User Guides Teardown and preparation of Polycab's 16A Wi-Fi Smart Plug for Tasmota

As usual the post is visual treat; These smart plugs are available on Amazon and if they get tasmota - nothing better like these for HA.

I have a couple of these, and decided not to go this route as I wasn't confident enough to continue using them after the (slightly) destruction procedure. Thanks for showing how it can be done without breaking the case.

Found a couple of smart plugs on tatacliq that are using a WB2S (Beken BK7231) module, can be flashed to OpenBeken (tasmota port for Beken chips, as of now tasmota only supports espressif chips) and are still vulnerable to OTA flash(over the air, without opening them up).

The custom firmware does support the power monitoring chips, and calibration. After calibration, they're within 1% of the Polycab plugs for >10w loads, and slightly more off below 5w. Have been able to forward the data into my influxdb instance with mqtt and home assistant.

Best yet, they cost me 450rs for the 10A ones bought 5 of them, YMMV. https://www.tatacliq.com/zunpulse-1...d-energy-monitoring-white/p-mp000000015863260 .

There's always the chance that they're upgraded to a non vulnerable fw, in that case back to square 1.

Great job @rsaeon ! Doesn't look like it was your first time since you managed to keep the outer shell intact. Your skills are commendable. Had it been me, the case would have been unusable by the end of the project.

@ze_cook I have been searching the market for hackable smart plugs. I found that both Oakter 6A and 16A can easily be hacked. The only problem with Oakters is the lack of power measuring chip. Otherwise their bodies are screwed on, so they are easy to open and flash. Oakter's product designers even left the serial pins on the boards, so absolutely no need for any kind of soldering or hacking. I have uploaded the working configs here and here.

Even the older Syska WPS001 can be tasmotized using tuya-convert as long as you don't connect them to app first. Syskas are out of stock almost everywhere but Tata Cliq seems to have some stock left.

For the uninitiated query , I read about Tasmota but what does it do ? Its like DDWRT of smart plugs
but whats extra achieved out of this ?
There huge list of equipment which can be Tasmotized but you already have Google/Alexa integration so whats the end result here ?
And if some need to buy these plugs which can be Tasmotized which are the preferred models , which doesnt require the OP hard work

@rsaeon got skills

I tried it and screwed it up big time. Then I bought zunpulse plugs(and sonoff stuff) which can be flashed without opening because they are vulnerable.

I didn't have a good soldering iron when I tried this. Later on, I got a iron(with the stand and everything) with a knob for setting temperature. I should try soldering some thing again

rahuljawale said:

Great job @rsaeon ! Doesn't look like it was your first time since you managed to keep the outer shell intact. Your skills are commendable. Had it been me, the case would have been unusable by the end of the project.

@ze_cook I have been searching the market for hackable smart plugs. I found that both Oakter 6A and 16A can easily be hacked. The only problem with Oakters is the lack of power measuring chip. Otherwise their bodies are screwed on, so they are easy to open and flash. Oakter's product designers even left the serial pins on the boards, so absolutely no need for any kind of soldering or hacking. I have uploaded the working configs here and here.

Even the older Syska WPS001 can be tasmotized using tuya-convert as long as you don't connect them to app first. Syskas are out of stock almost everywhere but Tata Cliq seems to have some stock left.

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Thanks a lot for this. I have 7-8 oakter plugs that I’m struggling to get them to work with HomeKit. Hopefully after flashing Tasmota I’ll be able to get the players to work with homebridge.

I need also need a smart plug with power monitoring chip which is flashable with Tasmota without soldering. Which one do you guys recommend @rahuljawale
@ishanjain28

@m0h1t https://www.amazon.in/zunpulse-10A-Smart-Plug-Pro/dp/B0BM4LMY5J
(16A version has been patched already)

ishanjain28 said:

@m0h1t https://www.amazon.in/zunpulse-10A-Smart-Plug-Pro/dp/B0BM4LMY5J
(16A version has been patched already)

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how would I go about flashing on the zunpulse 10A? I looked it up but didn't find anything meaningful

tuya-convert seems well documented, I'll try with Syska WP001 first, any tips here @rahuljawale

And as

m0h1t said:

how would I go about flashing on the zunpulse 10A? I looked it up but didn't find anything meaningful

tuya-convert seems well documented, I'll try with Syska WP001 first, any tips here @rahuljawale

Click to expand...

If you get something concrete pls post , even i might try out on 1 ZunePulse

kuduku said:

And as

If you get something concrete pls post , even i might try out on 1 ZunePulse

Click to expand...

m0h1t said:

how would I go about flashing on the zunpulse 10A? I looked it up but didn't find anything meaningful

tuya-convert seems well documented, I'll try with Syska WP001 first, any tips here @rahuljawale

Click to expand...

You need cloudcutter (https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter) and a pc with WiFi running Linux. The entire process is well documented on the repo. Make sure you don't add them to the zunpulse/tuya app, as that can push an OTA.

