3

Sonoff Basic WiFi Smart Switch

REVIEW
FIELD TEST

ith more and more smart

appliances entering the

market, allowing control

via a phone and/or voice

commands, a lot of people

are looking at their perfectly

good ‘dumb’ appliances and wishing they could

be switched on and off in the same way. This is the

problem the Sonoff Basic Smart Switch aims to fix.

Unlike WiFi socket adaptors, the Sonoff Smart

Switch is designed to be patched into the power

cord of your appliance. After disconnecting from the

mains, you snip the cord in half, strip the insulation

from each end of the exposed live and neutral cords,

and attach the wires to the clearly labelled connectors

on each side of the module. You then reattach each

side of the earth cord and ensure everything is

secured safely without any exposed wires.

All this faff means more effort is required before

you’re able to use it but, as a result, they’re far

cheaper to buy than socket adaptors. Of course,

this means if you’re not confident with a pair of wire

cutters and mains voltage, this product isn’t for you.

Once installed, head to the app store and download

the eWeLink app. Following the instructions

contained within, you’ll need to create an account

W

Sonoff

Basic WiFi Smart Switch

A cheap smart

switch solution

for people

willing to roll up

their sleeves

8 / 10

VERDICT

Above

Clearly labelled

connectors make this

easy to wire up

Left

Providing smart

power to the author’s

homemade ‘mad

scientist’ table lamp

$6 itead.cc

in the cloud,

then link the

device allowing

it to connect

to your WiFi.

We had some

trouble using

a OnePlus

3T phone for

this, but a Nexus

9 tablet worked just

fine, and once it was set-up

we simply needed to log into the

app on our phone for full control.

Using eWeLink, you power devices on and off

and set schedules. You’re also able to share access

to your devices with other people, and connect with

the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Nest services,

allowing control via each. As if all that wasn’t enough,

there’s also support for IFTTT, giving you a lot of

options for automation.

The reliance on a cloud-based service means you

can control your devices remotely, but also means

you’ll need an active internet connection. I should

also note that in the four months we’ve been testing

it, the service went down twice for a couple of hours

each time. When this happened, we could still use

the button on the module itself to control the power.

Under the hood is an ESP8266 microcontroller which

is connected to a relay. The significance of this is the

ability to flash your own firmware onto the module,

removing your reliance on eWeLink, and letting you

add support for protocols such as MQTT. There are

two such community-supported projects that offer

hackers more options for controlling their switches.

While the Sonoff Smart Switch isn’t as plug-and-

play as some solutions – requiring a bit of snipping

with wire cutters – it should work with anything with

a power cable and has plenty of options for control.

By Daniel Hollands maker.limeblast.co.uk