TP-Link Launches Matter-Certified Kasa Smart Plug With Energy Monitoring

[ChrisA]

While true, 2.4 has slightly better range than 5 ghz, in a reasonable domicile this really shouldn’t be an issue for coverage and what is very limited throughput. This isn’t transmitting video or even web pages or images. I would say though, that IN a domicile, things like Microwave ovens which emit as well in the 2.4 ghz range can impact wifi devices on those same frequencies. That happens often. As others have noted, setup over WiFi can be more complicated depending on the app and related third party… google, apple, other Matter certified partners. It’s often difficult to have to turn OFF the 5 ghz connections on a device or router, just to get a 2.4 ghz device properly connected and authenticated.

And if, things reset on the device (say after a firmware update) then it can often have to be done again and could lead to the device being unexpectadly offline.

If it were using Thread, range would not be an issue. Thread is a mesh network were every device is able to re-transmit the signal. So on a Thread network the more devices you instal the better is you coverage.

Wi-Fi is not the best solution for a smart home, it has a single point of failure. If the Wi-Fi router goes down, all the light, switches, plugs and appliances stop working.

Thread also uses 2 Ghz band but it is not WiFi.

 

[name99]

5Ghz/6Ghz is complete overkill for any smart device. Unless you live in a tiny apartment, 2.4ghz is the best frequency as it can travel almost 6 times further (ideal conditions). You don’t even need to turn off 5Ghz to set these up so there’s really no point in turning that band off.

"You don’t even need to turn off 5Ghz to set these up" uhhh, sometimes you DO. That's the point, that's why they are despised.

A GOOD design performs setup by talking to the phone via BT to negotiate WiFi credentials. This sort of design can work just fine with a 2.4GHz network that has the same name and password (so same credentials) as 5/6GHz.

BUT that sort of design also requires a BT chip in the IoT. CRAPPY designs (which are most common in Chinese brands for some reason; perhaps some combination of price pressure and customers being more willing to put up with BS to save an RMB) try to perform setup using a single WiFi chip. This requires a complicated synchronized maneuver between the IoT and the phone so that the phone switches to the IoT's WiFi network then back again to the home network. It frequently doesn't work, and is even more likely to fail if the switch requires toggling between a home 5GHz network and an IoT 2.4GHz network. This is the reason that I loathe the one and only Meross plug I own and will never buy another piece of Meross hardware as long as I live.

Unfortunately no-one tells you whether an IoT device uses a sensible setup design (BT or a reasonable equivalent like NFC or even camera [eg Apple HomePod]), so you have to use heuristics like "does the design look like it was optimized to save every penny". And being 2.4GHz only is one of those heuristics.

 

[name99]

I was so hyped for this! A decently priced smart plug that supports Matter?? I’d rather have Thread and no Matter than Matter over Bluetooth (or even just Matter over WiFi). I’m building out my Thread network in my home and need it for future proofing.

The AMZ page claims WiFi.
I'd be more interested in what the setup (and reset) procedures look like and how reliable they are...

 

[name99]

Even smart lights, much less any of the other smart home stuff, are still not for people that aren’t prepared to futz around with it at least once a year, probably more.

As expensive as it is, Hue is best for this because of the hub. But I’ve even started having trouble with some Hue bulbs lately that are only a bit over a year old.

I'm actually coming to the conclusion that an unexpected brand, Ikea, is usually the best choice in this space! They're not sexy, but they are cheap and they have mostly made the right choices time after time.
Especially with their second iteration (the new Digera hub replacing the old Tradfri hub) almost all the most irritating parts of the old system (especially the totally non-intuitive business of having to set up remotes before devices) is now gone.

With Ikea you get
- a "reasonable" priced hub. Not cheap, but in line with everyone else. And the reliability of the hub design (radios are zigbee).

- remarkably cheap smart plugs (big and ugly, but cheap $15, and they work well), likewise cheap bulbs (a lot of variety in styles, and white dimmable at just $11 to full color at $22.) The only thing they are missing, IMHO, is a slot between white dimmable and full color that's white ambient (ie variable temperature), but hell their full color is cheaper than a Hue ambiance.
Likewise cheap smart buttons and motion detectors.
But the real killer is that they have reasonably priced blinds that work REALLY well. Lightweight, easy to install, easy to recharge (in my case about once every six months) and reliable.

