Sonoff MiniR4 Extreme

Hardware
1

Hey everyone, I haven’t seen this device mentioned yet, so I’m opening a topic. The Sonoff MiniR4 is a in-wall Wi-Fi switch with decoupled relay and connection to existing mains switch.

I bought a few to see if they can replace some of my poorly performing Sonoff ZBMini and because I want to switch to detached relay for all of my in-wall switches. My strategy is zigbee for smart lights and Wi-Fi for the switching and power metering. I would like to have the two systems be a back-up for each other.

I’ve received the device, and it is a nice little one, just a tad smaller than the Shelly’s.

I’ve tried connecting directly, however sadly that wasn’t possible. So, I tried setting it up with the eWeLink app. Sad to say that this method does not expose any usable APIs and is cloud-dependent. When I turn off the internet access for the device, I can still switch it on and off over LAN but cannot save any settings changes.

I guess I need to learn how to flash ESPHome :\ If that is the case I would love to implement a ‘if Home Assistant is unreachable couple the relay’ that I’ve heard about. Does anyone have any experience with this?

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Yes, it’s doable
You can refer to this config here

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You can refer to this template:

so ESPhome should work too

see this too;

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Okay, I am sad to report 4 Sonoff Mini R4 Extreme have now died in my hands. I’ve accidentally shorted something on one and ripped a pad off the other 3. These little guys are a bit more delicate than I have the skillset for at the moment. I guess I’m going Shelly.

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I’ve learned a lot and the process was totally worth it.

Too bad of the Minis. But they are unworkable with their app anyways, so this is still an improvement.

Thanks for the feedback.

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5

That’s very unfortunate
I’d recommend using pogo pins or dupont cable with blue tacs to avoid soldering/ripping off pads

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This is exactly the solution I was looking for. Thanks for the tip :slight_smile: Going to try it out on the one I have left.

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Okay, just flashed four of them with a USB to Serial converter. Worked great! Seems like the pads on the daughterboard have a clear coating on them and I couldn’t get the solder to flow on there properly at first. CAREFULY scratched the pads and It was just really easy to solder after. The flashing itself took longer than the soldering.
Get thin and flexible cables so there’s not to much force on the solder joints.
I also printed a PCB Vice. I can recommend this one Rubber Band PCB Vise by MS3FGX - Thingiverse as it only requires rubber bands(well, and a 3d printer). Print a second set of the top inserts to hold your USB to Serial converter and use a USB extension instead.
And don’t forget to use flux and a low temperature, around 250°C worked well for me.

What I don’t understand yet. S1 and S2 are those two separate switch inputs? if so what GPIOs are they on. One is on GPIO27 afaik.

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Flashed tasmota here and S1 and S2 seems useless now. Any tip?

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Just one Input, probably GPIO27 and GND for S1 and S2 (or vice versa). :arrows_counterclockwise:

Define it as Input (GPIO27) :raised_hands:

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Im using gpio27 already but just enable a physical button and a matter switch by app. Nothing happens using S1+S2.

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So what’s left then is only GPIO0 according to: :man_shrugging:

How do you use them exactly?

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12

Hello everyone!

I’m using a lot of Sonoff MINIR2 and Dual R3 (40 devices) and now I’ve seen there are these new smart switches which are compatible.

Can you confirm both S1 and S2 inputs are available on EspHome?

Thank you

EDIT: Just seen S1 and S2 work like on MINIR2: they need to be linked together to generate an input, so nevermind :wink:

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If I read this correctly it’s more like the MiniR1, it runs 240V through the switch, the mini R2 is low voltage(not sure it mean 3.3,5 or 12) but you can use thinner wiring because of that.
you can also connect the MiniR4 like a DualR3

I actually think L1 and S1 are soldered together, so S1 just provides 100-240V