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I recently learned that the LSC Smart Connect 3 door sensor is available at Action Outlets in over 600 stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Poland.
The door sensor is based on ESP8266, people bought and flashed their open source firmware, turning the device into a multi-purpose sensor device with ESPNOW protocol without going through a router.
The module inside the door sensor is called TYWE3S, and in the document on the FCC website, it is called “Tuya WiFi Module” and further mentions that “TYWE3S is a low-power module with built-in WiFi solution developed by Hangzhou Tuya Technology. Corporation.”, which is based on WiSoC ESP8266 with 1MB Flash, 50KB RAM.
One of the people in the LetsControlIt forum post linked above explained that stock firmware can be upgraded wirelessly from a Raspberry Pi 3/3+ board using a project called Tuya-Convert.
This already looks interesting, but what really caught my attention was the first paragraph in the item’s description:
The Chinese company Tuya offers everyone free ready-made branded solutions for a smart home. Taking advantage of their offer is very easy, as everything can be done by clicking on the Tuya web page, from choosing a pre-designed product or a pre-programmed Wi-Fi module (esp8266 basically) to creating your own application. Eventually, this led them to claim that over 11,000 devices were “manufactured” by over 10,000 vendors using Tuya’s firmware and cloud services.
This means that you can easily create your own branded smart home solution by simply visiting the Tuya website and clicking on the platform login button to create an account.
You can choose from a range of smart plugs, smart lighting solutions, various sensors (like the door sensor discussed above), wearables, routers, and even home appliances like air conditioners, washing machines, heaters, or toasters.
I started with a Wi-Fi smart socket branded by CNX Software, and after selecting the hardware options, the interface changed along with the design of the app…
I stopped there, sorry there won’t be any CNX Software branded devices, but we can see its 5-step process including feature definition, app UI design, hardware debugging, advanced features and mass production.
The company also claims to offer “military-grade AES and HTTPS WAN/LAN encryption”, but Michael Steigerwald, founder of the German IT security startup VTRUST, refutes this claim as messages contain unencrypted “canttouchthis” ciphers, at least that’s case in 2018. December.
So if you’re looking to launch your own brand, this seems like an easy way to get started, but you’ll probably want to handle the firmware and software parts yourself.
You can also opt out of security updates if you use them to create “your own device” so you can use tuya convert with the included firmware.
Post time: Aug-31-2022