Relay board for Home assistant

Current rating is stated for resistive load, and led is far from it. A small 5W led can fry 10A relay contacts in a few months because of inrush current which can be well over 10A. Taking into accunt that chinese relays have usually “chinese” amperes rated and disaster is here…
For led’s it’s best to use solid state relays.

Hi Nick4,

I’m just planning to buy the Kincony KC868-E16S along with Home Assistant Green. Came across this thread, seeing you used it with Home Assistant.

Kincony advertises that we should let them know in advance if we request a flashable device (to replace the firmware of our choice), otherwise they will send it as-is.
I see that ESPHome can be configured to work on it.

As I understood, yours works fine with HA through Ethernet.
Did you have to tinker around to get it work, or just worked out-of-the-box? Did you order the board as-is, or did you need to reflash it with ESPHome?

I’m new to HA (also to ESPHome), but having some general knowledge on embedded electronics and software development.

I understood that once a device is running ESPHome, it’s guaranteed to work flawlessly with Home Assistant, I only have to make sure applying the correct YAML.

I would appreciate your (or anybody else’s) reply.

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi Daniel, welcome to the forum!

It’s strange what the tell you and I don’t understand what they mean.
ESP devices can always be flashed and I wonder if they ship them with or without any configuration and if that is what they are trying to tell you.

TBH I don’t remember what I did to get started with this relay board. :blush:
In the meantime I have started using multiple ESP devices so sorry: I can’t tell you what I had to do.

Anyway, as you found out yourself: the default configuration is available.
It’s just that you have to install the ESPHome device builder first but all the info is on the ESPHome.io site.

Side note: I’m really pleased about that relay board and I think it’s good value for money as an alternative to much pricier comparable solutions when you want to control multiple things from a central spot.

I’m now using the F32 boards and I’m very happy with them. When you receive them you need to either flash the Kincony KCS firmware using their Windows tool, or flash them to ESP using the YAML they provide (and that you can tweak).

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Hi guys,

thanks for the quick & helpful answers.
Meanwhile Kincony also confirmed I will be able to flash the board.

Still excited to setup everything when stuff arrives.

Have fun!!

I’ve been using ESP-01 relay boards. You can also find PCB din rail mounts to mount them on, on Aliexpress.

Personally I’m not a fan of bringing 230V to these boards. For the most part I bring 12V DC to them and control a good quality relay with them to switch loads.

Although these ESP-01 baors are chip as chips, by the time you include good quality relays and a power supply, it will add up.

Which ones?

If you take a look at the one that is referred to lately, you see that the board is powered with a 12V adapter.

I’m not a fan of switching 230 with them either. Again its personal preference and each to their own.

The Kincony F series have ‘sturdy’ relays. You can chek them out, it’s the Omron G2R1E series, either 12 or 24V. They are also mounted on sockets, which make a potential replacement easier.

I used Kincony H32B Pro before, and the relays were not able to withstand inrush currents even for regular day to day items (low quality LED lights for instance). This is why I replaced them.

No relay will last long when using low quality chinese led lamps. Inrush current is just too big. I use SSR’s for this purpose (solid state relay).

For example: i have 10W led which i control with pir sensor and when i used 16A relay lasted about 2-3 months. I replaced it and it was gone again after 2-3 months. Now 1A ssr works for a couple of years.

I think some of the issue here is people look at at what they are switching but do not take into account the protective device upstream. A lot of these cheaper relays may be used to switch a small load like an LED light which is only a couple of watts but the circuit is protected by a 10A MCB.

it’s not fuse problem…
those cheap chinese leds won’t blow 10A fuse, but it will destroy 16A relay in a couple of months. The point is that, say, 10A fuse will withstand a few ms long pulse of 10A or even more. But, just try and connect one of those leds to 230V and you’ll see (and hear) a massive “pop” while connect wires will turn a bit welded.

This phenomenon is easily reproduced with non-lethal voltages: just take 1000uF or more electrolyte capacitor, make sure it’s empty (short it’s leads), then connect it to 12V. It will pop. Then short it - again it will pop. Then look at the wires and they will be a bit damaged. Repeat this a few hundred times and :fire: … THAT is the problem.

For example: if you look to any decent switch-mode psu you’ll generally see NTC resistor at the 230 input. None of cheap chinese ones have it. NTC lowers inrush current massvely thus eliminating this “pop”.