I wanted to be able to turn the Chromecast connected to my AVR on and off remotely without unplugging the cable. The rationale was that I did not want to have this device active all the time, only when I want to use it. One option would be to use a dedicated power supply in combination with a wireless plug. I use such devices with the open source software Tasmota.

After some digging around I found the Sinilink USB Switch Module (XY-WFUSB), a USB thumb drive size device that is able to be flashed with Tasmota as it uses an ESP8266 as chip.

As you can see the flashing is not trivial as the pin connectors on the device are quiet small. In my collection of electronic components I managed to find some pin connector that where fitting the small holes and could be used as adapter to regular sized breadboard cables.

Another user was using sewing pins and Andreas Spiess made great video documenting the whole process that really helped me and encouraged to try this out.