Minoston MP21ZP - Firmware Information

Didnt spot that, must have mis-filtered on Amazon!

Re: PowerCalc to correct bad readings, are you able to elaborate on how you achieved this please?

I disabled all the kWh sensors attached to my various devices and configured a Powercalc for them instead that uses the wattage sensor for the device. I also created numerous other PC sensors for devices where I metered the power with Add-A-Watt and other devices.

For example, for my basement entry light I disabled the kWh sensor in HA and kept the wattage sensor and renamed it (the renaming helped me to configure what I wanted reported to Reporter):

- entity_id: light.basement_entry
  fixed:
    power: "{{states('sensor.basement_entry_electric_consumed_w_native')}}"
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FWIW…

The MP21ZP plugs have hardware issues internally. Certain loads can cause them to temporarily fail (they go out of service and you have to unplug them and plug them back in to get them working again) while others permanently fail. I have seen the plugs stenciled with “V2.0” and date code 0222 temp fail while the newer design (date coded 0722) permanently fail simply by plugging an Intel NUC into them and leaving it on for 24-48 hours.

The MP21Z plugs have not shown any issues at all when used with my Vera Secure hub. None of the plugs is at all reliable when used in conjunction with HA (same plugs). They drop off the network, stop responding, respond slow, etc. - and I’m still in the testing phase of HA to validate it as a replacement for the Vera so device and hub are literally 10’ apart in the same room.

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Just a follow up here…

Moved to a new location and had to completely tear down my Vera setup. Rather than bringing it all back online, I am building my new network based on HASS. These Minoston plugs continue to be maddeningly impossible to try and work with. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why they just disappear from the network and stop responding. I’m throwing all of them in the trash and buying Aeotec plugs that I know are solid and work 100% as expected.

I just went through replacing a bunch of Minostons which were overreporting and flooding network, and constantly dropping off.

The two reliable energy monitoring plugs I’ve found are:

  • Aeotec (they are quite expensive but can be used for eg a washing machine)
  • Zooz zen04 (way cheap from smartesthouse, but I seem to have a few that randomly do off/on all on their own. updating the firmware seems to help.)

Yup, same here. They were good for a heartbeat and then all started failing. They made me nervous enough that I retired every Minoston in my network into the trash bin.

I’m with you on Aeotec and Zooz, but the best one I found yet is also the cheapest, it’s a Zigbee by ThirdReality that have been rock solid, never give goofy energy reports and have been insanely easy to work with. I now have about 30 of them after testing the first 4 for about 6 months. I use these as super easy cheap devices to do nothing more than report power usage on a variety of things ranging from simple LED’s to refrigerators and washing machines. You can’t beat the price. Since then I’ve acquired a few of their other Zigbee stuff and it’s all been pretty good stuff.

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Oh, side note, I was chatting with the founders of Inovelli some months ago and Minoston is who stole their concepts and device plans and rolled it into a product of their own after cheaping out the components.