Review on 🔌 Universal Wireless Automation Assistant for Optimal Compatibility by Brandon Barrett

------------------ UPDATE ------------------ 2021- 07-28: Installed in early spring while working (mostly) in DIY mode. The only problem I had was that it sometimes dropped the Wi-Fi connection. The good news is that it recovers on its own in 5-10 minutes. And that with an external antenna outside the junction box. I'll have to see if it still works next winter. Then I will update this review. -------------- Original Review -------------- First of all, this device can do what it is advertised to do. Something like that. There have been many posts (outside Amazon) suggesting that the ewelink software is insecure or contains viruses. I definitely don't want to risk it, so I decided to set up the mini in DIY mode and not use the ewelink software. I'm a developer so I wanted to use the DIY mini mode exclusively. It is possible to set up WiFi in DIY mode and this can be done via the browser. But there's a catch. You have to be quick because the Mini will only be in AP mode for a short time. And you need to enter your desired SSID and password before the mini times out and exits AP mode. Once that's done, power cycle the Mini. It needs to connect to your WiFi network. Just keep in mind that DIY mode is not directly compatible with Alexa, MQTT and others. But if you choose DIY mode, sending commands to the Mini may (or may not) be a problem for you. I'm using a tool called "Postman" to test a DIY API and it works very well. Once your Mini is connected to your WiFi, you can find it using "ESP_12AB34" where "12AB34" is the last 6 digits in the Mini. MAC address. This will help you with identification in case you want to reserve an IP address for it. Overall it works as expected, but its setup is a bit disappointing due to the AP mode timeout. I've also found that the Mini gets a bit warm when not in use. At the moment I don't think that will be a problem. The real test comes after I installed it in an outdoor control box to control a PIR emitter. I'm in Chicago and the winter temperatures can be brutal. Hopefully the Mini can handle the temperatures and humidity of the Midwest. UPDATE: IMPORTANT INFORMATION! And the reason for 1 star. You CANNOT access the DIY API from a hosted page in a browser. For example, you're running a local web server (like XAMPP) and you want that page to send an API command to the Mini. It won't work at all! This is because Mini doesn't send the correct headers to make this possible. CORS is missing from the headers and there is no fix for it. The ONLY solution is to create ANOTHER API running as a node app and redirect the call to the mini API.