I’ve failed to upgrade Sonoff basic devices with Tasmota or Sonata. Being defeated by not being able to solder contacts on the circuit board for tasmota and Sonata not being compatible with the latest firmware.
So the question is are there any community supported alternatives to Sonoff for someone on a limited budget?
Depends on your intended usage I guess? If you’re looking for smart plugs maybe consider the $6 433 Mhz plugs?
The Cheapest Tech - $6 DIY Internet of Things Smart Outlets
Hi, are you even willing to flash them “by-wire”? Ich don’t solder them, just hold the pins in place while flashing.
I’m of that age, with poor eyesight where this becomes more difficult. Holding 4 or 5 wires in place without a tremble whilst sending data to a Sonoff seems a bit unlikely. I’d be willing to try it but my contact holes are filled with solder so keeping anything in the same place is going to be very tricky.
have you tried to remove the solder in the holes using solder wick or a solder sucker?
Ive not used these before, and I’'m just looking at them on you tube to see how they work.
If you are US based (due to shipping costs) I’d be happy to flash upwards of say a pack of 6-8 of them for you, just pay the shipping back. If you want male pin headers in them we could work out the cost of the headers. Hate to see someone say they can’t use such a great solution. My eyesight on near sight has gone kinda to the side as well but I have a simple old school magnifying lamp that we use for all kinds of projects. So much easier to solder anything.
I user something similar to this style.
It’s these frequent offerings of assistance that keep me coming back here.
Kudos to you.
B
If a simple smart outlet would fit your needs as well you may have a look at this:
TP-Link HS100 WiFi outlet on Amazon
I have one of those here as well and it works flawless with the tplink switch platform, you just need to configure the IP.
On eBay there are Sonoff’s sold ready with Tasmota firmware, search “sonoff tasmota” theres one US seller for 7.5$ and from Germany for 17.5$
Thanks guys, some very interesting pointers.
I think I’ll try to de-solder them first, but this time using a solder gun and braid.
I’ve ordered some bits and pieces of ebay, after watching a few You Tube videos and in any case, I’ve got the first Sonoff I messed up, to practice with.
As my local Maplins is now shut, I’ll be getting them from China so I’ve got a bit of a wait!
Thanks again.
+1 to just hold the pins in place. Another user posted a cool trick: use a elastic band to hold then in place. But if you really want something else, take a look at broadlink SC1 (https://www.gearbest.com/other-home-improvement/pp_622304.html?wid=1433363). I have one that I bought some time ago before discovering the sonoff. HA has a broadlink component that works with it so you don’t have to change the firmware.
Don’t laugh but I use a little piece of the kiddos play-doh…ball it up and stick it down over the header to hold it in place. Then simply pull it off when I’m done.
Not a bad price, I doubt they put the headers in though. I would definitely flash these again and factory reset them once you get them.
never thought about that! nice 
I did a 3 pack of Sonoff Basics last night with Tasmota by just holding the wires in place. Use a Dupont cable like pictured above, if you jam all 4 in it will stay in place. Sometimes I use sticky tack… like for posters. You only need to solder if you want to add a sensor to the extra GPIO.
The easiest way to flash is to use the provided binary files with esptool. Just download esptool, download the binary, use the command from the Tasmota wiki to flash it.
Blue tack, holds the pins in place no problems at all 
then its all easy from there.
sorry to jack the thread, but with all the people saying they hold the wires in place, how do you switch the light on with a switch? I always use GPIO14 to ground to detect when the old style light switch is switched so that i can turn the light on and off via mqtt or via the physical switch? I have not bothered making a flash rig, even though it should be simple, simply because i need the pin on GPIO14 and GND anyway.
You obviously need to solder the wires for a permanent connection like connecting to a switch, holding them in is just for flashing. People who say they want a different solution to avoid soldering to flash were never going to use them with anything attached to the gpio for that reason.
I use several with nothing attached and most of the rest only use two connections so have saved all the extra soldering and header pins that aren’t necessary.
