Recommendations for lan based smart plugs

Hardware
1

I am looking for a smart plug that doesn’t require a internet connection to function. I’m currently using an amazon echo for my home automation. While it has worked fine, if my internet connection goes down, so does my automation. That is why I am looking at home assistant. My current smart plug an old, cheap chinese one, model JH-G01U, uses Tuya. I was able to set it up to work with home assistant, but I want some thing that is locally controlled.

I have home assistant installed on a raspberry pi 2. It is controlling a smart plug and a Logitech Harmony Hub. I have a very basic setup for a bedroom.

2

Are you looking for in wall plugs or adapters? I’ve got HA on a Rpi3B and a zigbee plug in plug that I use to turn on and off lights in my garage.

Works very well, easy to pair and very responsive to automation / triggers

3

Shelly Plug if you are looking for a wifi device, works with HA out of the box, no internet required to operate

4

I’ll look into both of those. Thanks. Is the Shelly Plug only available from their website? I didn’t see it anywhere else.

5

As an alternative: https://www.athom.tech/

I’m pretty sure Athom is a small operation that just buys cheaper smart devices and flashes Tasmota on to them. I bought some Shelly devices at the same time I bought these, and found that these were easiest to setup since they just use standard Tasmota rather than Shelly’s proprietary software. I hit a minor speedbump with the fourth Athom device I set up in a row, but both Shelly devices I had took multiple tries to get working.

6

I have purchased a number of items from https://cloudfree.shop/, both the Tasmota pre-loaded and the Sonoff Zigbee plugs. Recommended.

1 Like
7

Thanks for all the recommendations. It looks like I need to read up on Tasmota. I was looking at that sylvania one and the sonoff s31. I’d have to get the sonoff from amazon since cloudfree is out of the pre flashed ones.

8

I bought an Nortek USB stick (https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-CECOMINOD016164-HUSBZB-1-USB-Hub/dp/B01GJ826F8/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=antec+zigbee+zwave+stick&qid=1637766381&sr=8-4) that has ZWave and Zigbee built into it, so all I have is the Rpi and with the stick, connected to the LAN in my house and zigbee devices like the plug and a few lights, etc. Works very well and is pretty cheap…

9

Thanks for the recommendation. I ended up using the Nortek stick and a sonoff s311 lite zigbee model. This looked easier than flashing the wifi version with tasmota. I have no experience with soldering. I opted for the easy option since this is for just one room at the moment.

10

Theengs Plug does work locally through an MQTT connection without Internet:

You also get :

  1. A powerful BLE Scanner and Decoder
  2. Presence Detection Capabilities
  3. Compatible with numerous BLE Sensors and Tracker Devices
  4. YAML free integration thanks to MQTT auto-discovery
  5. Customizable Settings
  6. Power Usage Tracking
  7. Persistent plug state
  8. Effortless Over the Air update (this is optional but requires internet to check for update on Github)
  9. On-demand BLE scan

It is also a way to support Open-source firmware development.

11

I’ve searched for LAN based smart plugs and there are few retailers for Australian plugs.
To avoid connecting into an adapter, increasing an already indirect connection, it seems an option left out here is flashing.

Flashing a smart plug (cloud controlled) that is affordable and locally available for purchase, opens up a broad range of many smart plugs.
My understanding is you will need an FTDI USB connector (FT232 (not CP2104) FTDI USB to TTL/UART Adapter).
If you’re confident enough to unscrew a smart cloud plug, solder, flash Tasmota firmware, unsolder, screw back and not set your house on fire.