Plugs and appliances — not reporting, mismatch, ineffective

Sonoff plugs on the Pi's Wi-Fi network, the appliance driver, relay mismatch and ineffective alerts, min-off confusion, and the AC / mister that have no actuator.

Safety first: if a plug, its lead or the appliance is hot to the touch, smells burnt or looks scorched, switch it off at the wall and unplug it before you check anything else, and never open a plug while it is connected to mains. Otherwise, do this first: find the plug's alert on the Alerts desk and go to its section below. It worked when the alert clears and the tile shows the appliance as expected.

The brain mirrors the hub's per-appliance demand to each Sonoff plug every 2 seconds over the ESPHome API on the Pi's own Wi-Fi network, DSC-Brain-XXXX (XXXX is unique to your card; setup shows the full name. Cards made before 9.9.0 use DSC-Brain), and forces the relay OFF when it has heard nothing from the hub for more than 45 seconds or the seat is out of service. That 45-second rule is the brain's; the plug's own grace time below is separate. The hub never talks to the plugs directly. Separately, each plug starts OFF at power-on and switches itself OFF when it has not heard from the brain for its grace time (heater 60 seconds, heat mat and humidifier 90 seconds, dehumidifier 4 minutes).

• Heater plug not reporting is critical (a heater plug that dropped off may still have its relay closed). The others are warn.
• Checks: plug powered and joined to the Pi's DSC-Brain-XXXX Wi-Fi network; the seat host in Settings › Devices resolves; the Pi's hotspot is running; the plug's API key matches (seat drawer). A plug that cannot join opens its own DSC-<name> Fallback Hotspot.
• On the fallback hotspot: use the Sonoff fallback flash script from the Pi.

The plug's reported relay state disagrees with the hub's demand. Usually a plug that rebooted and is holding its boot state, or two controllers fighting over it. Take the appliance over from its tile once, then hand it back; if it recurs, check nothing else (an app, a rule) is driving the plug.

Dehumidifier not keeping up (critical; Heater ineffective, Humidifier ineffective and Heat mat ineffective are warn) means the appliance ran and the reading did not move. Check the appliance itself: tank full, filter blocked, unplugged from the plug, wrong plug bound to the role (Settings › Devices › Assignment).

• Blue glow: min-off cooldown. Wait it out or shorten min-off under Settings › Climate (advanced).
• Amber pulse: near the arming threshold; the next tick will decide.
• Out of service by a task (tank full; the clear is held for two minutes before the appliance returns), by the Safety cut-off after a smoke, gas or CO alarm (heater and heat mat; release it under Settings › Devices › Zigbee › Safety cut-off), or by you: the tile says so.
• You have taken it over: its tile says YOURS and the brain does not drive it until you hand it back.

Cool (the AC relay) and the clone Mister are hardware on hold. Their tiles read OOS with out of service (F-001 on hold) and out of service (F-002 on hold) on purpose; nothing is broken.

Guide contents  ·  Troubleshooting  ·  Where to start  ·  Digital Stealth Care

DSC-Brain user guide · Plugs and appliances — not reporting, mismatch, ineffective · this page is edited on the site; the Notion original was retired after the mirror