In the interest of being good stewards of the planet AND saving money it’s a good idea to keep an eye on energy consumption.  But how?  You’ve probably seen commercials for Sense Energy Monitors but that seems kind of extreme to me. Also it has a learning algorithm that takes MONTHS to work and some items never get properly identified.

I’m taking the ONE AT A TIME approach by using simple outlets that can be used for single applications.   Introducing the Sonoff S31

Very cool and also reasonably inexpensive. These work right out of the box and link to an app called EWELink.

Just for the record I think EWELink is CRAP.

Also this is Cloud based and the Cloud lands in China somewhere which really doesn’t appeal to me at all.  So we’re going to flash this device with Tasmota firmware and no more talky talky to China.

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In my quest for the perfect low voltage or dry contact garage door relay I stumbled across this one that I found on Amazon

Seems like it might have been made by ITead because it came programmed with EWELink software.  Having said that I cannot find it on their website and I also thought it might be a Sonoff brand name.   I still think it is ITead but I just can’t prove it.

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I was using a Sonoff 4 Channel Pro relay in my “Smart Garage Door” project however it was big time overkill.  I only need one relay to pull this off.   In addition to this I was using a NodeMCU ESP8266 to act separately as the garage door sensor.   So in essence I had:

• Spare Remote Control (for Security 2.0 garage door opener)
• Sonoff 4 Channel Pro Relay
• NodeMCU ESP8266 Chip for Door sensor

Now I have

• Spare Remote Control
• Sonoff SV

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Decided to put a smaller, single channel relay in my Garage Door project. I ordered what I believe is an ITead Sonoff Inching Relay.

This module is preloaded with software and you can use an iPhone to trigger the relay using an app called EweLink

Basically you start the chip up, connect to its WiFi network and configure it to yours.

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You see all these Home Security systems being advertised all the time and they all have one gotcha.  Some kind of charge every month.  Why not just make your own?  Also it costs PENNIES on the dollar compared to some of those others.

One of the biggest components of home security is knowing the state of windows and doors. And that is very simple to obtain and with INEXPENSIVE hardware.  This guy is the backbone to this project:

This is a NodeMCU ESP8266 Internet of Things (IoT) chip.  Translation:  It’s a little teeny tiny small board computer with a wifi antenna on it.

You can get ESP8266 devices WAY cheaper than this even though this guy only costs $9 or so.   A couple of things I like about it are that it has a Micro USB input connector on it and the legs are already soldered on.

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If you have dabbled in Home Automation you’ve probably heard of Sonoff.  They make all manner of home automation devices.  I’ve been largely ambivalent towards them as I prefer Z-Wave devices and hackable outlets to power most of my home automation needs.   But I kept READING ABOUT THEM.  Everywhere you turn on the Home Automation sites people are talking about Sonoff and something called “Tasmota Firmware”.

I decided to see what all the fuss was about and ponied up the requisite $11 for a Sonoff RF from Amazon.  I’ve been on a 433 MHz device kick lately and I like the fact that radio controlled devices can work even when the network goes down.  As long as a Raspberry Pi is on that delivers that radio burst…….BOOM……the lights go on and off.

So I got one just to play with.  The interesting thing to me is that not only is it 433 MHz radio controlled it also works with WiFI and if you flash it with Tasmota Firmware it will do MQTT as well.   Okay, I’m getting slightly impressed here.

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