As you all might have noticed, the whole WiFi switch thing has become quite the craze. Seeing as there’s an IoT section here, I figured I’d share a little gem that someone put me onto. (And Jaco asked me to lol)
Many guys are using Sonoff POW units to switch their geysers (and other high consumers) and to monitor the power that these use. Problem is, these Sonoff POW units are only rated for 16A and while many have used them on Geysers, there’s been a few cases where these have caught fire. It really isnt’t ideal for high current usage, especially with those push terminals they use.
Enter the CBI Asute WiFi switch with power monitoring. Benefits are:
They are rated for 30A resistive loads (ideal for a geyser)
If you are happy using the CBI app to control these, it’s a simple matter of installing it, linking in the app and you are done.
If, however, you want to make it truly smart, you’ll have to load something like Tasmota onto it. Then it’s possible to integrate into Home Assistant and have it truly smart. Only issue is that the WiFi chips on these cannot have Tasmota loaded onto it, the chips are completely incompatible. But, if you feeling a little adventurous, there’s a way to replace the chip and get it truly smart. For those interested, I’ve made a guide on another forum; I suspect some of you might have seen it already
I had to take a dremel to mine to remove the weird knobby thing in the middle to get it to mount, but, as @JacoDeJongh will tell you, my DB is on the other side of ancient…
Thanks for sharing. Where can I find one of these? Electrical shops?
I was just about to purchase two of these wall plug timers for my fridges, as some of these also have wifi capability but this unit sounds much better.
Please please please, whatever you do, don’t go for these as they are completely sealed. If you don’t intend to flash them then I suppose its fine. But once you realize the potential of flashing them with proper firmware, you’re stuck with a plug you can’t take apart to flash. In the past it was possible to flash these without opening, but that back door has been closed with the new stock.
The Qualitel and BNeta plugs are better. R50-100 more, but you can take them apart if you wish to do so.
I just found 3 in a shop in JHB, R350 each, I am taking 1, let me know if you want, I can stop there and buy the others as well. Can drop it on my way past Pretoria on Friday.
A big thanks Jaco for delivering my CBI Astute directly to my doorstep! You are one hell of a guy and it was nice meeting you!
I cant wait to wire it in and seeing now as I’ve gained so much confidence having done my Carlo Gavazzi myself, I think I will tackle this one in this weekend.
What is the app called to download to program this thing and set it up with the wifi?
Edit to add. I now discovered the little instruction booklet inside the packaging, it gives details of the app to download with nogal a barcode to scan for convenience.
I mentioned it on MyBB, but should mention it here as well. The Astute at the Pool took a knock on Friday eve with the lightning storm we had. To make a long story short, the unit went offline on Friday night. I expected to find chargrilled parts inside but after replacing it with another, it turns out I just had to reflash it again and it started working. So it seems the ESP module got its flash corrupted by EMP rather than a direct strike. Very weird.
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