It’s mounted in a plastic junction box below the metal meter box. I have an outdoor AP only 3m away so the signal strength is excellent.
Mine did not. I am using the stock firmware, local control via mqtt and restful.
Nope.
I had a Kogan plug (without USB) failing just yesterday. Connected to my fridge, but pushover notification told me within 5 minutes. This plug was just 1 year old. I opened it up but couldn’t see anything suspicious - no burn marks or anything like that.
What’s the failure mode?
Just drops off the network?
Have you tried connecting via a wired connection and USB serial dongle to see if there are errors in the ESPHome logger?
Yes, initially dropped off the network continuously - disconnected, reconnected after a couple of seconds, disconnected after a few seconds, etc.
At some point HA connection was lost for more then 5 minutes which caused my device fail alarm to trigger the notification. At this point, power to the fridge was still fine, but was then lost after another 5-10 minutes.
After a couple of hours on the bench I plugged the plug back in without the fridge and just heard a constant clicking from the relay and a soft buzzing sound.
Not yet, maybe I’ll try that tomorrow…
I was thinking something like this to monitor power just uses CT clamps and has a wireless hub.
Happened to one of my Kogan plugs too, was connected to the pump.
Other 3 are still going ok.
constant clicking from the relay and a soft buzzing sound.
same here.
Alright, connected via serial adapter today. It appears to be logging continuous restarts and stacktraces, but certainly not a proper ESPHome log.
...
[18:12:30] ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:1, boot mode:(3,7)
[18:12:30]
[18:12:30]load 0x4010f000, len 1384, room 16
[18:12:30]tail 8
[18:12:30]chksum 0x2d
[18:12:30]csum 0x2d
[18:12:30]v8b899c12
[18:12:30]~ld
[18:12:30]
[18:12:30]Exception (0):
WARNING Exception type: unknown
[18:12:30]epc1=0x4025e1c0 epc2=0x00000000 epc3=0x00000000 excvaddr=0x0000027f depc=0x00000000
WARNING Decoded 0x4025e1c0: cal_rf_ana_gain
[18:12:30]
[18:12:30]>>>stack>>>
WARNING Found stack trace! Trying to decode it
[18:12:30]
[18:12:30]ctx: sys
[18:12:30]sp: 3fffe770 end: 3fffffb0 offset: 01a0
[18:12:30]3fffe910: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000032
[18:12:30]3fffe920: 4025e27c 00000028 00000001 00000000
WARNING Decoded 0x4025e27c: meas_tone_pwr_db
...
Bugger. Tried re-flashing it?
Yeah, a couple of times but that was unsuccessful:
INFO Running: esptool.py --before default_reset --after hard_reset --baud 460800 --chip esp8266 --port /dev/cu.usbserial-AI03T35M write_flash 0x0 esp_14_plug_fridge/.pioenvs/esp_14_plug_fridge/firmware.bin
esptool.py v2.8
Serial port /dev/cu.usbserial-AI03T35M
Connecting........_____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____
A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP8266: Invalid head of packet (0x66)
INFO Upload with baud rate 460800 failed. Trying again with baud rate 115200.
INFO Running: esptool.py --before default_reset --after hard_reset --baud 115200 --chip esp8266 --port /dev/cu.usbserial-AI03T35M write_flash 0x0 esp_14_plug_fridge/.pioenvs/esp_14_plug_fridge/firmware.bin
esptool.py v2.8
Serial port /dev/cu.usbserial-AI03T35M
Connecting........_____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____....._____
A fatal error occurred: Failed to connect to ESP8266: Invalid head of packet (0x66)
TIme to throw it in the bin…
Sounds suspiciously like a flash memory write endurance issue. Which means there are going to be a lot more of these showing up dead.
Could be a power supply issue I suppose, but without an (isolated!) oscilloscope it would be difficult to tell.
Maybe solder a link in place of the relay and just use for power monitoring.
( if any are failing in the relay )
That won’t work. The whole device is boot looping.
If it were just the relay we could replace it.
Is that really a thing? Mine has only been written to 68 times over the last few weeks. Including all the configuration at the start.
Yeah, the ESP8266 has a write endurance of 100,000 cycles and no wear levelling. So if something writes to flash every 5 minutes, that’s 288 times per day or 347 days to (possible) failure.
The restore from flash option is a possible culprit. Though for things like fridges the relay shouldn’t change state. I’m looking through the source now to see if the power sensor uses flash memory.
EDIT: it does not appear to. 
Maybe it’s an esphome thing? Though I ran that on my power monitors for years with no issue.
Now that I’m on Tasmota I miss the filtering options.
I have 22 of the Kogan smart plugs, most of which are approaching a year old. No failures…yet. 
The only difference between my config and the one posted way up there in the past is that I set the logging level to warning and use a 10x windowed average filter on the V, I and P sensors, so I’m sending updates ten times less often.
I’ve got mine updating every 10 seconds. This does not appear to touch the flash. Sadly no filters in Tasmota.
What is everyone using in Australia for LED Strips ? I want to run a 5m strip in our kitchen above a workbench area - it will be used for Task lighting whilst working - then bench encompasses a preparation area and a sink etc
It would nice to set an ambient mood once meal prep was done with - but not essential.
I prefer a cool white in a kitchen over a warm white (based on MR16 LEDs that we have deployed on other areas of the kitchen at the moment)
Obviously would be nice to be able to control from a wall switch for dimming etc - but not necessary to control colours etc - that could be handled from an app or within Node-Red or HA
What wall switches would people recommend for controlling this also ? I would prefer to stay with WIFI rather than deploy Zigbee etc
Craig
Kogan are doing the 4-pack of Gen2 Plugs for $49.99 again (ex Shipping)
Listed as pre-sale, shipping 30th Sept.
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