So the next stage of this investigation would be to tack on a RX/TX/GRD to an FTDI adapter and see if there is any debug from the ESP module. Step after that would be to flash the ESP with a known good bin file (Tasmota/ESPHome), failing that, replace the ESP sub module with a 1F replacement. - Either way, a lot of work for something that obtainable for about £12 off of ebay/Amazon Also, the current draw and temp for the ESP is about right. They do get warm when running, like any computer, the thermal energy is partially proportional to the workload it's doing...

you were holding it upside down thus letting all the electrons fall out

you can actually purchase those esp8266 modules by the reel. Its the whole stamp sized module with the board edge soldering pads. This particular plug looks to be compatible with open source firmware like tazmota or ESP-Home. You might enjoy playing around with that stuff Clive.

8266 are super easy to flash. You only need power, serial & a reset line held high during power up. Tasmota has built in flashable firmware for them. You should be able to flow the whole board off and replace it with another. You can also roll your own programs with arduino studio if you prefer. You can pick the modules up for a buck or two from many online retailers.

Thanks for also showing the failed repairs! One can often learn more technique from a failed repair with some elaborate trouble shooting than from the 10th video of Clive changing a bulged cap - although I will still watch those videos too for entertainment :)

the elephant in the room: planned obsolescence.

just wanted to say that i truely enjoy watching all your videos. its a highlight of my day in fact when im just looking to see whats going on in electrical devices today. i have a basic understanding of all the components and whats involved and i do alot of deconstructing and repairing myself when the magic smoke sometimes comes out.. so a big thank you clive and cheers to you.. have a great day!

Yes. Like others already said: hook up serial lines to see if it is alive. If so, then flash it with Tasmota. If the ESP died, you can revive the unit by transplanting a working ESP module. Or just buy a new one. If you have such devices, always flash them with Tasmota, so it can be directly controlled by your home automation software. If you'd buy a new one, you usually need to create an account at the manufacturer's web site and use the manufacturer's app in order to control it. Only then, you can integrate it into your Google or Amazon and then let all of those big tech companies harvest your data and sell it.

Great video Clive I like watching you're videos I'm an American electrician apprentice you're videos have given me great knowledge keep up the great work

It's possible the module has been bricked. A followup to this would be to hook the UART and use esptool to see if there is anyone home (esptool -p COMPORT flash_id and then chip_id). Remember that to enter programming mode where esptool would respond you need to ground GPIO0 (probably the button) at power up. Not that these things can't fail but I would guess a software brick first. If that's the case others also mentioned Tasmota and ESPHome (there is also Home Assistant Architect for HomeKit integration) if you want to play with these things. All 3 are open source firmware that don't rely to shady cloud services and third party apps to control devices remotely

One thing I dislike about modern circuit boards is the use of microcontrollers for everything. Once a controller dies or the memory gets corrupted, it can be hard to figure out what's gone wrong and debug the issue, and it doesn't help when a manufacturer scrapes the part number off, the chip is proprietary or the programming software is extremely awkward to use, or you have to pay for it.

Oddly enough, there is a chance there is nothing electronically wrong with it. I have a number of ESP8266 based switches & outlets scattered around that occasionally fail after out local power utility lets stray oddities happen. (London Hydro really needs a smack...) Every time, I've simply reflashed the firmware & brought them back to life. Not saying this is definitely what's wrong there, but worth a try before scrapping it.

Just wait until he finds out about ESP’s and LED control firmware like WLED. Thats gonna be a rabbit hole…

Great Scott just did a video on a very similar unit.The contacts in the relay were welded.

