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A selection of smart home (IoT) - Zigbee and WiFi enabled devices.
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Good morning, all these are my new favorite toys. I'm buying them like there's. No, tomorrow uh, you can see what this one is. It's a wi-fi switch module and if you can't read that logo, you can read that one which says to ya.

So these are iot. Internet of things or smart home, controllable modules. So let's take a look at some of them. So probably my favorite one at the moment is this: let's take a look, oh it's an empty box, but the manual gives you a clue.

It's a wireless temperature and humidity detector. Now this device is actually out in the shed at the moment, but we can still talk to it. Look at it remotely on my tablet. I have these apps.

I've got the little home app because the initial zigbee devices i bought, i bought from lidl because they were very good value. I've also got the toya smart app, but i couldn't get this one to talk to some of the little devices and i don't really know why i've got the smart life app, which is volcano technology or something, but these are all very, very similar they're all tui Based now, i've also got the um ikea. I think it's trot. Frey trot free app, in other words the trad free, so that works with the trad free, smart home little stuff.

Now that is entirely separate system and i don't think there's much crossover unless, of course, you use home assistant where possibly there is the ability to read all these devices. But this requires that you set up a server and i haven't quite got to that stage. Yet so, let's just run up the little home app and see what we can see. So, here's my setup, julian's home and i've got two rooms office which is here and modular shed.

So if i go to modular shed, there's the gateway in the shed there's the power strip, which i used to turn on and off the ant miners, and here is the temperature sensor. So let's click on that and uh there it is. You can see that the temperature is currently that's interesting. Why is there no humidity indication? That's really weird.

That's gone strange. I'm sure it's supposed to have both, but anyway, the temperature, the temperature in the shed, is 22 degrees. Um, let's go to history because it gives you some graphs. Yeah there are the graphs.

Oh they've got a funny size. Oh, i think this has gone weird. Let me just reboot this app yeah that was running in the background. Let's run it again and it might update and give us some proper information um, so i'll go straight to the temperature sensor right, that's more like it 22 degrees out in the shed.

The miners are running because they're profitable at the moment, 43 humidity. As i said, you've got those history things. I've probably come up properly now yeah the graphs had gone all big for some reason uh. So this was when i switched the miners on this morning.

The temperature is going up, the humidity is falling down, but you can also set up notifications now. I think if i go in here, make sure this doesn't give too much away, um, tap and run and automation. So here are my automations, this one's inactive. This one is shed temperature, less than 10 degrees, which isn't really useful, but this one is shed is warm over 30 degrees and this one's active and at the moment all it does, is if the shed goes over 30 degrees - and there were a couple of days Recently, where it did, it sends me a notification on my phone and on this tablet as well.
So this is the temperature sensor. I've brought this in from the shed it's saying at 22 degrees that i'm sure will fall now that doesn't pick up very well on the camera. Does it is it? Oh, it might be a polarization issue. Look that's much better than that.

That's interesting and 61 humidity. Um, it's got a very nice always on lcd display and if you rotate the back, you can see there's a little hook thing that fits in there, but that's screwed to the shed uh. You can see a couple of um aaa batteries in there and there's the reset and pairing switch there. Now here's an interesting thing zigbee and this is a zigbee device um.

I don't think it's written on that box. Did it say zigbee on here? Oh, i think it did actually yeah connection zigbee, that's the box for that. Zigbee is a mesh network, so every device in the zigbee network acts as a repeater. However, battery-powered devices don't because this device, because it's got a couple of aas which have to last a year or so a couple of aaa's.

This device is mostly in deep sleep. So this does not act as a gateway as a mesh repeater, but all the mains powered devices do now just going back to my automation. My notification thing here, which says shed, is warm over 30 degrees. You can see that what it is is something from the temperature sensor.

In fact, we could probably look at this. Um translates or creates a notification which goes out to your mobile device. Let's see if i can edit that yes, so what we've got is condition uh. A single condition has been met, this is an or an or an and function, because the other option is all conditions have been met or one condition has been met.

So this is one condition out of a number has been met, and this is all conditions out of a group have been met, so that's the and and that's the or function uh. This one is saying temperature greater than 30 degrees. I don't know why there are two decimal places there. That's really bizarre message center on and the messages in there, but here's the message name shed is warm over 30 degrees.

