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You heard right! We show you how to use a wall mounted dimmer to control your smart lights! This gives you the best of both worlds. You can also change the color temperature too with long press actions.

Products Used
Lohas RGB+CT Lights
MJ Dimmer

Optional Bench Power Tester
Tuya-Convert Process - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyUyewiKpRA

Sample Rules
rule2 on power1#state do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/power %value% endon
on dimmer#state do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/dimmer %value% endon

rule1 on switch3#state=2 do dimmer + endon
on switch2#state=2 do dimmer - endon
on switch2#state=3 do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/ct - endon
on switch3#state=3 do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/ct + endon

rule1 on switch3#state=2 do dimmer + endon
on switch2#state=2 do dimmer - endon
on switch2#state=3 do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/ct 153 endon
on switch3#state=3 do publish cmnd/lohastest_new/ct 500 endon

Get the Products We Use/Recommend
Amazon US - https://amzn.to/2YZNDeO
Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/2TnG2R4
Amazon CA - https://amzn.to/2HchPZe

Come chat and join the community!
Discord - https://discord.gg/bNtTF2v
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/digiblurDIY

Welcome back to flashing your devices without any soldering or opening of devices!  Flash Smart switches, plugs, lights, sockets and more with ease!  This process allows you to flash your previously locked out devices that wouldn't flash before on the original version of Tuya Convert.  TC will convert both older and newer firmware devices automatically.  Use your Raspberry Pi, Linux PC, Proxmox, etc to unlock all the amazing features of open source firmware.  Protect your privacy and data and keep it in your home.

Raspbian Buster Lite Download - https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
Etcher Link - https://www.balena.io/etcher/
Putty Link - https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Parts List
Raspberry Pi 3
32gb Micro SD Card
Fliirc Case (optional: great RPi heat sink case)
Raspberry Pi 3 Kit (UK)

Tuya based favorites
Martin Jerry Dimmer
Martin Jerry Switch
Martin Jerry 3 way
Moes 3-Way Smart Switch
4 pack Smart Bulbs
4 pack Smart Plugs
and many more here on our page

**PLEASE READ!** Once you have configured the Wi-Fi settings and your Tasmota device connects to your Wi-Fi network, go to the web UI of the device. Click Console and type "Reset 5" (without quotes).  This will wipe flash memory of any Tuya firmware remnants to help prevent future corruption during Tasmota upgrades.

Steps for SSH/Putty Terminal (Copy and Paste)
sudo raspi-config
sudo apt update
sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert
cd tuya-convert
./install_prereq.sh
./start_flash.sh

PLEASE NOTE!  The thirdparty.bin file is included in the Tuya Convert github repo now and will be there for you automatically to flash.

How to Configure Tasmota with HA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOg5qwO3Rh4

Devices/Toys we use - Amazon UK Link - https://amzn.to/2TnG2R4
Amazon CA Link - https://amzn.to/2HchPZe

Come chat with us!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Discord - https://discord.gg/bNtTF2v
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/digiblurDIY

Huge Thanks to Tollbringer for his help with testing this process and major design help with the video thumbnail.  Looks great!

Don't cover up the light switches!  Control your smart lights from the wall and keep the best of both worlds.  Regain your sanity and score a high Wife Approval Factor by learning how to control your smart RGB lights from the wall. 

Switches
Teckin SR-41 - https://amzn.to/2qFgrJh
Martin Jerry - https://amzn.to/34Rd3tl

Tuya-Convert Process - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyUyewiKpRA
Smart Bulb Comparison - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnmUPF5rRro

Rules referenced in the video

rule1 on switch1#state=2 do publish cmnd/BT_TeckinSB50/power toggle endon
rule2 on System#Boot do Var1 0 endon on Switch1#State=3 do add1 1 endon on Var1#State>=2 do Var1 0 endon
rule3 on Var1#State==0 do publish cmnd/BT_TeckinSB50/dimmer 15 endon on Var1#State==1 do publish cmnd/BT_TeckinSB50/dimmer 100 endon

Get the Products We Use/Recommend
Amazon US - https://amzn.to/2YZNDeO
Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/2TnG2R4
Amazon CA - https://amzn.to/2HchPZe

Come chat with us!
Discord - https://discord.gg/bNtTF2v
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/digiblurDIY

Links to products provided through the Amazon Affiliate program.

I recently picked up the Sonoff S31 and Sonoff S31 Lite smart plugs that are UL Listed.   They new S31's bear the UL listed logo on the box and the back of the unit itself.  Let's crack them open and see what makes them tick.

