Amazon Smart Plugs

Hardware
1

Has anyone gotten one of the Amazon Smart Plugs yet, specifically the ones theyre bundling with the Echo for Black Friday? I just got one, and it works as expected, but seems to be hidden from Home Assistant, but my Linksys picks it up (EA9200 smart router - HA component picks it up right off the bat).

Anyone know if we will be able to use these directly within HA or is it gonna take some hacking?

3 Likes
2

Can you maybe share more details about the smart plug? A brand/model number? A hyperlink? A picture?

3

This one. Its Amazon’s equivilant to the Wemo plug Im guessing, seems fairly basic. I just havent cracked it open yet

1 Like
4

I saw the UK one in John Lewis yesterday. Didn’t give it much thought other than how bulky and overpriced it is compared to other generic ones you can reflash.

5

Yeah, i figured grab it on a whim, part of the black friday bundle with the echo, so it really didnt cost much to be honest.

6

Doesn’t look like any I’ve seen or used but still worth trying Tuya. That solved it for me on a Sonoff look alike that would have been difficult to reflash due to lack of pins to connect to (and I don’t do surface mounted components soldering)

7

Ill take a look into it, I didnt even think of Tuya. Thanks for that

8

As an aside, the other day on another forum I saw one guy bitching because his genuine Sonoff wouldn’t work with the Tuya app!

9

well not sure if sonoff should work with Tuya…
If it’s a sonoff it’s better to flash it with Tasmota or other to use MQTT and not have to rely on internet and some cloud in China that will spy on you…

10

That was my whole point, some people don’t know what’s good for them.

2 Likes
11

This was a $5 add-on during Black Friday.

Model No: HD34BX
FCC ID: 2ALBG-2017
IC: 23589-2017

No details (besides model number) listed here yet: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Amazon_Echo_Devices

1 Like
12

Hold the phone!!! ‘China’ knows when I turn a switch on or off… and the room OMG!!!

2 Likes
13

I’ve also bought one of those Amazon Smart plug but didn’t find anything on the web on how to configure it with home assistant. Anyone found a solution?

1 Like
14

Ive been looking into what can support it, so far Tuya doesnt pick it up unless im doing something wrong… knowing Amazon, its gonna be some propitary chip instead of something open source like an ESP8266… If one the devs could somehow pull connected amazon devices from the amazon account, similar to the amazon media player addon, that would work beautifully

15

Also, these teardown pics have surfaced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPi-iaqHxc

Revealing a WCBN4520R which is a Lite-On 802.11 USB 2.0 combo module, having a MT7618BUN chipset. But what embedded SoC/microcontroller is it connected to?

16

Anyone else tried to integrate the Amazon Smart Plug into HA?

4 Likes
17

I just bought one of these plugs on a whim since it was only $5 but am now regretting it as I don’t see any easy way to integrate this into HA without going through hoops that might not even work.

18

I use Amazon plugs with HA. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any way to directly control, so you have to do a little extra work.

Alexa allows you to trigger routines with template binary sensors that are of the ‘garage door’ type. So you create an input boolean, and then create a template sensor (type garage door) that is triggered by the input boolean. For example:

input_boolean:
  alexa_fwd_charger:
    name: "Charger"

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      - alexa_fwd_charger:
          friendly_name: "FWD-TRG-Device Charger"
          device_class: garage_door
          value_template: "{{ is_state('input_boolean.alexa_fwd_dev_charger', 'on') }}"

Now, whenever you turn on the input_boolean, the sensor/garage door opens. Same in reverse. Now, you just need to create two routines in the Alexa app. The first says that when the garage door opens, the Amazon plug turns on, and the second says when the garage door closes, the plug turns off.

Then, the plug will turn on and off as per the the input_boolean, which you can control either in HA or by voice via Alexa (since Alexa can control HA input booleans).

Finally, here is my advice about the coding names and friendly_names to use. You want a naming scheme that is easy to remember, won’t confuse Alexa, and which will keep HA and Alexa in sync (i.e., you don’t want HA believing that a device is off while Alexa believes the device is on). The best way to keep devices in sync is to only control them via the input_boolean. To accomplish this, you want the input_boolean to have the natural sounding friendly name that is easy to remember, and you want to give the binary_sensor and the Amazon plug friendly names that you would never, ever say out loud, but which are easy to recognize and remember.

So (as per my example above) if you want to control a charger that is plugged into an Amazon plug, give the input_boolean the friendly name “Charger”, the binary_sensor the friendly name “FWD Charger” (or “TRG Charger”), and in the Alexa app name the Amazon plug “Dev - Charger.” That way, when you say “turn on charger” to Alexa, it always turns on the input_boolean (and only the input_boolean), keeping everything in sync. Further, when you are in your Alexa app, you will know that devices named “Dev - xxxxx” are devices that are being controlled by input booleans, and therefore that any Alexa routines should control the input_boolean and not the “Dev - xxxxxx” devices.

Of course, this will only keep the devices in sync if they are controlled exclusively by voice (Alexa) and HA. If you also control it physically, by pressing the on button on the plug, then you need to create some additional automations.

For the HA coding names (e.g., “input_boolean.xxxxx_xxxx”), I always start the code names of Amazon plugs with “alexa_fwd” (e.g., input_boolean.alexa_fwd_charger). That way, you can group them all together in a single card on the HA Overview screen by creating monster cards that contain - entity: input_boolean.alexa_fwd*.

Hope that helps someone.

7 Likes
19

I just stumbled across an article which claimed Amazon was selling these for $1:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/amazon-just-launched-1-smart-021545111.html

I have no interest in buying an Echo or using Alexa, but if anyone has any ideas how to make these work directly with HA, I’d buy a handful of them!

20

FCC ID is the key to finding more info:

Sadly, the EUT Internal Photos link does not show ANY chip id markings on the uncapped printed circuit board. :frowning: