Matthew McMillan: Review for Itead Studio wifi controlled smart home electrical switches

Matthew McMillan: Product Review: Itead Studio wifi controlled smart home electrical switches: The guys at Itead Studios are running an Indiegogo campaign for a couple new smart home products they developed called the Sonoff and the Slampher.

I recommend Matt's review. Matt is an engineer, and his video and blog seem very interesting.

SONOFF and SLAMPHER demonstration by Scott

Scott has used SONOFF and SLAMPHER with Arduino Uno, Nextion Display, 433Mhz RF transmitter, 433Mhz RF receiver, Grove Base Shield and Grove Sound Sensor to demonstrate. You can find SONOFF and SLAMPHER smart home device here.

How to Use eWeLink?

EWeLink is an App used to control ITEAD smart home products. This post I am going to show you how to make Sonoff WiFi switch and Slampher WiFi light holder work with the App. Sonoff and Slampher are ITEAD's latest home automation products, which are being crowdfunded in Indiegogo recently. There are Android and iOS versions for eWeLink. So I will introduce them separately. 

How to use iOS eWeLink with Sonoff and Slampher?

First of all, you need to get Sonoff and Slampher installed with an appliance and E27 light bulb. As you can see, there are SET button on Sonoff/ Slampher. By long pressing it, the green indicator LED will turn fast blinking, which means the device has entered into pairing status.

Download and Registration

Download iOS eWeLink from Apple App store and install. If you haven’t have an account, register with your phone number, the password must be at least 8 characters. Enter the verify code you received to submit. If everything is fine you can login with this new account.

Now you need to add device to your list. Below are iOS eWeLink Instructions

1.Long press the button on Sonoff/Slampher until the green indicator LED fast blink to enter pairing status.

2.Go to phone Settings >WLAN/Wi-Fi >connect with the network begins with ITEAD-1000***, 

enter default password 12345678.

3.Go back to the App to click “CONFIRMED”.

4.Enter your Router SSID and password.(SSID can be number, letter, hyphen and underline; Password only number. If no password, fill in 8 random numbers )

5.Go back to phone setting> WLAN/Wi-Fi

6.Select your own wifi or cellular network to connect.

7.Return to eWeLink to name your device to complete pairing.

It shows “This device has been added successfully!” , this means it can be used now.

It fails when it shows“This device has been registered by other user”.

When adding new devices, it takes a while to connect to server. Please wait a moment until the icon shows online.

Note: If you see the new added device is offline, please wait for a moment. If it keeps offline, please power off the device, then power it up, hopefully, it will become online.

How to use Android eWeLink with Sonoff and Slampher?

It is the same as iOS, you need to get your devices well installed. Then search eWeLink from Google Play market to download and install.

Android eWeLink Instructions

1.Open WiFi on your phone, long press SET button on Sonoff/Slampher until the indicator LED fast blink to enter pairing status.

2.Register and login your account, click “+” to add devices.

3.Click “Start searching” to search devices.

4.Select the device you want to add, and select your WiFi account and enter password (No special characters allowed ).

5.Name the device.

”Registered success”means you added it successfully. If this note doesn’t appear, you may face a timeout, please add again.

Note: If you see the new added device is offline, please wait for a moment. If it keeps offline, please power off the device, then power it up, hopefully, it will become online.

Delete devices

For iOS version, enter a device, you will see an icon right after the remote button. 

For Android version, to delete a device, you need to go to the devices list, then slide the device name from right to left. You will see the delete icon, just press it to delete your device.

Manage Group

This function currently only Android eWeLink has, later ITEAD will upgrade the iOS eWeLink and enable this function.

Click the top right corner button on device list interface. You’ll see”Manage Group””Exit Account””Exit e-Welink”. Click “Manage Group” to add or delete group. After adding group, you can long press to select the device and move it under your group. If you delete a group, the devices belong to this group will still exist.

Add Timing Schedules

You can set maximum 8 timing schedules for each device. Both single timing and repeat timing are supported. We can set turn on timing schedule so that our device will auto-turn on at a preset time, or you can set turn off timing schedule.

Enter into our device, click setting icon to set the date and time.

