WiFi curtain controller with rogue live wire

I was told about this exciting feature by Michael who had touched the antenna wire end while setting the device up. The button for programming it is right next to the wire, so it's easy to do.
Most devices like this have a bit of sleeve over the wire end to protect against accidental contact. With a bare live wire hanging out the risk of it coming into contact with adjacent metalwork is also high, and that could either short to ground, destroying the module, or potentially give someone a shock from random metal that shouldn't have posed a risk.
If you have one of these I would recommend adding a bit of insulating sleeve or tape to the end of the wire making sure the power is off when you do so. Even when used in a plastic enclosure there is a risk of getting a shock when changing the program settings.
Given that the rest of the module seems a relatively sensible design the omission of insulation seems a bit odd.
The unit is only intended to switch low current loads, so the circuitry looks relatively acceptable for that.
In hindsight, the resistor on the input circuitry may be to make it less sensitive to capacitively coupled current to the switch wires. By having a resistor there it poses a slight load that will shunt stray current. The zener may be purely to protect the capacitor from overvoltage.
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#ElectronicsCreators

[@HPD1171]

folding the antenna end over with some heat shrink is exactly how we have the factory do it at my company for the RF receiver. Since the internal circuit uses a non isolated buck, the antenna wire insulation needs to be rated for class 1 as it is referenced directly to live and neutral. we even put a little sticker saying "ANTENNA DO NOT CUT" just in case since contractors/customers installing our products are often stupid and see an "extra wire" and just cut it off rendering the remote completely useless and then return as "defective".

[@MacGuffin1]

Yeah ground plane based antenna modules were not intended for crappy buck circuits, even worse for RF performance than folding the end of the antenna ;-) Also 'CE' Literally just stands for 'Chinese Export' I don't think anything like this would ever get FCC approval, it likely jams half the wifi in the neighbourhood intermittently

[@markbooth3066]

"CE" is an abbreviation of "conformité européenne" (French for "European conformity"). Many companies put a lot of effort into complying with the requirements of EU regulations, but ultimately it is a self certification, so if a company does want to slap on a CE mark without following the regulations, there's not much that you can do about it other than report them to trading standards, or your local equivalent, which doesn't help if they are located half way around the world. This is why it's probably better to think of CE as caveat emptor, aka buyer beware. *8')

[@greensteve9307]

@@MacGuffin1 No, it's for Conformité Européenne.

[@JasperJanssen]

@@greensteve9307 the “Chinese export” thing is such a persistent myth. It’s weird. People seem to think manufacturers must be honest-but-devious to get away with it, rather than the reality that they just straight up fucking lie.

[@HPD1171]

​@@markbooth3066 its funny because most of the I see CE and ONLY CE, its some dodgy shit from china so I just just instinctually associate it with "China Export" even though it has nothing to do with china (its in internal joke here) as that is where 95% of the issues occur at my company where CE is the only mark present. Nine times out of ten we find something wrong, the culprit is some factory in china not doing what we asked and we have to either rework a bunch of products or toss them in order to maintain UL certification and our promise to customers. Before covid we used to have to babysit... I mean visit the factories and audit them to make sure they are adhering to our standards but it seams like china is using this whole covid excuse (in 2022) to close the country down and keep us from traveling there; Wow who would have seen that coming?

[@jimsvideos7201]

Think of it as a particularly aggressive anti-tamper feature.

[@ogzephyr4166]

I’ve got mine wired to 10,000v to make sure no one touches my curtains

[@m2mm4m]

@@ogzephyr4166 I'm going to get mine wired to a metal roller shutter!!

[@vertigo72480_official]

@@ogzephyr4166 neither will the dinosaurs at Jurassic Park

[@leejames7831]

Anti life feature more like 🤦

[@DerMarkus1982]

If the antenna wire zaps you when you accidentally touch it, then this module *truly is* on-line!

[@daveseddon5227]

I have a few Moes devices and all are well built and nicely engineered but this curtain switch module definitely has a problem with its antenna wire. Issue brought up in Amazon review section, so it's a known fault!

[@leglessinoz]

yeah they make a reasonably priced wifi light switch that requires no neutral wire that works well.

[@MyProjectBoxChannel]

​@@leglessinoz I have done some modification circuits that allows smart switches to work without a neutral. If you would like to know how it works I have some vids on that.

