Haven’t I already written about the NSPANEL PRO? Yes I have here.. but this is slightly different, instead of the square form factor – this one is LONG. For the USA (why the USA, no idea, I’d have thought we in Europe would be just as keen – but what do I know). I received mine with the backing box (as against sticking the panel on the wall) – and the reason others have beaten me to it is that I put it to one side as I could not figure out how to get the panel into the backing box. At first sight there seem to be no mounting holes suitable for this panel as the holes in the box APPEAR to be on the sides, not top and bottom.
It had to wait until I got a reply from Sonoff this week saying I should use THESE holes, and they sent me a photo of where THESE two holes are. As it turns out they did such a good job of putting temporary white plugs into them, I could not actually SEE the holes until support at Sonoff pointed me in the right direction.
See what I mean, 2 obvious mounting holes on the side – in the photo on the left, no obvious holes at ALL above and below…. yet this is exactly what the panel needs for mounting, unlike the original NSPanel Pro and it’s NSPanel predecessor.
Anyway, there ARE holes above and below, where they are supposed to be – just not easy to spot due to being filled with white silicon seals – I’ve no idea why.
See the image below for the mounting holes in the actual controller which do match up with the holes you can’t see on the above left image.
I took a blade and pulled them out, revealing the mounting holes above and below. Problem solved… I watched a Csongor Varga video at least up to 3 minutes in and it seems he didn’t completely follow the mountings either. I’d have watched the lot but at 3 minute the ads started – I cannot ABIDE in-video ads – I allow them at the start and end of mine but not in the middle. Life’s too short.
Anyway by now as others including Csongor have already covered the panel there’s not a lot to say over and above the featuers of the original NSPro panel.. Oh, they HAVE given you a conrtol panel option to change the orientation but it seems little else has changed from my NSPanel Pro. It is also possible to mess with the layout but not greatly.
Like NSPanel Pro, the Pro120 takes in main power (works just fine on European 230v – I have it turned on now) but does not actually control anything directly despite having partly populated connectors (no screws). The original NSPanel could control 2 devices via built-in relays – WHY take them out? My original NSPanel turns my bedlight on and off and separately my bedside charger (both timed to turn off after an hour regardless) NSPanel Pro and Pro120 cannot do this as they have no relays and no front panel “real” buttons (Original NSPanel had both).
Like NSPanel Pro, the new unit can look at Sonoff cameras – I have a Cam Slim upstairs checking out the cat feeding area and that is easily accessed along with other Sonoff products from the control panel. I have to say the screen is clear and sharp but not as touch-responsive as I’d expect on any modern phone or tablet. Somewhat reminiscent of the older resistive touch displays.
Csongor also mentions using the NSPanel Pro120 as a Zigbee gateway – I did this ages ago back in the UK with my NSPanel Pro and stopped doing that as it mainly only supports Sonoff devices – which defeats the object of Zigbee 3.0 really.
Ultimately I spun up another instance of Zigbee2MQTT (Docker) here at my Spanish home, and in the UK fitted one of those Ethernet Zigbee coordinators (see my blog entry on the subject) – talking to the Spanish RPi Zigbee2MQTT over Tailscale, with mains Zigbee devices over there (cheap AliExpress Zigbee lamps) acting as routers (repeaters) so I can also access my UK Sonoff Zigbee battery sensors. That’s working just fine, months after I set it up. Later I looked back at Csongor’s video and he correctly points out that the “pilot” Zigbee router (repeater) mode doesn’t seem to work but by then for me too late – I’m sticking with Zigbee2MQTT and the Ethernet Zigbee coordinators which can EASILY be converted back and forth between coordinator and router at the touch of an on-screen button.
As a final note – I just upgraded the NSPanel Pro120 to the latest firmware while writing this down and 15 minutes later – black screen.
No amount of screen-touching is fixing that – time to cycle the power…. and on it comes – but since when do we have to do that after a firmware update? I set the time zone – not sure why the panel can’t get the time zone from my router but it isn’t unique in that shortcoming.
Ok, next – there’s a voice call button which can call any other NSPanel Pro – so I made the call – it responded immediately – but my NSPanel Pro only 3 metres away took all of 5 seconds before starting to beep. Why? It’s on the same network…
See the temperature above – 22.2C – that must be the default outside temperature from the nearest weather station – as it is 25c in my office – weirdly the old NSPanel Pro White which I just referred to for a video call, says 29c. I think it’s about 22c outside – however I’d not set the city for the Pro120 and it is unaware of my village of Galera (my PC and Xiaomi Mi 7 are both aware of Galera, Andalucia. I put in the full area “Galera, Granada” and what did NSPanel Pro120 come up with? Everything BUT. I even added SPAIN on the end – still no joy, NOT impressed by that when even the cheapest watch band can handle my village – so I put in the nearest TOWN – Huescar – still no joy – more work needed, guys.
Out of desperation, I tried using the web page feature with the NSPanel Pro120 in landscape mode… my Android phone runs Home Assistant as both an APP and as a web-page so why not? Well, no. It WORKS but is so SLOW as to be unusable. Another bright idea gone to waste. I went back and tried the NSPANEL PRO and that’s even worse.