You can color code it and you can set a an effective period. So this runs all the time now. To my mind, this notification must be written into this sensor's memory, because this thing updates fairly infrequently because it has to try and protect the battery energy. So i think but but it does look at its own sensors, its temperature and humidity sensors reasonably frequently, but i think when you create one of these, it has to be actually written in here, so that this knows if it goes over 30, not to wait.
Two minutes, but to send that message immediately: that's what i'm sort of gathering from this system, but i am in a learning phase and i'm trying to understand how this entire system works. Okay, let's leave that there and i just received this this morning and it is - and i've played with it briefly, but it's all reset now another temperature and humidity sensor a slightly prettier one and on the ebay listing it said more advanced model, 2021 edition or something So, let's take off the back again: two aaa's there's a little tab there, which i'll take out and that boots up, that's, presumably a firmware version or something and yeah. This is saying something completely different, but i'm sure they'll both settle down to being the same data, and this is another zigbee temperature and humidity display. So what i'll do with this? One is show the process of pairing this with the gateway, so that um, its data appears on my tablet.

This one has this very fetching stand. So, let's clip that on there yep and then that clips on the back and then i can rotate the back into place so that sits on its stand like that. So to pair this with now this one's paired to the gateway outside. It probably can't talk to that at the moment, because it's too far away this one, i'm going to pair with the internal gateway, my study gateway the one that's in this room.

So, let's fire up the app on my tablet like so and go to the study gateway, which is that one and it has no devices so we'll add a device and it says, confirm the lead is flashing, so we'll make sure that the lead is flashing. I'll press and hold that has a little green led in there, which doesn't come on very often so. That's flashing now press this, and now the gateway should look for devices search device and it should find this temperature and humidity sensor, which i'll put like that. So there it is, one device has been successfully added now.

This tablet is on wi-fi. So it's talking to my wi-fi network, but the gateway is zigbee and found that by polling - and this thing responded presumably and the little um wireless symbol turns on now, because it's paired with the gateway. So that's done uh. We can alter the name of that, but i shouldn't bother i'll just say done and now i've got the temperature and humidity sensor does a little setup.

I don't quite know what that's all about, and then it presents the interface for this temperature and humidity sensor and that seems to tie up uh - oh not quite 58 humidity. This is saying: 59 20.2 degrees celsius. Now what have we got down here? Um temperature is comfortable yeah. The air is also comfortable at that relative humidity, and this looks like it's some sort of graphing function, but i don't quite know how that works.

Yet here are the smart options, so i can get it to alert me if it goes over or under a certain temperature, and here are some settings uh now. This is interesting because in the manual it calls this radio receiver level battery level and they've also put that in this interface battery level high. I think what they mean is radio level high battery level 100, because it's got brand new batteries and this low battery switch is um. It will send an alert when the batteries in this device get low.
Now i noticed this morning that this one updates its display fairly regularly, but it doesn't update the app and the app is some way behind this. Presumably because it doesn't want to use the radio too much because that's going to use a lot of current from the battery, so quite how frequently that corresponds. To that. I don't know, but, as i say, if you set up an alert, my gut feeling is that that must set something up in here, so that this can send that alert immediately.

It recognizes that condition that you've set up definitely a better display on this new one, because it doesn't seem to suffer from that polarization angle problem, whereas this one clearly does i don't these letters. These numbers are a little bit. Spindly aren't they. These are a bit thicker yeah.

I think i like this one better. Now i don't know whether this one had that slow update rate. I don't think i really was watching for that, but this one does seem very slow. Let's go back to the app and see where we are yeah, it's still saying, 20.2 and 59, and this has moved on so interesting right.

Let's open another device, and that's this one: this is the wi-fi switch module now. This is also toyo. The manufacturer is mos. I believe, or the brand name is moe's - and this is a very tiny and i've had this apart i'll see if i'm gon na part again actually um wi-fi to gang.

Well, it says wi-fi plus rf. I don't quite know what it means by rf: um switch module and in the manual it explains that you put your switches into s1 and s2. So if you've got a double light, switch you'd wire them into s1 and s2 and then the lights you'd wire into l1 and l2, which is sort of live, one live two well, it might be light one light too, and here are your live and neutron. Of course, that powers this unit up now this isn't zigbee, but if it were - and i think you can get zigbee versions of this - then because this is mains power, this would act as a repeater in the mesh network.

But this is wi-fi and as far as i understand it - and i haven't really tested this yet i will come back to this um. A wi-fi unit, of course, won't be able to log into your wi-fi network because it won't know the password and it won't know the ssid either. So the first thing you do to set these up is you turn on bluetooth in the app and there's a bluetooth communication to the wi-fi device to enable you to give it your wi-fi credentials so that it can then log into your wi-fi network. That's what i understand as being the the way this works, i'm just going to see if i can take this apart, because there were some quite interesting things in here: uh, yes using the plectrum, i have managed to break that apart and there and there we are.
This is extremely compact because i think the idea of this is that it sits in the back of the back box behind your switch. It's all going to be a little bit tight. It's so that you can wireless control this and override with your actual faceplate switches. If you want, but the module in here is extremely tiny and something worried me slightly i'll, try and get that out.