Share Devices

Enter the device you want to share, click “share”icon then enter the Phone number (this phone No. should register and login first, stay online) you want to share with. Then he/she will receive an invitation message, by accepting the invitation, he/she will have the authority to control the device you share. Only the owner of the devices has right to share devices.

So this is all about how to use eWeLink to work with Sonoff and Slampher. One thing must be sure, the App will be upgraded in the near future. Thus, eWeLink will have more functions and can control more devices. If you are interested to learn more about Sonoff and Slampher, search them on Indiegogo and you will get more information there. You can learn more about the installation, pairing with 433Mhz RF remote or others from another blog.

Latest Smart Home Solution- Sonoff and Slampher

As I have introduced you Sonoff and Slampher before. This post I am going to introduce you the RF remote controller. RF remote controller's frequency is 433Mhz, so you are allow to control your devices indoor.

Many friends ask me how this RF remote controller pair with Sonoff or Slampher recently. So I want to give more details here.

Sonoff WiFi wireless switch and Slampher can be controlled by the App eWeLink, except this or by the RF remote controller. The RF remote controller can pair and control Sonoff/Slamper devices without WiFi. To do the pairing, you need to Fast press "SET"button on Sonoff and Slampher twice, the red LED on Sonoff/Slampher will flash one time, now press one of the ABCD buttons on the controller to pair with. If you pair it with A, then you can press A to turn on/off your device.
To cancel the pairing, you need to fast press the"SET" button on Sonoff/Slampher 3 times.If you short press the “SET” button on Slampher, it will become a switch button, with it you can turn the bulb on or off your light bulb.

No need to worry when you can not find your phone or your phone is power off any more, you can use the RF remote controller to turn on/off your devices. 1 such RF remote controller can control 4 devices. With this RF remote controller in hand, you can reduce your workload a great deal.

Itead Sonoff WiFi wireless switch and Slampher WiFi wireless light holder

Hundreds of billions people are suffering troubles caused by manual switch now. They are troubled by going to turn off every light before sleep every night, they are bothered by manually turning on every appliance every time, they are annoyed by their bad memory of forgetting to turn on or off their appliances on time, they are fed up of getting up earlier to prepare for their breakfast... And you are one of them! These troubles has come to destroy your good mood again and again. How can you bear them any longer? Now it is time to say goodbye to all these troubles. Sonoff and Slampher will save you. 

Contribute for Sonoff and Slampher in IndieGoGo on Nov27th, 2015! 

Itead Sonoff WiFi wireless switch：

Slampher WiFi wireless light holder:

What is Sonoff and Slampher?

Sonoff is a WiFi wireless switch that can connect to appliance of different types and brands. There are setting button on Sonoff and Slampher for you to pair the WiFi with your app. They transmit data to cloud through WiFi, thus you can control all your appliances through the APP in your phone, or you can control them by a 433 Mhz controller. 

Slampher is a WiFi wireless light holder that can connect to light bulb with E27 screw base. It works the same as Sonoff, you can control your light bulbs through APP or the 433 Mhz controller. 

How do Sonoff and Slampher work?

Sonoff WiFi Wireless Switch and Slampher WiFi Wireless Light Holder connect with the appliances and lights. Sonoff and Slampher will send data to cloud platform through the WiFi Router, which enables you to control all appliances and lights with the APP on your smart phone or tablet. Another way to control the appliances and lights is 433 Mhz Controller. It is a controller only for indoor use, with which you can control your appliances and lights without the APP.

How to install Sonoff and Slampher?

It is very easy to install Slampher WiFi wireless light holder. Firstly, you need to make use your original light holder and light bulb is for E27 screw base. Then turn off the electricity source, screw the light bulb into Slampher, finally screw the Slampher into your original light holder. 

To install Sonoff WiFi wireless switch, you’ll read the indication sign on the Sonoff switch carefully. Please follow our installation instructions below:

1. Turn off the electricity source 

2. Open the two yellow shells at either end

3. Connect the two electricity source cables(Live and Neutral) with the ports with “IN” mark, one cable for one port, and there’s no limitation for which port to connect

4. Connect the two appliance cables(Live and Neutral) with the ports with “OUT” mark, one cable for one port, and there’s no limitation for which port to connect

5. Cover the shells and screw them

You can see our demonstration video showing you how to install Sonoff WiFi wireless switch with a fan below:

APP Remote Control

The name of this APP is e-Welink. 

