Recently I bought a backlit movie poster frame, but it does not have a switch. Rather than having to plug it in and unplug it, I thought it would be good to get a remote switch. Years ago I bought a surge protector with a remote so that I could turn off my surround sound receiver which seemed like it used a lot of power regardless of whether it was on or off. The remote was just a battery powered switch, on or off, but it could be mounted to a wall. I mounted it under my coffee table in front of the TV so it would be invisible, but readily available. It didn’t work out that great (didn’t always make a connection and, mounted upside down it would sometimes fall to the floor when I tried to use it). They still make similar switches and a friend of mine just got one to remotely control a string of lights that plugs into a socket that is hard to reach. I was thinking about getting something like that, but looked for alternatives that didn’t use a special battery (this one uses an A23 battery that looks like a small AAA battery, but on the inside consists of 8 1.5V button cells stacked to give 12 volts) and would be more reliable.
I came across “smart plugs” (the ones I bought are no longer available at Amazon, but were an offbrand of these by Gosund) which you plug into an outlet and then plug the device into the smart plug, which has a switch that is operated over wifi. Because it uses wifi, you can control it from a computer or your phone. In fact, there is an app that works with an internet server, so you can then program the switch to be on a timer. Because it is controlled by the server, once you set it up, the phone doesn’t even need to be on. I didn’t need a timer for the poster frame, but I have a few lights on timers already. You can also just use the app to just turn a device on or off from the phone. And the app works with the Google Home app on the phone which in turn works with Google Assistant, so that you can set up a voice command “Hey Google, turn off the poster.” The plugs were running about $8 on Amazon. I looked on some of the Chinese supplier websites and found identical looking one for about $6 shipped. With continued searching I found a 4-pack on Amazon for $20, bringing the price down to $5 each, about the same as the most basic timers switches, so I got a set, figuring I could use one for the poster frame, one for a light near the TV that I like to turn off when watching a movie, and maybe for one of my other lamps on timers. From the description it might even be possible to program a lamp to come on at sunset, which varies throughout the year depending on your location. I have a couple of solar timers on my outdoor lights that do this reasonably well, though not perfectly since they don’t use my exact location and lose a couple of minutes per month.
I got the smart plugs using a $25 credit I had earned from logging clean commutes at work and I am on a free trial of Amazon Prime, so they arrived in a couple of days. Reading more about the plugs online, some people didn’t trust them because the app and plug need access to your wifi network and then stores that on a server run by a Chinese company that makes the app. You can get around that by using or setting up a guest wifi network so that you aren’t exposing your computers to hacking. One limitation is that you have to provide a 2.4 GHz wifi network rather than a 5 GHz one. My router can do either one, so I set up a 2.4 GHz guest network (in addition to a 2.4 GHz private network and a 5 GHz private network for devices that support that, so a lot of wifi in my house). There is a project to run devices from a private network in your home so that you don’t have to rely on an external server and some smart plugs can be re-programmed to do that, but then you have to have a computer running 24/7 to control the plugs, so I didn’t pursue that since I felt pretty safe using my guest network.
The smart plugs are based on a technology initiative called the “internet of things,” which I think is one reason there are similar devices that all run the same way using the same or similar apps. The internet of things goes way beyond smart plugs and can run home automation, security systems, appliances, etc. Then there is something else called IFTTT which stands for “if this then that” that works on top of the internet of things to set up conditions and actions automatically. The smart plug app I am using, Smart Home, used to support IFTTT, but since it is a free app and the IFTTT people wanted a licensing fee, Smart Home dropped support for that. There were a lot of negative reviews where people complained about no longer supporting IFTTT.
The app is actually pretty polished and easy to use. You can initiate the plugs by holding down the power button on the plug and then using the app while on the guest network to detect the plug. Then you can name the plug and assign it to a room of your house. Then you can set up timers for each device or a timer that controls multiple devices (like all lights off at midnight). And, yes, if you enter the location of your house, you can set up timers based on sunrise and sunset. So I tried that and, long story short, I got a little success the first time I would run it, but then it never worked on subsequent days. Tried lots of things including resets, a Tuya Smart app instead of Smart Home (seems to be a re-branded version of the same app), and doing the same thing over with the same result. Because the whole thing is kind of complex, I am not sure if the problem is the smart plug, the app, or the server that ultimately controls the smart plug. I don’t think the plug is actually that smart (just listens for a signal to turn on or off), so I suspect the app or the server. Hopefully they can fix that someday. In the meantime, after giving up on having the lamps come on 30 minutes before sunset, I just set them for 8:15 PM and can change that every few months as the seasons change.
Since I had four plugs and I only needed 3 (if that), I thought I would give one to Jeb to play around with (which he ended up paying me for). He knew immediately where he would use it. The nice thing about it is even if you just use the timer function, you don’t have to worry about power outages stopping the timer and messing it up. And it doesn’t lose time because it is getting the current time from the internet. Jeb got his set up within an hour or so of me leaving his house and soon ordered four more of his own.
The plug is so small that it seems like it could easily be set up as a wall switch for my exterior lights that are on their solar timers, but for whatever reason wall switches run about $15 which is more than I want to pay since my current timers work okay.
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