Meek Wifi Wall Switch

[Meek]

Hello tweakers, as a user of Domoticz for many years, I always had the intention to expand my home automation system, but never found sufficient time to actually do something with all the magnificent idea’s that we(tweakers) probably all share .

So one time I thought, opportunities are rare and might never come, so i’ve changed my attitude to make time to what I’m passionate about -> automation/hacking/creating the future

So without further adue, first of the many steps, was to integrate all my switches to Domoticz. Simple idea, nevertheless, there were not suitable equipment/design switches available. To be honest, i was charmed of the design of some of the touch switches as you’ll see below.

Schakelaar.jpg (1.48 KiB) Viewed 7662 times

ESP8266.jpg (25.39 KiB) Viewed 7662 times

So i’ve ordered a few to fiddle around with it and finally to suit it with an ESP8266 12-E variant in it with ESPEasy flashed on it for future expansions that I have in mind.

I found out that his internal PCB did not delivered sufficient energy to power up an ESP12-E module, so I’ve created a dirty PCB with and equip it with several components to power up and switch 230V.

I have now a “dirty working setup” to do some more testing.

Till now, the ESP is working pretty stable and and soon I will integrate the first “MEEK Switch” into my walls to do more testing in a real life environment.

In the meantime, I had several request to delivered such “MEEK switches” to my fellow tweakers.
So I’m now in process to have a neat and well integrated switches produced by manufacturing sites overseas, but this is a very hard & slow process.

In the meantime, I’m in process of making this a modular system so I can create small quantities for myself and for my friend.

But if there's enough animo, probably it’s something I can pursue to have them produced overseas in “large quantities”.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Herewith a link to the video of the Meek Wifi Switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlhXnYgeJfo


Regards,
Meek

[ledfreak3d]

I really like the idea but you know these already do exist and actually also have an esp8266 inside
its called the sonoff t1

https://www.itead.cc/smart-home/sonoff-touch.html

[Meek]

Yes, that's correct, but my first step is to include an ESP12-E module with ESPEasy on it. The reason why I'm pursuing this is due to the modularity expansion that I have in mind.

1'st step : clean and esthetic fine looking switch (I don't like the esthetics of the Sonoff switch )
2'nd step : the above but with 2 button switch.
3'rd step : customization of the wall switch with RGB leds integrated in the switch.
4'rd step : expand the module interface so the user can expand the switch with several modules like : temperature sensor, humidity, PIR, Microwave radar sensor, microphone (array for speech recognition), etc..

These MEEK switches will be the base sensor arrays for the whole Home Automation & security system.

Thank you for pointing this out and best regards,
MEEK

[ledfreak3d]

I hope you will succeed
let me know if you need any help with the electronics or the programming glad to help out if needed

[Meek]

Thank you for your feedback and help ledfreak3d !
I’ve just installed the Meek switch in my wall and it’s working like a charm.

20171019_165904.jpg (152.15 KiB) Viewed 7552 times

Herewith the link of the video I’ve made : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXZHxCzjdg

There’s still a lot of work to do but this is the first small step

I’ll need to redesign the PCB to fit a triac instead of an Solid State Relais, as the last one did not fit well in the casing I’ve got. Once I have this sorted out, I will post the schematics over here so we can discuss about it and perhaps, make the switch even better !

[Eddiever]

Looks very nice. Do you think you can get a toggle switch (wisselschakelaar) to work this way?

[Meek]

Yes thats possible. In fact, I have several ESP8266 modules flahed with ESPEasy 2.0 and with the "toggle" function I can control the "master switch". And the beauty of this is, that you can control the Meek switches from any device capable of sending HTTP requests.

It's up to the user to decide on how to react once the Meek Switch is pressed.
For instance, once the Meek switch is pressed, you can program it to switch several other Meek switches or perhaps turn on or off your TV,...

[htilburgs]

One word: WOW!

I've seen this wallswitches, but I don't have the knowledge for what you're doing right now.
I keep an eye on this thread if you're are going to (mass)product the switches.

ME LIKE, ME WANT....!

[JuanUil]

This is nice!!!

Where can I pre-order?
Keep up the good work

Jan

[Eddiever]

like htilburgs, I will follow this thread. I am seriously looking forward to the toggle switch. I would love to have the knowledge to do this myself, but I don't.
So if you do have the solution: I want eight of them!

But one of them needs to be a swith with a build-up socket. One needs to be a build-up itself. Is that possible too?
btw I have one switch with a cord (placed against the ceiling), do you have solution to this also?
(demands, demands,demands )

I really don't know how but if I can help you I would love to do this!

[Meek]

I really like and appreciate the enthusiastic replies that I get. It gives me more energy to continue to make this a successful project.

With regards to a build up socket, I have not investigated this option yet. But as of my knowledge, the dimensions of a build up socket, should be suffiecient to equip it with a MEEK switch.

With regards to the "switch with a cord", is this the only switch in or nearby the room ?
If not, you could fit a double MEEK switch, 1 button controlling the regular lighting and the other button you can program it to switch/toggle the MEEK switch on the ceiling.