There are two APP versions: Android and IOS. You can download and install it to your smart phones or tablets. 

Register and log in

The first time you use e-Welink, you need to register an account first.

The account number is your phone NO., the password must be at least 8 characters, including upper case and lower case letter, number. After correctly entering the verify code from the SMS, you successfully register. Then log in with your account.

Add devices

Press the setting button on Sonoff or Slampher to make the green LED light turn into fast blinking. Press “Add”, auto search devices to be configured around, select the one you need to configure. Then select your wifi to pair with. Submit and name your device. You can add as more devices as you like.

Control with e-Welink APP

Enter your device to press the on/off icon to turn on or turn off your devices. You can set maximum 8 timing schedules for each device. Both one off or repeat timing tasks are allowed. With the timing function, you can maintain a carefree life.

You can share your devices to those who also have an e-Welink account by clicking the share icon and enter their account number. The system will automatically send an invitation message to them, when they confirm your invitation in e-Welink, they can randomly control your devices together. 

Remote control with 433 Mhz controller 

433 Mhz controller is the greatest difference from general wifi switch. When you are indoor, you can remotely turn on or turn off all your devices with just one 433 Mhz controller. So you don’t have to worry when there is disconnection with wifi, or you can’t find your smart phone any more.

Amazon AWS Global Server

ITEAD smart home products use Amazon AWS global server. It is a stable, powerful cloud server, wide coverage cloud server. As long as you have 2G/3G/WiFi network, you can control your devices from any where at any time.

We support control from WeChat. Following e-Welink’s official WeChat account, you will be able to control your devices on the main page. Later we will support access through Alibaba, other third-party platforms and third-party servers.

With Sonoff and Slampher, you can maintain an easier, carefree life. By setting timing schedules, you can have hot coffee to drink while you get up, and have hot water available to bathe, have breakfast prepared by the cooker. You can remotely turn on all your lights before you step into your house. You can remotely turn off the water dispenser to avoid carcinogenic substances produced by repeated heating... and I can name more.

With Sonoff and Slampher, you can have a smart home to control in your palm. Now get these nice gadgets at IndieGoGo at a good price. 

DIY the Itead Wifi Wireless Switch to Work Under 5V?

As my last post referred that the Itead wifi switch is set to work under AC current. It is very practical for home appliance. However, when consider to use it in electronic DIY, it is not so convenient. If I can make it work under 5V, I think it would be very helpful for electronics enthusiasts.

So how to make it happen? I find out the schematic and solder it a little bit. I make it able to work under either 5V or 90V-265V. It is not very hard work, just a few steps and some small changes will achieve it.

See the original board picture below:

Step 1. Remove the two resistors from 1 to 2.

Step 2. Remove the black cable in 3 to 2, which makes this black cable and the red cable become one for signal output and one for signal input, each can be either signal output or signal input, they works both ways.

Step 3.Now solder a black cable in 5V area, which makes it a 5V power input port.

And solder a black cable in GND to make it GND of 5V power supply.

While the two cables at the lower right corner keep the same. The black one is for 90V-265V output while the red one is for 90V-265V power input.

Therefore you can choose to power it up at either 5V or 90-265V, it is up to you.

Please see the below picture how it become. If you are not a professional electrician, never try to make this DIY. You know, the AC current is very dangerous. Your life is everything.

Build a Smart Home with a wireless Wifi Switch like Adapter by Apple App Control

Now smart home has become a fashion, so I follow this trend and to make my house a true smart home. I have searched for about the smart home gadgets for some time, finding that there are lots of wireless switch, wifi switch, app switch or wifi socket products, of which the price vary from around 20 dollars to more than 100 dollars. If I want to make my “smart home” project successful, I have to buy at least 10 wifi switches, oh! not a small budget. And considering that if I buy different brands, I might come across an avoidable problem- must download different APPs. Of course, I will not do such silly things. However, some people may not aware of this issue and then they buy many brands. This is a bug that everybody hates. Therefore, there are two things on my mind: 1. I must limit my costs 2. I must choose just one brand.

