Hi all - Not sure if there is a better place to ask this question, but I’m attempting to use the Sonoff RF Bridge and the 433 Mhz sensors with Tasmota. The problem is that I have been trying to flash the Tasmota firmware for months with no success. I also tried Open MQTT Gateway, but that didn’t work either. I’m convinced I’m doing something wrong. Here is what I have tried:
Tried using a cheap USB-serial adapter first. Found out it was using a counterfeit FTDI chip when it didn’t work at all.
Got a package of 5 with the CH340 chip in them from Amazon. I’ve tried a few of those. The problem with all is that it seems like the power draw from the Sonoff kills the adapter. Computer acts as if it has been unplugged.
Next idea was to plug in a second adapter to the PC and use only the 3.3V lead from that one to power the Sonoff. Thought I was on to something. Flash complete! No luck. I plugged the Sonoff back in and it created its own Itead AP. Apparently the flash didn’t work.
Tried a new Sonoff RF Bridge. Same problem. Says the flash is complete, but no way to get a response through Termite commands.
Well, all this time I had been using Flash Easy. Tried to use Arduino IDE based on a Youtube tutorial. Again, it says flash complete, but no luck.
What else can I try? I’m stuck. Any thoughts would be helpful. Surely I’m just doing something wrong.
If it seems to be drawing too much power, perhaps you have it incorrectly connected? If you think you have a marginal USB serial adapter, try running the serial interface at a lower speed; I’ve used 115200 without issues on the cheapest adapters from ebay/banggood. I’ve always programmed all of my ESP8266 devices using the esptool.py python script running on my Mac.
Also, you should disconnect the power adapter from the RF Bridge while you’re trying to flash it, and power it from the converter.
I’ve got a couple of Sonoff RF Bridges that I flashed about a year ago with the Tasmota firmware using the information provided on the wiki section of that github page. I also did the hardware modification and flashed the other microcontroller that talked to the RF receiver so I could , in theory, use the “raw” interface.
I’ve not really kept up with what’s going on in that space; I understand that there’s been a number of different hardware revisions of the RF Bridge product, so probably the resources on the Tasmota wiki are your best bet:
Make sure you are connecting Rx on the FTDI board to Tx on the Sonoff. Likewise Tx on the FTDI connects to Rx on the Sonoff.
According to the Tasmota docs you have to move a switch and press another while connecting the serial adapter. If you are connected to a PC you should see a new serial port in device manager when making the connection (or use this serial port notifier app, it pops up a notification whenever a new port is discovered). Make sure you have the correct port selected in your programming tool.
Thanks, all. I’ve tried watching that Youtube video and I’m sure I have TX->RX & RX->TX. I am going to start over and give it another shot. If it doesn’t work, I’ll see about buying a new serial/USB adapter to see if that’s my problem.
One question - if I’ve compiled everything in Adruino IDE including wifi network and password, what should I expect out of the RF Bridge when connected to power? Should it automatically connect to the wifi network?
Ordered a new USB serial adapter and it seems to have the real FTDI chip in it. The flash worked, but then when it was plugged in, I got a SmartLife wifi network. Is there some way to delete the old firmware to make sure this doesn’t happen? I’m really not totally sure, but it seems like there is something left from the original firmware.
I was able to solve the problem. Based on suggestions from another forum, I changed the CFG_HOLDER value in the my_user_config.h file to force the changes to other settings through. Then I compiled into a .bin file and used Flash Easy to flash the device. Everything is now working as expected. Hope this helps someone else having trouble.
