I’m giving up on that board, I’m going to use the geekreit type instead, only challenge is that I need an input, but I’m probably going to bend GPIO2 away, and mount the touch button on that.
The whole project is to replace the regular on/off button on our tefal raclette with a more intelligent control, so that it will turn off after a set period of time. The current button is defect, and needs to be replaced, so I’ve gotten a very small 5V psu, and a pushbutton to turn it on and off.
I’m actually going to select a board with two relays, I hope there is room enough for it, that way I can change the led in the button to reflect the switch state.
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Now I’m hungry. Raclette… 
Feel free to drop by in Denmark 
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Thanks for posting this. I was having the same problem with an ESP-01 + Relay module that I bought so I pulled the R2 like it describes and shorted the CH pin to 3.3V and now the thing boots properly and is seen by Home Assistant over Wifi. The problem with this is that when power is applied to the unit, the relay flips like 3-5 times, then it settles – not ideal but I guess that’s what you get for $3.
Good to hear @SpikeyGG. It’s not optimal with that little one, I’m going to try some other models, I hope they work better.
@SpikeyGG Im on my first diy/electrics/homeassistant project and im facing the same problem. I don’t quite understand what to do, I have never soldered anything so its going to be a challenge i guess. But can you maybe explain what you did and HOW to a noob like me? I don’t know how to short the pins (and you say CH mine says EN) and pull the R2, is that just removing and nothing in place of it? Hope you can help me.
Yeah man, we all start somewhere. I’ll use pictures because, you know, 1000 words or whatever…
This is the short (I soldered a little bridge):
And this is the removal of R2 (I tried to desolder mine but you may be able to just break it off):
You probably shouldn’t use the ESP01 as your first project though. It’s a terrible result because when you power it on the relay flips like 3-5 times which isn’t a good thing for whatever you’re controlling. I was planning on using it for my doorbell or a garage door opener and I wouldn’t want thing ringing the doorbell or hitting the garage door opener button a bunch of times in quick succession.
I only bought two of these ESP01’s with the relay hat thing and I’ll probably never use them because of that. ESP8266 NodeMCU, Wemos D1 mini and ESP32 are much better 1st project controllers to start on. I’ve played with them all and I recommend you start with Wemos D1 mini or ESP8266.
Good luck!
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Thank you very much! Can I just use a piece of a dupont wire to make that bridge? Im gonna try it this evening 
I was following this tutorial, which promised was noob friendly https://frenck.dev/diy-smart-doorbell-for-just-2-dollar/
But maybe its outdated, I’m gonna search for a tutorial with Wemos or ESP8266, thank you for the advice! Have you successfully made something for your doorbell/garage door opener?
That is a good tutorial, but not all esp01 and relay boards are created equal. Mine worked on the first try, but I guess I was just lucky.
yeah tutorial was good but when you get stuck with a faulty esp board, its not for beginners.
Actually, I was going to do the same thing based on Frenck’s webpage that you shared. I found it too a while back. As @francisp said, these cheepo ones we got aren’t as simple to use as Frenck’s so in my mind they’re junk.
I did build a couple of smart garage door opener managers using Sonoff SVs based on watching Dr. Zzz’s $5 DIY “Smart” Garage Door Opener using Sonoff SV. He sets them up with Tasmota which I did. However, after I built those I got DEEP into Esphome and have since converted them both to be esphome-based devices.
After doing that I realized that I wanted to have more sensors and things with my garage door opener devices (like car presence sensor, temp sensor, motion sensor, light sensor, carbon monoxide sensor, etc.) AND I don’t want my garage door to only have a single reed switch (the position sensor for the door) which I used based on Dr. Zzz’s $5 video.
I started off on a redesign and I haven’t quite finished it yet. I have created the Esphome code to enable dual reed switch sensors so I can detect “full closed” and “full open” and therefore set the state of the door more accurately (open/closed/opening/closing). Now I just need to create the PCBs for the devices so I can set them out there and hook them up. I’m planning to use Wemos D1 minis with relays for all of that.
Was you design the same as this one? If so, where did you get it?
I’ve ordered alternates to this design to see if they work (which I suspect they do).
Looks like this might be the answer:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/using-an-esp8266-dual-relay-combo-board-with-home-assistant/218757
But that’s a two relay thing, which is quite a bit larger, so the one-relay solution is still not viable.
Old thread, but I did it another way. I didn’t find the right resistor on my relay board. Instead I used cables. I made a split cable from VCC to both VCC on the ESP and EN pin. Connected GND and GPIO0. Neglected the rest.
Relay Board ESP01
VCC VCC+EN
GND GND
GPIO0 GPIO0