I am programming in NodeRed and turning on/off "Sonoff" single relay boards, but cannot talk to 4-relay boards because the NodeRed drivers are old. We are also using eWeLink to talk to the boards.
I am looking for 4 or 8-relay boards that talk MQTT. I can talk MQTT.
Most of the relay boards want me to write ESP8266 code or reflash the boards, which is more that I can do. (hard ware person)

Again, looking for 4-relay board that can talk MQTT or something from a Raspberry Pi.

 

Hey, Ron.

Have you considered using ESPHome and something like the LILLYGO TTGO T-Relay ESP32 Relay Board?

You can certainly use MQTT with it, but ESPHome may be something you find useful in general.

 

Flashing ESP things with Tasmota is usually pretty easy. At worst, you need an FTDI USB->serial adapter. The cheap ones with fake FTDI chips seem to work OK, and they have jumpers to select 3.3 or 5V output. There's various relay boards on Aliexpress with built-in ESP or sockets. Here's an example, which I do not specifically endorse, but it's probably fine.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002956551789.html

 

Hey, @ronsimpson did you figure this out?

 

did you figure this out?

Hi Ya’akov,

Thanks for asking.
tasmota This link has a button for all the products supported by Tasmota, under that there is a list of relay boards. Very interesting reading.

When looking for a relay board, watch out some boards come without firmware.
There is a board I am very interested in, comes with three firmware options, nothing, A or B. But the vendors don't offer the options. I don't know which comes with the board.
Many boards use a cloud connection for $10.00/month. This is not clear in the advertisement.
One board, the "mode switch" is not saved. After power on you must push the mode button by hand.
I noticed one board, relay-1 is on for the boot time.
Some boards, the relays chatter during boot.

I can make SonOff-one-relay work but I don't like mounting eight boards together.
By now I could have dug a ditch and burred a cable to directly drive the relays.

I am thinking about using "inching". Every 5 minutes, send the "on for 10 minutes" command. This way if the network breaks the relay will turn off after some time.

The Lilygo TTGO ESP32 board you suggested looks good. Review: "With 20 lines of C, it can do anything." I don't know if I can make it work. I should just get one and try.

Thanks,
RonS.

 

Hi Ya’akov,

Thanks for asking.
tasmota This link has a button for all the products supported by Tasmota, under that there is a list of relay boards. Very interesting reading.

When looking for a relay board, watch out some boards come without firmware.
There is a board I am very interested in, comes with three firmware options, nothing, A or B. But the vendors don't offer the options. I don't know which comes with the board.
Many boards use a cloud connection for $10.00/month. This is not clear in the advertisement.
One board, the "mode switch" is not saved. After power on you must push the mode button by hand.
I noticed one board, relay-1 is on for the boot time.
Some boards, the relays chatter during boot.

I can make SonOff-one-relay work but I don't like mounting eight boards together.
By now I could have dug a ditch and burred a cable to directly drive the relays.

I am thinking about using "inching". Every 5 minutes, send the "on for 10 minutes" command. This way if the network breaks the relay will turn off after some time.

The Lilygo TTGO ESP32 board you suggested looks good. Review: "With 20 lines of C, it can do anything." I don't know if I can make it work. I should just get one and try.

Thanks,
RonS.

Glad you think the Lillygo board might work for you. Also do check out ESPHome, great stuff.