[@daveseddon5227]

@@leglessinoz Have used one of those - saved a lot of work!

[@BrendanxP]

All Moes switches I've tried are very slow and not fully reliable. The sonoffs I have perform much better.

[@KJ6EAD]

CE could mean _caveat emptor_ or *causes electrocution* or many other things just like RoHS apparently means *Reduction of Human Satisfaction.* Ideally, that wire antenna should be longer for best range. 433MHz = 69cm so a ¼ wave dipole would be 17cm. Unless they base loaded the antenna with an inductor, it looks like ≈ 12cm. It was good that you mentioned a plastic enclosure since metal ones attenuate the RF. *Edited* to correct previously erroneous wavelengths. λ = C/f

[@benzonet]

According to my knowledge 433MHz is ~70cm wavelength, but yes, ¼ wave is indeed about 17,5 cm. Mostly they coil these antennas to fit the in the housing, but since they are placed in a junction box in the wall, they let the antenna wire dangle free out of the enclosure to reach proper range.

[@KJ6EAD]

@@benzonet Hey, you're right. I inadvertently inverted the formula. See the alliteration there? I'll edit my comment but leave this up as well.

[@brauchmernet]

CE = China Export

[@miketrissel5494]

You've finally hit on a few acronyms I can smile at. Maybe UL is under-rated liability

[@curiouscrandall1]

CE. China Export.

[@daviddavidson2357]

You know we live in the dumbest timeline when people are getting electric shocks from their curtains.

[@throttlebottle5906]

natural selection at it's finest 😉

[@davey2k12]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@mkase4697]

I was extending an antenna on my long range plug in door bell receiver (wireless transmitter) using a length of wire. While on a chair trying to attach the antenna to the wall I discovered it too had the potential to make your knees wobble and your bowels loosen with a nice dose of 240v AC. Perhaps they should market these as constipation relievers? Moral of the story: always carry spare undercrackers.

[@HPD1171]

A serious question, why were you "Extending the antenna" it was designed to operate at a specific frequency/wavelength, so unless it was fundamentally wrong there would be no reason to change it.

[@mkase4697]

@@HPD1171 Because I wanted to use it outside the back of my house in my workshop. The signal from the front door passing all the way through the house was not strong enough to reach the receiver despite it being one of Scamazon's 400m long range ones. It was relatively simple to research the wavelength and build a suitable antenna. Also quite simple to identify how to place the antenna to pick up the signal and it worked well straight away. I just didnt expect the 'sensational' end to a straightforward modification.

[@davey2k12]

@@mkase4697 should of connected to roof TV antenna see the range increase 😂😂😂😂 obviously disconnect TV first lmfao and check for magic smoke 😂😂😂

[@nowtrytv]

Unbelievable, I was discussing about getting an auto curtain system yesterday after never mentioning one for 11 years or so! Now I'm even better informed thanks 😊

[@beyondwhatisknown]

So, your phone listened to you, told KZbin about your conversation, and suggested this video?

[@littlejackalo5326]

@@beyondwhatisknown The phone IS KZbin. (Assuming he's using an Android phone like most people, especially the types of people that watch educational videos on KZbin.)

[@beyondwhatisknown]

@@littlejackalo5326 Right, that makes more sense.

[@fredbloggs5902]

“The CE Mark means nothing with this stuff”... ...is a great summary.

[@ShockburnVR]

also doesnt help that there is a CE and a C E mark. The first one is China Export and the other is the Conformité Européenne, but this still is not a quality indicator or a certification mark.

[@Mat_64]

@@ShockburnVR Did product doesn’t shows the CE (EU, Conformité Européenne) mark, but the C E (China Export) mark. When the E starts out side the opening of the C it’s China Export, if the E starts in side the C it’s Conformité Européenne.

[@ryannicholl8661]

The circuit at 11:00 is a crude linear regulator. If the live voltage varies a lot it will still work. The reason the zener is needed is that it provides a semi stable voltage even if the input voltage is variable. Ideally you want to use this arrangement because you don't want the current through the base spiking. Without the Zener diode you will have a lot more ripple on the output and would need a much higher base resistor. This might not be needed for this particular circuit but it's a copy/paste module used a lot when working with mains voltages especially for bootstrapping 5v to ICs that control switching power to power other higher current components. When you need higher accuracy you can cascade multiple of this circuit design together as well. (e.g. mains -> 24v -> 9v -> 5v)

[@troyhaworth482]

We find a lot that the the remote controls for ceiling fans also have a live anntennea cable. A lot of the time they short on the housing of the fan canopy when they accidentally get squished.