Again, these devices don't run tasmota, but a tasmota like fw specifically made for the beken series, https://github.com/openshwprojects/OpenBK7231T_App .

> You need cloudcutter (https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter) and a pc with WiFi running Linux. The entire process is well documented on the repo. Make sure you don't add them to the zunpulse/tuya app, as that can push an OTA.

Yep, and do this on a VM or on a machine running Ubuntu(with the exact version specified on requirements page). It runs some commands after that and may not work properly if you are not on a supported machine.

Furthermore, During the flashing process It'll ask you for the firmware. It's a BK7231N firmware. Pick the latest version. I don't remember the exact one I used and you may have to try all of them to find the right one. (There are maybe 4-5 firmwares that fit the criteria)

After flashing, You need to setup all the pin configuration. Here is the one I use, I think almost every thing works with this. (The button and the sensors)

ishanjain28 said:

> You need cloudcutter (https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter) and a pc with WiFi running Linux. The entire process is well documented on the repo. Make sure you don't add them to the zunpulse/tuya app, as that can push an OTA.

Yep, and do this on a VM or on a machine running Ubuntu(with the exact version specified on requirements page). It runs some commands after that and may not work properly if you are not on a supported machine.

Furthermore, During the flashing process It'll ask you for the firmware. It's a BK7231N firmware. Pick the latest version. I don't remember the exact one I used and you may have to try all of them to find the right one. (There are maybe 4-5 firmwares that fit the criteria)

After flashing, You need to setup all the pin configuration. Here is the one I use, I think almost every thing works with this. (The button and the sensors)

Click to expand...

Same, I used a ubuntu VM with a USB wifi card passthrough with virtualbox, one of those tp-link wifi adapters, worked fine.
When cloudcutter asks for a device profile, choose generic LSPA7 plug.

You can choose to flash a custom firmware, and cloudcutter already ships with OpenBeken and Esphome. Choose the BK7231N variant of the appropriate firmware.
And for configs, don't need to manually set them one by one, import this cloudcutter template into OpenBeken (after flash, the firmware exposes an app) https://raw.githubusercontent.com/t...r/devices/tuya-generic-lspa9-plug-v1.1.8.json

@m0h1t looks like your question was answered by other members. Just that the repo may have an older version of tasmota. Make sure to upgrade to the latest build after flashing with whatever the repo ships with.

@kuduku there are a few reasons to to the Tasmota way. The biggest being, cutting the cords from a Cloud service that can go under any time without a prior notice. The IoT space right now is buzzing with a lot of players, but over the time, most will be out of business leaving the market to select few. At that time you will be left with fully functional yet non-usable hardware. So it is better to cut the cord early and ensure that you have devices don't become obsolete just because the vendor decides to make them obsolete.

Another reason is to be able to control everything through Home Assistant. Most of the smart plug vendors are myopic in their business strategy. They close off their ecosystem in the hopes of keeping their users from moving to competitor's products. With Tasmota I have full control over whatever smart device that I am buying.

Having said that there are a few vendors who like to offer stable integration with third party services. I especially like Philips Wiz series and Shelly. Their devices are well built and they place nice with Home Assistant. I have a few Shellies configured to operate mission critical switches (kitchen, washing machine, dishwasher) and they have been absolute delight to use.

I bought a few Sonoff POW320D recently. They all support direct LAN control so I have not tried flashing tasmota on it.
The only down side I see today is, It's voltage reading is off by about ~5V and there is no way to calibrate this on stock firmware.

Thanks guys for your feedback.

I’m really liking HomeKit as an IoT aggregator. Voice recognition is pretty decent, and can control directly from my watch. Having an apple TV has the added advantage of controlling everything remotely. Apple shit is expensive but it just works, more often than not. I also love homekit automations, the ability to turn the AC on/off based on room temp; turn on/off the air purifiers based on aqi from the laser egg.

i had to abandon google home because the voice recognition now is so bad that I have to shout everything at least twice for it to understand anything.

I now have 18 smart lights, 2 ACs, a kaiterra PM monitor on HomeKit. Now to get my 6 tplink cameras and 8 oakter plugs onboarded.

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Progress!! Opening the plug was the most difficult part, everything else was a breeze.

The LED color status on tasmota oakter config menttioned here is inverted. Use the below for white for Off, Orange for On
{"NAME":"Oakter OakPlug Mini","GPIO":[0,0,0,0,224,0,0,0,544,288,0,0,0,0],"FLAG":0,"BASE":18}

also oakter 10a stock firmware attached, if anyone needs it in future.

dump any esp8266 firmware, follow instructions below

@m0h1t I wrote the config on blakaddar's site. I think around the time I was still figuring out the pins and I must have set wrong LED colours. Thanks for sharing the correct one.

rahuljawale said:

@m0h1t I wrote the config on blakaddar's site. I think around the time I was still figuring out the pins and I must have set wrong LED colours. Thanks for sharing the correct one.

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Thanks a lot buddy. Without your work, and what others have shared, I wouldn’t have been able to flash Tasmota.