Since I used low voltage with nichrome wire using LAN (RJ45) cable was not an issue. However with the next version I will solder a female RJ45 socket to avoid the hot glue tsunami… 🙂
Creating a WiFi fireworks igniter with a backup LiPo battery.
With December just around the corner I wanted to design a remote fireworks igniter working on WiFi and battery power.
The board will use mosfets as switches to nichrome wire which will heat up and ignite fireworks from a safe distance.
Before completing the PCB
The idea is to have the system self contained with the ability of remote control via a WiFi AP using an ESP8266 12F
The link to my GitHub repository (containing the design, parts list and other files) can be found here.
After testing the generic Andowl UPS device I decided to find out if there were any alternatives in the same price range with similar features. After a few google searches I came across the SINYE TECH UPS device which has very similar features but is black in color and uses a different PCB.
After purchasing one and opening the ups I was disappointed to find out that the 4 18650 batteries had no markings on them whatsoever.. Also the main battery management IC has no identifying text on the chip. Seems like the mystery chip can of worms opens once again.
The good news is that the ups device has battery protection and has some decent components however… the actual black PCB board looks cheap unlike the good quality Andowl PCB…
Another major shock was the soldering (or should I say smoldering) of two of the transformer coil wires.. just looks ugly…
I also noticed the UPS device had a low battery LED flashing when I first switched it on and it never reaches the 100% LED even though the batteries are charged to 4.2V
Overall the UPS does function but I much prefer the Andowl Q-UP1000 UPS with similar functions it’s far more superior from what I’ve seen.
With the ever growing pains of load-shedding looming over South Africans people have been desperately looking for viable alternative energy and battery powered devices. In my case I needed my remote pepper spray devices to be operational in my laboratory even during extended load-shedding times 4h off with 2h charge times.
I could have purchased added a battery and charging circuit to my existing factory made Sonoff board however that could make the PCB larger and I wanted to build a custom solution instead.
My requirements were WiFi capability, at least 4 relays, li-ion battery powered, battery charger with all the standard protection features and for the device to be powered by 5v from a standard phone charger.
The device must be plugged into the 5v phone charger 24/7, when the electricity goes off the device must continue to operate uninterrupted, when the power comes back on the device must change to the charge state uninterrupted.
The device does not have to send a notification when using battery but it must protect from overcurrent and over-discharge.
While looking for components I came across the ESP8266 PSB 04 module which is basically just the MCU WiFi controller used to switch 4 channels by itself
This was perfect for my application because I am already very familiar with Sonoff devices and in this case I do not mind using the firmware on the esp8266 and the Sonoff application + API software for my automation tasks.
Building around the module was a breeze all I needed was the appropriate relay circuits and a decent charging module.
I ended up creating two prototypes because hey there’s always improvements to be made…
Drill holes for terminals and relays
ESP8266 board with buttons, led and 3.3v regulator
Headers to mount LiPo and ESP8266 boards
The components I used on my final version 1.1 are as follows:
I tried to make the design as modular as practically possible
There are 3 main parts in the design consisting of a main PCB which contains the battery and relays = complementary components then the WiFi module with buttons and 3.3v regulator is located on a small green PCB and finally the LiPo MH-CD42 module can be secured on the main board via headers.
While constructing I had to use a 1.6mm drill bit for the battery holes and a 1.5mm drill bit for the relay holes. I soldered the SMD AMS1117 reg onto 3 a pin male header for easy through hole placement. The relays and the screw terminals required more attention during drilling and placement of the holes due to their pin layout. I also coated all exposed wires with nail varnish as a make shift solder mask.
I had to add an extra 1000uF capacitor between GND and 5v out of the LiPo module because it would briefly lose power when transferring from USB to battery power
After setting up a CCTV system consisting of multiple WiFi cameras placed over my property I noticed that certain cameras were located in areas far away from AC outlets covered by my backup electrical system.
In this project I used some an old 18650 (LG makes the LGABD11865 ) from a laptop power supply. Also I upgraded my 5v charger to a 1.5A to provide enough charging and running current for the camera. The camera I am using is the EZVIZ C3W 1080p WiFi camera
Since Load-shedding has been increasing dramatically I had the need to find cheap simple and reliable power sources for there cameras (12v DC). One important requirement is that the backup system needs to fit into a small area E.G an electrical box on a pole where the camera is located.
While researching I came across the so called mini dc ups device mainly used for backing up WiFi routers at either 9v, 12v, 15v, 24v. however these devices seemed a bit overkill electronically wise and also price wise.
So I decided to opt-in on a cheaper smaller sized DIY version the components consisting of:
The components are all soldered onto a 50mm x 70mm 1 sided PCB board.
I noticed that the 4056 IC gets quite warm but doesn’t burn my fingers. The same goes for the coil. The specification is max 1A and the load I was applying was around 0.33mA – 0.670mA
After testing this particular LiPo charger PCB I noticed a few major problems the first being that the 8-pin 4056 LiPo chip is a copy of a copy… the next critical problem is that there is no protection circuitry besides the overcharge/discharge function in the 4056 chip.
This is a big problem since the chip does not switch off completely when low voltage occurs and as a result the load will periodically switch on and off unreliably before finally switching off completely. This oscillation can damage the load.