[@turbokatzenburg5732]

Hey Clive, Tony here. Great meeting you at the race last month. Back in the US. Anyways, I think the zener and extra 422k on the switch input might be a simplistic debounce circuit. I seem to recall seeing something similar on a priority latch circuit I built in the early 80s. (Was a three player button and lights setup for our history class version of the game show "Jeopardy".)

[@boomish69]

I have a little understanding of electrical circuits but I still find Clive’s videos amazing to watch:)

[@Defirence]

I also have very limited knowledge but I'm learning electronics out of pure curiosity. I agree with you, Clive's videos are nice to watch and/or learn from tbh.

[@trevann8213]

They did alright at compacting the circuit into a small enclosure while not cramming some things too tightly to eachother but some people don't like a live wire roaming about

[@strehlow]

I also wonder why the remote receiver with an external antenna is on the top of the stack but the WiFi board with integrated antenna is buried between the two. I'd probably have flipped them around.

[@SeanBZA]

Receiver board can be changed for different markets where you have different ISM bands easily, instead of needing to have a few different stacks, build the riser with the wifi board, and only add the remote receiver board if needed for a market during final assembly.

[@Zlodej5]

I would have thought that the wifi module is probably more powerful and possibly is in all devices while the remote receiver might only be fitted in some product. But even more then that, I would assume that the same board and set would have been used for many other purposes and only few of them would bother using remotes, so in a mass manufacturing the item which always goes in, would be against the board, while the item which is rarer would get specialized fit

[@johndododoe1411]

Easier to assemble when the board with the external wire is nearest the hole. No need to overthink it with multi step assembly lines and market specific frequencies.

[@littlejackalo5326]

@@johndododoe1411 I don't think that wire is going to cause any difficulties. If it is under the WiFi board, it'll be readily routed out the hole. That doesn't sound like a realistic excuse.

[@dougle03]

Nearly shared this to the home assistant group, then remembered it's a Patreon only release at the min.. lol

[@ezzbuttheyshouldntleavethe5529]

now you can do it!

[@jubbyquarkret4262]

THAG can hold their darn horses a minute

[@rubikmonat6589]

(Arnie voice) Do it, do it now. :)

[@miketrissel5494]

I still remember taking my Ideal steel bodied 3 Volt Continuity tester, back in the early 70's, and putting it across a DC relay coil in my hand. Relay flew 6', tester went 10'. I was 'literally' shocked to the bone.

[@throttlebottle5906]

I landed against the headboard of my bed as a kid, from sitting on the end with feet on floor. I was playing with a dc motor(D-shaft) operating vehicle points/condenser and firing an ignition coil making huge arcs. it was all on a cheap folding table with metal rim and legs, it arced through the rivets to metal leg into my left leg and back out my right hand. my legs propelled me into the air and backwards about 6 feet, gave me a huge lump on the back of my head. the table/junk landed against the wall , nearly breaking the window 5 feet the other way. I didn't do that again!

[@miketrissel5494]

@@throttlebottle5906 At my grandparents 25th anniversary, (silver), I was 5 years old looking at all the shiny silver toys on the table. I stuck the silver letter opener in the flat blade socket of the 120 volts, and did such a large back flip, that I landed behind my 2-year-old😵‍💫💥😵‍💫 brother, and he took the blame. I just curled up in the corner with my silver finger nails. What a rush. 13 years later I started my electrical career

[@KeritechElectronics]

Yes, if the antenna is live, they should have taken better care of making it safer. I'd change that 422k to the ground to 22k. That way the circuit still works when connected to 120V, but the odds of some bad shit happening if the 4V7 Zener diode fails are drastically reduced.

[@kenmore01]

So often the driving resistor arrangement for transistors are screwed. It's almost like they never thought it through.

[@bauhnguefyische667]

When I was a kid in the 70’s CB radios were the thing. One of the kids in the neighborhood had a CB with a linear amp on it. Everyone in the neighborhood could hear his over amped signal on their TV’s. One night an adult blew up his CB by cutting the wire/grounding to the antennae. Boom! Shorted⚡️💥🔥 No more CB. Kids Antennae need to be grounded properly.

