Athom smart wifi plug : preflashed with Tasmota and power monitoring!

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Athom smart wifi plug : preflashed with Tasmota and power monitoring!

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626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2902020 13-Apr-2022 16:16

I had a couple of brilliant smart switches which flashed with tuya-convert and worked beautifully. So I ordered a couple more and discovered they had been updated with later firmware meaning they cant (yet) be flashed.
Gutted...

TommySharp

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#2908218 29-Apr-2022 11:31

So these Athom plugs have been working out well! My only gripe is that they are a bit "fat" and I can't fit 2 side by side in any NZ plug sockets. I'll have to keep an eye out for some skinnier options...

davidcole

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#2908311 29-Apr-2022 12:38

TommySharp:

So these Athom plugs have been working out well! My only gripe is that they are a bit "fat" and I can't fit 2 side by side in any NZ plug sockets. I'll have to keep an eye out for some skinnier options...

better than the aforementioned brilliant one (round and take over the 2 gang socket if on the bottom) or the even worse Kogan ones.

I've got two, very happy with them

Previously known as psycik

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Tinkerisk

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#2909382 2-May-2022 14:39

The older ones had a s/w bug who made it feasible to replace the firmware OTA. Then some supplier closed that gap by new firmware to block this. Nevertheless, some plugs could be re-flashed by opening the plug and re-flashing it directly via a FTDI USB/TTL adapter. The answer to this was sealed housings with glue or hidden screws, which made it hard to open the plug without damage but feasible with some techniques.

To prevent such issues or to brick the device by relying on outdated information for simple self-reflashing of earlier plug versions, I‘d now recommend to buy plugs from suppliers who are explicitely marketing their stuff with ‚tasmota preflashed‘ only, especially when you are not familiar with electronics and re-calibration (you’ll need some instrumentation) of the power measurement function of the modified plugs.

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timmmay

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#2937632 2-Jul-2022 21:38

The Athom plugs are on special at the moment. How are people finding them for reliability and safety? I'd like to get a couple, but want to make sure they're safe and aren't going to void my insurance if something goes wrong.

davidcole

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#2937633 2-Jul-2022 21:39

Fine. I’m running my rocket off one.

timmmay

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#2937634 2-Jul-2022 21:43

davidcole:

Fine. I’m running my rocket off one.

Rocket?

Anyone running high current devices like heaters off them? I use TP-Link Kasa right now, but you can only get a different model now which means a different app, so might as well get ones that work well with Home Assistant.

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davidcole

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#2937635 2-Jul-2022 21:44

timmmay:

davidcole:

Fine. I’m running my rocket off one.

Rocket?

Anyone running high current devices like heaters off them? I use TP-Link Kasa right now, but you can only get a different model now which means a different app, so might as well get ones that work well with Home Assistant.

rocket coffee machine. Tends to pull about 1200w when heating the boiler

eonsim

398 posts

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#2937638 2-Jul-2022 22:06

timmmay:

The Athom plugs are on special at the moment. How are people finding them for reliability and safety? I'd like to get a couple, but want to make sure they're safe and aren't going to void my insurance if something goes wrong.

I had one with dead power monitoring on arrival (out of 8 1st gen) they replaced it after a couple of quick questions.

I've been using them for a range of loads of that batch had one that would occasionally reset it's self (once or twice a month) and second one running a 2kW pump on a 30m extension cord got a little bit iffy after a while but has since settled down and working fine. It probably wasn't happy with the start up surge + low voltage and the long extension cable. These are all first gen ones and we have some significant low voltage supply issues which may be causing them some stress that will hopefully be resolved in the near future.

timmmay

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#2937639 2-Jul-2022 22:38

Thanks, that's useful. I'll order a couple on special, mostly to have spares in case any break plus power meters.

nic.wise

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#2937769 3-Jul-2022 09:34

Ooooh been looking for something low profile to control those plug in mozzie repeller things. And some led lights.

got a few tplink and wemo but they are huuuuuge…. Will give these a go

My rocket is on a 16a Shelly so I might leave that one alone 😎

Nic Wise - fastchicken.co.nz

PANiCnz

990 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2937848 3-Jul-2022 12:05

kelly42:

I wasn't sure whether to get the ESPHome ones or the Tasmota ones - for my HA purposes both work well; is there a compelling reason to use one over the other, or to convert the ESPHome ones to Tasmota?

Tasmota is probably better if you want to run the plug independently. But Nabu Casa have recently bought ESPHome so from an integration with HA perspective I suspect ESPHome is only going to get better over time. In saying that Tasmota integrates with HA fine, so its probably just personal preference at this stage.

rb99

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#2937852 3-Jul-2022 12:11

So is it correct that with the Tasmota version you can control the devices via an Android / Apple phone app directly whereas for ESPHome you need to fiddle about with Home Assistant ? Is that what was meant by 'run the plug independently ?

And these plugs can be used to power things on and off, not just for power monitoring ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

PANiCnz

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Ultimate Geek

#2937858 3-Jul-2022 12:18

rb99:

So is it correct that with the Tasmota version you can control the devices via an Android / Apple phone app directly whereas for ESPHome you need to fiddle about with Home Assistant ? Is that what was meant by 'run the plug independently ?

And these plugs can be used to power things on and off, not just for power monitoring ?

Tasmota has a web GUI that runs on each device that you can access from a browser to configure the device. Thus you can run the plugs independently without integrating them into a platform like HA. ESPHome also has a web GUI but its not as polished, and the wiki says this about enabling it "enabling this component will take up a lot of memory and can lead to problems". In my experience ESPHome runs best without the web GUI and when configured to run with HA. I cant say I've ever tried to use ESPHome without HA, but I suspect its a pretty average experience.

I've got some other ESP8266 smart plugs i use with HA, I flip flop between Tasmota and ESPHome. Once integrated with HA they both provide the same experience.

SumnerBoy

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#2937860 3-Jul-2022 12:20

Presumably ESPHome "speaks" to HA using MQTT? So if you learnt the message format and structure you could control and monitor these using NodeRED or any other MQTT based platform?

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