Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

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Meek
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Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

Hello tweakers, as a user of Domoticz for many years, I always had the intention to expand my home automation system, but never found sufficient time to actually do something with all the magnificent idea’s that we(tweakers) probably all share :).

So one time I thought, opportunities are rare and might never come, so i’ve changed my attitude to make time to what I’m passionate about -> automation/hacking/creating the future :)

So without further adue, first of the many steps, was to integrate all my switches to Domoticz. Simple idea, nevertheless, there were not suitable equipment/design switches available. To be honest, i was charmed of the design of some of the touch switches as you’ll see below.
Schakelaar.jpg
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ESP8266.jpg
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So i’ve ordered a few to fiddle around with it and finally to suit it with an ESP8266 12-E variant in it with ESPEasy flashed on it for future expansions that I have in mind.

I found out that his internal PCB did not delivered sufficient energy to power up an ESP12-E module, so I’ve created a dirty PCB with and equip it with several components to power up and switch 230V.

I have now a “dirty working setup” to do some more testing.

Till now, the ESP is working pretty stable and and soon I will integrate the first “MEEK Switch” into my walls to do more testing in a real life environment.

In the meantime, I had several request to delivered such “MEEK switches” to my fellow tweakers.
So I’m now in process to have a neat and well integrated switches produced by manufacturing sites overseas, but this is a very hard & slow process.

In the meantime, I’m in process of making this a modular system so I can create small quantities for myself and for my friend.

But if there's enough animo, probably it’s something I can pursue to have them produced overseas in “large quantities”.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Herewith a link to the video of the Meek Wifi Switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhXnYgeJfo


Regards,
Meek
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

I’ve just installed the Meek switch in my wall and it’s working like a charm :D
MeekSmaller.jpg
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Herewith the link of the video I’ve made : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXZHxCzjdg

There’s still a lot of work to do but this is the first small step :)
I’ll need to redesign the PCB to fit a triac instead of an Solid State Relais, as the last one did not fit well in the casing I’ve got. Once I have this sorted out, I will post the schematics over here so we can discuss about it and perhaps, make the switch even better !
Bwired
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Bwired »

very nice
please tell us more later how all is connected to the powerline
and how the interface is working , hope you use MQTT :)
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

As this is the first Meek switch and therefore it's a bit of a "messy Layout", I wanted to be on the safe side and therefore I've used an HLK- PM01 to convert 230V to 5V. As consequence of this decision, I had to pull the Neutral line to the wall switch.

For future projects I'm considering to use a 2 wire system (Live + switch line) but to be honest, I prefer this option more as this will be more stable to operate no matter what kind of lighting you use.

With regards to the interface, currently I have not put any efforts to make a nice interface as these Meek switches can be controlled by any device capable of making HTTP requests. Besides that, as these Meek switches are eqquiped with ESPEasy 2.0, they have allready the opportunity to integrate with Domoticz (HTTP or MQTT), Openhab, PIdome,.....

So this device is capable of communicating with MQTT wich opens a window of opportunities yet to be explored :shock:
AshaiRey
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by AshaiRey »

I take it that this switch has 2-way communication in place?
Bram
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by yjb »

Sounds very interesting.

Out of curiosity: what would be the difference between this and the Sonoff T1? I understand that developing something yourself is a lot of fun, but it appears to me that a Sonoff T1 flashed with, let's say, Tasmota would be able to do the same? I guess I'm overlooking something, so please educate me :)
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

Yes, you are right about that, but my first step is to include an ESP12-E module with ESPEasy into a switch. The reason why I'm pursuing this is due to the modularity expansion that I have in mind.

1'st step : clean and esthetic fine looking switch (I don't like the esthetics of the Sonoff switch :) )
2'nd step : the above but with 2 button switch.
3'rd step : customization of the wall switch with RGB leds integrated in the switch.
4'rd step : expand the module interface so the user can expand the switch with several modules like : temperature sensor, humidity, PIR, Microwave radar sensor, microphone (array for speech recognition), etc..

