Hi there,
im looking to buy a couple of smart plugs and looking at amazon i can see a lot of offers with a good rating, many of those claims the plug is wifi, compatible with alexa/google home and don’t require a hub.
I can’t find any of those switches in the list of switch component though:
Im wondering if still will be able to connect such a switches to HA and if so can someonw point me to how to do it please?
Thanks,
Alex
Hi, The general answer is “it depends”.
Can you give some examples?
The are lots of WiFi plugs that do work, e.g. TP-Link, Wemo, Sonoff, and lots of plugs that don’t.
Without any further info it’s going to be hard to tell you yay or nay.
Thanks @chairstacker @tedsluis
Here are some examples:
Do you think any of those going to work with HA?
Hi, I don’t think those plugs have native HA support. You can however use IFTTT to create a chain between HA and plugs that support IFTTT. Keep in mind these configuration will always depend on the IFTTT cloud service and it will create some latency.
See:
In general, any WiFi socket that says ‘no hub required’ is going to be controlled via a server in China. I really wouldn’t recommend anyone to use any of these.
I have posted a write up on hacking one of these at Hyleton 313 Smart Plug Teardown.
It’s not a process for the faint-hearted, but it means that there is no connection to the outside world.
In principle, I agree with the statement
But it’s not necessarily a server in China, though.
I run a few TP-Link plugs and, while they support setting up an account in the app and be able to control them from outside my network, I have blocked them from having internet access at all - and they work fine as a local solution.
Which is actually one of the main points for me:
HA is designed as a cloud-less solution and I like it especially for that.
It runs without internet access and triggering stuff through the cloud - and therefore lowering the risk that somebody ‘in China’ can see what I’m doing at home.
If I need remote access to my HA install, I log in via my VPN (also running on an RPi) - this way I can do most anything on my home network, e.g. loo at my security cameras, not just turn the bathroom fan on and off.
Sure, you are right, but a TP-link device is very different from a ‘no-brand’ device from eBay. Also, many people will not have the know-how to block access from the outside world.
Correct, but as always, companies who don’t have much of a brand value don’t need to worry much about losing a brand reputation when their users get hacked 
So, you get what you pay for 
BTW:
Here’s a good read of how to block internet access by your devices (or kids in that case) - including management from HA directly.
you will have to open them up, but most of them are based on the esp8266\5 so you can put tasmota firmware and control using MQTT.
Thanks for the reference. I use the code there on startup script to permanently block the internet access of all my IoT devices, and only use HA to control them (after initial setup).