Are we allowed to replace the mechs ourselves, or that is also a sparky job ?
It is a sparky job.
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In Australia EVERYTHING is a sparky job.
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It pays to be one 
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Guys what are the best Wifi smart wall plugs to get now to use with HA automations ?
I assume the Kogan Smart Plugs still canāt be reflashed with ESPhomeā¦
I have a friend whoās just starting out with HA and I want to steer him to a useful first experience with ESPhome.
I use the Tradfri Smart Wall plugs from IKEA and at $20 with zigbee, I find them well placed.
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If you donāt mind a bit of soldering then the Kogan plug with energy monitoring without the USB ports comes apart reasonably easily and can be flashed via serial.
Unfortunately they only seem to last 12 months.
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Iām curious do the Tradfri plugs work as repeaters?
Iām currently using the Tradfri repeaters which work very well, but if I decided I need more adding the plugs might make more sense. I could even replace my existing TP-Link plugs with them.
Yes, they do. I am using 2 and both act as āroutersā.
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Soldering is part of my profession so no issue there.
Are they these ones ?
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-smarterhome-smart-plug-with-energy-meter-pack-of-4-kogan/
And when you say ācomes apart reasonably easilyā is that with screws or just click-tabs, not hacking through glue joints like the USB models ?
If so then that will do fine thanks.
ā¦ Hi diramu, I think that means that it should be relatively easy to get a non-smart version and ābolt onā an esp8266 or similar, send the signals in the same pins as the smart version uses, make that smartā¦
does the mains voltage part in the non-smart version also make the DC voltage needed to power the esp?
That is the item but as Tom said they may not last long, I have only had mine for a few months so I canāt comment on that yet.
There are a couple of screws (tri-wing security ones) and the case also has clips but the cover pops off with little visible damage.
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Just saw these on OfficeWorks website. Anyone flashed these with Tuya-convert recently ?
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/brilliant-lighting-smart-wifi-plug-with-energy-monitoring-bl20925
Ah theyāre back in stock at last. The Officeworks Brilliant plugs can be flashed with Tuyaconvert.
They are what I am replacing my Kogan plugs with as they die.
The Brilliant plugs do run a little warm for my liking so Iām not sure how long they will last either.
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If I get a chance, Iāll have a look at the open unit with an IR thermal camera and see whatās getting hot. If itās a capacitor (not just the Tuya module) in the DC supply it might indicate use of a poor ESR type, that could be replaced from new with better quality one. Done this beforeā¦
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TP-Link Kasa KP115 are my favourites at the moment. Local integration with HA without flashing, also feel better quality.
I do like the Brilliant ones from Officeworks though (but only if they can still be flashed OTA).
Iāll keep that in mind re the TP-Link units. However there a is a warning note on the HA integration page for those I just read. https://alerts.home-assistant.io/#tplink.markdown
At this point I wanted to help out a friend with a first experience with an ESPhome firmware on something, so I suggested to him to get a Brilliant one from OW first.
That warning is old, and IMO now misleading.
The firmware in question never made it to Australian devices (it was UK only) and the KP115 was released after that issue with no problems.
I am also using KP115ās. I agree with dgaustās comments, and at one point they stated they were going to improve local access ā¦ but after my frustrating exchange with their support in May-June Iām not sure whether I should recommend them.
I did have an issue with initial setup of a new KP115 this May.
When running their kasa app you do not need to register with TP-Link - there is a guest option which gives local control - and the android version of their app would connect to the KP115, but not get to the page showing the local networks you want the new unit to join. Support refused to accept that it didnāt work.
Problem was finally resolved by running the kasa app on an iPad.