UK Sockets with Power Monitoring

Hardware
63

I use them with Z2M and there is brightness control, but both sides adjust together. No way to lock from Z2M either.
I would be cautious with the hub as doubt their web server is still working, but the app may still work local ?

64

Had a bit more of a play and the lock function is effected by going to ZHA (donā€™t have Z2M) > Manage Device > Basic Endpoint 1 > Attributes > device_enabled. Reading the value should get you Bool.true and you can write Bool.false to disable the physical buttons and hence allow it to be locked in either of the off or on states.

I have not tested this throughly, you should not rely upon this working just because I say it does but at first glance it would seem to prevent little mischievous fingers turning things on or indeed off which is what I was aiming for.

65

I have a number of TP -Link UK sockets that provide energy monitoring.

66

Just checked this with Z2M and indeed there is an endpoint deviceEnabled and writing 1 or 0 to it locks and unlocks the switch from manual changes. Iā€™ll do a feature request for Z2M to support it, hopefully it can be added.

For ZHA, maybe add a feature request for it to be added ?

67

Digging into press releases etc, it looks like Aurora went into administration in August 2022, and were then bought out in November of 2022 - Bright Future for Aurora Lighting After Acquisition by Galaed Group

So perhaps theyā€™re back and supporting their hardware?

68

I contacted Aurora yesterday as I have one of the double sockets. It did a firmware update on Z2M a few days ago, which was unexpected. It then dropped off the mesh and now isnā€™t detected in pairing mode, so I canā€™t re-pair it.

I emailed Aurora and even though they were bought out, all the Smart home items have been discontinued. They have some old stock, so they are sending me a replacement socket as it is within the two year warranty period, but I did have to supply proof of purchase.

Itā€™s a real shame as these are the only Zigbee power monitoring sockets I know of. The Knighsbridge Wi-Fi ones can be flashed with Tasmota, but you have to take them apart and Iā€™m not willing to do that on a mains-powered item, as the rivet you have to remove, holds the earth bar in place.

69

Thanks for the heads up, Iā€™ll give the updates a miss then.

They have sent me a couple that broke in warranty since they went into administration too, good service.
It is a shame they went away, I really like them. I managed to get 2 boxes of 10 for Ā£29 each (Ā£2.90 each socket !) on ebay a while back (and some Aone spotlights at Ā£2.70 each), donā€™t think they realised what they were. Not there now though

70

Yeah, I wish I could revert the firmware, but no idea how, without an Aurora hub!

These sockets have always been a bit dodgy - sometimes the power lights flash and occasionally, when Iā€™ve turned an attached device on, itā€™s made both sockets turn off!

71

Theyā€™ve been mostly ok for me, except if I turn a microwave off, it then crashes it and the LEDs go white. Only removing power sorts it.

72

Did you ever find a solution to them reporting as still on after a power outage? Iā€™ve got 5 sockets but one of them keeps sorting of tripping out but itā€™s so annoying that they report as still on or an automation could kick in

73

I have been working on building a Z2M external converter for a while, it can be found here, I have added all the functionality I could figure out, including reducing the brightness on initial setup, reporting, child lock, brightness, all with refresh buttons in Z2M.
I found that sometimes Z2M would get out of sync with child lock a few times so I had to add a automation to poll them every now and again to ensure Z2M was in sync with the socket as they donā€™t seem to report lock state properly.

I tried to merge into the main Z2M github via a PR, but as I am no developer I couldnā€™t get through all the hurdles

1 Like
74

while your at it, can you fix the status issue on the socket.

with the power left outlet ON, cut power to the device, reinstate power, the socket LED and power to the outlet is OFF but the UI still reports as if the power the the outlet is ON

and are you referring to this bug ?

if you set the brightness to 40, then cut power to the device, and reinstate power the socket led goes back to itā€™s default brightness but the UI still shows 40

75

Diamond @Scooshie ! Thank you mate. 13amp as well!

Aurora AOne Zigbee Double Smart Socket Switched 13A

76

I use lots of these and they are mostly great.
Bear in mind the smart home side of the company is no longer trading so not sure how warranty works now.
Also, keep an eye on ebay, I picked then up for Ā£8 each brand new

1 Like