I been making these on my own with a sonoff sv, a dual circuit 5VDC relay, a push button w/light and then the outlet and box and use a cord for the plug. You can convert the sonoff to dry contact and use it to switch power on the coil for the dual relay, one circuit will turn on the light on the push button and the other will turn on the outlet. I scavenge the 5vdc from a USB power plug and minimize it as much as possible. The sonoff can be programmed as a timer or switched from your phone, or add the push button and that does the switching too. Or for other applications you could set it for inching by the half second. If you do wire in the button you can easily add in parallel a remote receiver to trigger the button and use a remote to turn on or off something maybe like a dust collection shop vac for instance or lights in a room or by a gate. Or maybe you have a few of these set up and use a 4 button remote for the pedestrian door electric strike and the overhead door and the shop lights and a vacuum. Just some things I've been playing with, I'm sure someone who understands these things better would cringe at what I've done lol. I appreciate you

No wonder it's not working - there's no WiFi cable in the WiFi socket... :D

The 8266 is easy to kill with stray voltage; anything north of 3.6v, even transient, will just fry it. Cost optimization probably didn't put enough protection on the 3.3v supply, or the back-current from the relay when turning it off managed to exceed that limit? In theory the transistor should have stopped that, but I bet a 5-cent choke would have ensured it. Otherwise, it's a really neat MC, easy to run all sorts of different kernels on it for different embedded systems, even interpreted ones like python and lua.

Looks like an esp12F module. They can pull about 140mA and get a bit warm when the wifi is running. They are very cheap, and you can flash them with ESPHome or Tasmota to restore working (and probably better) firmware for smart switches.

I had a similar smaller cube shape one that recently failed due to the ESP module. I wondered about replacing the module but ended up chucking it out due to the micro surgery involved.

I think 99% that it's in the bootloop. ESP modules often got their firmware corrupted because of bad quality power supply and just trying to boot with a failure. 32 C is nothing to that module, totally normal temperature. My ESP32 can get literally hot while work with WIFI.

Utility surge..there was one yesterday morning and the neighbor suffered a house fire. Near total loss. Reporter claimed the rain was the cause but service entry point is on the other side of the house and without damage. I installed flooring in the house 7 years ago and knew it had aluminium wiring to the dryer connection, this is also the center of the kindling point.

I spun the wheel and it says "Corrupt FLASH image, reprogram to restore operation". Those little ESP chips are wonderfully powerful and I/O configurable.

An ESP draws about 80mA of current when active with one or more sensors connected to it. The metal cover can get slightly warm which is normal. The WiFi module takes a lot of power. I have several DIY boards with them in service for a self made weather station using a Python server on my NAS recording data into a PostgreSQL database. ESP modules are pretty forgiving. I once had one connected backwards on 5V 2A power. It went really hot. But after realizing the mistake after about 10 seconds I swapped the polarity and it's since then working just fine. I think this was a manufacturing defect that manifested after QC.

I have 2 different dead ones of these laying around. Unfortunately much smaller cases, but you just triggered my „let‘s repair them“ nerve. At least I have some of the ESP12E modules already in stock.

Next to it looks like an external flash chip and ESPs use strapping lines for bootsel so if you desoldered the esp8266ex IC and replaced it with the same part you wouldn't need to bother with reflashing, just a drop-in replacement.

Can’t win them all Clive good to see someone try though thank you

Looks like it is destined for the reclaimed parts bucket - 5V supply module, usable relay to go with it - usually I see 12/24V ones in these things. I've been investigating a very similar broken device myself, power supply side good, otherwise dead connectivity. One of a set of three, which makes it more annoying.

Wonder if it's a sticky / shorted button as they normally connect it to GPIO2 or GPIO0, boot mode pin. Makes it easy for flashing the chip. A revisit with the gound and TX pins connected to FTDI or CH340 to see what mode it is in at boot and any ouput

I use a sophisticated technique that guarantees no repair will ever be a failure. What you need to do is, if at first you don't succeed, apply gross annihilative measures to the item sufficient that there is no chance it can ever be restored to its as-manufactured state. By this action you have ensured achievement of your (now modified) intended outcome and thus you have won.