However, as a DIY lover, I have considered about making a same effect wifi switch like gadget of my own. There are usually two ways to achieve my goal. 1. X10, it is a common solution that a micro controller will controlled the home appliances. Actually, I don’t like this much. 2. As @Shabaz reminded me in element 14 that “I can use a remote power strip (as used in server rooms). It normally has a connection to the network via Ethernet (probably serial interface ones still exist too) so that you can switch power on/off to individual or multiple appliances.” I realize that this is an integrated system, yes, for the professional electronic guys, this is a way. However, the costs is not low, and it is not a good solution for individual DIY.

There must be a better way. I have always thinking that I should find a PCB like half-finished wifi switch, which is convenient to install. I search and search for such a smart thing, finally, I find this amazing gadget from Itead Online shop. It is just the thing I want. Without hesitation, I ordered several Itead wifi switch, one with shell, other two are just the boards.(Which I will DIY for 5 volts power supply, I will tell you later) They only costs me half less than those wifi switches!

This is how it looks like:

Ok, let me give you a brief introduction about this gadget(just name it wifi adapter). This wifi adapter is very convenient, you can use it directly the moment power on. I connect the cables of the wifi adapter with appliance and the power according to the instructions.

So this is the work principle:

The wifi adapter connects to an appliance and the power, press the start button on the wifi adapter, the adapter will automatically search for the available wifi. Download their free APP(IOS or Android). Search and add the device. See my borrowed pic bellow:

I can click the ON/OFF switch icon to control my appliance. Also, I can check the appliance status and set as many timer schedules as I like. I can share my device with my family, then they can control the devices together.

Now I am very happy. I have one adapter to connect with my kettle. So I can boil water 10 minutes before I get home. I have another one to connect with the air conditioner, which can be remote open 5 minutes before I get home. One to connect with my water heater, I can control it to work any where any time now. Another one to connect with my bedroom bulbs. I will never worry about have forgot to turn my light off now. It make my life so convenient and carefree. Just follow the instructions, even the girls can install it easily. Now the not-so-smart traditional appliances become smart. And I can use the APP to control everything. Bellow is the picture of connecting the wifi adapter with my fan to test.

I wonder why this smart thing is unknown. It’s inexpensive and easy install, easy control. I think I must tell everybody about it.

Well, it’s set to used for AC current. While I am thinking if it is possible to DIY it to use for low power supply, say 5 volts. So that I can control my electronic things easily. Their customer service told me that I can make it. And I am waiting for their schematic. I will come back to tell you about my works.

PS:

As many people ask me where to buy it. I am sorry I bought them from Itead's Taobao shop, they will make it available at Itead Studio Imall shop soon. I will try to give you a note about this. Ok, update it now, you may find some important info here.

And some people want to know how the APP look like, here is a picture below:

Reformation for Arduino Display - China Nextion TFT HMI Display Compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi From ITEAD.cc

Itead Studio is an innovative high-tech company that specializes in selling electronics products, PCB, PCBA.They provides one-stop services from production, customization, retail and wholesale, technology support to after-sales services. So far, Itead Studio has more than 120 online agents in the world. Itead Studio has independent Research Department to rapidly develop new products to meet electronic enthusiasts and industrial needs. With years’ efforts on open-source hardware and intelligent hardware, they has been recognized by many leading brands such as Intel, Atmel, TI and has become co-developer of several Fortune 500 enterprises.

In 2014, with a strong market sensitivity, Itead Studio seize the initiative to develop a new TFT display called Nextion TFT Human Machine Interface（short for Nextion below）.

What is the Nextion?

Nextion is a Seamless Human Machine Interface (HMI) solution that provides a controllable and visualized interface between a human and a process, machine, application or appliance. Nextion is mainly applied to IoT or consumer electronics field. Nextion provides a complete, high-quality display features for developing advanced graphical embedded applications in a smaller RAM, lower frequency MCU and a lower cost even. Undoubtedly, it is the best solution to replace those traditional LCD and LED Nixie tube.

