Presentation of the Sonoff dual R2

Today I suggest you discover a product on which I base myself to control something else in my electric shutters.

It's about Sonoff dual R2 from the Chinese manufacturer Itead, it allows to control 2 separate relays in wifi with a maximum total capacity of 3500W (16A).

The very big advantage like all products Itead it's its open environment. We can easily replace the original firmware with an alternative firmware such as ESP Easy, Tasmota or Espurna, so you can control your devices from a DIY health home automation server (Jeedom, Domoticz, health home Assistant …) using HTTP requests or MQTT messages.

Recently Itead has released a second version of its module which corrects several negative points:

• ESP 8266 is replaced by ESP8285.

• The second controller has been removed and the two relays are now directly controlled by the ESP 8285. And that is the very big positive because it simplifies things a lot.

• The button is directly smart health connected to the ESP8285

• The fuse was removed because it caused problems when starting certain overly greedy motors.

Indeed finished the problems of communication by the serial port and the programming mode is done by connecting the "button0" with "GND". We can now add a temperature module or other on the headers.

The set consists of the module itself as well as the installation booklet. The instructions on the front of the box are clear, we know where to connect the 220 V power supply as well as the two pilot wires of the motor.

Big positive point, the installation is done very quickly is two screws enough to fix it to the wall. The electrical connections are straightforward and quick to make thanks to the quick connectors. A simple press is enough to accommodate the cable.

We will now see a practical case, namely the control of electric shutters via Jeedom after installation and configuration of an alternative firmware.

On Jeedom, we will install the "MQTT" plugin via the marquet. As usual, we activate the plugin and install the dependencies.

We now go to the configuration, here we mainly fill in the login and password which corresponds to what we have entered in our modules, the other fields are with their default values.

Once registered, we wait a few minutes then, as if by magic, the modules appear in the list of available modules. All that remains is to activate them and add the trigger commands to be able to take advantage of them.

Here in order to integrate the "ToggleSwitch" widget for the pane, I created a virtual one that takes the information from the MQTT module. But we'll see it together next time.

For less than € 8, you have a CE and FC certified Wi-Fi module that you can easily reprogram. As you can see, I use it to control my shutters but I also intend to control my garage door.

After several months of operation I am very satisfied, the case is of good finish and reduced size. The relays are relatively silent and this new revision clears the last faults.

See you soon for a new Review, pending a great tutorial to learn how to flash a Sonoff Dual R2 with EspEasy.

AB SMART HEALTH health home & BUILDING REVIEW