[@guyh3403]

I think I was that kid...

[@bauhnguefyische667]

@@guyh3403 God for you! 👍🤣🤣 You’re a hero!

[@00Skyfox]

True about the CE mark being worthless. I once bought a soldering station that had *zero* earth grounding to the tip. The seller swore up and down that it was properly made and CE certified, and even emailed me a fake CE certificate.

[@d614gakadoug9]

Some random points: • With motors of that sort you can't connect two or more directly in parallel. It requires rather a lot of words to explain why, but if you draw the circuit and analyze what happens when one limit switch opens you'll see why. Such motors also behave as transformers and you can find, typically, at least 1.5 times the line voltage across the contacts of the non-energized relay. • If you have some situation where you are concerned that, no matter what you do with trying to insulate the antenna, some future event may damage the insulation and create a shock hazard you can (if you can fit it in!) use a low-value Y1 capacitor to couple the antenna wire to the circuit. The value would need to be selected to present a good low impedance at the required frequency. For example, a 330 pF cap would present an impedance of just over one ohm at 433 MHz. It is likely an impedance of several ohms would be OK. Y1 capacitors are "double insulated" - essentially two capacitors in series, two separate dielectrics. Caps like this are not unusual in SMPSs to couple the low voltage side back to the high voltage side to create a local return for RF. IIRC, values up to 470 pF are acceptable in "medical" power supplies where there may be a direct connection of something connected to the low voltage side to a person. • USUALLY the little nipple in the corner of a sealed relay as used in this device should be clipped off after the circuit is assembled and cleaned. This leaves a little vent hole which helps prevent the build up of "gunk" that can cause premature failure. You'll find this discussed in ap notes from "name brand" relay manufacturers.

[@truckerallikatuk]

The internet of fire and explosions sounds a lot more exciting than the boring inertnet of things...

[@hattix6713]

I have a similar device, a WiFi IoT lighting controller. I routinely check my DMM for continuity or voltage between any exposed metal and ground/neutral. Imagine my chagrin when I saw the 0.35V of a Schottky between the antenna and neutral. That antenna was heat-shrink covered before it ever saw any energy!

[@strehlow]

Would it help to couple the antenna wire via a small capacitor that has fairly low impedance at 433MHz but high at 50/60Hz?

[@BigClive]

It would have to be rated for mains voltage, but it could be done.

[@neurhlp]

The capacitor would mess with the impedance matching too, so it would need other parts to compensate, like an inductor. If you only need to match for 433MHz, it is quite straightforward to do so.

[@chargehanger]

Yep, 1nF Y capacitor is the correct thing to do here.

[@adamrak7560]

@@chargehanger yeah for 1nF you do not need any inductance compensation. You can get away with zero compensation and "near" perfect matching, if the capacitor is part of the antenna, like one terminal is soldered into the PCB, and the other continues as the antenna. For 433MHz the 1nF capacitor is basically a wire anyway (with some small twists). You may need to use very high voltage rated capacitor, because lower voltage ceramic capacitors can be permanently shorted by ESD. Or maybe use a type of cap which does not tend to fail short.

[@jankoodziej877]

I have two different brands (Shelly and Blebox) of such switches, both do not have external antenna and both have enough range of wi-fi. They are great devices, incredibly cheap for what they do. I even use one Shelly to switch two different light circuits (instead of rollers), it's very flexible. Works locally with Home Assistant too.

[@MyProjectBoxChannel]

I've modified my shelly1 to not need a neutral at the light switch. Now it's possible to install it in the light fixture and still have it controlled by the light switch. I have a vid on the circuit.

[@PaulSteMarie]

That zener substantially reduces the base current in the transistor. If we assume effectively 400VDC into the first resistor, with no zener present, you would have about 1 mA of base drive. With the zener present, you wind up with about 0.4 mA into the base.

[@Mark1024MAK]

1mA base current for a small bipolar transistor is insignificant in terms of power, as Clive days, the base at worst looks like a diode junction, so 0.65V x 1mA = 0.65mW. Strange that they used that value for the resistors.

[@ianhosier4042]

It's a nice looking box from a certain country beginning with C which unsurprisingly has a wire poking out of it that gives you a nasty shock if touched!