Looks like a great time to make a custom function device. You have a power relay and 2 common power supply voltages. Now what too make. Sound or light control switch ? Temp control switch ? Humidity controlled switch ? Let's think outside the box. A fart detector-controlled switch. Carbon dioxide detector switch?

What I'd try would be to see if it would work to reflash the firmware of the ESP8266, using an open source project like Tasmota. It is thinkable that the flash memory chip developed a bit of bit rot, throwing the MCU into a boot loop. At least this is somewhat consistent with the symptoms, but it is also very much possible that the MCU or flash chip got some more substantial damage, but modules with ESP8266 (or the newer ESP32-C3) are easy to get and replace. The existing Wifi module looks like LM1, you can find the pinout searching for *tasmota pinout lm1* (not going to post any links).

Hopefully the exploration of the sausages in the fridge had a more satisfactory result.

The memory IC could also be the problem. Unfortunately these devices are so cheap that it doesn't really make sense to put a lot of work into it. But both components are widely available and there's a open source software for it. I've reflashed a handful of devices like that, all using the same ESP, for some I've even soldered a bigger eeprom to run larger firmware files. Also, the ESPs get pretty warm when Wifi is enabled, so this could be actually normal.

I was trying to repair a "cube" for the Cosmo robot (Anki) but decided fairly early on that the microprocessor had failed. Not much you can do from that point.

Does the EEPROM contain the firmware? If so, you could probably just yank it off and put it on another esp8266 module, thus bringing the device back to life. I've played with these modules before, but I've never actually thought about where the firmware is stored (on-chip or off-chip).

I use smart plugs for power monitoring and basic surge protection - to delay power on for some household fridges after powder returns from our daily power outages. I have one that failed during calibration, and haven't really had a good look. Ha for the inspiration in some things to try out to Clive and commenters.

Great Video Clive, One thing you didn't consider was a possibly corrupt or failed software update? You sound like are a bit disappointed when you can't repair something. I just had the same with a Dyson Hot and Cool fan I was trying to repair. Seems the motor controller IC failed, took out a few tracks, and fed back into the MCU which is now toast! I could have replaced the MCU but I don't have the code to program it. I did a video on it if you're interested.

Most unusual failuer. great video 2x👍

This is why i will NEVER buy wifi lightbulbs and other wifi enabled electronics. They almost always fail!

With microcontroller based stuff you can check more than just power supply. For example; Stuck buttons confusing the system. System held in reset by faulty power-on-reset circuit or similar. Missing enable signal(s). Missing clock signal. Etc etc

So, a couple of things may have happened, but it's likely that the program memory in the ESP12 was corrupted due to brownout (or even switching the power on & off rapidly). I've seen it happen plenty of times.

I don’t know about the 8266 version of the ESP chips, but the ESP32 version is extremely sensitive to reverse voltages at the power inputs. They go into a mode exactly as you observed where the chip just gets very hot but is otherwise dead. I discovered this after blowing up 3 in a row and then finally discovering that when my portable bench power supply was “off” it was really putting out just over a volt backwards! It wasn’t my board design as I was powering them directly and not through the onboard supply ;) I don’t know if something could have hiccuped in that power supply to have caused such a thing, but it definitely is a mode of failure for these things. It doesn’t take a lot of current either, just the 1.2v backwards with almost no current available at all was enough to blow up three of the others.

The poundland Wi-Fi smart sockets are actually very good. They have been reduced to 3£ !! The relay inside of them seems very generous 16 amp ( more bulky relay). And all the power tracks have been beefed up with copper bars, and extra solder. It has a similar esp8266 module. And it looks like you could easily flash it with tasmota. I have purchased them in the past just for spare parts. I remove the Wi-Fi module, and use the relay driver and power supply for projects.