Thank you all for these kind words and interest in this project !

[kluczus]

Great idea but I was thinking that maybe a better will be to buy chinese 433MHz wall switch and hack by replacing radio with esp? What do you think about it? Is it possible?

[Eddiever]

The "switch with a cord" is in my master bedroom. It is a toggle switch. One normal switch nearby the door and this switch above the bed. So it would be practical to have a MEEK switch with a manual cord input. And if this is possible I also have a single "switch with a cord" in the bathroom so that one could be replaced too

[ledfreak3d]

Thank you for your feedback and help ledfreak3d !
I’ve just installed the Meek switch in my wall and it’s working like a charm.
20171019_165904.jpg
Herewith the link of the video I’ve made : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXZHxCzjdg

There’s still a lot of work to do but this is the first small step

I’ll need to redesign the PCB to fit a triac instead of an Solid State Relais, as the last one did not fit well in the casing I’ve got. Once I have this sorted out, I will post the schematics over here so we can discuss about it and perhaps, make the switch even better !

looks great !!

yea a triac would be ideal and you could also use it as an ac dimmer then

[Meek]

Great idea but I was thinking that maybe a better will be to buy chinese 433MHz wall switch and hack by replacing radio with esp? What do you think about it? Is it possible?

Yes, that's indeed a nice idea, however, one of the most important things for a switch is the reliability. Whenever the button is pressed/touched, the least of the expectations for a switch, is that the lighting will go on.

To accomplish this with the MEEK switch, I had to equip it with a good, safe & reliable power supply for the ESP8266 module. The 433MHz PCB’s were (unfortunately)not powerful enough to accomplish this.

Thank you for pointing this out and keep delivering your thoughts, perhaps you’ll bring something that I have not thought about or even that I’m not aware of the existence of a piece of equipment, that makes it lot easier for me to integrate an ESP8266 module in it !

[Meek]

Thank you for your feedback and help ledfreak3d !
I’ve just installed the Meek switch in my wall and it’s working like a charm.
20171019_165904.jpg
Herewith the link of the video I’ve made : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXZHxCzjdg

There’s still a lot of work to do but this is the first small step

I’ll need to redesign the PCB to fit a triac instead of an Solid State Relais, as the last one did not fit well in the casing I’ve got. Once I have this sorted out, I will post the schematics over here so we can discuss about it and perhaps, make the switch even better !

looks great !!

yea a triac would be ideal and you could also use it as an ac dimmer then

That’s indeed one of the benefits of using TRIAC. Initial stage will be to further minimize the dimensions of the electronics on the PCB with a TRIAC. I’ve already ordered the electronic parts for the MEEK Alpha3 version and with the correct piece of a controller (like DOMOTICZ , I really really like Domoticz ) you should be able to switch and dim your lights with it. @Work in progress

[Meek]

The "switch with a cord" is in my master bedroom. It is a toggle switch. One normal switch nearby the door and this switch above the bed. So it would be practical to have a MEEK switch with a manual cord input. And if this is possible I also have a single "switch with a cord" in the bathroom so that one could be replaced too

As mentioned above, one of the benefits of a MEEK switch, is the modularity.

We have 1 analog- and several digital ports available to the users disposal.

Some examples as an expansion that could be applied in/on the MEEK switch :
• equip a digital port with a “Micro Switch”
• replace the cord for an electrical extension cable with a button attached on it
• a laser guided switch (LDR sensor)
• or my favorite option, a YELL switch :

Yell switch.png (210.58 KiB) Viewed 7378 times

(above picture is a microphone module that you can attach to an ESP8266, once YELLING exceeds 101dB, toggle switch)

[Meek]

Small update : the new MEEK PCB’s are send for fabrication.
So, I’ve had some spare time to fiddle with the expansions for the MEEK switch.
This time, I was playing with the RCWL-0516 Microwave Radar Sensor Module.

Sensor1.jpg (233.12 KiB) Viewed 7217 times

These are nice little sensors and in my experience, they are more reliable than the PIR sensors that I’ve had.
One thing I’d like to do (future plan)is to make the sensing distances variable. That would make this an excellent addition to the MEEK switch.

[Meek]

Update 16-Nov : I’ve finally received the PCB’s 

Meek A5v1.jpg (67.28 KiB) Viewed 6920 times

I’ve also received the most of the electronics that I will solder on the boards.

Next week, I hope to assemble the Meek switch and once ready, I will upload a video on Youtube 

[Meek]

Hello, as promised, the Meek A5v1 has been assembled.
I’ve uploaded a short video of YouTube :


During the assembling process, I’ve discover an inconvenience (my way of saying that I’ve made a childish error ), therefore some amendments had to be made during the assembling process.
This caused a misalignment of the WS2812B and therefore the illumination of the switch is way off.
Nevertheless, it's been a successful Alpha/trial and in the Beta versions, some extra modules will be placed like the RCWL-0516 and perhaps a DHT11 sensor as a test.