Smart plugs and power surges?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Smart plugs and power surges?

openmedia

3324 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#298589 29-Jun-2022 18:46

Been using a Tasmota flashed Brilliant Smart plug to drive an electric heater in our lounge. Looks like with some of the recent power surges in our are this one has decided to die. The firmware side is still working, but it looks like the relay to turn power on/off has gone.

Has anyone here seen this happen before and have any tips on potentially fixing it. I'd just pickup a replacement but plugs you can easily re-flash to tasmota are getting harder to find.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

timmmay

20575 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2936124 29-Jun-2022 20:40

You could buy these.

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2936202 29-Jun-2022 21:27

The Athom stuff is decent and they use 16A relays, which should provide a bit of a safety margin for standard 10A devices.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2936257 29-Jun-2022 22:43

I have several sonoffs and 2 arlecs that have had power supply die. The arlecs have enough power to try to work, but the relay doesnt power up and just makes a whine noise. Not even enough to make the blue light in the button turn on. Still manages to somewhat broadcast its SSID once in that pairing mode but it will not let anything connect to it or work with the easy pair.

The sonoffs just run for it bit and then reboot. The relay holds up over the reboots but it doesnt sound that enthisiatic to switch.

No power surges just being on for a long time. The sonoffs are inside fluro fittings now on the cieling or the aquarium hood so hassle to change them. The arlec plugs were the old big power monitoring ones that were able to be tasmotized but I never did that, just leaving them on the old tuya firmware till I managed to get a functioning home assistant which I may have now done.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

20575 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2936296 30-Jun-2022 07:21

My TP-Link Kasa devices have been controlling heaters and a ventilation system for I guess 2-3 years and are still working. I'm going to order some Atholm stuff soon as spares which I'll use for unimportant things until they're needed for heaters. I don't think they can be flashed, and I think the newer non-Kasa models have only just gotten home assistant integrations but not sure it's 100% yet.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2936447 30-Jun-2022 12:52

richms:
No power surges just being on for a long time.

Was just going to comment on that, the spectre of surges was created by vendors who figured they could strap a ten-cent MOV across the terminals of a power board and double the price.

[Three-page rant on why MOVs are completely the wrong thing to use here even if surges were a major problem, which they aren't, thus the apparent effectiveness of MOV-based "protectors"]

NZ/Aus standards-compliant electrical equipment shouldn't have any problems with power line conditions, if you're getting failures like that it's far more likely it's poor-quality electronics than any "surge". If you got said electronics off Aliexpress or cheap TM sellers, that probability rises to 100%.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#2936563 30-Jun-2022 16:32

Power surges don't typically kill just the relay. A power spike can drive too much current into the load, which in turn overloads the relay, but generally the relay is tougher than the fuse/Circuit breaker. If not, you'll usually see the load is smoked, and therefore not be at all surprised that the switch/rely was also taken out.

I have had a few (cheap) relay dependant devices (such as timers) blow their relays when repeatedly switching big loads. A heater is not a trivial load - not to make excuses for the device, just saying if anything will expose a weakness, it will be a big load like a heater. Aside for poor components, if you have a thermostat switching the smart plug (or some other very cyclic control), the relay could be getting hammered with dozens (maybe every 100's) of cycles every night, prematurely wearing it out.

I suspect in my case the relays are from dodgy/no-name suppliers. Possibly this has gotten worse due to the pandemic shortages - OEM's forced to use whatever components they can obtain, rather than quality stuff that they would normally prefer.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#2936567 30-Jun-2022 16:42

BTW, for a total price of $21 for a Brilliant Smart Plug, there isn't really the budget in the build for premium relays - just saying.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#2936569 30-Jun-2022 16:44

tripper1000:

BTW, for a total price of $21 for a Brilliant Smart Plug, there isn't really the budget in the build for premium relays - just saying.

I think they do have a duty cycle number. But then again they are mass produced, so costs have reduced. I have a Belkin wemo smart plug that I purchased over 5 years s ago and think it was well over $100 at the time, and still goes well, but I doubt it has better relays in it.