The wifi module is probably esp12f. This module have at least 3 ways of working modes. The working mode depends of logic level in 3 gpio pins then module powered. Common issue is then gpio0 is connect to low logic level then power up. So if gpio 0 used as input or output is possible to have issue from bad transistor or bad switch. The esp8266ex don't have internal memory to storage program so is possible bad spi m3mory to cause this problem

Morning all...from one of Clives non techNOsavvy subscribers...normally have BBC Radio 4, must be pre 6am coz Farming Today just started when Big C notification pings my phone...probably be avian flu and stuff so no contest...of course it mostly went right my head but really enjoyed the 10 minutes or so and comments were most informative I'm sure...perfect timing as I did catch "Tweet of the Day"...the corncrake...coffee,WiFi enabled,BC"s dulcet tones,the corncrake's call,the 6 short 1 long beeps for 6am news...set me up for the day...from a damp south east Londonlalala!!! Gotta get move on🤛🤜❤️🤛👉👍👉💎👈👉⁉️ps...is Clive taking bribes?????????

I've been using the X-10 stuff for 35 years and have lost a few, but the rest keep going and going. I use them for the front, back, right, and left lights on my house. They get used every day. I can't find suitable replacements that have a better range and feedback to let me know they are on. I have collected a big tote of them from the Goodwill and yard sales, so I'm good for the rest of my life, lol.😅

sooty track carnage! : o D

I don't know if the pin header that's not populated is a serial connection, you could try to see if there's some sort of output on the serial connection and you can maybe reprogram the chip that way.

Hi Clive, I dabble with 8266 modules and I think that current is about right. I use wemos D1 mini's and they draw about 50-70ma they have extra circuitry to support programming etc. Has it lost its config? The comment below is a good idea!

Are we going to get a choccy and sossie culinary video soon? must be due for another episode of Cooking with Clive

Never used a switch like that, but I assume it comes with an app or built in web server for management. Perhaps button is disabled and unit is only operated from the app/browser?

They do run at about 90 ish mA when active. 130mA when talking to wifi. You can get them down with sleeps etc, but sounds like its just in a vegetative state. You can feel them usually just warm to the touch.

Chocolate cake and sausages. Never change Germany. Where's the beer though?

Those esp8266's do get a bit warm, that's looking normal to me. On my home temp monitors I need to keep the sensor away from the esp can to keep it from influencing it too much

Well, you could treat it as a development kit: Buy a replacement esp8266 board (or an esp32) and program a simple webserver to toggle the relay.

My inane thought after hearing some version of it 100 times, but this once suddenly made me laugh. How short the run-times would be if videos were created before it was actually "time to open up"!

Clive have you ever repaired wires from an electric blanket switch? My mum's packed in and I noticed the outer insulation was split on the output side of the switch. I tried to shorten and re-attach the wires into the switch, but when you strip the inner insulation, what's inside looks like some kind of plastic material like nylon string. Trying to strip that further, the whole thing just evaporates into nothing. Tried soldering them directly onto the little spades on the board, but again it just disintegrates. Any ideas?

The 8266 runs at 160mhz... amazing when I think just a few years ago if you had told somebody they would have remote control outlets with a 160mhz cpu running a mini networking chip they would have thought you were joking. Assuming the micro has died if you had happened to purchase several of these outlets initially then you could probably just dump the flash from another one and buy / program a new module.. they can be had from about $1.50 from aliexpress etc. Alternatively there is probably already some compatible code online for these. Seems like a lot of hassle though for something that costs pennies these days.

Agreed. Nothing worse than an irreparable object.

Worked with many flavors of on board wifi products. Notoriously buggy and get lost easily. Each brand has a trick for a "hard reset" that involves more than a power cycle. I wrote a 20 page white paper on this process for all our products at my last job. Reviving dead returned parts. Some of the methods were definitely non intuitive.

ESP Modules are warm to touch normally in my experience. I would say even above 31 degrees.

