Some years ago I tried Denkovi products (wifi relay board: Wi-Fi Relay Module - 12 Relays, IO, WEB, HTTP API, SMTP, Telnet for another application and worked well.
But the relays from the wifi board doesn’t work in multiple mode (using digital inputs and logical command). Only one config can be set. Also the relay status feedback for HA is by pooling, which is a bad way to do.
In my lighting control I want to use push switches and the relay status feedback can be done by MQTT, that’s why I will try the smartDEN board.
Good news! The SmartDEN arrived.
I’ll post a detailed review in a few days, but so far first impressions are good.
I did a quick workbench setup for relays with pushbuttons on digital inputs (setup directly on module - it doenst depends on HA to work “offline”. It works great.
Also, I did the MQTT integration on HA and the module worked like a charm… the feedback time to/from HA <-> SmartDEN is very good.
First of all, sorry for the late reply! I am in the process of starting construction of the new house. So there are many things that take up time during the work.
In the meantime, I bought Kincony A32 board and testing togheter.
The relay boards I’m testing are very good. Good integration with HA, good operation and reliable, so far.
I’m going to use these boards in my new house. I gonna control ~150 light circuits (most are LED), 10 window blinds (external), some controlled outlets, solenoids, and others.
I’m intended to use Kincony boards, because of number of circuits, I would need buy a lot of 8 channel boards. Using de A32, the number decreases substantially.
I installed the KCS firmware and using MQTT protocol to talk to HA. It works like a charm.
My concern is about the lifespan of relay modules. However, this is a issue I would face on others market boards and suppliers. To prevent short life of the relays, I gonna protect some of them (those who gonna control critical loads like garden/wet lights/circuits, solenoids, using contactors and couple relays between load and boards.
@EarthK the relays are activated by the boards (the HA can be offline and everything still working) using the related Digital Input of the board. The cable from pulse switch will be awg 26 because they will be working on 12v.
I first bought a Kincony 16 ports version that integrates with MQTT for garden controls.
In the beginning there were some minor issues with the firmware regarding the MQTT credentials.
I contacted the manufacturer and they rolled out an update for the FW quite shortly after that.
Since then, no problems.
Recently, I got into ESPHome and bought a 16 ports ESP ready relay from them, this time with replaceable relays.
Both are connected through Ethernet since I didn’t want to use WiFi for this.
I’m very satisfied with the products, would buy them again.
Not so long ago, I saw some negative remarks about this company but it seems that this is just based on pre sales bad communication.
Thanky you for a swift reply.
Happy to hear that. So you have the F16 version. that really caught my attantion as well. So i will give a try soon. Thank you
No, it’s not the F type (which seems to be a Tuya version, whatever that implies), it’s this one.
Be aware, if you haven’t found out already, that many of us steer away from anything that has Tuya in it’s specs…
Using this board is it possible to configure it only with esp home? Like setting which input enables an output or do I need to create an automation on home assistant for each input that I want to use to control an output?
So i did not choose the Kincony but found a Polish manufacturer https://boneio.eu I already have the products but did not tested yet. But seems really solid. Anyone experience with that? I chose them becouse it has CE certification so the insurance company may cover some damages by fires if caused by this device
An important characteristic which is not very well known is the current tolerance. Most manufacturers will indicate the max current for the switches (10A in this case for instance) but I learned the hard way that some devices that are well below this limit, for instance a LED light using 0.01A will create what is called inrush current during a few milliseconds when the switch is closed, at startup. In these cases you can have several dozens amps going through a switch for a few milliseconds. This is enough to ‘fry’ the switch closed after only a few uses.
This happened to me with two low-cost LED lights that probably use low-quality LED drivers. I had several switches fried that I needed to de-solder and replace on the board…
I will now replace all the hardware by Kincony F24 which have much sturdier relays, and hope that this is able to handle all LED lights.