Previously, engineers have only two choices for designing GUI. Some engineers choose LCD module which requires to write a mass of of source codes, which is a time-consuming and complicated job, not to mention the result may be unpleasant; While other engineers had to pay a large sum of money to buy large size expensive industrial level HMI display in the market. In most cases, a small size HMI displays means lower costs and more choices. Thanks to Itead Studio team, with their Nextion now available in the market, these problems no more exist.

Nextion Competitive Edge

Why Nextion beats other displays in the market? See below comparison table:

	Code Required	Size	Price	Function
Nextion	NO	Complete	High cost-effective	High
Traditional LCD Modulel	YES	Small	Low	Single-function
Industrial HMI	NO	Large	Very High	High

Nextion is characterized by
*Complete size displays(2.4",2.8",3.2",3.5",4.3",5.0",7.0")
*One serial port communicate with MCU *Fully functional software-a WYSIWYG editor *Character string commands, reduce debugging difficulty
*Objective-oriented controlling method, easily change component attribute properties. *Online Simulator Function
*Great compatibility-Nextion can work with all MCU boards with TX, RX serial port, such as Arduino, MCU-51, Raspberry Pi, PC, etc.

How to use Nextion?

Nextion solution includes the hardware part - a series of TFT displays and the software part - Nextion editor, where you can design your interface. After the designing in the software, you can run the interface you designed in 2 ways. 1.Upload your interface to a USB-TTL board through connecting your PC, and the TX and RX connect to Nextion TFT display. 2. Copy your tft file to a SD card, then insert it to Nextion display to download it.

Nextion TFT displays use only ONE serial port to do communicating, which helps you get rid of the wiring trouble. Nextion editor has mass components to meet your design requirements, such as button, text, progress bar, slider, timer, variable, gauge,waveform, etc. Simply drag and drop these components to the editing window to automatically compile, no need to spend much time to program for these components any more. Also, you can online simulate your interfaces in Debug window. Now you can design your interface in just 5-10 minutes, Nextion Editor reduces your 99% development workloads! With the help of this WYSIWYG editor, GUI designing is just a piece of cake.

Specification(Nextion Touch Panel)

Size	2.4"	2.8"	3.2"	3.5"	4.3"	5.0"	7.0"
Color	65K(65536)	65K(65536)	65K(65536)	65K(65536)	65K(65536)	65K(65536)	65K(65536)
Layout size (L*W*H,mm)	74.4*42.9 *5.8	85*49.8*5.8	95*47.6*5.8	100.5*54.94 *5.45	120*74*6.2	133.5*84*6.2	181*108*9
Active Area (L*W,mm)	42.72*60.26	70.2*49.8	80.90*47.6	85.50*54.94	105.50*67.20	118.50*77.55	164.9*100
Visual Area (L*W,mm)	36.72*48.96	57.6*43.2	69.60*×41.76	73.44*48.96	95.04*53.86	108*64.8	154.08*85.92
Resolution (pixel)	320*240	320*240	400*240	480*320	480*272	800*480	800*480
Touch type	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive
Touches	>1 million	>1 million	>1 million	>1 million	>1 million	>1 million	>1 million
Backlight	LED	LED	LED	LED	LED	LED	LED
Backlight lifetime (Average, hours)	>30,000	>30,000	>30,000	>30,000	>30,000	>30,000	>30,000
Brightness(nit)	180	180	180	180	230	250	250
Weight(g)	25.8	29.5	42.5	48.2	93.8	128	268
Flash(MB)	4	4	4	16	16	16	16
RAM(byte)	2048	2048	2048	3584	2048	2048	2048
Datasheet	click	click	click	click	click	click	click

Project Demonstration

Now you have a concept for Nextion. Let me show you projects to help you get start using the displays. I’m sure you will be astonished by these amazing Nextion TFT HMI displays.


Watch more projects by Nextion TFT HMI displays: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIiO6ag7O3vSFFGONQGySvg

Nextion TFT HMI display is the best choice I can find in the current market. Formerly when I was designing my own projects, I used the so-called LCD and wrote a lot of code, which really got me headache. I always wondered why there is no better choice. Now Nextion is it. You cannot miss it. Get your own brand-new Nextion now.