Year: 2018

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#30: Reflash ANY Sonoff, even if you don’t know the pinout

Sonoff is very popular for DIY home automation, but you can make it even better by loading new firmware onto it. Learn how to connect a USB-to-Serial converter to ANY model of Sonoff, even ones that haven’t been released yet!

This episode isn’t just a series of steps to follow: it’s a tutorial on how to reverse engineer the connections to the ESP8266 / ESP8285 microcontroller in an unknown circuit, and put it into bootloader mode ready to receive new software.

ESP8266 Strapping Pins

The strapping pins set the boot mode of the microcontroller. Typical ESP8266 circuits have an arrangement similar to this:

In the Sonoff, GPIO15 is pulled low to 0V, and GPIO2 and GPIO0 are pulled high to 3.3V.

If GPIO0 is held low (0V) during startup, the ESP8266 will go into bootloader mode and be ready to receive a new program uploaded via the serial connection on the TX and RX pins.

You can often find the appropriate connections on the PCB by tracing out the pins on the microcontroller. The relevant pins on the ESP8266 and ESP8285 can be found in these locations:

With only a couple of exceptions, most Sonoff models include a 4-pin header on the PCB that exposes GND, 3.3V, TX, and RX.

You can use a USB-to-Serial converter to connect this header to your computer by USB, so that you can upload a new program. You can make an adapter cable using these connections:

It’s a simple cable to hand-wire, but that can be annoying so to save time I designed a simple adapter that you can use between a USB-to-Serial adapter that uses the common “FTDI” pinout and the Sonoff:

The adapter makes it very easy to connect to most Sonoff models. Make sure you use a USB-to-Serial adapter that runs at 3.3V because it’s not safe to connect 5V. Doing so could damage the ESP8266 microcontroller.

Sonoff Basic Pinout

More detail to be added here soon.

Sonoff POW / TH10 / TH16 Connections

More detail to be added here soon.

Sonoff 4CH Pro Connections

More detail to be added here soon.

Sonoff Slampher Connections

More detail to be added here soon.

Sonoff B1 Connections

More detail to be added here soon.

Sonoff Touch Connections

More detail to be added here soon.

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#29: Assistive technology projects with Chris Fryer

Over the last 12 months I’ve been working with identical twins Nick and Chris Fryer, who have Duchenne muscular dystrophy, on a variety of assistive technology projects. This is a field where home automation can have an enormous benefit and dramatically improve people’s lives.

Unfortunately Nick died recently, so Chris and I have been continuing his projects and also starting some new ones.

This is just a brief look at some of the things we’re working on. There will be far more technical detail in later videos.

Chris’s channel: www.youtube.com/user/MrChrisfryer78/
Chris’s Patreon: www.patreon.com/chrisfryer/

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Shipping closed during December 2018

During December I’ll be taking a break from shipping orders from the SuperHouse and Freetronics online stores.

Any orders placed after December 4th, 2018 will be shipped right after Christmas, hopefully around December 28th and 29th. If you want to get something in time for Christmas, make sure you place your order now!

I’ll be back with more videos and a bunch of new products after Christmas.

See you then!

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New product: Sonoff Programming Adapter

If you want to load new software onto a Sonoff, you can use jumper wires to link a USB-to-Serial adapter to the programming header of the Sonoff. However, it’s easy to make a mistake, and loose jumper wires can be really annoying.

This cool little programming adapter simply plugs into a common FTDI-type header, and then plugs into your Sonoff.

No more jumper wires. No more looking up the pinout every time you have to connect them!

This little adapter is going to be featured in the next episode of SuperHouse, which will show how to put any Sonoff model (even new ones that haven’t been released yet) into programming mode.

Check it out in the online store.

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Livestream Q&A: Digging through my Eagle projects, part 3

Livestream going through my Eagle projects directory, opening each of them and explaining what they’re about.

Projects covered in this episode:

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Livestream Q&A: Digging through my Eagle projects, part 2

Livestream going through my Eagle projects directory, opening each of them and explaining what they’re about.

Projects covered in this episode:

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Join me for another livestream tour through more Eagle projects

Join me for a SuperHouse livestream tomorrow morning at 9am Sunday Melbourne time (GMT+1000)

This will be part 2 of my tour through my Eagle projects, going through them alphabetically and showing how they work.

Last time it took me 2.5 hours and I didn’t even get through the projects starting with “A”, so there’s a long way to go!

Picking some representative locations that time works out to be:

  • Melbourne: 9am Sunday
  • London: 12am Sunday (midnight)
  • Los Angeles: 4pm Saturday
  • New York: 7pm Saturday

If you don’t want to miss out, make sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel and click the little “bell” icon so you get a notification when the live stream starts:

www.youtube.com/user/superhousetv