SonOff Basic WiFi Switch Pictorial

[Pete]

Just purchased a couple of the SonOff Basic devices here.

Note that this is only a WiFi device as there is no 433Mhz radio in it.

Way back I could find them for $5. Here just did the Amazon Prime 2 day order for ~ $15 for a pair of them. Same best price I could find on Ebay with free shipping ($7.00 each).

I know nothing about this device at this time such that I am gathering pictures and reading tutorials.


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SonOff basic Wifi and 433Mhz device

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Hardware Tools here available for tinkering

1 - Dremel tool
2 - soldering station with small tip
3 - workbench old circular lamp with magnifying glass
4 - wire - stranded 22 guage and 24 guage multi colors
5 - Arduino test wires, connectors, jumpers, et al
6 - hot melt glue and glue stick
7 - hot air station (if you want to remove and upgrade flash chip)

Software tools

[Michael McSharry]

There are applications is section 12 of the mcsMQTT manual that describe some hardware mods for the Sonoff Basic.

One is to isolate the relay from mains so it can be used as a general purpose relay where the output terminals are the two relay contacts rather than mains power and return.

The second is to use the output terminals as inputs such is the case for a water meter pulse counter. In this application the relay is not used and the output terminals are wired to ground and GPIO14.

In both cases it is a cut along the edge to the circuit board (such as with hack saw or dremel) and soldered wire.

I also showed how to get to GPIO4 which requires a small gauge wire soldered directly onto a corner pin of the ESP8266. This is not one I recommend as it requires good technique to do it correctly. If more than one additional GPIO is needed for your application it is easier to use the TX and RX that are on headers after you have finished flashing the firmware. Subsequent flashing will be done using OTA rather than USB.

[Pete]

Thank you Michael.

Yes read the documents section 12 piece first.

Then went looking for pictures as I will be using my 12" illuminated magnifying glass on my workbench and my vision is getting old now.

Yes will be doing this on workbench table which is configured for all sorts of stuff.

A few years back here ordered a few arduinos and wiring kits and sensors and stuff and never have played with them.

Looked today and my kits have no headers to solder on to the SonOff board so ordered another kit today for this piece.

Updated first SonOff via the eWelink software to firmware 1.6 which I should not have done after reading this:

Flashing Itead Sonoff devices with custom firmware via original OTA mechanism

ATTENTION: It appears SonOTA does not work with devices running firmware version >= 1.6!

I was able to update second SonOff following the steps provided above.

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Will do hardware modes to this unit next.

[Pete]

Pictorial of two hardware mods to SonOff basic device.

Reason for the post is sort of like reading out softly to myself as I type this post. (age thing )

1 - Cutting the high voltage connection from the input side to the output side. This is the picture in the mcsMQTT document.

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I have done similar here when originally modifying a TP-Link 120VAC micro router such that I powered it via a 5VDC power supply.

Easiest will be to cut through the board severing the two 120VAC wire traces from the relay and just doing a solder bridge / short wire at the cut point on the relay side of the traces.

Here is a picture of what I did which really is the same as what Michael did in the mcsMQTT documentation. Used thinnest blade with Dremel and cut is still a bit too large.

Words of caution. Check to make sure there is NO connection between the high voltage side and the relay using a VOM.

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Doing SonOff #2 and stopping GPIO wiring soldering until when I get the headers this week.

[Pete]

Just a quickie review of the pinouts and use with some more pictures before I solder / connect wires for Garage Door SonOff modifications; a repost of what is in the documentation and some adds from the Internet SonOff endeavors.

Serial Connection - Used for programming using the JTAG pinouts - Serial connection

You need to access the serial interface. The four serial pins (3V3, Rx, Tx, GND) are available in the middle of the PCB, right next to the on-board button. Newer version of the Sonoff module provide five pins below the button, ignore the pin furthest away from the Button (GPIO14) if available. The square pin right next to the button is the 3.3V line.

Here personally utilizing male header pins instead of a female header socket.

For flashing the sonoff basic V1.1, please hold the button while connecting the Plus Pole. The LED remains off until the flashing process is done and the board is rebooted.

Note the marker writing "OUT" on the terminal strip.

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GPIO Locations

GPIO 01, 03,14 and pin for GPIO 04 which is difficult to connect to as stated in the documentation.

As referenced in the manual if you do utilize GPIO 04 pin then utilize a tiny guage wire and drop a little globlet of hot melt glue there.

• GPIO 03 - RX PIN
• GPIO 01 - TX PIN
• GPIO 04 - Second image below (must solder wire to pin on ESP chip)
• GPIO 14 - Below GND PIN

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[Michael McSharry]

Excellent visuals. From what I can see everything is correct. Doing the GPIO connection is impressive for older eyes. I had some wire from back in the '70s wire wrap onto socket pins days for my connection. Also used magnet wire for wire wrap then, but harder to strip the coated vs. teflon insulation.

