ESP32 Board for Home Automation

Share your Projects!
1

Hi All!

I’d like to share a project I’ve been working on recently to boost my home automation. It’s a PCB that hosts an ESP32 chip, powers it via mains and gives access to 4 dry-contact relays, 8 GPIOs and the I2C bus.

Schematics, PCB layout and further documentation are open source and available at the Maisken Homelay 1.0.1 Upverter project.

The work is somewhat inspired by the very popular Sonoff switches; I started development when I faced a few shortcomings of Sonoff, namely lack of dry-contact relays and very limited GPIO capabilities.

I have already deployed a few such boards at home (in a pre-release 1.0 version), and integrated them with Home Assistant. For example, to control a garage door, or make cheap smoke sensors smart, or integrate the heating system and a burglar alarm. Maisken Homelay 1.0.1 works flawlessly with ESPHome.

As a bonus, I’ve also developed an enclosure for the PCB, so it’s easier to handle. The STLs for 3D-printing are also open source and can be downloaded from Tinkercad: there’s one STL for the Top part and one for the Bottom part of the enclosure.

I welcome all feedback and suggestions. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement, and this may not fit each and every use case. So far it has served all my home automation needs well, and I see possible development focusing on DIN mounting and modularisation, albeit this may take quite some rework of the current layout.

Let me know what you think!
Alfredo

6 Likes
2

I like it.

I like your requirements/design decisions - mains power, plenty of IO, ESP32 based instead or cramming everything to an esp8266, dry contact relays, easy to solder, All very sensible!

3

Hi Alfredo

I love your work and have been using the paradox plugin since the start.

I’d really appreciate something like this board that allows me to trigger the alarm, but I’m afraid that building such board is beyond my capabilities.

So I wanted to touch base to see if you’ve found an easier, more noob friendly way now given it’s been 2 yrs since this post?

4

Would the original Sonoff 4CH relay set that the OP was trying to improve do what you need, @Rkor? If so, you can get there off the shelf.

5

To be honest I have no idea if the sonoff 4 channel would suffice?

6

Well, there’s a few models but broadly its a remote WiFi switch for 4 devices, that you can flash with ESPHome for tighter integration if you want to.

IIRC, the basic 4CH gives you a mains voltage ON/OFF across 4 channels. Each can be turned on/off remotely (or via button on the device) but any channel that is ON will have mains voltage running through it.

The 4CH Pro adds 433MHz RF control and 4 completely discrete circuits, so you could connect CH1 in place of a 12VDC switch, CH2 to a 24VDC switch, CH3 to mains voltage, etc…

How are you “triggering the alarm” currently?

7

That’s the thing, I’m not able to “trigger” the alarm yet, and would like to find a way to do so

I thought @alfredo’s device would be more complicated than an off the shelf sonoff

Would I need the 4channel and at mains voltage, or would a simple SV for example do the job?

8

Depends on your alarm, I’m sure. No idea without seeing a schematic. Can you google for other people that have maybe done this?

9

Perhaps something that I had my attention drawn to

1 Like
10

Hi All, it’s almost 2 years indeed!

I’m astonished by the focused and committed community that built around this tiny piece of software. Thank you for helping out and supporting new members, and for the time you’ve dedicated!

To this community, I apologize for the lack of updates through these recent months. I’m aware there are a few feature requests pending, and I do have a roadmap in mind that would include even more. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make the time for these improvements in the short term, but I haven’t abandoned the project, either!

To the topic of triggering the alarm: in short, there are no chances this will ever be possible through this add-on, because the IP150 web interface does not allow the user to trigger the alarm. In fact, if you found a way to do so via the IP150 web interface, please let me know and that could be a game changer.

To trigger the alarm, you need to interface with the GPIOs that are located directly on the alarm board (typically, a Magellan). You need a dry contact relay to temporarily short-circuit the pins on the board; on the Magellan, this can be configured as an additional zone of your alarm (this configuration can be done, for example, via a Paradox software called Babyware).

A Sonoff or equivalent with dry contact relays will work perfectly as a home assistant-controlled relay, and would then allow you to trigger the alarm. Hope this shed some light on the matter.

EDIT: Before you try and fry your alarm, I wanted to clarify the Sonoff or equivalent needs to provide a dry-contact relay. For example, the basic Sonoff models won’t cut it, as they wire their relay to the mains, which will most likely damage your Paradox Magellan board. One of the features of the device I developed is to have dry contacts, but other COTS options with this specific feature are suitable as well.

11

Yep, thanks for the heads up.

I’ve been using a couple of Sonoff SVs to trigger my garage door and front gate. You can remove the resistors like in this video to make them dry contacts

I don’t have an SV on hand, but I do have a nodemcu and a relay switch.

That should do the job? :slight_smile:
Where should I connect that on the IP150?

12

Looks like there is now a similar board on AliExpress: AC220V/DC5 30V ESP32 WIFI Bluetooth BLE Four channel Relay Module I/O Port ESP32 WROOM Development Board| | - AliExpress

13

Here’s my version of a 63mmx50mm GPIO port expander board for the MH-ET ESP-32 MiniKit with on-board A/C power supply. The GPIO pins are routed to 3.5mm screw terminals for easy and reliable connections. 5V and 3.3V power, Tx/Rx are also available.

The MiniKit exposes all its pins through “piggy-back” connectors and offers a series of “shields” for various peripherals. The relay shield is used in the photo. I also included a prototyping array under the power supply module for further customization.

As it says in the README file, I’m a very naive board designer so I probably made a few stupid newbie mistakes. Feedback and updates welcomed.

2022-06-24 08.11.39
2022-06-24 08.11.391920×865 229 KB

14

Interesting! By using SMDs and the ESP32 chip (rather than the devkit) they likely obtain a smaller PCB.

A couple of warnings though: as noted in one review, there seem to be no fuse on the mains, which is a pity; also no CE/UL certification at all (not even on the transformer part). Finally, the PCB traces connecting the relays are definitely too small to handle 10Amp.

Still, nice to see this is slowing taking shape in more industrialized ways!

15

Please read this thread on safety and power supplies. Safe In-Wall AC to DC Transformers?? | MySensors Forum