Smart-home lab
We took a Tuya-based 63 A breaker off the vendor cloud with ESPHome and built web controllers that run Tuya and Xiaomi devices without their apps. All prototypes.
- breaker running entirely on the home network (1 unit)
- 63 A
- Tuya devices on one page: a switch and a video lock with its camera
- 2
- Mi Home devices: air purifier, air conditioner, router
- 3
Problem
Low-cost smart devices depend on a vendor cloud and a vendor app. They can stop responding when the internet drops, and they keep a home’s data on someone else’s servers.
Solution
We took a Tuya-based 63 A DIN-rail metering breaker off the cloud. We backed up its firmware over UART, recovered the pin map from the dump, and wrote ESPHome firmware for the relay and the BL0942 energy meter. A dashboard finds ESPHome devices over mDNS and shows live voltage, current, power and energy.
We also built a phone-friendly Mongolian controller for Tuya devices: a wall switch and a video door lock. Through the Tuya OpenAPI it unlocks the lock remotely, shows its battery level and decrypts its camera’s encrypted live stream.
A separate Mi Home controller covers an air purifier, an air conditioner and a router.
Outcome
A breaker that switches and meters a circuit entirely on the home network, and web controllers that run Tuya and Xiaomi devices without their vendor apps. These are prototypes on our own devices.
The Xiaomi work went on to ship in Central Garden Residence’s smart-home features. Electrical installation is done by qualified electricians.