11–20 of 32 posts
I recently came across this neat button pusher IoT gadget (used it to control the boiler in our rented accommodation): https://www.switch-bot.com/products/switchbot-bot A less intrusive and safer alternative for those not quite comfortable with mains diy.
https://esphome.io/devices/sonoff_s20.html
I usually flash ESPurna onto it (Tasmota and ESPhome are also good choices), it's very easy to do and it's extremely reliable and hopefully has a lower chance of fire than anything I'd make.
This is a nice hack, but I'm always very wary of playing with large voltages because it's too easy for things to go wrong. Instead, for controlling mains devices, I recommend a Sonoff S20: https://esphome.io/devices/sonoff_s20.html I usually flash ESPurna onto it (Tasmota and ESPhome are also good choices), it's very easy to do and it's extremely reliable and hopefully has a lower chance of fire than anything I'd mak…
I've used some TP-Link's equivalent up until the point when TP-Link decided to effectively brick it for me by disallowing control via local network because "security". I'm very concerned about someone on my WiFi turning on my kettle and boiling me some water. :)
This is a nice hack, but I'm always very wary of playing with large voltages because it's too easy for things to go wrong. Instead, for controlling mains devices, I recommend a Sonoff S20: https://esphome.io/devices/sonoff_s20.html I usually flash ESPurna onto it (Tasmota and ESPhome are also good choices), it's very easy to do and it's extremely reliable and hopefully has a lower chance of fire than anything I'd mak…
...well not crap, mine beeps a few times when the power turns on =)
The ESP32 fiddling is required to fake button presses on the touch sensitive buttons to make it actually start.
This is a nice hack, but I'm always very wary of playing with large voltages because it's too easy for things to go wrong. Instead, for controlling mains devices, I recommend a Sonoff S20: https://esphome.io/devices/sonoff_s20.html I usually flash ESPurna onto it (Tasmota and ESPhome are also good choices), it's very easy to do and it's extremely reliable and hopefully has a lower chance of fire than anything I'd mak…
For those less keen on mains voltage - some wifi smart plugs can be flash with tasmota without opening them. Tricky but is you need a fan that powers on when it gets juice. Something that requires a button press won’t work
A neat trick: there is almost always enough AC on the neutral, even when the line is off to run some very low power MCU, or even do some LED blinks.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthing_system#IEC_terminolog...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A neat trick: there is almost always enough AC on the neutral, even when the line is off to run some very low power MCU, or even do some LED blinks.
Between neutral & earth? That's surely going to depend on the topology of your earthing system [0] - TN-C will be so low impedance you won't get much through your deliberate load at all, more with TN-C-S, but most luck with TN-S where neutral already has a long cable run full of impedance before it joins back up with earth, and you can add a small enough load that that path gets a non-negligible share of the current.…
Anything wireless is still out of the question unless real ground is there though. Without ground, a dedicated power harvesting circuit would certainly provide more power.
We experimented with harvesting, with 10cm antennas, it's just enough to do a single beep once 20-30 minutes using specialised ULP UHF radios, or RX for a few seconds once a minute.