Sonoff basic R3 vs Sonoff Mini two-way (Share your experience)

Hardware
1

Hey guys,

I’m about to buy a dozen of smart switches to keep on automating things.
I have several sonoff products and i was looking into getting some more.

I am between the Basic R3 and the Mini two-way, which are similarly priced here.
Has anyone had experience with both and can help me out?

From what i’m seeing, the mini has more functionality as you can connect physical switches on it and it has an external antena which can be a plus (easier to extend to get to weird places)

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

2

My 2 cents, Harry.
I am assuming you will flash them with Tasmota.
If not, scratch all that I write down below and go for the minis…smaller form factor, more options and similar reliability vs the Basic.

Minis
PIA to flash using DIY. Solder pads are tiny.
Once flashed, Yes, the antenna is a plus and so is the switch. In other words, you can get 2 GPIOs without further soldering…depending on your use case.

Basic R2 - you still get them and they are easier to play with R3 can get a tad painful due to poor PCB design layout.
Easy to flash. Easy to mod for those 2 extra GPIOs…just a simple header pin solder.

Sorry for the cop out answer but it all depends on use case (space, WiFi signal, heat dissipation…blah blah). But for the price points they are at, get 5 of each and add an extra 5 of whatever you enjoy the most, I would say.

Stay safe!

3

if I was starting out again i would be using shelly https://shelly.cloud/

1 smaller
2 easy put inline with switch you already have
3 price OK not as cheap sonoff
4 couple of clicks and its local
5 can put tasmota on them

4

Nah, I’ll only use them as simple switches, so ill use this
I’ve limited my tasmota / ESPhome devices only to the ones that need extra functionality (sensors etc) and use all the sonoffs with their original fw as i can avoid the flashing procedure.
In this particular project, they will be away from my HA installation (in another house) so if i want to integrate them, the original fw way is the simplest (I dont want to mess with mqtt bridges etc)

So, looks like Minis are the best way to go in terms of form factor and wifi signal right?

I installed two shelly 2.5 two days ago and automated a friend’s motorized blinds.
and OMG are those things a million times better and well designed than sonoffs. If only sonoff had half the good app that shelly does.

But, due to low availability here, and price difference (5€ for sonoff and ~13€ for shelly 1) I think the sonoffs are the best way to go as for simple on/off functionality.

Thanks for your answers guys.
I think the minis are the way to go in this project.
I only care about wifi strength mainly… and i wont be re-flashing them so minis… right?

PS. I can’t stress enough how excited i was with installing the shelly 2.5 on the shutters. They even automatically found the endpoints by measuring the electricity consumption when the motors were stressed (i think) and auto-calibrated to recognize their position. wow…

1 Like
5

good points

but

shelly 2.5 has two relay plus power metering

so 13 one shelly vs 2 sonoff 10 would 2 sonoff fit in where you can put 1 shelly

hay bro just want you think about the hardware not the $$$$$

when I started this in 1999 cost $90 to get a computer(+50 for software) turn a light on/off and it just sent the on command computer think its was on

6

13 for “shelly 1” (one relay) vs 5 for sonoff mini :slight_smile:

The shelly 2.5 i had to order from abroad and we ended up paying around 70€ for two of them (including postage)

Agreed, but i dont think this is the case :slight_smile:

7

Have a look at the sonoff dual. https://www.itead.cc/wiki/Sonoff_Dual

Two relays and two GPIO on header pins so very easy to interface with.

just used one in one of my projects flashed with ESPHome.

Regards,