hack the device it's not hard. The only tricky step is to measure the strength you have to apply to first remove the dark grey cap where the ON/OFF button is.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1280]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1281]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1282]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1283]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1284]
The design is based on two PCBs. The bigger one for the AC connections, AC/DC transformer and relay. And the smaller one for the the DC circuitry, including the ESP8266, an SPI flash memory and the CSE7766 power monitoring chip. It sounds like a good idea but it gets somewhat screw because they don't actually isolate AC from DC. AC is in the secondary PCB too since the power monitor chips needs access to mains. Also the distance between AC and DC traces is thinner than what would be desirable.
Note this picture is from Tinkermans site. Here will just be soldering some small wires for VCC (3.3VDC), GND, RX and TX.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1285]
Soldering USB serial TTL device pins VCC, RX, TX and GND. Here utilize painting tape to hold wires in place to solder and used a bit of flux to solder.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1286]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1287]
Firmware updating:
Here downloaded S31 current bin to download directory on Linux.
You need Python 2.7 or Python 3.4
Easey Peasey to install
pip install esptool
/home/pete# esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash --flash_size 1MB --flash_mode dout 0x00000 espurna-1.14.0-itead-sonoff-s31.bin
Desoldered 4 wires and put device back in case.
Connected S31 to Christmas Tree - Power GUI
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1288]
Espurna GUI status
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1289]
Espurna S31 Power stats*
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1290]
Sonoff S31 Wi-Fi Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring UL Listed, Smart Socket Outlet Timer Switch, Compatible with Alexa & Google Home Assistant, IFTTT Supporting,
Note too that this is more of a US designed switch rather than an EU designed switch.
This one has a smaller footprint and includes energy monitoring. Note that this is my first endeavor that includes energy monitoring (using MQTT).
From the Tinkerman site:
It's not that other Sonoff products are not “serious” business, but there are a number of design changes in the Sonoff S31 that make this new product a world apart. For the functional point of view it looks like a S20 with POW-powers, but they have redesigned the product completely. The result is very very interesting.
- Revamped case, more compact and sturdy
- Redesigned PCB, actually 2 different PCBs for main and control
- Different power monitor chip: the CSE7766 (same as in the new POW R2) replaces the HLW8012
The device itself is kind of pretty, compact and robust. It has some appealing design choices (outside and inside) and the way everything fits together (see more pictures below) is great.
Aside from the male and female type A plugs, you have a ON/OFF button on the dark gray side and two LEDs. The red LED closer to the side shows the relay status and the blue one, closer to the plug is used for notifications.
Opening the case to hack the device it's not hard. The only tricky step is to measure the strength you have to apply to first remove the dark grey cap where the ON/OFF button is.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1280]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1281]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1282]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1283]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1284]
The design is based on two PCBs. The bigger one for the AC connections, AC/DC transformer and relay. And the smaller one for the the DC circuitry, including the ESP8266, an SPI flash memory and the CSE7766 power monitoring chip. It sounds like a good idea but it gets somewhat screw because they don't actually isolate AC from DC. AC is in the secondary PCB too since the power monitor chips needs access to mains. Also the distance between AC and DC traces is thinner than what would be desirable.
Note this picture is from Tinkermans site. Here will just be soldering some small wires for VCC (3.3VDC), GND, RX and TX.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1285]
Soldering USB serial TTL device pins VCC, RX, TX and GND. Here utilize painting tape to hold wires in place to solder and used a bit of flux to solder.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1286]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1287]
Firmware updating:
Here downloaded S31 current bin to download directory on Linux.
You need Python 2.7 or Python 3.4
Easey Peasey to install
pip install esptool
/home/pete# esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash --flash_size 1MB --flash_mode dout 0x00000 espurna-1.14.0-itead-sonoff-s31.bin
Desoldered 4 wires and put device back in case.
Connected S31 to Christmas Tree - Power GUI
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1288]
Espurna GUI status
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1289]
Espurna S31 Power stats*
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1290]
