This time I would like to share my experience of a cheap Chinese wifi switch that i bought on Ebay for approx. 16$, plenty of sellers offer it. It is advertised to be able to operate from mobile phone via dedicated app. I was really hoping I wouldn’t need to use it for anything more than configuring connection to my home wifi:).
After receiving the package after few weeks from ordering I was really surprised how good it actually looked. The only drawback was the need to use power switch adapter – but it is not that bad since it is hidden under the switch when plugged in.
After connecting the switch to my home wifi using dedicated android app (There is a manual included). I could indeed turn the device connected on and off – it did it’s job pretty well, but that was not a main purpose I bought this device.
After a little googling I was able to connect to it via ssh.
username: root; password: p9z34c
It turned out that it is actually powered by Linux koven 3.10.26 – very nice indeed – always good to see some familiar interface. This distribution is of course very limited to fit this small device but anyway great to have another Linux device at home.
The next thing was to be able to interface the switch over some well recognized channel- like REST for example.
Here is how I did it (from linux prompt):
mkdir /www/cgi-bin chmod 755 cgi-bin
Download a cgi script from link and put it to cgi-bin directory.
After that you should be able to control the switch with using:
http://192.168.1.13/cgi-bin/relay.cgi?on
http://192.168.1.13/cgi-bin/relay.cgi?off
(replace 192.168.1.13 with the ip of your kankun)
Using this few small steps I can now utilize this switch in my home automation solution. It will be a topic of a separate post so stay tuned.
Marcin Barabasz 