[@JBothell_KF0IVQ]

My guess for the button input circuit would be a voltage divider with a de-bouncing circuit. Interesting product, kind of annoying about the live antenna thou

[@MyWifeHatesThisCar]

I don’t think that CE mark is what we think it is, I think that one stands for “Chinese Export” (I think). The gap between the C and E is wider apart than it is on the safety CE mark. Could be wrong, I often am.

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

I am pretty sure they intend it as a regular CE mark, but as you say, the spacing is not correct, and also the C and E do not seem circular enough. I often think, if they can't be bothered to fake that correctly, then what else have they got wrong...

[@martinbell8329]

@My Wife Hates This Car, I think you are correct. I am sure if pressed, the manufacturer would reluctantly confirm it. However that "CE" mark is clearly intended to mislead the uninformed customer. I wonder what acronym they would come up with for the new UKCA mark...

[@MyWifeHatesThisCar]

@@martinbell8329 I have vague memories of the CE (China Export) being an actual thing with that sort of logo, but with the gap between them so they couldn't be sued or get confused with the CE safety mark. Which is bullshit of course, but I guess it also gives the manufacturers an element of "We didn't actually say it was safe to use, we just said where it was from". The more disturbing thing is how Amazon is selling these things. I wonder how many brown envelopes are going around parliament to stop them being investigated for this sort of shithousery.

[@whitesapphire5865]

On the other hand, what's wrong with getting off one's arse, walking across the room and closing the curtains properly?🤣😘😸😼😹😁🤡🤦 I got a hell of a belt off a set of mains powered Christmas lights last winter, but they went straight back to the shop! Fascinating stuff I have to say.

[@jankoodziej877]

I have 12 of those in my house and they are set to automatically open or close depending on the position of sun and/or time. And I don't have to be home four this to happen. Helps a lot keeping the house cool in summer, without A/C.

[@johndododoe1411]

I have mostly seen motorized curtains used where an entire wall of windows need to be blacked out to use a projector, or where each curtain is a heavy metal grid to stop burglars.

[@tactileslut]

Peak UK mains across little surface mount caps. I was with you on the shrink sleeve fix until those showed up.

[@jensschroder8214]

The internal 5 volt has Live as reference. This makes it easier to switch the external switches to Live. But the whole circuit depends on the voltage in the air and not to ground.

[@RobertShippey]

What does voltage in the air mean?

[@infomaniac50]

@@RobertShippey I think he means the circuit's ground reference is floating. It's probably a noise maker too. So don't buy it if you're an amateur radio operator.

[@Jack-rc9fu]

@@infomaniac50 Exactly what I was thinking, I would not want this at or near my ham shack.

[@MichaelJantzen42]

You kinda know its fake certifications as well if there's a FCC logo (which this has), but no FCC id number on the device or in the booklet that came with it and most vendors seem lazy enough to not even copy an existing grantee code either. This thing probably spits out rf as well based on your teardown.

[@fuzzy1dk]

since it has two radios it is guaranteed to spit out RF ;)

[@KJ6EAD]

@@Willam_J Since you've already fixed some spelling, would you mind changing _sconce_ to _since_ ?

[@cheyannei5983]

@@Willam_J This happens a lot with personal computing devices like tablets and phones, too. IIRC the standard is to meet or exceed Irish requirements in your own testing, hope that's good enough, and then send out for FCC and Irish testing as once those two pass you're golden.

[@BenKonosky]

Remember S in IoT stands for both Safety and Security.

[@gregorythomas333]

The Internet of Fire!

[@TurboTel68]

I’ve got one of these on my garage door, so far it’s been great. Luckily the module is out of reach so the antenna hasn’t zapped anyone!

[@jhoughjr1]

Lol an unskippable ad in spanish for dawn. Good job susan i dont speak spanish

[@superwhitesuperbright7740]

Delighted to have found your channel. If only I had the foggiest what you're talking about, but very interesting nevertheless. Thank you.

[@TheSpotify95]

Aah lovely, a live antennae. That's a nice feature!

[@DmitriyKhazansky]

Great break down, I’d love to see more of these home automation style devices to see what’s good and bad about them from your view

[@wisher21uk]

Ouch nothing like an unexpected bite lol thanks Clive for bringing this to our attention...

[@stevenspmd]

Oddly I am looking at getting a similar unit for my indoor heat pump (tosot mini split) and can only seem to find the finest of Chinesium as options ; I was sort of fearing these such situations ... you know sparks, fire, and all that sort of fun.