Did you have any luck with using the door open / door closed selections on mcsTasmota?

[Pete]

Thank you Michael.

Using a magnifying glass / lamp and the Dremel tool with a very thin blade it was a bit difficult to keep a steady hand for a nice cut yesterday.

I have two of the older style NO / NC reed switches (ones with the steel cables). These have 3 wires and work two ways depending on the wire configuration. Might be easier just to use a couple of old reed switches that I have around.

Yes a while back here purchased spools of stranded wires of various gauges and colors made for tinkering from All Electronics

So wiring will be all from headers plus the button from the relay.

Out wires will be the ground and two GPIO ports (3 wires) plus relay 2 wires.

Yes as you described the open / door closed selections using 56 and 57 worked.

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Went to a newer style "digital" myQ GDO. Button is digital and had issues with older style garage door HomeLink buttons on cars such that I had to purchase a repeater mounted next the GDO on the ceiling to work with the HomeLink buttons.

For the wall mounted button will need to take it apart and do a direct wire to the board for the open and close button. (the old Omni Alarm wires are still there next to the GDO).

Is there a low voltage SonOff that will run on batteries such that I can put it outside and connect it to my AS3935 lightning sensor board?

Found a picture showing the use of a low voltage source to power up the Sonoff. Would this work with a battery?

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It uses 3 GPIO ports, ground and 3VDC for the reads in python right now and many folks use it with an Arduino (well Sparkman did this). Taking it to Mosquitto would be a nice add here.

I have it inside of the home and it is not really that sensitive with an earth ground connected to the power supply of the RPi.

[Pete]

Soldered on headers to the Sonoff Basic devices.

Having issues uploading Tasmota firmware to Sonoff updated device (V1.6).

Updated firmware fine except after reboot.

It is not connecting to WiFi and keeps trying and errors out.

I read that the update did modify or change the WiFi log in and maybe upgraded the WiFi firmware.

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[Michael McSharry]

Is there a low voltage SonOff that will run on batteries such that I can put it outside and connect it to my AS3935 lightning sensor board?

Found a picture showing the use of a low voltage source to power up the Sonoff. Would this work with a battery?

The Sonoff's with which I am familiar are not designed for battery operation. Typical circuits that do this use the input stimuli to either enable power to the ESP or to produce an interrrupt that takes the ESP out of deep sleep. The ESP manufacturer has also introduced a WiFi mode called ESP Now that is geared to lower power point to point WiFi communications to support battery modes. To my knowledge the Tasmota firmware does not have provisions for these minimal power designs. The battery will not last very long without special low-power design provisions.

Having issues uploading Tasmota firmware to Sonoff updated device (V1.6).

The writeup I saw for using OEM OTA indicated that it only worked with V1.5 and provided warning not to update to V1.6 if OEM OTA is to be used. What I tried was a pretty elaborate process and in the end did not work for me on the Sonoff Basic. It could be that I was not sufficiently motivated because putting headers on the boards was easy for me.

[Pete]

I should have read the warnings about the Update to V1.6.

Here seeing same issues relating to watching serial port and wireless connectivity after the update with Tasmota as the Sonoff users are seeing today. Many are very upset now with Sonoff as the units are bricks now and they have been posting much noise on the Sonoff forums.

The JTAG serial communications just shows the SonOff WiFi basic just trying to connect to the wireless AP over and over again but never pairing up with the WAP.

Guessing that the update to V1.60 included an update to the radio or encryption. Some users mentioned to only use cipher TKIP rather than TKIP and AES.

Thing too there was when I updated the SonOFF to V.1.6 it worked and connected to the WAP, then lost connectivity when I updated firmware to tasmota.
I am very impressed with the Atom software versus the Arduino software.

The header / ribbon cable kit came with many colors for headers such that I matched the pictures above. The wire colors also match the header on my USB to TTL device. Just a note that you have to make sure you utilize 3.3VDC pins versus 5.0 VDC pins and leave the 120VAC power disconnected when upgrading the firmware.

1 - red - 3.3VDC
2 - blue - RX
3 - green - TX
4 - black - ground
5 - yellow - GPIO 14

For the switch looked at your soldering points and am just using the same two original terminals for the switch. I did another check before testing it just in case there was 120VAC leaking to the other side.

Taking all of the wires from the top of the SonOff board. Earlier when soldering the bridge I had put too much solder there and the board was not even so cleaned it up a bit and decided not to wire any more on the bottom of the board.

Found a source for $5.18 SonOff basic WiFI modules with free shipping from China.



The deal is for shipping from China. If you go with shipping from US it is more than twice the cost.

Thinking that the wireless updates relate to the regulatory stuff relating to wireless devices in general, modifications of radios et al relating to non adjustable power, MAC address et al and replacing or modifications of firmware.