Monthly Archive: October 2013

We’ve had the pump running on a timer but that’s pretty inefficient and inconvenient when we want hot water during the hours the pump isn’t running. I bought this little unit and had it running within 5 minutes. I downloaded the Android ap and even though its still in Beta it functioned just fine. It took a couple tries to get it right, but was really easy/intuitive. Now I can turn the pump on/off from my smart phone, even when i’m not on WIFI (as long as I have data connection on my phone). I’d recommend this device for anybody who needs power automation from their phone! It’s genius!!

After opening it we immediately started using it… we were going on vaction the next day. Works fantastic and exactly as it’s advertised! My ONLY complaint about it is, it won’t turn ON manually if you previously turned it off via WeMo. And if you turned it off manually then it won’t turn on via WeMo.

For example: I pull up in my driveway, take out my phone and turn on the livingroom lamp via WeMo before entering the house. (Awesome!! I get to enter a lit room.) When getting ready for bed and charge my phone, I turn off the living room lamp via WeMo. (Wonderful!! I didn’t have to walk across the house to turn off the light.) I forget something in my purse that is on the table by the front door, walk over and try to turn on the light so that I can see inside my purse. (Crap! The light doesn’t turn on because I turned it OFF remotely via WeMo.)

I love this product and plan to get a few more for other electronics and/or appliances in the house.

The range is great, I plugged several in around the house and was able to control all of them from anywhere in my house (though it’s a fairly small house). The switches on the front allow you to switch on and off each outlet without the remote, and the status LED’s show power and whether the outlet is on or off. One thing I find a little disappointing (the reason I didn’t give 5 stars) is that the switches are toggle switches. Each button has only one switch under it (I took the remote apart to sniff the protocol). This means you can’t send ON or OFF, only able to switch between ON/OFF with one button. If you want to be able to switch devices without being able to see them (for instance, turning off an attic fan or outdoor light) get a different kit. I have yet to determine whether or not there is ON/OFF built into the protocol that the remote doesn’t expose to the user.

As mentioned before, I took the remote apart and probed the radio output with my oscilloscope. The transmitter is a 433MHz unit and could probably be mimicked with a generic 433MHz transmitter unit from SparkFun (have one on order, will test it and post results). The protocol seems simple enough, but I haven’t got a transmitter to reproduce it with. Should be very simple to implement with an AVR microcontroller. My goal with this is to control these outlets from my PC, but without toggle it could become a problem.

I also hooked one to the stereo so that if I’m streaming wifi radio on my iPad but want to hear it though the home sound system I just click. No need to go downstairs and turn on the system.

I have to admit though that I’ve had the most fun surprising people… I no where near the light or blender but there it goes! Maybe I’ll put one on my rice cooker next. Touch my iPad when I leave work and fresh cooked rice ten minutes after I get home. The possibilities are endless. Next they need one to hook up to a wall plate so I can turn on the whole house fan from downstairs.

Set up only took a couple of minutes. Very easy and intuitive.

Belkin has provided a good entry level product with a well programmed iPhone App; if they could toss in an Android based app they could attract a wider customer base.

The WiFi is easy to set up and works well from both within your home WiFi zone and remotely. There is a bit of a response delay when tapping on the power button in the app or when searching for the switch (when the app starts) however this could also be that I’m using an iPhone 4 so possibly a 4S or 5 might be a bit snappier on the uptake.

The new firmware updates allow upgrading the switch remotely as well, although if you are expecting to control something critical I wouldn’t do that unless you’re having problems – hence the motto “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. If you’re traveling just wait til you get home. When I did my upgrade the switch it’s lost connection and had to be manually rebooted although this was prior to the announcement of remote firmware updates.

There are no forwarding rules required on your home router in order to control it from outside your home network – yet another plus especially for the technically challenged.

Construction is solid and doesn’t have that plasticky, hollow, flimsy cheap feel to it vs some of the other questionable brands out there; I’d definitely buy another one of these if I found a need for it.

My only big frowny face would be the cost. $50 for a single control outlet is a bit steep but that’s the price your pay for tech gadgetry that’s on or near the bleeding edge of development, right?

I did try it and have to say I could not be happier.

Setting up was very easy, connecting the switch to our WAP/2 network was no problem and within 10minutes it worked perfectly.I love ITTT-integration and look forward to more units.

I have the app on my iphone and it was super easy to set up and use right away. i have had friends be at my place while i was across town and it worked perfect. you can set it up as a timer or you can just turn it on. A must if you are gone a lot and have wifi!