Background

This is one of those posts that sat in the Drafts folder for way too long. Just before release, I’d discover something new that would warrant substantial rewrites. After several delays, false starts and re-writes, I finally have something that is mostly new and worth sharing with the world.

Like with the past few teardown posts, this one also started off as a ‘cart-stuffer’ item so I could unlock a more generous discount on the total purchase. The listing that caught my eye had the generic title:

Yep! Another teardown post! This one was also a cheap “because i’m curious” post.

What

It’s a ‘decora’ style wall switch with WiFI and an RGB color changing paddle.

The product listing was very non specific:

EU US WiFi Smart Wall Switch Push Button Timer Relay Switch Voice Remote Control RGB LED Night Light Lamp TUYA Alexa Google Home

I saw TuYa in the item description and hoped that it would be based on an ESP8266 module or at least use a pin-compatible module. After all, there are a few such devices on the Wall Switches and Dimmers section of the tasmota templates repository.

Yet another teardown post!

Curiosity got the better of me while putting together a BOM for a project and I decided to add one of the new Shelly devices to my order to bump the total over the threshold for a nice discount.

I have not seen a ton of discussion about what’s inside of a any of the new Shelly Pro devices. These ’next generation’ devices appear to all use a common and more uniform API which, apparently, is too demanding of the ESP8266 based hardware so it won’t be backported.

I am trying something new out with this post; some mix of hardware teardown and a brief product review.

Why

I was looking for a way to actuate some heavy blackout curtains.

There have been several DIY projects out there that manipulate curtains but they all appear to be relatively involved as they are often designed for a very specific type of curtain; servos that fit on the ’tilt rod’ or motors that can manipulate the pull chain… etc.

Surfacing the right information at the right time in the right place is a difficult but essential task for any credible automation system.

I have been experimenting with the concept of a Home Assistant powered KDS for a few years now and have found that the refrigerator happens to be an especially good place to surface some information and device controls.