Sonoff Basic wifi-enabled mains controller

Controller with case on

The board
I've lashed out on a couple of Sonoff Basic wifi-enabled mains switches - mine didn't come with the IP66 case, because I got it from Banggood who sell them for £4.xx including postage, which is ridiculous!

Clearly nobody wants to use a proprietary app and a Cloud-based control package to control their home, that would be mad. Wouldn't it? Itead expect you to do that, and I might have a go with it if I fancy it. However, the dreaded scargill.net has suggestions for reprogramming the included ESP8266 chip so it can be easily controlled using MQTT. Hurray! However, his software can't be upgraded OTA (Over The Air) i.e. from a (local or remote) website because it takes up too much of the precious FLASH in the old-style chips used in these devices. I have found this alternative instead, which offers OTA and MQTT, and uses the Arduino IDE which I already have.

All I have to do now is get from USB to Serial i.e. use an FTDI chip/cable/something and a few wires to get the damn ESP8266 to connect and flash... I do have an FTDI cable, let's see what that's got in it...

Darn - it's all welded into a D-connecter for the usual terminal connection! So I've ordered an Arduino module with an FTDI chip on it from ebay, should arrive next week sometime. I'll write more when I have it!

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