It’s an unfortunate reality these days that if you see a cheap piece of consumer electronics, there’s a good chance its only cheap because it’s designed to lock you into some ecosystem where you’ll either end up paying a subscription, or worse, have your personal information sold behind your back. One of the best tools we have against these sort of anti-consumer practices is the development of open source firmware replacements that put control of the device into the hands of the community, rather than a corporation.
Now, thanks to the work of Jonathan Armstrong we have such a firmware for the 433 MHz magnetic door and window sensors that you can pick up on AliExpress for $4 USD a piece. The new firmware not only ensures you can use these sensors with a wide array of receivers, but adds a number of new features over their stock configuration.
The open source project includes some recommendations for a Sonoff bridge, flashed with Tasmota or ESPurna firmware, which allow these sensors to appear as switch entities in Home Assistant. There is also a link at the bottom to the sensor market page on AliExpress.
See
Low-Cost 433 MHz Door Sensors Get Open Firmware#
technology #
opensource #
reedswitch #
homeautomation
It’s an unfortunate reality these days that if you see a cheap piece of consumer electronics, there’s a good chance its only cheap because it’s designed to lock you into some ecos…