A solution will be to use a separate LiPo PCB with protection mosfets and a separate booster board.
12000mAh claim or is it just the name? Only a lawyer could legally advise.
When looking for a suitable min ups for my CCTV cameras and WiFi router I found a wide selection on takealot. After doing some research I noticed that the Q-UP1000 mini ups was listed by many vendors but at varying prices. Many companies had rebranded the device and increased their price quite dramatically.
Wintonic INR18650 3.7v 8.14Wh which is = to 2.200mAh
Finally I came across a deal selling the device for under R500.00 and I purchased 2 Andowl devices. Once I received the devices I was impressed with the quality of cables and the plastic mold of the box. (There are no screws to unscrew the box simply pops open)
No Screws needed to open the box. Four 2.200mAh INR18650’s for easy replaceing
Once the box was open I noticed a decent PCB with all the necessary protection circuits. There are two mystery chips though.
Mains charging circuit
The product was made recently (at least at the time of writing this article) and the designers made the batteries easily accessible for swaps which is awesome.
Charge controller IC
Now a negative thing I noticed is the 12000mAh claim… clearly the batteries are four 2.200mAh INR18650’s and this adds to 8.800mAh
There can be many reasons for this capacity “lie” but other than that the mini ups is looking good. Time will tell if this was a decent investment.
During summer there’s been a ton of rain this year and my electric fence alarm keeps going off The 2 main reasons are lots of water and crazy grass growth around the property. It’s been impossible to use weed killer because it rains so often it’s all just washed away.
So I decided to install a remote switch as well as a sensor to alert me if the siren is blaring off.
For the switch I used a SONOF RE5V1C DC powered relay. This device costs under R100.00 and can be powered by 5v DC, the switch can handle 10A of DC or SV loads up to 240V.
SONOF RE5V1C
For the alarm siren sensor I used an SONOFF DW2 Wi-Fi wireless door/window sensor. I de-soldered the magnetic switch and just soldered 2 wires to the pads. Now when the siren goes off a 12v relay will close the relay and the DW2 will report a closed event. The DW2 cost R115.00
SONOFF DW2 Wi-Fi
The great thing about this project is the price and the usage of the SONOFF software and MQTT service. There is no need to create my own firmware or MQTT software by using these affordable SONOFF products.
While working on one of my projects I needed a 12v relay unfortunately I did not have one on hand and was not about to pay for 1 relay plus shipping.
Luckily I had all the components at hand:
1 green and 1 red led 2x 470 ohm resistors 1x 1k resistor 1x 1N4007 diode 1x bc547 transistor 1x 12v relay Some solid alarm wire Very cheap rectangular PCB
For a 5 volt version just replace with a 5v relay and 2x 100 ohm resistors for the LEDs.
Unfortunately the PCB I had was very cheap and I could not fit the screw terminals I had so I had to squeeze them in. I also used thin alarm wire as i did not need to switch high amps but luckily everything worked out in the end.
It was a bit messy but next time I will use a better quality PCB that doesn’t burn tracks when making solder bridge tracks.
The BC547 also allows switching with 3.3 volt logic but remember to supply the 12v
This is a 12V relay that you can switch using the built-in JDY-30 Bluetooth slave module. By using the iq-blue terminal app on your phone, you can wireless open or close the relay by sending simple hexadecimal code to the board.
Provide 12V DC input power to the board
Search for bluetooth device and pair to “JDY-30” (password is “1234”)
Download the IQ-BLue Bluetooth Terminal App
Using hexadecimal, send “A00101A2” (open the relay), “A00100A1” (close the relay)
The ESP32-CAM, is a fine product of Espressif, and features WiFi + Bluetooth with an onboard Camera and even a built-in flash for complete solutions to IoT, so you can give your IoT systems eyes to “see”, in addition to the many Sensors that allow them to “feel”.
The camera included with this development board is the OV2640 camera, which is surprisingly high quality for the low price that it’s typically offered for. However, the board also allows use with the OV7670 camera too, allowing you to use whichever camera best suits your project – with more than enough computing power to operate a range of different tasks, and multiple sleep modes for impressively versatile power consumption.
This product is comprised of two parts, one of which is the Development Board while the other is the OV2640 camera module. This allows you to utilise these separately, or as a single unit, giving you more freedom to take your projects in whatever direction they need to go.
The XH-M603 module is perfect for building a battery charging station, offering a range of protection features and easy to set min/max charging voltages. As soon as the desired battery float voltage is reached, the charging circuit is disconnected.
Input Voltage: DC 10-30V
Display Precision: 0.1V
Control Precision: 0.1V
Output Type: directly output
Voltage Tolerance: ±0.1V
Board Size: 82 x 58 x 18mm
Example of usage:
Plug into battery in order to power the pcb board.
Don’t connect the charge input yet…
–Start charge setting (left button)
Press and hold the left button until the LCD starts flashing.
Now press to choose the desired voltage.
Leave the button until flashing stops and the chosen voltage will be set.
–Stop charge setting (right button)
Press and hold the right button until the LCD starts flashing.
Now press to choose the desired voltage.
Leave the button until flashing stops and the chosen voltage will be set.
