Recently I have had some of my Basic R2 switches and one of my T0 US2c wall switches randomly switching off. I suspect relay damage due to load shedding but someone may have a different view. I have now as an experiment set one of the Basic R2's as follows:- Device Settings=>Power-on State=>Last State. This keeps the device on but I can hear the relay periodically switching. Any ideas?

47 minutes ago, Peter V said:

Recently I have had some of my Basic R2 switches and one of my T0 US2c wall switches randomly switching off. I suspect relay damage due to load shedding but someone may have a different view. I have now as an experiment set one of the Basic R2's as follows:- Device Settings=>Power-on State=>Last State. This keeps the device on but I can hear the relay periodically switching. Any ideas?

My call on the switching is the loss of WiFi. Wireless signals are all over the place. I find some of mine will also show not connected while others are. A few minutes later they all seem fine. I get 1-2 SMSes from Telkom everyday informing me I am outside of coverage or my data is exhausted. The last one I know it cannot be as I will even have data left at the expiry date in March. I have even checked a few times just to see??? GB left. 

When setting the power on state to on and it is a light and you home that could also help to identify loss of power/signal. 

Edited February 17, 20233 yr by Scorp007

21 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

My call on the switching is the loss of WiFi. Wireless signals are all over the place. I find some of mine will also show not connected while others are. A few minutes later they all seem fine. I get 1-2 SMSes from Telkom everyday informing me I am outside of coverage or my data is exhausted. The last one I know it cannot be as I will even have data left at the expiry date in March. I have even checked a few times just to see??? GB left. 

When setting the power on state to on and it is a light and you home that could also help to identify loss of power/signal. 

My initial thoughts were that but I do not experience the same issues with smart bulbs. The one suspicion I have is the device migrating from one mesh hub to another or a  momentary disruption in my internet feed by fibre. However, an internet search seems to indicate numerous reports by others of similar problems over the last month or so and people are tendig to attribute the problem to Ewelink servers.

Edited February 18, 20233 yr by Peter V

If I look at my notify list when my Sonoff don't have power or off line all 6 only have a notify msg generated when we had LS or they switched on and off. If you have the alert activated you should be able to pick it up on your phone. Mine provides a notify each time they switch status. 

On 2023/02/18 at 1:09 PM, Peter V said:

However, an internet search seems to indicate numerous reports by others of similar problems over the last month or so and people are tendig to attribute the problem to Ewelink servers.

Probably for a different discussion but...

Have users of IOT devices ever really thought about the implications of what they are doing/connecting?

I'm a true lover of IOT and think it is wonderful BUT I don't want control of my devices in the hands of some unknown company, no matter how much they say they are trusted. I have full control over ALL my devices as I write my own software to run them, always with both remote and local control of the device, and NEVER use any of the hosting companies.

eWeLink claim to have 30,000,000 users in 172+ countries. Tuya (another similar platform) probably have as many or more, and there are other platforms as well. Most are Chinese companies. Every time you register a device your data is stored on their servers. Even if you use their device locally (some such as SonOff can be used this way), using their default firmware does not prevent your device being registered with the manufacturer.

This bit of javascript  is from a SonOff S26R2 IOT smart socket, from the HTML that is embedded in the device that you use to initially set up WiFi on the device:

                postReport: function(e, t) {
                    return fetch("https://apia.coolkit.cn/report/ops_mode", {
                        method: "POST",
                        headers: {
                            "Content-Type": "application/json"
                        },
                        body: JSON.stringify({
                            deviceid: e,
                            sign: t
                        })
                    }).then(function(e) {
                        return 200 != e.status ? Promise.reject("status error " + e.status) : e.json()
                    })



                    a.postReport(e, t).then(function(e) {
                        e.error || (i = !0, s.showDialog("Success", "WiFi configuration is completed.", !0))

This is part of the code that is run when you configure and connect the device to your WiFi. As you can see, your device is being registered on their server without your knowledge and as soon as it is connected to your WiFi, in fact if it can't register itself it causes an error.

So combined these companies probably have control of several 10's if not 100's of millions of devices. This 'power' could easily be abused should their government wish.

Imagine many millions of devices set to switch on/off at the same time - what sort of chaos would this cause on a countries power grid?

And what happens should these companies go out of business (that has happened in some cases) - you end up with a pile of scrap if you can't re-program the device.

..and when they decide they want to charge for their currently 'free' service?

..worth considering

Edited February 21, 20233 yr by Acuario

Hi

Luckily it's easy to solve with TASMOTA firmware flash on the device that would be locally controlled with HA. 

Sonoff are hardware manufactures and eWelink is a cloud software. There is always HA, Node-Red and now iHost so with a good Firewall nothing to worry about.

Aleks

 

On 2023/02/17 at 3:42 PM, Peter V said:

Recently I have had some of my Basic R2 switches and one of my T0 US2c wall switches randomly switching off. I suspect relay damage due to load shedding but someone may have a different view. I have now as an experiment set one of the Basic R2's as follows:- Device Settings=>Power-on State=>Last State. This keeps the device on but I can hear the relay periodically switching. Any ideas?

Hi

I have not had the issue personally but it is being discussed out there on eWelink this is a copy

Random off/on the issue since Nov 2022.
As we found yesterday, if the Alexa and SONOFF devices are in the same LAN, such an issue will happen no matter if you linking the Alexa and eWeLink accounts or not. Why does this happen? We did not find out the root cause honestly, but the key effecting factor is Alexa. We are working together with some users to find out the root cause.
So if you used Alexa, please try to power off the Alexa and see whether this issue still going on, or you can remove the Alexa from the network and observe the behavior of SONOFF products.
Hope this helps.

9 hours ago, Sonoff Africa said:

Hi

Luckily it's easy to solve with TASMOTA firmware flash on the device that would be locally controlled with HA. 

Sonoff are hardware manufactures and eWelink is a cloud software. There is always HA, Node-Red and now iHost so with a good Firewall nothing to worry about.

Aleks

 

Fifty years ago, I would have been game for this. Now my nearly seventy year old brain is stimulated enough with the basic technology.

8 hours ago, Sonoff Africa said:

Hi

I have not had the issue personally but it is being discussed out there on eWelink this is a copy

Random off/on the issue since Nov 2022.
As we found yesterday, if the Alexa and SONOFF devices are in the same LAN, such an issue will happen no matter if you linking the Alexa and eWeLink accounts or not. Why does this happen? We did not find out the root cause honestly, but the key effecting factor is Alexa. We are working together with some users to find out the root cause.
So if you used Alexa, please try to power off the Alexa and see whether this issue still going on, or you can remove the Alexa from the network and observe the behavior of SONOFF products.
Hope this helps.

Will look at this but as a manufacturer, Sonoff need to resolve this if an issue since they have created the hype around Alexa and Google compatability.