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So some of you might have seen these little devices hanging on the shelves and wondered what they are, well in their simplest form they turn your non smart devices into smart devices. So what you say and what can that do for me? Well imagine being able to turn your lamps on with voice command of at scheduled times of the day including at morning for a wake up light. Being able to turn the outside entertainment lights on at scheduled times or having a plugin shed light turned on before you get out there via your phone or voice command.
What if you have your iron plugged in and you leave the house and you are unsure if you turned it off simply open your phone and check the smart plug and if it's on no problem turn it off.
Now these smart plugs come in a few variations some with surge protection to protect your devices.
Some with USB sockets.
Weatherproof rated for your outdoor devices.
And then ones with energy monitoring.
Now the energy monitoring personally let's me down, I am used to using a power data logger that gives great detail on usage Now I didn't expect that gind of detail but the information given by these plugs isn't a enough to diagnose is a particular appliance is using lots of power in a chain of many.
If you were to watch the screen with the live reading then maybe but the recorded variables that are plotted on the graphs only give a peak per day which is not detailed enough.
Compared to a power data logger.
Now the newest in the line is a temperature, humidity plug which is perfect for turning off and on portable heaters, air-conditioning and evaporation units.
The interface will be similar to the temp humidity sensor as per below.
With the plugs the more variables you have the more options you have for automation Scenes as well where you can trigger commands off Voltage greater than 1V or 1Amp and so on.
So final say these little devices are great and have their place in the home automation world with plenty of options there is something for most scenarios.
Love to hear your thoughts below.
Carl
Hi @CSParnell,
I thought I'd reach out to the Grid Connect oracle instead of using trial and error. I was thinking of using this Arlec Grid Connect Smart 5m LED White & Colour Changing Strip Light with Remote as backlighting for a computer monitor. It looks like it would work a treat. It appears I should be able to program the light to run when I have the computer on, which is typically 6 am - 12 pm, as it states you can "set your product to operate on your ideal schedule". That's acceptable, but I'd really like the lights to turn on when I power on the computer. Obviously, the monitor stays powered continuously in standby mode, though I wanted to know whether an Arlec White Grid Connect Smart Plug In Socket With Energy Meter could be used as a trigger device for the lights. Is there a function with the sockets that if I was to place it on the wall and then plug the computer into it when I turn the computer on (not the socket) and it draws current from through the socket, it turns the lights on?
I suspect the "if on, turn on" function is just if I turn the smart socket itself on, I can get the lights to turn on. However, I want a dumb system where I can turn the computer's power button on, and the lights also come on. Can the socket sense that the device plugged into it has been turned on by the current draw and trigger another smart device?
Any thoughts?
Mitchell
Hey @MitchellMc thanks for reaching out.
What you are trying to achieve is totally acceptable and within the tolerance of the Grid Connect App.
First if you want your LEDs breathing colour change head to the LED icon and click on Theme then change the first colour then click the next dot under the colour selector and choose your next colour continue until all selected.
Next click the 3 stars on the right hand side of the number 4 >
Then on the next page click on Breath and select your speed then go back to the previous page and then back one more.
You should be on your main page now, make sure the LEDs and Smart plug are plugged in and connected.
Next click on scenes and triggers.
Add new scene and you are going to create the following as below for turning on the LED
If..Smart Plug Power greater than 1W
Then... Turn on LED.
Name it and save it
Then create another one for turning off.
If..... Smart Plug Power equals 0W
Then ..... Turn off LED.
Because you have setup your LED light colour and them it will hold so you only need to switch on and off.
That should do it.
Carl