You can see from the front plate that this is rated at 10 amps for the relays and in fact, on the relays, it actually says: 16. Amps but the connections to the relays which are on these printed circuit boards, which are microscopically thin and then run down and are soldered onto this baseboard. They look worryingly like i wouldn't want to put 10 amps through them, but, generally speaking, this is going to sit at the back of um a light switch and so you're not going to put 10 amps through most modern light bulbs. You wouldn't even put 10 amps through incandescent old style light bulbs.

Would you so i think if you d rate this hugely, then it's probably okay. Now here's the wi-fi module uh. It's got some stuff on there, but that's got a tin can on it. So that definitely looks like the wi-fi module.

Is that a buzzer, a beeper yeah? I think that probably is a buzzer um, but there's a coily cable um there. Oh, i think it's fairly well fixed in. Oh actually, it looks like an inductor, or at least it's soldered at both ends. So i'm not sure it's an antenna, but um is that i thought that was the rf part of this wi-fi plus rf, but maybe it's not maybe that's an open air, inductor or air cord inductor yeah.

I thought that was an antenna for the rf, whatever the rf might be, but possibly the rf is bluetooth, which may well be in the same module. Now i haven't powered this up yet i will do that i'll probably do that in another video but um yeah. That's what this thing does it's a wi-fi, controllable, uh, two gang relay controlled, obviously switch, and i think the main usage is as an override to your light switch. So let's put this thing back in its box: it is a very tight fit, but i suppose quite nicely made um.

I suppose you could also sit this in the back of a mains outlet um your sort of ring main type outlet for controlling um. Well, the danger with that is that these are 13 amp sockets in the uk, and this is only rated at 10 amps and i think you should probably de-rate this to about 5 amps. And so, if someone put in a 3-bar electric fire, i don't know anyone, who's still got a three-bar electric fiber then, yes, perhaps this should be just um left for putting in the back of light switch boxes. It does actually have this thing which sits around there and that looks like it's: a din rail uh sized thing, so it looks like that could sit on a din rail inside a consumer unit or something like that.
Now this one's the one that probably interests me most at the moment, it is a smart meter and this i got from banggood. It was the only place i could find this unit. It wasn't on aliexpress, it wasn't on ebay, so yeah banggood is where i got it, and this is a double width, consumer unit, sized energy meter and monitor once again, it's wi-fi 110 to 230 volts ac, but it also has a thumping great relay in it, which Is rated at 65 amps, apparently there's a button on the front here, so that's presumably used for pairing wi-fi to your wi-fi network. There are three lights here: uh, there's a wireless light, there's a pulse light.

I think for well. This one says it's 600 impressions per kilowatt hour, but i have i think i read somewhere that um you can set the number of uh impressions per kilowatt hour and generally on meters, it's a thousand flashes of the red light per kilowatt hour. So, of course, each one is a watt hour, uh there's an lcd on the front and by my understanding from reading this rather basic user manual, you can put any parameter on here from voltage current power level, the power level, that's traveling from the two live connections. Well, i can't remember, which is which now there is a thing here: yeah so live in is one live out is two which i believe are on the uh.

It's at the bottom, yeah on the bottom lines are on the bottom. The two neutrals are on the top and they're bust together. I have had this thing apart, actually um, but these two go into this monster relay, which i think internally is rated at 80 amps um, but i think this says it's rated for 65 amps um. This also can display accumulated kilowatt hours.

It also can display whether the um the power has been traveling in a forward or a reverse direction, which is interesting. That could be quite handy for the solar power system, because that of course feeds solar energy into my mains. Rather than the other way around so yeah, this looks very interesting. This two pin connector here, incidentally, ah there's also these covers, which a cover the screws, because, of course, these screws will be live.

Yeah and little um tie wrap points on there. This, i understand, is um for the pulsing led you can put an led on there. I don't know whether it drives the led directly. It might do.

I can't remember: i'd have to use the manual and, as i say, um most meters are a thousand compressions per kilowatt hour. If you can set that internally, then of course you can have that pulsing at the normal meter rate. In fact, i've gone to this little manual, because this is the list of things it can do. The impulses uh number of impulses per kilowatt hour, total energy, positive kilowatt hours and reverse kilowatt hours, real current real voltage, real active power, real reactive power power factor and the frequency in hertz, and the reason i particularly wanted.
This is because you can link it in with the toya smart life app, probably find that the little app will work just as well. The little app seems to be happy with these two temperature sensors, so you could set up smart scenarios where perhaps, if the power level through this device went above a certain level, you might trigger something, because this thing also has that relay and we'll just check that In a moment you could conceivable, if, if you went over a certain power level, you could actually trigger the relay and it would act as a breaker and you could disconnect that circuit. Now the relay is on the live side between the live in and the live out. This is set to continuity, and, what's interesting is that the relay appears to be normally closed because this isn't powered up.

