Yeah, all 4 of my first gen Kogan ones fried within a few months of each other. They were rubbish. The Athom ones that I’ve had now have been going strong for 2-3 years.
One thing I noticed with all the wifi smart plugs I’ve used is that they run hot. Can’t be good for MTBF.
The zigbee smart plugs are barely warmer than ambient.
That very much depends on the fridge. Old ones are not great but modern inverter units with soft start don’t pull much inrush current.
Stupid thing is the remaining frail Athom plugs I still have operating are for the two fridges, the dishwasher and heat pump clothes dryer.
Thanks. I’ll give the replacement plug from OzSmartThings are go when it arrives.
I’m coming to the conclusion that none of these plugs are sufficiently robust for monitoring the sort of devices we’d actually like to monitor.
Although those aren’t Aus certified as far as I know.
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I wonder what you could host in this if you got creative? Mmwave etc…
Although I guess with off the shell options being so cheap and cheerful there’s maybe not as much motivation. (Like this)
I had this idea but never progressed it. And there’s some smaller Shelly’s these days too (not sure if they’re certified).
I know, although I did not at the time of purchase. The ones which failed, and that was enough to never buy again (I documented most of it in the Athom plug thread), at least failed in a non dangerous manner, so I’ve left the remaining ones in service until I need to replace, or decide not to bother replacing.
Yeah but unfortunately while a lot of us are likely quite capable of doing the wiring, we are not permitted to.
I did buy a couple of Shellys to go into the laundry GPOs when the laundry renovation was done but the sparky forgot and the cost of a return trip isn’t worth it.
That said, I’m really trying to avoid more Wi-Fi devices, would prefer to stick with Zigbee.
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Not fine from a legal sense though. This is where the issue of insurance liability comes in to play in the event of a fire etc.
Actually the red is unswitched active and the white is the switched active. White is definitely not neutral. (this is why electricians should be used!)
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Red is UN-switched active. ie: Always live.
In Australia we only use the brown, blue, green/yellow for appliance leads / extension leads etc. House / building wiring is still all red, black green/yellow.
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You should not be using blue and brown for DC. This could confuse someone into thinking it is AC.
Please just stop doing your own electrical work and get a professional.
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I second this.
Given this thread is supposed to be about ‘certified’ hardware that should include ‘certified’ (read legal) installation.
I really worry when I read comments like that
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I got an email invitation to pre-order ESP32-C3 AU Plug for ESPHome.
Their yaml says board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1, flash_size: 4MB, variant: ESP32C3 and a CSE7766 for energy monitoring.
– power button on the side
– no idea what capacitor they use, or how long they will last
– Aust Certification not mentioned
– $11.96 special price is probably US$ + postage, so more than the Aus$15 for Arlec
– would prefer Zigbee over wi-fi
++ already have ESPHome installed, but that’s easy with Arlec and cloudcutter anyway
I will give their “special promotion” a miss.
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Looks like approval went through this week, including the Gen3: ERAC National Certification Database - SAA231948
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Their forum was littered with failure/ reliability complaints with earlier versions so they’ve had more than enough time to try to address issues.
I’d like to hope that since they are targeting the DIY crowd they are working on quality aspects and not just (the admittedly attractive) price point.
Their marketing is basically “intentionally deceptive” on the certification front IMO. A lot of people don’t realise they’re buying an uncertified product (since they even ship from AU).
The Arlecs have better form factor and price + certification. Similar crap-factor risks IMO. So Arlec wins ATM for me.
Not really HA related
But I’m on the hunt for some double GPO’s which have PD usb-c charging for phones/laptops etc (non smart GPO’s)
I have found these which are 30w (unsure about Oz certification), but wondering if anyone has found anything else (with higher wattage)
White Double Pole Double GPO Power Point Socket w/ 2 x USB C PD30W (auselectronicsdirect.com.au)
Hopefully this is still useful, been a while since I check back here… 
Here’s the GPIO mapping I’ve used:
I did manage to flash the module in-place without removing any of the components, had to get creative with some wires and soldering iron however:
Recommend me air con brands / models?
I’m in very early stages of contemplating upgrading my 2-bedroom apartments AC system (about 13 years old and there’s only a head unit in the living room and the master bedroom can get hot in summer).
I just learnt that Multi Head Split Systems are a thing and seem like a good fit since I want multi room heating / cooling and want a small footprint of the outdoor unit (pretty small balcony).
Can anyone offer any tips / recommendations in terms of reliable and value for money brands or models that might fit the bill and of course enable all of our HA hopes and dreams (local control etc)?
Did a quick forum search but it didn’t show up much so I thought I’d try harrassing you all here;) Thank you!
Edit: Good things about Daikin are popping up a bit? Maybe this one.
My recommendation is to ignore the “smarts” side of things and get the most energy efficient, reliable model you can. For me at the time it was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries splits. To make them smart, I grabbed a Broadlink IR blaster, installed the SmartIR custom component (which turns a climate entity into discrete IR commands to send to a blaster), added a contact sensor to the vanes to act as a “power” indicator and was done. Have been very happy with the result for a few years now.
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