[@xDR1TeK]

A monopole antenna has high voltage and zero current at the antenna end and high current with zero current at the transceiver end. But that is not what caused the shock, it's the coupling between the ground and the antenna caused by the person touching both terminals. Since the device isn't galvanically isolated, the whole device is floating at mains voltage and though the device operates at low voltage which isn't referenced exactly to mains neutral would definitely give a shock as the antenna is driving power through a conductor which is the antenna creating a closed circuit with the user touching the ground and the antenna. The current is minimal but the discomfort is real. I'd try to measure the voltage between the antenna and ground at mains frequency with a dmm. Anything above 50v would be definitely sensed by touching.

[@TomTwain]

From the thumbnail script, I was expecting to see Francis Dunnery and co 🤣

[@skug978]

I enjoyed your circuit analysis.

[@PaulRoneClarke]

"Calling all the heroes" This wire is LIVE.

[@ConorNoakes]

I was playing with one of the “smart light switch” versions of this in a single gang metclad… funnily enough the the metal box stopped the WiFi pretty effectively and when poked out between the lid and the box it got pinched and… BANG shorted out when powered up 😂

[@johnmorgan1629]

CE might as well be Caveat Emptor, nicely put Clive.

[@christastic100]

Could have been curtains .

[@jagmarc]

Peculiar how there's no inline series capacitor to the antenna. Even a very small value 1 kV rated cap would be a short circuit to RF at 434 MHz. Short-wire antennas are usually base-loaded with a series inductor anyway. Maybe a suitable capacitor is too expensive.

[@Vilvaran]

"Internet of Fire" is one of the best mocks yet, it often gets overlooked until the last minute - the sheer amount of wiring for any 'home automation' project. Not even mentioning hackability, these types of devices are likely going to become quite the arsonist in the years to come...

[@karl6622]

They make some pretty acceptable products for the price, but I've found their dimmer modules to be heavily flawed. I've tried around 5 or 6 different models of dimmable LED bulb with them, and all of them experience some kind of buzzing, flickering or strobing at certain brightness levels. I suspect they're driving them with a leading edge waveform instead of trailing edge, despite using a mosfet for control. In fairness, their customer support was remarkable (especially for a Chinese company) and they offered a full refund straight away. But I've spotted no firmware updates fixing the issue, assuming it can be changed in software. Seems there's issues with their QA, it's a shame cos it ruins what would've otherwise been an excellent product. But seeing this kind of a hazard in a product isn't giving me much confidence having those dimmers installed in my walls... Might be time to look for an alternative.

[@tbelding]

The issue is that unlike incandescent, there are three different ways that dimmable LEDs can be dimmed, and they're mostly incompatible with each other. Even the manufacturers of the high end switches end up warning you about that, plus suggesting check with the LED bulb manufacturer to identify the method they support. As far as I know, the methods can't be fixed in any sort of software at all - they're physically different.

[@karl6622]

@@tbelding From what I've found, a MOSFET-driven dimmer can create both leading and trailing waveforms, it all depends on the timing from the controller IC (which in this case is an upgradable microcontroller). The alternative is the old triac dimmers, which can *only* do leading edge (the variant LED bulbs don't play well with). The only reason (that I'm aware of) for a dimmer to use leading edge is to reduce costs by using a triac, but the circuit already uses a FET so that can't be the reason. This is unconfirmed regardless, I'm just speculating what the issue is. I should really hook a scope up to the output, but they're installed in the walls right now.

[@blackcountryme]

Speaking about strobing LED bulb's, I brought a couple of 100w equivalent from Wilko, After a short time they start subtle strobing, or flickering. Don't know if it's my strip light in the kitchen, or just my luck, but two set of two have the same problem.

[@bschwand]

The power supply of the led must support dimming, some just don't tolerate dimming at all

[@littlejackalo5326]

@@bschwand while that's true, it doesn't really matter. You can have high end LED lights that are "dimmable" and a high end dimmer switch, and it'll still have problems. It's a crapshoot.

[@twocvbloke]

Wait, they have electric curtains now? And here's me opening and closing them like a medieval pleb... :P

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Curtains? Luxury! I had to train a cow to stand in front of the window until morning.....

[@chrishartley1210]

They have electric cars too, but not 2cv's.

[@tncorgi92]

@@IanSlothieRolfe You had windows?

