DIRT Cheap Sonoffs

Peter ScargillGeneral17 Comments on DIRT Cheap Sonoffs

If you are into home control, then unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve almost certainly heard of Sonoff – Sonoff BASIC is their cheap power controller… recently upgraded to R3. Well, until October 31, Banggood have a VERY special price on the R2. I’ve been using these for ages and I’m out of them now… would you believe (shipped from China) £3.88 in pounds sterling or equivalent and FREE POST.

I thought I’d better post this so someone else can benefit – it seems that October 31 is the last day of the sale – Here’s the link….

17 thoughts on “DIRT Cheap Sonoffs”

  1. Hi, Pete!
    Pls, check a few links.

    1. A few days ago Itead released SONOFF BASICZBR3 – Zigbee DIY Smart Switch: https://www.itead.cc/sonoff-basiczbr3.html
    It’s a sign that world changes to ZigBee.

    2. Ikea has already a lot of ZigBee devices:
    https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/products/?q=tradfri
    No needs to talk about Xiaomi or Philips Hue.

    3. Tasmota makes Zigbe-to-Tasmota Gateway (Z2T)
    https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/wiki/Zigbee

    4. And the icing on the cake – Zigbee2MQTT Project.
    https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/supported_devices.html

    All you need is to buy is a $5 Zigbee USB Dongle with $10 CC Debugger
    You can find it here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32982628286.html
    10 minutes for firmware upload and you are on next level of IoT.

    I think you have to try it. I hope you would like.

      1. Antonio, for me Aqara Cube is a strange things. One of my friends tell me its the best control device he can dream about. But for me it’s not so clear – too much different functions, i can’t remember all.

        The best way for me to use it is to give it to someone and to ask: what is this?

        And second part of show – I ask to throw it up. And when my friend do it Alexa yell from speaker “PUT ME ON THE TABLE, GO OUT AND NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!”
        I know it’s not the best joke but i like it. 🙂

        1. as i said on a video review of the cube, connected to nodered: i imagine it rolling from the stairs, making all your house becoming the 1st member of Skynet against you 😀

          don’t know, it seems funny, have to try, arrived this summer and still boxed 🙂

          and NEVER let someone who does not know its movement to touch it! 😀

      2. To be clear, first steps should be:
        – get a Zigbee stick, flash it
        – get a xiaomi round button
        – install zigbee2mqtt-MQTT-NodeRed
        – connect button to Z2M
        – press the button and make something do something
        – press the button twice and make something do something different

        It’s simple. And its marvelous. Better than with sonoff. Can’t explain why.

        And you’ve done first steps, you are on the way.
        Be carefull about repairing. Xiaomi devices connects easily. But if you want to reset it and connect it again, it will be not so simple.

    2. Thanks for that Vladimir, for me, Zigbee is old news, I’ve had various attempts over the years at using short range radio devices and always hit stumbling blocks. My home here in the UK is built out of 200 year old stone and I cannot manage with one WIFI access point, more like 4 of them – similarly in Spain our place has solid walls some 2ft thick, often more. A combination of wired Ethernet and where impractical, modern power-line Ethernet and a bunch of WiFi access points give me all the connectivity I need. With that infrastructure in place and a bunch of WiFi-connected ESP8266 low-cost IOT devices, I can’t immediately see any benefit in Zigbee, however, you’ve included links so those interested can progress them. Something for everyone!

      1. Pete, obviously Zigbee is old news. At least since since 2004.
        But now it seems to be working.

        You have to pay attention on next sensors at least.

        – PIR Motion detector

        – Temperature sensor

        – Water leak sensor

        – Door (ore something else) open sensor

        And Buttons. Butons or Wall Switches. I thin buttons is the most important part of IoT.

        If You need to turn on something – you can press the button.
        If you need to call someone – you can press the buton.
        If you need to push an abstract signan – you can press the button.

        Two very usefull buttons:
        Aqara double key wall switch
        https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/WXKG01LM.html

        And simple button:
        https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/WXKG01LM.html
        You can set different reaction to one click, double click, triple, quadruple and long press.

        Simple case:
        one click – turn low light
        double click – turn middle light
        triple click – turn on full light
        long press – call help
        and so on.

        You can place it anywhere because of internal battery and lower power consuption. And you can set a lot of buttons with same or different functions. Can You do it with wifi buttons?

  2. Am I missing the link? I don’t see it.

    The price that I am getting in the US is $8.99

    Joe

  4. Yes R2. Espurna works for me. Not sure about Alexa mode but I’m using Node Red-Contrib-Amazon-echo for that.

  5. the R2 are pretty good with their THICK wires instead of the pcb (solder reinforced) traces which were on R1 and are back in R3… especially for who wants to flash them with alternative firmwares, no need to mess around with that MEHish DIY mode…

    p.s.: i can’t see from link they’re actually R2, but in comments photos it seems so…

Comments are closed.