livolo Glass Panel Touch Light Wall Switch + arduino 433Mhz
-
I found these a while back, and was very tempted to go the route of modding these to work with mysensors with a nRF24L01 inside rather than the poor 433mhz transceiver.
However, for a few reasons i went the route of creating my own wireless light switch that can be used with any rocker/momentary switch front. Project can be found here.
I'm currently in the process of finding some sleek way of making a capacitive touch front plate for this module to make it look somewhat like these Livolo glass switches. It may come to purchasing these just for the face-plate and then removing the rest of the product.
-
I found these a while back, and was very tempted to go the route of modding these to work with mysensors with a nRF24L01 inside rather than the poor 433mhz transceiver.
However, for a few reasons i went the route of creating my own wireless light switch that can be used with any rocker/momentary switch front. Project can be found here.
I'm currently in the process of finding some sleek way of making a capacitive touch front plate for this module to make it look somewhat like these Livolo glass switches. It may come to purchasing these just for the face-plate and then removing the rest of the product.
@Samuel235 nice! Since I barely know how to solder I ended going for the livolo. But I may ask for friends help if we find a way to mod the livolo. Btw, since you will change the internals you may look for the ones without RF as they would be even cheaper.
-
Thank you for providing images @chrlyra, it looks poorly made at the least, only from looking at these images though. You're correct in saying i could purchase these without the internal radios if i just specifically want the face-plate. Its a shame they're so cheaply manufactured, they have some real potential, not for me now i know how dodgy these look on the internals.
They also look like they do all the switching through mosfets rather than relays, which is fine if controlled correctly. The mosfet on the first image looks something along the lines of a Power MOSFET in a DPAK package, N-Channel or P-Channel.
I'm very intrigued at those touch sensors, very nifty looking items. If someone know how to find those on the internet please inform me, i'm very interested in those. The only way i'm thinking of remaking something like those would be to create a capacitive touch sensor behind a blank wall plate, one of these. They don't look very stylish though, i need to come up with some other product for my project.
-
I think if you want to reuse the livolo that won't be easy. I have one livolo, without radio and no dimmer. So it uses relay. I know about the mosfet version. I think mosfet is nice too.
I have already unpacked it and checked some electricals connection because I was thinking to hack it. But I think this is too much pain for maybe not great results.
On mine, the brain mcu is on the capacitive plate (a microchip mcu). I have not tried to access/change fw of the mcu though but I thought, well, I could do another plate and reuse relay board, easy!..but then there is the radio. Reuse the livolo one? some work, not the best perf, no state back.. Use my rfm69 radio (I prefer 868 than 433) ? I'm not sure the livolo can provide power I need etc... so it could put me on a tricky road for not great results, looking not good inside the box..
Too bad! Because my livolo is well built and I like the glass plate. I want the glass plate!! It's cheap and you have the whole enclosure.
So finally, I have a project in progress where I do everything from scratch, with glass plate and gesture, yep ;) but I don't know yet when it will be finished as I have a few other things to finish. -
Im just about to finish this one, i use a black (transparrent) acrylic plate with touchmodules and LCD behind the acrylic.
-
Hello, I just found out that Livolo is selling the glass plates (EU standard only, too bad for me :( ) alone on it's aliexpress shop. 3.72€ for square plate (1 or 2 switches), 6.24€ for double sized plate (up to 4 switches) and 8.77€ for triple size (up to 6 switches !).
I have US(AU) sized switches here so I'm a bit screwed up, but I think I will try to order a double plate and put on top of one of my switches boxes which are a bit smaller.
Check the "EU DIY Parts" category in the Livolo shop. -
@Nca78 that's what I'm planning to do ;) you can't find cheaper for already cutted glass plate imho. I'm redesigning the box for 3d printing, and maybe sand and repeint the plate, I'm note sure yet as I don't really care about the button layout (I will use gesture).
-
Hello, I just found out that Livolo is selling the glass plates (EU standard only, too bad for me :( ) alone on it's aliexpress shop. 3.72€ for square plate (1 or 2 switches), 6.24€ for double sized plate (up to 4 switches) and 8.77€ for triple size (up to 6 switches !).
I have US(AU) sized switches here so I'm a bit screwed up, but I think I will try to order a double plate and put on top of one of my switches boxes which are a bit smaller.
Check the "EU DIY Parts" category in the Livolo shop. -
@Nca78 that's what I'm planning to do ;) you can't find cheaper for already cutted glass plate imho. I'm redesigning the box for 3d printing, and maybe sand and repeint the plate, I'm note sure yet as I don't really care about the button layout (I will use gesture).
@scalz said:
@Nca78 that's wat I'm planning to do ;) you can't find cheaper for already cutted glass plate imho. I'm redesigning the box for 3d printing, and maybe sand and repeint the plate, I'm note sure yet as I don't really care about the button layout (I will use gesture).
It depends for the price, if there is a local maker here it can end up cheaper than on aliexpress.
