New Sonoff RF Bridge Board - Need Flashing Help

Expello · January 19, 2022, 10:38am

you mean the transmitter from the bridge?

I have unfortunately (or fortunately) no other devices with 433mhz.

Should not what he sends also be visible in the log?
I think so…the code that is received again immediately after sending fits.

[11:37:28][D][switch:013]: 'HOCH 01' Turning ON.
[11:37:28][D][remote_transmitter:074]: Sending remote code...
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='10001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='010001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='010001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='010001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='010001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='010001110110000011011001000001100000001000000000000101110101011'
[11:37:31][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=2 data='0100011101100000110110010000011000'

mateine · January 19, 2022, 12:02pm

Ok, then it works. I assume you also tried to put it right next to the device you want to control, just to make sure it is not a range issue.
I just remembered something similar happened to m. For me it worked using raw codes, to which I added a -1000 at the very end.

Expello · January 19, 2022, 1:36pm

No, it is not a range problem.

I have opened the remote control…maybe someone can do something with it. The processor is interesting…in the data sheet there is nothing to find about 433 mHz.

https://www.ti.com/product/MSP430G2332#description

ok, I was able to locate the manufacturer…have written to them to see if they can send me details of their 433 mHz protocol.

https://www.a-okmotor.com/

darek · February 15, 2022, 2:26am

Hi guys

At the beginning I have to mention that I am completely new in this topic and know nothing about the rf communication!

I bought sonoff fr bridge and then notice that I have this new version of the board. I tried to follow Schmurtz setup so I did soldering and then cat 3 lines at the back and 1 at front and I then I realized I don’t have python so decided to go with esphome . I flashed my bridge and I see a lot of communication in the log but have no clue if the reading is ok.

In 15 seconds I received around 700lines , data looks like this.

[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:028]: Received Raw: 2184, -1763, 577, -1485, 1577, -570, 287, -1362, 1244, -348, 461, -450, 748, -597, 643, -713, 737, -1075, 532, -688, 595, -2019, 2359, -632, 894, -1439, 1761, -677, 3947, -1299, 1818, -1261, 3803, -405, 518, -420, 735, -1283, 277, -672, 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]:   1993, -2604, 347, -1297, 1621, -2324, 681, -914, 1010, -2406
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -316, 380, -471, 373, -985, 278, -709, 1382, -597, 775, -630, 565, -2102, 445, -1531, 400, -1765, 2606, -1633, 1623, -1728, 2094, -928, 1221, -791, 1469, -943
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -698, 1202, -538, 267
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: 3534, -548
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -774, 3779, -1068, 307, -845, 1522, -2346, 792, -946, 282, -1257, 1053, -923, 700, -868, 403
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:028]: Received Raw: 2173, -3302, 603, -644, 329, -967, 1411, -748, 277, -1780, 589, -2658, 1420, -728, 360, -2044, 3494, -1015, 760, -483, 854, -1337, 402, -1023, 310, -419, 260, -1072, 3618, -1566, 1906, -1356, 329, -373, 455, -923, 2327, -894, 1576, -2153, 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]:   299, -813, 325, -1856, 634
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: 2114, -411, 318, -311
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -1382, 2558, -2554, 423, -2025
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:028]: Received Raw: -312, 392, -1630, 425, -343, 1340, -739, 794, -1514, 2673, -2111, 1662, -2409, 503, -1316, 310, -1093, 646, -536, 1095, -994, 530, -1113, 1334, -944, 1832, -1667, 1431, -3277, 613, -1089, 317, -362, 1387, -341, 944, -2406, 344, -2616, 347, 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]:   -1524, 2535
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -2565, 398, -1128, 424, -1053, 2835, -1903, 3524, -1497, 434, -2300, 296, -3610, 3004, -690, 3308, -1343, 320, -526, 1039, -913, 606, -1699
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -277, 371, -1870, 324, -2786, 802, -1676
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: 645, -1122
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]: Received Raw: -397, 320, -1356, 629, -393, 1214, -719, 1451, -3235, 1020, -1950, 1392, -2378, 1207, -414, 440, -1114, 1000, -1507, 1636, -2092, 336, -1843, 2279, -1020
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:028]: Received Raw: -271, 822, -929, 333, -934, 3176, -1053, 2270, -847, 720, -1067, 485, -695, 2923, -992, 305, -1736, 2790, -1945, 570, -393, 293, -339, 392, -2840, 304, -1620, 436, -1538, 947, -326, 2644, -2644, 943, -2580, 606, -1207, 816, -504, 618, -446, 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]:   1963, -426, 864
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:028]: Received Raw: 620, -2537, 334, -3833, 871, -1467, 1565, -488, 326, -2368, 488, -2915, 422, -3933, 3735, -898, 2370, -1053, 604, -705, 1207, -1163, 773, -1653, 2684, -1339, 1312, -3107, 867, -257, 2651, -1729, 1097, -1398, 1146, -790, 410, -1348, 1179, 
[01:39:49][D][remote.raw:041]:   -2422, 2011, -1507

As far as Im aware I have only two devices which send rf communications, weather station with one remote sensor so not sure why I get so many data and its very hard to get anything from the log

I also checked my LED rf remote control and I see it in the log but I get 3 or 4 lines when I press any button once

[02:22:53][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=1 data='000100110010101100001000'
[02:22:53][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=1 data='000100110010101100001000'
[02:22:53][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=1 data='00010011001010110000'
[02:22:53][D][remote.rc_switch:259]: Received RCSwitch Raw: protocol=1 data='000100110010101100001000'

My questions are:
-Is it ok to go with esphome when I cut the top line as well??
-if it is ok, can you review my data to check if it is correct please?
-My main goal is to read temperature from my temperature sensor, can you advise here what to do with this raw data in order to get temperature ?

thanks in advance

robr · February 22, 2022, 6:43pm

@mateine I am so delighted that there is a custom way to get RFLink onto the new V2.2 board.

