Hi! I decided to open up a smart plug to see if I was able to flash it with Tasmota, expecting to find the 3v tx rx and gnd ports printed somewhere on the device, but I couldn’t find it. I took some pictures to see if someone had any insights regarding if it’s possible to flash it and where would I need to solder the connections.
I am not an expert on this and I would actually like to practice on this device (as it is an old Twakie smart plug and the official app is no longer maintained so I am unable to pair it.)
In the first image a ESP8266 WiFi sub-module does not look having a ESP chip on the side it pictured. However, most likely its 8-pin interface has all you need. It would be nice to see anything on the other side, but looks the relay and a capacitor will not allow that. To read a complete pin names on the sub-module may help understanding your problem. There are similar functionality WiFi modules also with 8 pin interface. If pins are similar, then properly connected to the FTDI adapter Tasmota firmware can be flashed.
Thanks for your answer I will take a picture of the other side when I come back home. To see if there’s any more insights on that side of the WiFi board
yeah, nothing is seen except a WiFi antenna. The picture does not help much, but can you see with your eyes anything similar to this? If it is found, there is still some hope to flash tasmota.
Then if esp8266 is there, again with your eyes try to get more about pin names here:
Now with some letters missing it leaves some ambiguity. I must say I haven’t found anything similar to this exotic wifi sub-module.
Looks as a clue even without going into module’s guts. But could esp8266 be packaged into 8 pin package? Never saw such. Well, if only few GPIO needed for Wifi and serial interface, i can imagine such. Obviously for such a cheap thing a full-packaged chip could be an overkill…
On your first image where seen “ESP8266 WIFI V1.0…” you may see a thickest trace connected (seemingly) to pin 4 of the 8 pin package. If you can trace where it goes, it maybe what you are looking for. Otherwise, the only way is to try to trace where ESP’s pin 33 (not shown on your pic) is connected. Maybe module pin titles may give some clue.
Black cable from back of the ESP board to GND on FTDI
White cable from pin 1 (front of the ESP board) to 3.3V on FTDI
Grey cable from pin 2 (front of the ESP board) to RXD on FTDI
Purple cable from pin 3 (front of the ESP board) to TXD on FTDI
I got a succesfull flashing using tasmotizer and the regular tasmotizer.bin file, (I had to press the reset button on the device while on boot to be able to enter into setup mode according to this info:
What we want to do now is boot into “Flash Mode”. This is done by connecting the GPIO0 wire we left hanging before to the GND pin (also called “short to ground”), while the chip is booting up . I used one hand to keep them touching for a few seconds, and the other one to plug the USB adapter into my computer. The LED should not blink anymore in this mode.
but here’s my question.
Using the FTDI as power for the Twakie Smart Plug should I be able to see the wifi tasmota creates so I can connect it to my wifi? or Do I need to plugged it in into an outlet to test if it works. I don’t want to put everything back together and desolder the wires unless I know the device is working, that’s why I want to know if with the FTDI as power it should in theory work (at least the wifi part)
Yes, powered from FDTI the module works as usual. No other power connection is needed. Connecting to the outlet with an attached FDTI is a very bad idea - it is dangerous! To check if Tasmota was correctly flashed you should see console messages on your serial connection in monitoring mode. If Tasmotizer does not allow setting WiFi and other configs, you should be able to see a wifi access point created by your ESP with Tasmota to connect to.
Oh well what do you know… after letting rest thru the night I woke up, connect it to the FTDI and checked for wifi hotspot before using the ftdi console monitor to see if there was any activity, and the tasmota hotspot appeared, I was able to set it up with my own Wifi and now the device is flashed.
Thanks @Holdestmade for your suggestion of tracing the connections from the link you suggested and thanks @sp00025 for your help along the way! It was a fun way to learn how to install tasmota on a condemned device (due to lack of official app). Next proyect a power strip that just does not want to connect to Tuya App (Smart Life) anymore. Time to open it up and flash it with Tasmota.
If it is found, there is still some hope to flash tasmota.