What sensor are you planning to use for the touch ? TTP22x for relative ease of soldering, or an hardcode 3x3mm MPR121 ?[edit] Just found cheaper panels here (for simple EU size, bigger sizes are more expensive), but maybe a bit less sexy
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/3gang-white-small-glass-switch-panel-match-with-Bingo-Elec-frame-glass-or-aluminum-and-3gang/1157683_32394538766.html -
@Nca78 yep. sure I thought about this. it depends also of the quantity, as locals are not always the cheaper, at least where I live lol. about the sensor, I use gesture (more hygienic and cool) so it's more complicated than common sensor. and no cheap eval board so I made mine and variant for those interested. but you will see, I will show sure ;)
-
@Nca78 yep. sure I thought about this. it depends also of the quantity, as locals are not always the cheaper, at least where I live lol. about the sensor, I use gesture (more hygienic and cool) so it's more complicated than common sensor. and no cheap eval board so I made mine and variant for those interested. but you will see, I will show sure ;)
-
@Samuel235 said:
@Nca78 - Thank you for that link for a price comparison, looks tempting.
You're welcome. I ordered the three size of plates to see how I can use them in my home. I will test with TTP and MPR121 and give a feedback.
@scalz made me look for gesture sensors and I discovered the ADPS 9960, it was too tempting not to order one, can't wait to receive and play with it !
-
@Samuel235 said:
@Nca78 - Thank you for that link for a price comparison, looks tempting.
You're welcome. I ordered the three size of plates to see how I can use them in my home. I will test with TTP and MPR121 and give a feedback.
@scalz made me look for gesture sensors and I discovered the ADPS 9960, it was too tempting not to order one, can't wait to receive and play with it !
@Nca78 said:
@scalz made me look for gesture sensors and I discovered the ADPS 9960, it was too tempting not to order one, can't wait to receive and play with it !
I'm also now looking up these. Times like this i wished i had a workshop to manufacture things like a switch plate myself out of plexi with a gesture sensor behind with leds lighting the frosted plate up as you signal movements to the sensor.
-
@Samuel235 stop looking in my mind :) I have already some working proto though for the plate pcb ;) but I'm waiting a bit for posting vids, I have others projects to show running in vid before this one. or maybe I will show everything at same time. i don't know yet :) I miss a bit of time..
-
@Samuel235 stop looking in my mind :) I have already some working proto though for the plate pcb ;) but I'm waiting a bit for posting vids, I have others projects to show running in vid before this one. or maybe I will show everything at same time. i don't know yet :) I miss a bit of time..
@scalz said:
@Samuel235 stop looking in my mind :) I have already some working proto though for the plate pcb ;) but I'm waiting a bit for posting vids, I have others projects to show running in vid before this one. or maybe I will show everything at same time. i don't know yet :) I miss a bit of time..
Damn you! Stop stealing my aspirations! Please, just make sure you share the products with us!
-
I think if you want to reuse the livolo that won't be easy. I have one livolo, without radio and no dimmer. So it uses relay. I know about the mosfet version. I think mosfet is nice too.
I have already unpacked it and checked some electricals connection because I was thinking to hack it. But I think this is too much pain for maybe not great results.
On mine, the brain mcu is on the capacitive plate (a microchip mcu). I have not tried to access/change fw of the mcu though but I thought, well, I could do another plate and reuse relay board, easy!..but then there is the radio. Reuse the livolo one? some work, not the best perf, no state back.. Use my rfm69 radio (I prefer 868 than 433) ? I'm not sure the livolo can provide power I need etc... so it could put me on a tricky road for not great results, looking not good inside the box..
Too bad! Because my livolo is well built and I like the glass plate. I want the glass plate!! It's cheap and you have the whole enclosure.
So finally, I have a project in progress where I do everything from scratch, with glass plate and gesture, yep ;) but I don't know yet when it will be finished as I have a few other things to finish.@scalz said:
On mine, the brain mcu is on the capacitive plate (a microchip mcu). I have not tried to access/change fw of the mcu though but I thought, well, I could do another plate and reuse relay board, easy!..but then there is the radio. Reuse the livolo one? some work, not the best perf, no state back.. Use my rfm69 radio (I prefer 868 than 433) ? I'm not sure the livolo can provide power I need etc... so it could put me on a tricky road for not great results, looking not good inside the box..
Hello, I have ordered one full livolo switch, single button with no radio.
And I think I will disagree with you on this :)I've soldered some pins on the available headers (next to the 2*7 connector) and plugged a sensor on the GND and 3V pins.
The switch is still running fine, led on and I can switch the lights on and off. The sensor is running and sending data very reliably at the moment meaning even on the non-radio version of the switch the power is clean enough for NRF24 radio. This is true for both lights on and off.It might not be true when using the 4 switches version with all relays on, but this is making me very confident about the 2/3 switches version which would fill my needs.
I'm using US sized switches also, so maybe (probably) the power supply is not the same on the EU sized switches that has a maximum of 2 relays.
-
this guy did some work on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykqv4bZ9zb0 -
this guy did some work on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykqv4bZ9zb0@Cristian-Tone said:
this guy did some work on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykqv4bZ9zb0Yes I have seen it but it's a completely different concept. They reprogram the PIC on the sensor board so it will send data to a computer over serial. And last time I saw it they had to change the relays also to put 5V relays instead of 12V.
It's much cleaner to just replace the sensor board and communicate through radio... -
@Cristian-Tone said:
this guy did some work on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykqv4bZ9zb0Yes I have seen it but it's a completely different concept. They reprogram the PIC on the sensor board so it will send data to a computer over serial. And last time I saw it they had to change the relays also to put 5V relays instead of 12V.
It's much cleaner to just replace the sensor board and communicate through radio...@Nca78 Indeed, I've done some more research on this too and I agree with you, it would have been nice though. :)