However I cannot get the device flashed. Neither tasmotizer nor esptool.py are working. Getting me a timeout error but the FTDI chip is working with other ESP. Was it wrong to first disconnect the USB wires on board before flashing?

Here is my board after following the direct hack mod:

I would be very grateful for your help. thank you!

mateine · February 22, 2022, 7:30pm

Cutting the usb lines is just because many chargers will short them and you are now using those pins to communicate with the transmitter and receiver. I.e: not a mistake.

There’s 3 things i can think of that can go wrong:

Failed to keep the pairing button pressed before and while powering it on (connecting the ftdi to your pc
The resistor leads are shorting something
The rx and tx are not crossed: rx of the sonoff should go to tx of the ftdi and vise versa
The ftdi is not on 3.3v but on 5v

Hopefully it is just the first one and nothing burned

By the way: pressing the pairing button will pull gpio0 low and put it in programming mode.

mateine · February 22, 2022, 7:31pm

Btw: the the test pads in the back exposing gpio12 and 14 work well. I added a thermometer to the sonoff there.

robr · February 22, 2022, 7:42pm

@mateine thank you so much! I carefully tried all above and did a A/B test because I have one additional unmodified board. On both devices I am unable to flash with tasmotizer nor esptool. On both I get a timeout. I can see that the board is in flash mode. But during flash progress it does not respond.

I bought a new FTDI adapter. That may be my last resort. If someone is selling the RF Bridge with RFLINK Firmware I am more than happy to buy it and donate 20EUR to the coffee cup of @schmurtz

mateine · February 22, 2022, 8:01pm

Ok much luck!
You may want to check the tutorials for previous board revisions, maybe you find some extra tips there.
Yeah @schmurtz deserves it. His pics were much superior than mine

schmurtz · February 22, 2022, 10:40pm

@Expello sometimes a remote sacrifice is a good way to automate something I mean you plug an ESP to simulate button press on the original remote (but I admit that the challenge is less interesting).

@robr Do you see something in reception on your FTDI adapter ? Are you sure to press the button during the USB plugin ? The ESP must boot with the button pressed otherwise it is not in programming mode.

Hi Materine, interested by this “small web tool to visualize the raw dumps” !
If you have it somewhere… Thanks

Viking · February 24, 2022, 9:21pm

I wonder why ITEAD thinks it’s a good idea to design their new board so that they loose all of us as future customers ? It seems they’re doing their outmost to try to prevent us from using their products.
Why not instead offer a version with a Portisch like FW already flashed?
I think we should abandon companies who fail to offer non-proprietary products. Everything should be open source.

mateine · February 24, 2022, 10:11pm

Oh, yes I’ll put convert it to a GitHub page soon and drop a msg here.

francisp · February 25, 2022, 5:17am

Well, there is a global chip shortage. Probably, they had to choose between not selling the rf bridge anymore, or produce a revision with chips they still could buy. Not selling the rf bridge would hurt the sale of their other rf based stuff (door/window sensor, …)

robr · March 1, 2022, 8:31pm

@mateine thanks again. I bought the CH430G TTL and it worked instantly.

With the old R1 Version there was an explanation how to solder an external antenna. Have you tried to solder an external antenna to the new R2 V2 board? It seems there are like to antennas onboard soldered to pins R3 and C6? Could one solder two antennas to those points? Thank you for any ideas. I am willing to try it.

Stormhand · March 24, 2022, 2:15pm

Hello,

Thanks for all your hard work guys. I need some help with my RF bridge v2.2. Im completely lost and confused what to use of all the projects - ESPHome, Tasmota or RFLink. I want to use my RF bridge R2 with several Smoke detectors https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrVSsFI for now, using MQTT. I have only used Tasmota before on my Sonoff touch switches. This time im not sure what to flash

Thanks!

mateine · March 24, 2022, 5:26pm

Any would work, it is your preference.
ESPHome is extremely flexible and tasmota is usually easier to get into.
RFLink I haven’t used myself.
You can probably use the RF bridge as is, even with its original firmware, it depends if the protocols are compatible with sonoff’s firmware.
Here’s a tasmota tutorial

vinivinilos · March 24, 2022, 5:39pm

Hi all! New member here. Just to say that I tried to flash this sonoff r2 v2.2 following these instructions but bricked it. At the beginning it was very hard to put the device on boot mode, after several attemps I flashed it with tasmota, but then I tried to flash it with the RFlink firmware. I flashed it with NodeMCU flasher, but it didn’t work. It’s died. I’m trying to bring it back to life again with no luck. Do you have any advice?
However, I’ve ordered a new older version one.
Thanks in advance!

Stormhand · March 25, 2022, 7:55am

Is there any way to use the original firmware with MQTT?

Stormhand · March 25, 2022, 6:55pm

Thanks @schmurtz for the great page for flashing rf bridge 2.2 with rflink32 and the direct hack. Im successfully reading all 3 of my eWelink smoke detectors. They are producing message like this in the topic:
20;04;EV1527;ID=0685c2;SWITCH=06;CMD=ON;

What im not sure is - now there is no such thing as Pairing? Rflink will directly send everything its able to parse to the msg topic? The RF bridge button now is only used for entering in flash mode.

giros79 · March 31, 2022, 6:47pm

264 / 5.000
Hello everybody. I am a newbie and I was very interested in the project. I managed quite quickly with the hardware part, my problem is that I can set the sonoff through the browser, but I don’t see any data. can you guide me step by step? Thank you all