#Standard esp8266 firmware version serial
Whatever you used for your jig, wire your newly-soldered header appropriately to it for Vcc (3.3V), Serial TX/RX, and of course ground. For my case I etched a custom PCB that attaches to my FTDI USB-to-Serial adapter for this purpose.
#Standard esp8266 firmware version how to
There are plenty of versions of this jig out there already, for example this one, so I won’t get too deep into how to do that. To do this we’ll need a programming jig or to wire up the appropriate circuit on a breadboard. Now that we have our header soldered on, we need to get ready to program the ESP8266 chip with our new firmware. While your soldering on those connections, take note as well of the second header block we aren’t really using and note the one labeled ground (GND) - you’ll need to use that in a minute! Getting ready to program the ESP8266 Header soldered on to the Sonoff T1 US programming pins The last pin appears to map to the ESP8266’s GPIO2, and isn’t important for us right now. Once you’ve located the serial connection header - the top right unsoldered header - you’re going to want to solder a male header to the first 4 pins (out of 5) representing Vcc, RX, TX, and Ground. We are interested in the top set of headers which are used to program the ESP8266 chip using a standard serial connection. On the right side you’ll find two sets of headers without any pins, and when you flip the board over you’ll find the corresponding labels indicating their use. That’s okay, but it’s going to make our lives a bit more challenging later on. The Sonoff T1 US control boardįor the Sonoff T1 US the ESP8266 chip is tightly integrated into the circuit board rather than being on a soldered on breakout. This board is attached to a power supply board behind it by a standard 8 pin header and no screws - just pull the board out of the case carefully as to not damage the pins. The front glass panel easily can be removed without any tools at all to expose the underlying capacitive sensor / ESP8266 control board. When you get your Sonoff T1 US, opening it up is a pleasure (I’m pretty sure they’re designed to let us hack them). Let’s get started! Opening Up to Sonoff T1 US Hacking Sonoff devices isn’t new - in fact there is an entire custom firmware devoted to them and others called Tasmota. But there isn’t a lot of documentation around right now on how to hack the T1 US single gang model, so I thought I’d share how I did it. Meanwhile, at my local maker space i3Detroit we use the Sonoff T1 and a whole host of other Sonoff devices to automate everything in the space from air compressors to our laser cutters!
In my case, while I have Phillips Hue bulbs for the vast majority of lighting in my house there were a couple of places where they wouldn’t work - specifically my downstairs bathroom that had the lights and the exhaust fan wired together to the same switch. It’s really nice thing to have when you want both the benefit of a physical switch and IoT support, or the thing the switch controls isn’t something that a smart bulb like Phillips Hue can solve. These devices are great specifically because they are designed to fit right into a standard wall light switch box and support 1 to three individual switches. Today we’re going to discuss the steps I took to flash my custom firmware onto a Sonoff single-gang switch (the Sonoff T1 US). We’ve discussed hacking off-the-shelf hardware in the past - for example my article on hacking a 4 outlet smart plug to run custom firmware was based on the same ESP8266 microprocessor technology. Many of my own devices are built on this platform (typically using a developer version of the chip), and my firmware CoogleIOT is designed specifically for it. The heart of every Sonoff device is a widely-supported microprocessor with built in WiFi called the ESP8266.
First, they are very affordable - and second - like the Sonoff T1, they are very hackable!
Sonoff is a very popular vendor of IoT devices for the makers among us for two big reasons.