These MEEK switches will be the base sensor arrays for the whole Home Automation & security system.

Thank you for pointing this out and best regards,
MEEK
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

Update 16-Nov : I’ve finally received the PCB’s 
Meek A5v1.jpg
Meek A5v1.jpg (67.28 KiB) Viewed 19933 times
I’ve also received the most of the electronics that I will solder on the boards.
Next week, I hope to assemble the Meek switch and once ready, I will upload a video on Youtube 
Bwired
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Bwired »

nice! keep us posted please :)
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

Hello, as promised, the Meek A5v1 has been assembled.
I’ve uploaded a short video of YouTube :


During the assembling process, I’ve discover an inconvenience (my way of saying that I’ve made a childish error :oops: ), therefore some amendments had to be made during the assembling process.
This caused a misalignment of the WS2812B and therefore the illumination of the switch is way off.
Nevertheless, it’s been a successful Alpha/trial and in the Beta versions, some extra modules will be placed like the RCWL-0516 and perhaps a DHT11 sensor as a test.
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

Update Dec2017:
The switches are evolving and I’ve already reached the Beta phase. The main functions are fully operational.

I’m now concentrating on the extra modules/functions that can be integrated into the Meek switches.

At this stage I’m trying to integrating a RWCL-0516 radar motion sensor into the Meek switch. I’m struggling to resolve the interference between the ESP8266 and the RWCL-0516 sensor.
In the new Beta’s, the antennas of the ESP8266 & RWCL-0516 are separated as “far as possible” on the PCB’s, also added some extra electronic components to eliminate fluctuations on the power lines.
If you have any thoughts on resolving the interference, please let me know.

Next week, I hope to receive all the components to assemble the Beta 7 versions of the Meek switch.
As we’re nearing the release of the first switches, I’ve included extra safety measures like a varistor, thermal fuses and off course a regular fuse.

If you have any thoughts or remarks, please let me know.
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Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

I’ve assembled the Meek (Beta 7) switch with an integrated RCWL-0516 module and with all the filters, the accuracy improved enormously.
That been said/written, in the first night where I tested the Meek switch, he gave 3 “false positives” during a 9 hours trial.

I’ve setup the switch in my kitchen that overlooks at our garden. It could be possible that there were some animal activities that has been captured by the sensor but I cannot tell for sure. But no matter what caused the “false positives” the results were not satisfactory.

So I went back to do more testing and measuring and found that by repositioning the sensor (although it’s a 360degree sensor) the accuracy improved even more !

Tonight, I will conduct a test in my attic to rule out “jammers”.
I’ll keep you posted.
Last edited by Meek on Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
AshaiRey
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by AshaiRey »

Very interesting and I will follow this thread carefully.
On the subject of interference. I once tried to put and ESP and an PIR close together in one box but that turned out to be a disaster. Was never able to get that working consistently so in the end I had to drop the PIR completely.
Bram
Meek
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

AshaiRey wrote:Very interesting and I will follow this thread carefully.
On the subject of interference. I once tried to put and ESP and an PIR close together in one box but that turned out to be a disaster. Was never able to get that working consistently so in the end I had to drop the PIR completely.
Unfortunately, I know how frustrating this is, as I’m struggling with this as well.
I don’t have the right (read : very expensive) tools to do a full spectrum analyses, so I’m doing whatever I can with the measurement tools I have.

It’s a great sensor and I have several uses for this for my own situation. Therefore I’m doing my utmost to have this integrated in several Meek switches as integration of sensors, is a main future of the Meek switches !
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Re: Meek Wifi Switch ESP8266

Post by Meek »

The last test over a period of 10 hours, had a hit rate of 100%.
Now I need to finalize the code/rules to operate on motion once the Lux meter drops to a certain level.
After that, I will install it in my kitchen an post a video of the operation.
Meek Beta7 RCWL0516.PNG
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