I bought a bunch of cheap clearance stock ESP8266 smart plugs from a charity shop last year. About half of them have failed; mostly from a dried out smoothing capacitor, where the whole aluminum shell literally popped off the top, leaving the paper and base behind. A couple, though, just turned on once and then never showed any signs of life again. I can now see why they ended up in a charity shop for £1 each, though the ones that are remaining by process of elimination seem pretty reliable.

you can buy generic radio receivers with the remote (remote + bare pcb) and stuff that in !! also maybe add a diode on the green wire to protect against reverse current from the relay

Did you use enough flux when you reflowed the pins? (In 'Louis Rossmann style'? 🙂 )

Was there too much power draw on the output pin, perhaps?

Usually when those ESP modules get hot, it means something got fried internally (usually in my case it's because I wasn't paying attention and put 5V somewhere it didn't belong, which doesn't usually work out). As other commenters have mentioned, you can get those modules pretty readily (the ESP-12F or ESP-12S have the same footprint as that one does and should drop right in). You can then flash the original firmware back onto it (if you have it), Tasmota or some other firmware via UART and be right back in business.

ESP8266 is very common for the do-it-yourself'er. Any device I buy (like wall switch, or RGB module, etc.) I make sure it comes with one of those chips, and then I just flash tasmota in to it. Very easy to flash!

those 8266 are notoriously picky about the powersupply (specially at boot) sometimes a cap works wonders

ESP chips run fairly warm and use about 100ma while idle... It's likely the SPI flash chip either died or has garbage data on it from a failed update or something. Short GPIO0 to ground, hook up TTL serial (3.3v) and see if esptool can identify the chip... If it can, tasmota time.

I'd check if the ESP is still alive and reflash with Espurna. (Mainly saying this because most people mention Tasmota & ESPHome and Espurna is quite nice, albeit not so well-known.) I run a few similar ones (OBI) with Espurna and a local MQTT server connected to Home Assistant, mainly for Illumination and automated coffee/tea making in the morning. 😉

Re flash it Clive,would be a good video as well.

The row of vias next to the (esp8266?) module looks like a programming (serial?) port for the µC.

I think it's normal for these to get a bit of heat, I get the same from the wifi module on my esp32 board.

I seen a opportunity right there to find out if German sausages are compatible with the American hot dog electrocution device.

I recommend watching the Great Scott video about making a diy wifi socket to anybody who can't deal with them dying all the time.

Verdict: Nobody's home!

If you could find another wifi chip, maybe you could replace it, my guess would be that the firmware is in that SPI flash chip, and if you find another complete module, you could try replacing it, and then replacing the flash module in it for the older module. But that is assuming the issue is with the wifi chip, and not the storage.

Hi Clive, any chance of making a tutorial for electric circuit studio?

FM25Q08 is 8M-bit serial flash memory.

I have a relatively cheap set of RF-but-not-wifi remote control plugs. I want to remove the rf receiver and replace it with an ESP32-S3 or a raspberry pi zero. The interface between the RC RF module and the internal microcontroller seems to have some mind of protocol, not just pull high/pull low. I suspect it uses high-to-low and low-to-high transistions to turn off and on, but I haven't had the motivation to scope it or just test it out, mostly because my bench is a mess but I won't work with AC until my workplace is uncluttered.

And this is why I dislike the electronic disposable world we're heading towards. I wanna be able to repair things I own, dammit.

I think the esp chip is faulty, the LED on it was constantly lit with a faint glow in the video, sometimes that LED act like this when it's en pin is constantly hold down to gnd but most of the time is it's a sign of failure or wrong boot mode. A working esp in a good operation mode blink on startup. Usually two things happen about these modules, either the program on the spi chip will get corrupted by external causes like power failure or the esp chip go bad, considering the esp getting hot it might be this but even if the esp has failed you can still repair this product. The whole program on these modules is on the spi flash chip, even if the esp has failed most likely the spi program is intact. If the esp chip is faulty you can either repalce the esp chip (qfn package might be to small for some people) or you can change the whole module and put the old spi chip into new module then whole thing comes back to life with it's original program. No programming needed at all. If the spi is corrupted programming is required of course. Either way it all depends on how much time and effort are you willing to spend on repairing something like this.

