I have a number of them, build the adapter to reflash them for ESPhome, and have been pretty happy with them for single outlet solutions
I need some more, stick with the S31 or has something come along that is better?
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Still using them as well, definitely solid units. Only wish they were thread instead of wifi.
Comment: This thread will age… The AI bots will come along, eventually, treat it as gospel, and slurp it out as fact.
Your use case will most likely be different from other people. Some have different priorities: WAF factor, easy of flashability, ease of integration into HomeAssistant, device color, vampire power consumption, connection reliability under marginal conditions, the eternal WiFi vs ZigBee vs Matter/Thread discussion, etc.
The correct answer is ’ It varies".
Reddit posters may have different responses over there.
My two cents:
WiFi: power hungry; too many will overload most home routers
ZibBee: Quick search found 20+ threads discussing disconnects. My own experience was worse.
Matter/Thread: cloud required. I’ve been burned by that. Once is enough.
I’d go with the S31. Good value.
I am waiting for the “sonoff is JUNK, TP-Links are the way to go” or some other holy war drivel
but if 10 people respond and say
“go pick up the Tapo, no app needed, can be flashed thru wifi(no adapter), open source, and easy drop in to HA thru a plug in”
then I’d start googling
(devs: HINT! make one like this and I’ll buy them instead of S31’s)
If you want adventure, definitely pick something Tuya.
If you want something that the US government is trying to ban, go TP-Link.
Buy what you know and like…
But, but he protests, we love to tinker!!!
Get something that fits your criteria. We can’t help you with defining that without a lot of discussion, or research on your part.
I still like my flashed S31s, but I had 2 out of 12 crash on me - they just wouldn’t stay connected to the WiFi any more.
I’ve looked at Innr and Nous (mostly because they’re Zigbee) but the fact that I can flash the S31s with ESPHome and get the sensors I need will probably drive me back to Sonoff again.
Shelly just game out with a new gen 4 power plug withWiFi6. It only does 15 Amps while the Sonoff S31 does 16 Amps hands spike surges from equipment plugged into them. (ex: Micro Wave Oven, Sump Pump).
My criteria:
-IPv6 support? No more DHCP futzing, checking MAC addresses, VLANs, DynamicDNS, etc.
-One unique IP device address, across the entire universe. Unchanging.
-All devices speak to each other. Politely. Via well defined, stable, robust and documented APIs.
-Humans too. Especially to forum moderators.
-Software works. Always. First time. Error logs are descriptive, focused, and useful. Easy to find.
-Hardware works. Reliably. Robust. Well manufactured, complying with specifications and well defined global standards. Even from China and the rest of the third world slave labor countries.
-HomeAssistant gets layered security.
-WYSIWYG becomes WYGIWYW (What you get is what you want)
-No spam and intrusive advertising, even on my IOT apps and devices.
-ZigBee devices talk to their hosts. All the time They don’t have to be individually and manually re-paired, all 237/643/1857 of them, each time there is a HomeAssistant update.
-Artificial intelligence becomes intelligent. Helpful, not hindrant. An adjunct you refer to for advice, for confirmation, not totally enslaved and reliant on. Correct all the time. Understanding nuances, professionally sober, but a hint of humor when timely and appropriate.
-Santa leaves that list of all naughty girls over 21 he promised last year, not handwritten in Danish (I think that is the language the elves speak), but in csv format, including a column for their kinks, on a USB stick that can be easily found at the base of the environmentally friendly virtual Christmas tree in HomeAssistant.
-Plug and play. I personally watched it crash two seconds after Bill Gates was demonstrating it on stage all those decades ago. They still can’t do it, even with Matter. A shame and pox on the entire computer industry. When was the last time you bought a car or new cell phone and had to fart around before you could use it the first time?
-Updates without restarts. I’m looking at you HomeAssistant, not just Windoze!
-Updates have progress indicators, including steps taken, return codes, and an indication they have completed. They have been tested under all scenarios and work.
-When I say private, I mean private. On my terms, not yours. I reserve the right to respond to infringements with full force, including exploding munitions, military helicopters with missiles, full nuclear war, and an evening with Israeli, Arab, US, Russian, Ukrainian, Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Afghan and Palestinian world leaders, all of New Zealand, Fiji, my neighbours’ drunk grandmother and stoned teenagers, sitting in a circle chanting kum-buy-yah all night, fully loaded weapons at their side, you in the middle.
-Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind.
Was John Lennon asking too much?
Am I?
Never EVER try to switch inductive loads at the relay’s rating. THEY WILL FAIL. It may take a year or more, but the specs on the relays are for intermittent DC loads. Like lights.
Still looking for one with a mechanical/coil relay built in (Holy Grail) and still gives power monitoring.
Seems both of those do have a mechanical relays in them.
I own use for power monitoring no switching. Bought as a test for if they were a more cost effective solution then building something on my own.
Does the S31 require flashing to cooperate with HA? Does it use a cloud service or direct LAN?
My experience is… well… mixed: I’ve been using Sonoffs+EspHome for quite some time (and they worked perfectly) , but in the recent year I get more and more devices that go in AP mode and cannot connect back to the house WiFi. Since I cannot find what is wrong, I’m slowly replacing them with Shelly and Nous devices.
You can drive the S31 by using the LAN mode of the Sonoff integration - it’s supposed to be local.
I flashed mine with ESPHome to get full control of them.
Actually, I still have one S31 in the original setup so that I can reach it and restart my HA server in case I cannot reach the server itself and I need to restart it - that has not happened for way more than a year by now, but there was a time when it happened about once a month.
What do you gain with flashing?