[@michaeltempsch5282]

@@chrishartley1210 There is a kit available for converting 2CVs to electric though...

[@chrishartley1210]

@@michaeltempsch5282 And sewing machine motors are cheap too🤣

[@johndododoe1411]

In my experience, motorized curtains use roller motors (the middle is the stator and the surface is the rotor), not synchronous motors.

[@FerrybigGaming]

8:52 You can hear the buzzer buzzing by your test probes. But it seems to be very high frequency and very quiet, so it could also be picked up RF

[@markhudson4510]

Yes I heard the beeper too. Very high frequency

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Seems like a very aggressive anti Tamper Feature For your Curtains seems over complicated and slitley well made

[@ScottGrammer]

A 10pf/1KV cap between the receiver and antenna wire would have done the job. Maybe a small choke between the antenna wire and neutral as well.

[@SeanBZA]

Would have added a whole 2c to the price of the unit. The bean counters would have died from apoplexy. What I do see often is the antenna end is dipped in a bit of paint, to cover up that exposed end with a tiny blob of paint.

[@kenmore01]

A cap that small and a choke may detune the circuit. Even a 10nF cap would prevent a shock, but in order for it to pass safety requirements, there would have to be 8mm spacing minimum between the antenna wire and the rest of the circuit, which leads me to believe, this is not really certified for sale to the general public.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@kenmore01 So a standard Y capacitor would be the component to use. Anyway putting this into a common mains relay box like a CUBO would isolate everything, including the screw terminals.

[@fredflintstone1]

"Internet of fire" Seems a good title for your stream :-)

[@jdhtyler]

CE mark just means Caution Electric = CE

[@thighdude7]

As Clive mentioned CE... caveat emptor

[@TechGorilla1987]

Big Clive is the only rogue live wire I know.

[@-vermin-]

11:06 Vbe will be 0.66V but you still have the 10K base resistor which will have 4V across it rather than peak mains voltage - Vbe.

[@MartysRandomStuff]

I'm trying to see the path from live to the antenna, seems like there is more than just a diode in the path so the meter reading at the start is confusing.

[@TheducksOrg]

The Sonoff Mini v1 has an external antenna which is also live like this.

[@alexrossouw7702]

Please more IOT videos. Switching mains right next to MCU circuitry is walking a fine line and i'd like to know how walk it for my personal projects. Thanx for the professional insight on your videos!

[@jamessexton1453]

Internet of Fire... That made me chuckle:)

[@dj_paultuk7052]

IoF, nice, im going to use that from now on. lol.

[@PeteSnipe]

Oh dear me. The 'Ultimate Energizer' advertisement on your channel is very much out of place. I assume you have little choice about what advert gets shown... That said, I enjoy your videos and you sharing your knowledge. Thanks, Peter

[@MrDbone75]

A very good Sunday evening

[@olico11]

i got one Shelly 1 and the whole PCB is live. it uses LNK306 for AC/DC conversion

[@sno_crash]

Can you elaborate on how the mains voltage is making its way to the antennae ? that piece seemed to be missing. Capacitively coupled to the antennae? etc?

[@BjornV78]

0:41 CE means "China Enhanced" and the FC next to it means "Fuckup Circuit" 😂

[@keithking1985]

Thanks Clive

[@Jagermonsta]

Clive any chance you could do a video where you run over basic terms - such as the difference between electric shock and electrocution for example? I hear 'electrocute' in place of 'electric shock' so often it kinda drives me crazy

[@muzikman2008]

He did one a couple of years ago..

[@MickHealey]

Hi Clive, it beeped at 08:52. Very subtle, but it is there.

[@markpalmer9002]

Fantastic 💥, Big Clive is doing esp32 programming videos. Love the videos though.

[@asciisynth]

If I understand correctly - they saved money on the mains voltage -> 5V circuit but splashed out on a dedicated IC to send a pulse wave to the buzzer, although there is probably a 32 bit ESP-style chip on board that should have been capable of generating a tone itself?

[@BensWorkshop]

I find it odd that the voltage divider that is the switch input seems to pass half the voltage. Why wouldn't you pick it to be a 10 to 1 ratio or similar? odd.

[@ruben_balea]

Couldn't they just leave the antenna cable wrapped around the board *inside* the case? Because more or less is how it will be after putting it inside a small junction box.

