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itead / Sonoff_Devices_DIY_Tools

BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Over-complicated pairing procedure #9

Open alexbk66 opened 5 years ago

alexbk66 commented 5 years ago

I wonder why it's made so difficult to connect to the devices? Too many steps involved: https://youtu.be/fzEDFmB0UYU?t=338

  1. Connect in not DIY mode
  2. Update firmware
  3. Open the devices and put the jumpers on
  4. Setup WiFi sonoffDiy hotspot
  5. Connect another computer to the hotspot, disable Ethernet adaptor for mDNS to work and use your tool.exe.
  6. If lucky - the devices will be discovered - then enter WiFi SSID and password manually
  7. Disconnect from the WiFi hotspot
  8. Then hopefully the device will connect to normal WiFi and mDNS will find it

I think it's over-complicated for average users (and unreliable at the moment). Imagine people buy 20 devices - they will have to repeat these steps for each device.

Why not just do it like everybody else do - have WiFi hotspot on the device - and setup the WiFi info via eWeLink app?

rradar commented 5 years ago

I would go one step further and don't force their user to use a eWeLink app a Windows app or a forced connection to the internet.

It's a nice start for itead in the right direction (just leave me and my firmware alone!) but still I use tuya convert which is much more streamlined. There was days a program called sonOTA existed and worked but itead choose to close this path...

Also why does the sonoff mini does not expose the pin headers for flashing like shelly did it? Why? :weary:

arendst commented 4 years ago

Doing it like this https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/issues/6102#issuecomment-512881458 worked for me ;-)

alexbk66 commented 4 years ago

Doing it like this arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota#6102 (comment) worked for me ;-)

The whole idea of this new DIY range - to be able to use the devices for 'local' control without flashing the new firmware.

alexbk66 commented 4 years ago

I created a HomeSeer plugin for Shelly devices, they are very simple to configure and add to WiFi network. @ZZLinvec - you should probably have a look at their implementation and do something similar. https://shop.homeseer.com/products/alexbk66-ak-shelly-software-plug-in-for-hs3

alexbk66 commented 4 years ago

@ZZLinvec , why pairing in DIY mode is different to normal mode? Normally devices create their own access point and apps are connecting to it. Why in DIY mode it's opposite? I think having to create sonoffDiy access point is pretty much a showstopper for most users. Am I missing something?

alexbk66 commented 4 years ago

I write a Sonoff plugin for HomeSeer automation system, which will be used by many customers which are not very technical. How will they use your DIY devices? Do they have to use your unreliable tool? Do they have to install Python 3.7 on their computers?

This situation is almost impossible for wide use of your devices.

alexbk66 commented 4 years ago

https://youtu.be/fzEDFmB0UYU?t=338

frenck commented 4 years ago

To make it easier, I noticed that adding it to the network in normal mode and next switch to DIY mode, retains the network settings.

So that is actually the easiest method I've found yet. (does not work every time though)