One other Athom Day – Scargill’s Tech Weblog

I all the time get excited when a bundle arrives from Athom. Final time it was numerous ESP-HOME-compatible lamps and I’d beforehand had some Tasmota-pre-programmed bulbs from them – which now gentle up my front room and workplace. I’m not so acquainted nevertheless with their basic smart-home merchandise, therefore I used to be excited to obtain a few their mannequin PG04V2-AU 16A UK sensible plugs (I received that from the again of the plug – the gorgeous field was a bit imprecise on particulars aside from to say the plugs are 2.4G WiFi).

Certainly at this level I’ve NO thought what’s inside them… Oh, besides that the directions state “Tasmota” – that’s begin.

So, straight out of the field I plugged one among these into the mains right here in Spain, in a UK extension – really I plugged two in and was a tad disenchanted to seek out that regardless of their small measurement I may nonetheless not match two facet by facet – simply a few mm smaller they usually’d have nailed it… that and placing the on-off management on the highest, not the facet. After all I’m assuming that every one of my UK extensions have the identical spacing right here – I might be incorrect. I all the time appear, with Sensible Plugs, ending up each different out there socket empty.

Okay, received one plugged into the wall and a standard plug proper subsequent to it – that’ll do me (see proper). There’s a lightweight on the (left) facet button alternating 0.5 secs every approach) purple and crimson – very fairly… I’m guessing at this level, all I’ve to do is have my cellphone discover a WiFi entry level beginning in “Tasmota…”

Appropriate – so my Android cellphone (I may have used my PC or an Apple cellphone) sees the entry level…and from reminiscence if I level my net browser at 192.168.4.1 – YEP – up pops the online interface.

Time to fill within the particulars of one among my 2.4Ghz WiFi entry factors (i.e. SSID and password). Achieved. My cellphone connects again to the conventional WiFi however not earlier than telling me the handle of the Tasmota’d plug on the community (beneath proper in blue).

Certain sufficient – at this level I may simply cease – however being Tasmota firmware-driven – I can now discover that IP handle on my community and do issues like change the title of the sensible plug, add an MQTT hyperlink and all the opposite issues you are able to do with Tasmota with ease.

So now, my PC browser, pointing on the handle above-right – exhibits me the Tasmota management panel for that swap and I am going into configuration and alter the title to “uk-athom-1” (my alternative) then below configuration – different make the title and pleasant title “uk-athom-1”.

That simply leaves me two issues to do – add within the MQTT credentials and handle for my house management (this might not be wanted if you happen to simply wish to yse the WEB UI to manage the plug) and as I all the time do (some day I’ll remorse this) – replace the firmware (I don’t suggest the latter except you’re conversant in Tasmota firmware updates – it’s trivial to do however there’s all the time the possibility of messing up)..

Nicely, all of it labored. I’m completely satisfied. And I’d not fairly twigged however these sensible plugs are usually not solely 16A however are power-monitoring as properly. That view just under exhibits my new socket in one among my favorite instruments on the PC for Tasmota – TDM – Tasmota System Supervisor – alongside a may of different sensible sockets..

And as if my magic – the brand new plug, having retained all it’s settings – is now working the newest model of Tasmota (the event model in my case – on September 23, 2022 being v12.1.1.2). I’m completely satisfied. In case you’ve gotten this far, I assume you recognize all in regards to the free, open-source firmware Tasmota – so good that a while in the past I ended growing my very own ESP8266 software program – speaking of which – as indicated within the Tasmota INFORMATION web page, these switches are certainly working ESP8266EX chips (with 2MB of obtainable FLASH), proving there may be life within the outdated canine but – certainly numerous the controllers I’ve make the most of the ESP8266 chip – fortunately I didn’t should open up the plug to examine this as it’s all detailed within the INFORMATION panel.

All this time, the crimson gentle on the facet swap was on – I hit TOGGLE on the internet interface and positive sufficient, the sunshine went off.

And at last for this part on the brand new Athom plugs, I plugged in my spouse’s hair drier, turned it on – and fairly rapidly..

You may see within the picture on the precise, the voltage, energy consumption, amps and general power used in the present day..

I’m assuming the facility monitoring can have been arrange precisely as, at the very least in response to Athom’s AliExpress advert, the built-in HLW8032 consumption monitoring chipset wants NO calibration. That’s a plus. Reasonably than give AliExpress a straightforward plug, I’ll level you right here on to Athom’s web site.

Subsequent I’ll try the no-neutral mains gentle swap that arrived, together with the LED gentle strip controller (which comes with leads and a screwdriver, works on 5-24v and has a most of 16A output) – however first – some purchasing. The controller, in contrast to these I’ve tackled earlier than, handles Serial RGB strip of the facility, floor and serial selection in addition to these with separate clock and knowledge. Extra on this later. I hope you loved the above data on the Athom sensible plugs.

One final thing, I went into configuration – different and ticked “emulation – belkin WeMo” – appears like “UK-ATHOM-1” wasn’t the only option of names…. so in “pleasant title” I’m now attempting “my spare plug”.

THAT WORKED!! “Alexa, activate my spare plug”.

The Second Day

I received up early this morning and determined to push my luck with the second Sthom plug. I known as this one “UK-ATHOM-2” and “