[@Ivorbiggin]

Good point……

[@adamg8588]

The doodle looks like the Enterprise.🖖

[@MyProjectBoxChannel]

the original sonoff mini , had an external antenna that was referenced to mans voltage! It had much better heat shrinked insulation covering it though. the mini R2, upgraded it to an internal on board antenna. I guess there was a risk you could trap the antenna wire and break the insulation.

[@TimHollingworth]

Interesting video. I'm not sure why there would be a buzzer or when it would operate. The moving curtains would show the unit working or not?

[@Slikx666]

I was actually waiting for the band It Bites to start playing. 😋

[@HPD1171]

11:17 that zener is there most likely for transient conditions. i do the same thing to play it safe, you neve know what crap appears on the mains input so you zener and cap the crap out of it before sending it to low voltage circuitry this is especially important with inductive loads which would be expected given the device's use case. i would have liked to see the top side resistors two 1206 footprints in series instead of a single 0805 just for the voltage rating. but the bottom resistor also being 422k makes no sense. personally i would have just used two 220k 1206 footprint in series for the top side and just the Zener and 10k 0603 gate resistor as the Zener will have done most of the work for transient conditions. the 422k pull down is a weird choice and kind of high. i would pick something in the 10k to 47k range just to give the zener less work to do while also improving noise immunity at the base of the transistor. the real question here is why the hell is a button input not just switching the input of the MCU to 0V with a simple 1k pullup to the local 3.3V supply. that would have eliminated a lot of components.

[@aliveandwellinisrael2507]

Surely an isolated converter would be a better idea and still allow whatever transmit power this thing is meant to have (but yeah, wun hung lo cost cutting I guess)

[@jussikuusela7345]

I have let myself understand that there is a double CE standard of approval. One is for the Community of Europe, the other for the Chinese Empire, ad the lettering between them is strikingly similar.

[@wdavem]

I know what that thing needs! Safely connect the antenna to ground, switch on power remotely and watch it go!

[@rodrice1282]

Excellent video

[@timteecvhn]

Honestly, that buzzer I would've just taken out of the board and poked with a battery across it's pins (in correct polarity assuming it's one of those polarity specific ones, if there are non-polarity specific ones that is.)

[@johnopalko5223]

433 MHz is right smack in the middle of the 70 cm ham band, at least in ITU Region 2. That could get annoying if a lot of your neighbors have these things. I know that band is shared with radiolocation services, but is it shared with ISM?

[@ryanroberts1104]

LOL..."internet of fire". They should have common/cheap nicely powder coated steel enclosures for this kind of stuff to keep the fire contained.

[@tonyweavers4292]

Thanks Clive.

[@cheyannei5983]

It's alive!

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

There you go, that mystery chips is there because the accountant is the engineer's ex !

[@lightcapmath2777]

You ROCK!!! Big C! DVD:) what a PSA video. DVD:)

[@TechGorilla1987]

Without much explanation - I got a zap off of the remote controller for my ceiling fan one day. It too has a blue antenna wire. I am guessing that this is how I got a buzz. It's mentally bugged me for 3 years now. Perhaps I can sort it out now.

[@Mike_5]

Hotels and Businesses use these devices to maximize the productivity of their employees

[@Derek_Garnham]

what, by giving them shocks! - that's inhuman

[@markbooth3066]

This looks like a 5v design that's been reworked to support 3v components, and given that that unknown chip seems to sit between the 4 pin programming interface port, and riser board, I suspect it's a level converter to allow a newer 3v wifi/microcontroller module to be programmed on a production line that was set up for a 5v wifi/microcontroller module. *8')

[@ppjsgmlcm]

I was thinking the same. That chip and those 4 pinholes nearby.... looks like a 3.3v serial port for debugging??? Ground, TX, RX...

[@jubbyquarkret4262]

What a wonderful video.

[@RossMitchellsProfile]

Bit dodgy with the hanging out live wire but honestly I love these modules. I got a few of the lighting ones (zigbee rather than wifi but same idea) in my lighting circuits and they're great, turns any normal bulb into a dimming smart bulb. Would love to see you cover Shelly's smart relays like the Pro 2, thing works really well but has an ethernet port disturbingly close to the live terminal on it. (Especially if you have a shielded network cable)

[@ernstoud]

CE stands for China Export. Note the big space between the two letters. That is the clue.