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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