So i think this is a relay which, when energized breaks the circuit, that's interesting. So my idea for this is to put it inside my new consumer unit, because i've had a new consumer unit fitted in addition to the old consuming unit. The old one isn't in rail and isn't this size compatible, but the new one is, and that has the solar power system in it. So i could monitor the amount of power coming from solar at any moment.

It also has my external socket on it, so i could monitor the power going out to the shed, for example, and in the future, possibly monitor uh the power going to an electric car charger. But i just thought that was a really interesting device, and so i'm probably gon na do a video just on this. Where we strip it down, then try and pair it and get it onto the app put some mains on it and try and get this relay to cut in and out. But for the moment those are my two-year iot smart life or smart system uh favorite devices.

Now because they're also light bulbs, but they don't particularly interest me, these light bulbs that you can make go white or or warm white and cold white and some of them do different colors. These are the devices that really interest me in this arena of iot and smart devices. Cheerio.

By Julian

Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado

11 thoughts on “My New Favourite Toys”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars FenceUp says:

    I love Tuya as a platform. Also have a look at pound land for some WiFi sockets and bulbs (£7), also works with Tuya. The rf will be 433mhz (or is it 315?) to pair with 433 remotes.
    I use that relay with an ir motion flood light, as the switch. so when some one walks up the drive I get a notification and I also have it linked to a colour changing bulb that changes red. All done in the brilliant Tuya app.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John Smith says:

    I'm pretty sure all the tuya commands/conditions are only stored in a Chinese cloud, and only respond/execute the logic once the data arrives to the cloud. So there is no local logic process, only when the cloud servers react to a condition! This can be overcome with ioBroker/HomeAssistant, but you have to setup your own Rasberi|Pi server…

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Peter Knudsen says:

    I have installed sonoff, mostly because it can work with all my burglar alarm PIR to control lights. Together with IFTTT, it offers absolutely brilliant opportunities. For example, burglar alarm goes off when my phone logs on to home WiFi. And i can voice control everything from google home.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars EpicLPer says:

    I really love Home Assistant, definitely worth checking out if you're this far invested in those devices already 🙂 Specially Zigbee.
    One thing you can do is buy a little Zigbee USB adapter which you can then use in Home Assistant to pair all Zigbee devices to it, no matter the manufacturer or specific apps. All just runs on Home Assistant then.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brendan White says:

    Nothing is written to the sensor. All routines / notification monitors are stored in the Tuya cloud. The temperature sensor, if it is like other sensors, likely updates every minute or so, unless there are sudden changes which generally update quicker. It will only trigger the notification when the sensor sends the temperature. If the sensor takes 5 minutes to update, you will not get a notification for 5 minutes .

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars K J W says:

    You have to reset the Lidl hub to Tuya/smart life app to talk to Tuya ZigBee device's. I use Lidl hub and other Lidl device's with smart life, along with tuya WiFi devices (sockets, Camera and Tesco bulbs, alarm), along with ZigBee sonoff sensors ( motion, temperature,ect). All smart automation work fine in Tuya/smart life.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Oaf Politics says:

    Yeah, the problem I have with most of the home-automation is that it is not confined to your network – it happily phones home and sends you data to China (or worse Amazon/Google). I wonder if that includes wi-fi SSID and Passcode?

    In any case, I would need to have ioT that ONLY works within my network, with any 'remote' access being achieved by VPN – on the devices I select.

    Yes, I am paranoid. Yes they are out to get me (and anyone else).

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars pileofstuff says:

    Have you been able to determine if any of these devices are "phoning home" to some unknown server outside of your control? or if they will work if your WIFI router loses its connection to the public internet?

    Those are always my concerns with IoT type devices.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ryan McGuinness says:

    Check out the Shelly switches. They are even smaller than that one and much better made. They can work on ZigBee (I think?). Or if not ZigBee then definitely mqtt which can integrate with home assistant.
    You'll find Home Assistant to be the glue that makes ALL of these things work together. Also worth looking at Node Red which works well with HA and makes creating automations super simple

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars BʟɪᴛᴛᴇʀBᴜɢ says:

    Points for using the plectrum's correct name. Been following the development of Zigbee for about 15 years since it was pretty much just reported in the computer press as a protocol with no commercial applications. It's great to see it so widely used now.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Csongor Varga says:

    I believe Tuya, Smart Life and Lidl app are all the same. Lidl is like the Blitzwolf app which is just re-branded Tuya. Therefore you should be able to use them interchangeably. In the log run you would be better picking one app and use all your devices there. On the MOES device RF usually refers to 433MHz RF. You can pair a generic keyfob, so you can control is via app, local switch and keyfob.

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