The Lite version is the same plug except it does not bring any power monitoring capabilities to the table.  With all new hardware revisions of various products I was worried that my favorite smart plug was going to go the way of the Sonoff Mini and not have any easy access headers for flashing the open source firmware of your choice.  The Sonoff S31 line of plugs easily fit two plugs on the same wall socket with ease, utilizes screws in case you want to open the device, and has easy to solder RX/TX pin headers; which is why the S31 is still my favorite smart plug!

Of course I took the device apart and compared it to the previous non-UL S31 model (pics below).  I was excited to see they kept the same PCB that handles the ESP8266 side of things which meant the header is still there!  Remove the three screws and flash away with no worries of ever bricking the device since you can always recover it.  We aren't so lucky with many other plugs on the market that have to destroyed and/or cut up to get to the RX/TX pads. 

I'm not going to go into the deep rabbit hole debate of ETL, UL listings, CE, etc, but if you require your smart plugs to be UL Listed then these are definitely the way to go!

Amazon Link to Sonoff S31

Sonoff S31 UL

Sonoff S31 Non-UL

 

Sonoff S31 UL

Sonoff S31 Non-UL

Sonoff S31 UL

Sonoff S31 Non-UL

And of course we soldered RX/TX leads to them and flashed it with Tasmota.  The GPIO pinout is the same and the Sonoff S31 Module option in Tasmota worked great.

The Sonoff S31 Lite is the same PCB but without the power monitoring chip.

And as always, both plugs fit with a small air gap in between when you plug them into the same socket.

The Extensive Smart Light Comparison of 2019 | Teardowns included at the End

We spent quite a bit of time setting up 15+ bulbs, photographing, videoing them and testing out each channel with LUX sensors.  All the data and video has been compiled for you to make your own decisions, although I do tell you which bulb is my favorite based on various factors/features.

Bulbs
Lohas A19 60W RGBW
Lohas A19 E26 CW/WW
Lohas A21 100W RGBW
Edison Tunable E26 CW/WW
Novostella 120W A19
Reafoo E26
Anoop 60W CW/WW
Aoycocr A19 750lm
Enshine A19 60W
Esicoo 60W
Luntak E26 60W
Merkury A21 75W
Teckin SB50
Lifx A19 1100lm

Google Spreadsheet of Smart Lights

-=-=-=-Get the Products We Use/Recommend-=-=-=- Amazon US - https://amzn.to/2YZNDeO
Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/2TnG2R4
Amazon CA - https://amzn.to/2HchPZe

-=-=-=-Come chat with us!-=-=-=- Discord - https://discord.gg/bNtTF2v
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/digiblurDIY

Links to products provided through the Amazon Affiliate program.

First you may ask why do we need this if we can currently do these with Tuya Convert?  Pay attention to that word "currently".  You can never beat the tried and true method of connecting up those RX/TX lines via serial to flash your ESP82xx devices.  99.9% of the time it just works!  If you have any issues or firmware corruption it is stupid simple to just recover your device. 

Luckily the quite awesome performance to cost ratio bulbs that Lohas provides they also have the RX/TX pins exposed for us right on top under the diffuser.  That's quite rare in a bulb, especially in one of my favorite bulbs!  The only issue I've found is the 3v3 pin does not work!  But no fear!  It is easy to solder to the 3v3 pin on the flash memory chip. 

First apply a bit of flux to each pad you will be soldering to then apply a small bulb of solder to the pads. 

Next take a dupont jumper wire and cut off the ends.  Apply a small amount of flux and then tin them with solder. 

Then simply apply heat to the pad and pre-tinned wire and it pulls right together.  The dupont wire flexes easily as well to prevent the pad from being ripped off the bulb.  Take your time and do not use to much heat!  I've attached some pictures for reference of where the memory pin is to provide power. 

4 Pack Lohas RGBW Light Bulbs

DO NOT APPLY MAINS POWER TO THE BULB WHILE YOU HAVE THESE WIRES CONNECTED!

Tearing down a unique RGB night light switch from top to bottom.  We show the investigative work of figuring out the pins for flashing and usage of the switch.   Join the fun and remove the cloud dependency from your switches making them yours!

RGB Smart Switch
Alternate Switch

Volt Meter
Dupont Jumpers
CH340G Usb to Serial

RGB Switch Tasmota Template 

{"NAME":"RGB Switch","GPIO":\[30,255,32,10,39,38,0,0,31,9,37,21,255\],"FLAG":0,"BASE":18}

Addtl Links
Tasmota - https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota
NodeMCU Pyflasher - https://github.com/marcelstoer/nodemcu-pyflasher

Devices/Toys we use - https://amzn.to/2YZNDeO
Amazon UK Link - https://amzn.to/2TnG2R4
Amazon CA Link - https://amzn.to/2HchPZe
Come chat with us!
Discord - https://discord.gg/bNtTF2v
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/digiblurDIY