Hello Clive, I've been a fan for a while now and I was wondering if you took commissions for teardown and possible repair videos ?, You see the central heating / hot water clock stopped working correctly in my parents house around Christmas 2021, It started cutting out and requiring to slide the switch from "Constant" to "Off" and back to "Constant" in order to get the red light back on and have the heating running again. During investigations we took the clock off its holder on the wall and we discovered black smears (burn ?) over the rear PCB that presses against the contacts in its holder, Something we later discovered is that if you have both central heating and hot water switched on at the same time something buggers up and causes it to switch off or trip out but if you only have one on at a time (water or heating) it seems to work okay which is rather odd. Its a Honeywell st699b1002 a model fitted in UK houses around the 1990s and it seems everyone's clocks are failing as of late and unfortunately this model of clock is no longer in production as it is "No Longer Up To Code Of Modern Standards", And what's even more unfortunate its not a straight swap for a modern clock because the wiring is different so you'd have to get someone cutting your walls and pulling up floorboards in order to wire the new clock and we got a quote for this being £700, As quite a lot of houses have this model of clock and getting a new one fitted is a big expensive job people have been buying ones that are still working on eBay to do a straight swap with their own faulty one and this of course has been noticed by scalpers and lots of companies and individuals are selling these clocks new and used for around £300+, We were fortunate in being able to find one at £90 which doesn't look bad at all and works perfectly. Would you be interested in me posting you this Honeywell to do a teardown and repair and be able to advise people on repairs or faults that can be rectified ? My Dads current plan is to keep it as a spare in case the one that's fitted duffs up because at least this one "Half Works" I genuinely wouldn't be offended if you're not remotely interested :) Thanks!

You could turn it into an ionizer now ❤️

You can test the esp module - desolder it from the carrier board, you can replace it with esp12 module from aliexpress for under $2 and flash it with open source Tasmota firmware. The one thing that usually goes wrong is not the module, but the reset, enable and gpio0 pins. Might be worth to just solder rx/tx and check if/what the boot output is. But yeah - the price of such device is laughably small, not worth the time probably...

super save death-daper in the Hopi ... you should order some German "Schuko Kupplung"

Try reflashing the esp. Could be the spi flash that's gone, or just got corrupted.

I don't see well, but is there a flyback diode to protect the mosfet and esp from the coil spikes?

i have a nice failed device right now it is the charger for my 3+ cruze hybrid smart watch i put the watch on it and the next morning i could smell the magic smoke opened it up and there is a hole blown in an IC and the surrounding caps are all reading dead short and a resistor is open would love to send a picture of it to ya but dont know where to send it if you want it

Hey Clive can you or will you be replacing the ESP chip board

I didn't see the mandatory smell test of the circuit... Could be that it just smells funny!

A very good Tuesday morning to you all from Wellington Somerset

Very Good concentration of content! Quite happy to see you succeeding. Tempo is good. Technical iteration is great, Verbal commentary is engaging, Content is technical Very Good concentration of content! Quite happy to see you succeeding. Tempo is good. Technical iteration is great, Verbal commentary is engaging, If I was still worcing I would be directing associates to your content.

I've had one with the same kind of failure, re-flashing was enough to bring it back to life

A replacement ESP8266 module is only a couple of bucks. If flashed with ESPHome it would make a fine little smart socket again.

BMW and mercedes have been trying to achieve this also.... Unrepairable by humans 😁👍

Those boards have flash sotrage that can easily corrupt. If the esp is getting too hot its fried! Get a new esp module or tywe3s (tuya module, likely the module thats inside) maybe desolder the flash of the dead module and put it on the new esp module

change the esp module and it will work again so yes its repairable!

I’ve had a few of the cheapy ESP8266 modules dying just… because? RIP module

Huh, I didn't expect an ESP8266 in there. That's quite the common wifi-enabled microcontroller. Mostly replaced by the ESP32 these days, but people still like the 8266.