Wifi Smart Switch to control garage door

[Pancho]

I'm looking for a low voltage wifi smart switch, that can be controlled entirely from my lan.

For the past few years I have been using a low voltage Sonoff. Unfortunately this switch replies on a cloud service provided by eWelink. To cut a long story short eWelink is shit, they don't integrate well with OK Google and last week they changed their setup so it no longer works at all for me. Time to dump eWeLink.

I could flash the Sonoff with an alternative firmware (Tasmota) but this requires additional kit to interface with the Sonoff circuit board.

So does any one know a good wifi smart switch that allows control from the lan or easy re-flashing, over wifi, with a firmware that does allow lan control. Cheap stuff, that is.

Or is there a better group to post this on?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Raspberry pi zero W and a relay board?

[Theo]

I've flashed a similar switch with Tasmota over wifi - it needed a laptop running Linux but no extra kit or disassembly. I imagine the Sonoff can as well?

The switch was this one, a Maxcio WUK-007S-1P:

It worked fine for switching mains loads and power readings. Unfortunately it got zapped in a storm a few weeks later and I haven't got around to looking at it to see what happened (it's possible some parts of it are still alive).

The Tasmota repository is a good list of other devices that work with it:

Once flashed, the device has a web interface accessible over the wifi, or you can get it to speak MQTT if you have a gateway for Alexa/Google/HomeKit etc.

Theo

[Pancho]

I have a spare pi 3. Now I just need to figure out a relay.

[Pancho]

The newest sonoff basic r3 can, but the older versions cannot (which I have). You need to buy a USB converter and push wires from it into the PCB.

I might buy the USB flashing kit, if choosing a replay for my Pi is too hard for me.

[snip]

Useful thanks. A lot of the problem finding a device is that I'm only switching about 24v, most devices are for mains power.

I think I'll be ok with that bit. I'm more of a programmer than an electronics guy.

[Mathew Newton]

Shelly 1.

Benefits in brief:

- Mains or 12v supply

- Volt-free relay output

- Built-in web server for local access (cloud also available, but can be disabled) through app or web browser

- CE+UL certified

Happy to provide further info if required.

[Mathew Newton]

Forgot the link:

Regarding Raspberry Pi's, I'm a big fan (and run several) but in this instance it'd be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Keep it simple.

[Andy Burns]

Wouldn't you want a Shelley 2.5 for a door opener/closer?

[Chris Green]

The Quinetic switches from TLC have a WiFi controllable version, and a

12v powered relay too. Do you (the OP) actually need WiFi, as in control from a computer/phone, or is it just a remote switch you want? If you don't need actual WiFi then the basic Quinetic switches will do what you want.

[Mathew Newton]

With the application being a garage door opener I was assuming the WiFi switch was just going to emulate a physical switch and so wouldn't require the current sensing etc of the 2.5. The Shelly 1 is also the only one with completely isolated outputs which can be preferable.

All that said, you've made me realise we don't fully know the requirement eg what functions are required (open, close etc) and how it is to interface with what's there already. More info required I think, and you may well be right that the 2.5 is more suitable.

[Andy Burns]

Thought there were wired with fwd/rev contacts?

[Pancho]

Requirements: inching (turns on for ~1 second then off) switch on ~24v ac circuit.

. Opener is chamberlain liftmaster,

An alternative is a door bell type push switch, inching = momentary turns on when you press and then off when you release.

Originally I used a 443 MHz remote key fob. These cost about £30 each to replace, ebay clones seem to be shit.

My sonoff switch cost under £10.

The rPi is a nice solution as it is a transferable skill to other things I want to do. rPi is also standard, i tend to lose the will to live trying to understand bespoke hardware and software.

My preference would be a simple cheap low voltage switch like sonoff (with tasmota) driver, powered off 24v ac (actually slightly higher) or usb if available. But only if it is documented and simple.

[Mathew Newton]

Some are just momentary toggle switches - press to open, press again to close.

[Mathew Newton]

That's good, and would be the easiest way. You'd want the 'toggle' switch mode in the Shelly for that.

A Shelly 1 is under £10 (just), excl. postage though.

A Raspberry Pi is not what I would regard as standard. There are an infinite ways you can build both the software and hardware. Of course, that's a common benefit but it also means quite a learning curve. Lots of tutorials on the web though so you're not on your own. Configuring a Shelly via the GUI could not - I genuinely think you'd be up-and-running in 30 mins.

The Shelly 1 will work perfectly and ticks all the boxes bar running off 24v AC so you might have to rectify that to 12/24v DC.

Still get a Pi though; but don't stifle it life as a garage door opener - there are plenty of other more exciting things to do with it and learn from!

[Theo]

The Sonoff is an ESP8266 wifi microcontroller, which is exactly what I'd want for this task. Running Tasmota, it does one job and does it acceptably. Once you have Tasmota on there, and the relevant config string for your particular device pasted into its web page, that's it. You can control everything from the webpage, or it provides an API (MQTT) you can then control from something fancier.

You can instead use a Pi, but it doesn't come configured out of the box and there's a million ways you could set it up. It also doesn't come in a convenient physical package, and if it goes wrong (for example loses networking) you have to plug a screen in or pull the SD card and boot it on another Pi.

What I have is Tasmota on the endpoint (the wifi mains plug) and Home Assistant (hass.io) on a Pi on my desk, chatting with MQTT. All the complicated stuff runs on the Pi, and if it breaks I can easily get at it to fix it.

So if it were me I'd bite the bullet and get the USB cable for the Sonoff. You have a hardware solution that does what you want, you just need to reprogram it with the right firmware.

Theo

[Chris Green]

Not really, all my Pi systems (and some Beaglbone Blacks) run headless, I just use ssh to connect to them and reboot, reconfigure, update, whatever, from the command line.

[Dave Liquorice]

True but you get exactly what you want. B-)

This is more of a problem, box, PSU, connectors, time to construct, etc cost way more than the Pi.

All my Pi's run headless as well and operated as you say (apart from the initial writing of the OS and addition of the ssh file to /boot on a fresh/new SD card.

How ever if the networking falls over... B-)

I wish they produced a Zero E (for Ethernet), ENC28J60 boards work well enough but is another board to faff about with in the enclosure. Similar with a USB <> Ethernet adapter.

[Chris Green]

You just add the ssh file after creating the microSD card don't you, on the system where you created the micrSD image.

You're basically totally stuffed aren't you? I don't think I've ever had the networking (at least not the *wired* networking) fail on a system which was otherwise working.

BeagleBone Black (SBC similar to a Pi but with different strengths) boots with 'ssh over USB' working 'out of the box'. It also has a built in emmc memory chip so doesn't require a microSD (but can use one if you want).