Control Power Supplies via Wi-Fi with a Low-Cost Tasmota-Equipped Mobile Phone Remote Controller

Pete Scargill has written a hands-on guide to the low-cost Sinilink Wi-Fi-USB Mobile Phone Remote Controller, a low-cost gadget for remote control of USB power which it turns out can be considerably enhanced using the open-source Tasmota firmware.

"Today’s project for the day is the 'Sinilink WIFI-USB Mobile Phone Remote Controller' – which handles up to 5 amps and can use a USB connection of from 3.5 to 20v (I’ve only tested 5v)," Scargill writes. "Just plug the unit in, fire up the app and you are good to go? – RUBBISH. The APP can be set to English but at least one of the dialogues comes up in Chinese – which I for one cannot understand AT ALL. Not only that but I followed the instructions perfectly – only to find that the unit would not connect. No matter what I did, it would not work."

Not wanting to admit defeat, Scargill looked to flashing the on-board microcontroller with the Tasmota firmware – but there was a catch. "At this point you might be thinking just as I did: 'But how do I use an FTDI (serial adaptor) to program Tasmota into such a tiny unit,'" Scargill explains. "Maureen’s sewing box to the rescue. I must admit this is the first time I’ve thought about using PINS to make such tiny connections. I connected the FTDI to pins by simple wrapping the (thin) wire around them and then pushing (tight fit) the pins into the Sinilink.

"Honestly even though the holes on the Sinilink are so close as to make them almost impossible to focus on if you have less than excellent eyesight, the pins made this really easy. I’ll use this trick in future."

With Tasmota installed, the Sinilink tool became much more useful. "I need to buy another Sinilink or two so I still have one if I blow it up," says Scargill. "I must have more, after all this has to be the cheapest (boxed) way to remote control up to 5A of low-voltage? I’ve gone full swing from HATING the Sinilink and wanting revenge on AliExpress – to needing more of the units – NOW!"

More information on the Sinilink and installing Tasmota can be found on Scargill's blog, while Not Enough Tech has a video guide to using the Tasmotizer flashing tool on ESP8285, ESP8266, and ESP32 devices.