{"NAME":"NOUS A5T","GPIO":[0,3072,544,3104,0,259,0,0,225,226,224,0,35,4704],"FLAG":1,"BASE":18}

{"NAME":"NOUS A5T","GPIO":[0,145,157,146,0,32,0,0,22,23,21,0,17],"FLAG":1,"BASE":18}

This device comes with Tasmota already installed!

For more accurate energy consumption measurements this device requires power monitoring calibration.

Updating to a new Tasmota version

The product may come with a Tasmota build that is either outdated or may even not work properly in all aspects.

The following problems have e.g. been reported for a product coming with Tasmota 10.1.0, and disappeared after having updated to Tasmota 12.0.2:

• the information screen was empty
• the template configuration screen showed no configuration data
• the console stayed empty

If the firmware upate screen offers an update URL fo an Over-The-air (OTA) Update, an update to the newest version of Tasmota should be possible. Make sure to upload tasmota.bin.gz

According to a statement of the product support an upgrade to a new version is part of the product concept and the product is still covered by the manufacturers and vendors warranty.

See also:

• Tasmota Wiki: Upgrading

Flash using serial interface

The same product is also sold under different brands without tasmota preinstalled. The OEM for these power strips is ShenZhen CUCO Smart Technology Co., LTD. To flash tasmota using the serial cable you first need to remove the back of the product. To do so pop out the rubber pads on the back to uncover all six screws. Unscrew the screws using a triangle head screwdriver. After that it is possible to pry out the back using a small flat screwdriver.

The power strip usually uses a CUCO_Z0_V1.1 ESP8266. The serial pins and the GPIO100 pin are all labeled on the PCB, if not you can find a picture here.

See also:

• Tasmota Wiki: Hardware Preperation
• Tasmota Wiki: Flashing

Experiencing problems with the power outlet buttons

Some users experienced one of or both of the following problems with the buttons for each of the power outlets:

• when pressing the button for outlet 2, sometimes power for outlet 1 is toggled instead
• when pressing the button for outlet 3, sometimes power for outlet 1 or outlet 2 is toggled instead, sometimes even for outlet 1 and 2 together
• rarely the power for an outlet is being toggled without that the respective button had been pressed

The problem cause

The three buttons for the power outlets are all connected to the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of the ESP chip, each with a resistor of different value. When being pressed, each button delivers a different voltage to the ADC. By querying a percentage value of the voltage detection range, Rule2 determines which button has been pressed.

Unfortunately, the ADC can detect voltage differences only in a very small range of 1V. Even if newer ESP models accept up to 3,3 Volts, it is being scaled down to a maximum of 1V by a built-in voltage divider. Moreover, with about each 100ms the ADC is being read very frequently by Tasmota, which may sometimes cause reading additional and misleading voltage values from the moment when a button gets pressed or released.

Both issues may make this method of button detection very sensible to one of the following problems that may occur from time to time:

• receiving voltage values do not match the pressed button, may result in toggling power for the wrong power outlet and/or
• inference from other power cables or electronic devices may result in the simulation of a button press

Workarounds with standard Tasmota build

Disable buttons

With a standard build of Tasmota (tasmota.bin) like the preinstalled one, you can work around both problems by disabling the buttons for the power outlets, while the main button still will be able to toggle power for the USB ports.

For this, execute the following command in the console:

Rule2 0

After that power for the outlets can only be toggled remotely by the web interface or with respective MQTT commands.

In order to revert to the original configuration, execute the following command in the console:

Rule2 1

If you only experience power toggles without having pressed a button, in order to avoid interference, you may want to try to find a place for the power strip where no other power cables or electronic devices are very near to it.

Create multiple rules with better threshold values

You can also try to read back the values of the ADC using the webinterface and create rules with custom thresholds that match your values:

Rule1 on analog#a0<250 DO Power3 2 ENDON
Rule1 1

Rule2  on analog#a0<450 do break ON analog#a0<500 DO Power2 2 ENDON
Rule2 1

Rule3 on analog#a0<750 do break ON analog#a0<800 DO Power1 2 ENDON
Rule3 1

To disable these custom rules use:

Rule1 0
Rule2 0
Rule3 0

Workaround with custom Tasmota build

With a custom Tasmota build, you can use Tasmota Script to safely support all buttons and minmize impact by interferences.

The main improvement is that with a script it is possible to read the ADC value not every 100ms, but only every second instead. This prevents from reading additional and/or misleading voltage values.

See the section on custom builds below for information on how to create your own custom Tasmota build with script engine.

In order to achive about the original functionality for all buttons, the following is neccessary when using a custom build with Tasmota Script:

• a Tasmota Script has to be configured an activated (see below), and
• the main button needs to be decoupled from controlling power outputs by once executing the command SetOption73 1 in the console. By this the main button only generates MQTT events, which in turn are being processed by the script.

With that configuration,

• the main power button, as usual, just toggles power fo the USB ports.
• the buttons for the power outlets work a littlebit different:
  • they need to be pressed up to a second, until the relay click can be heard, safely toggling power for the correct outlet
  • after release of a button having just toggled power, the very same button can only be used some splits of a second later

Configure and activate the following Tasmota script for Nous A5T Power Strip:

>D
adc=0
btnact="NONE"
lastbtn=0

; catch button action
>E
btnact=Button1#Action

; loop every 100ms
>F
if (btnact=="SINGLE") {
  btnact="NONE"
  ->Power4 2
}

; loop every second
>S
adc=adc(1)
if (adc<1024) {
  if (adc>613 and lastbtn!=1) {
    ->Power1 2
    lastbtn=1
  }
  if (adc<=613 and adc>353 and lastbtn!=2) {
    ->Power2 2
    lastbtn=2
  }
  if (adc<=353 and lastbtn!=3) {
    ->Power3 2
    lastbtn=3
  }
} else {
  lastbtn=0
}

Creating a custom Tasmota build with Script Engine

For details on creating a custom build see

• Tasmota Wiki: Compiling your build

In order to activate the script engine,

• the rules engine has to be deactivated and
• the script engine has to be activated.

When compiling the firmware directly from the source code, for that the following configuration change has to be applied to tasmota\my_user_config.h: in the section Rules or Script

1) comment out the definition of the symbol for including the rules engine:

        // #define USE_RULES

2) remove comment characters before the definition of the symbol for including the script engine:

        #define USE_SCRIPT

If using other build methods like e.g. GitPod or TasmoCompiler, you have to take equivalent actions.