- the THIRD great Ikea feature is that they have a variety of "remotes" that are "dedicated" (meaning not really 'smart') but are cheap. It's cheap (and easy with the new hub) to place a dedicated remote next to each item (group of lights, blinds, whatever) and have them just work like a traditional switch. You now have the best of both worlds, with manual controls (for when that makes sense, or for guests) along with smart home automation. So, eg, in my house, the lights or blinds operate intelligently (lights based on light levels and occupancy in the room, blinds based on sun position and how hot it is outside) but a guest can override those with a manual button.

And they play really nicely with HomeKit. (Just be careful not to get their three-color bulbs which are cheaper than full color, but can only be set to cool, medium or warm white, and so can't be optimally controlled by HomeKit, just get either the white dimmable or full color depending on your needs).
I'd recommend Ikea over the various alternatives for almost all use cases.
(I can't comment on their sound stuff, brand name Symfonisk; that I haven't used at all.)

 

[name99]

Does it sense how much wattage being pulled or I have to set up like this unit uses 100w, whatever it is on? Starts calculating?

It senses the wattage. The Eve version gives you a graph of power draw, I don't know if this one does the same sort of thing. (If it doesn't provide a graph, that can still be of some use, but much less so.)

The other place where these devices all still somewhat fall down and haven't yet got their act together is if you want to use them as interval timers. For example suppose you have a device that's unreliable (eg a WiFi extender) and so you want to restart it once an hour (or once a day, or whatever). They can all, in theory, program such behavior, but they ALL require two steps (a switch on step, and a separately programmed switch off step), they don't make it easy to replicate that programming multiple times (every hour, every six hours, or whatever) and they don't allow a small minimum power-off window (off for only a second or anything less than a minute).
It's a bizarre comment on the world we live in that dedicated interval timer hardware (which, as far as I can tell, is primarily sold to stoners, to judge from how their ads are all about hydroponics and grow light control) does this functionality so much better and with so much less hassle than what should be trivial with a smart plug.

 

[name99]

This is the deal-breaker for me. I have another brand...and I've had to turn off my 5Ghz in order to get each one of these set up (then turn 5GHz back on).

It reminds me of tweaking my very first Linksys router 20+ years ago...all for a smart plug!?! Or toying with my first few inkjet printers to get a decent print.

How are these things not easier to set up?

In a sense they are getting better to set up. But there is nothing so cheap that a man cannot make it worse and 5cents cheaper.

Where we are really let down is in reviews (like this one) that pay zero attention to setup issues (in all respects -- initial setup, reset and setup again, and firmware update). It is these setup issues that matter far more than a dollar here or there in the overall pleasure you will get from the device.

 

[name99]

Oh, but the solution is so simple and staring you right in the face. Make a second HomeKit home, and put all your “sensitive” devices on there, and don’t give anyone else access.

Now, if anyone else says “Hey Siri, turn off everything”, it won’t touch any of your partitioned devices.

That can work. The main pain point is that anything geofenced could become problematic... But if the small number of "secure" items in the second home don't require geofencing it might work.

 

[name99]

This is a bad argument, because HomeKit controls a lot more than glorified light switches, and there are plenty of things in your house, smart or otherwise, that not every resident needs to be trusted with. Harsh chemicals? Gun safe? I think you wouldn’t give a child unmitigated access to these things.
There’s no reason anyone should be content with HomeKit being unmoderated. Any other aspect of the iOS ecosystem can be controlled and secured. This shouldn’t be any different. If you disagree, give everyone you live with access to everything in your Wallet app and then we’ll talk.

I assume the issue is not "kids are malicious", more "kids are dumb", in the same way that you keep kids away from poisonous chemicals and you assume they will not deliberately break into the locked chemical storage.

So the question is, can you set up Scenes that capture the words they use when they leave the house, and make those scenes safe? For example if they alway say "Switch everything off", can you create a scene with that name so that the scene is executed rather than Siri "interpreting" what everything off means.
I can't be sure if this would work (and you may have to create five or so dummy scenes to capture the different cases) but it might. I know that in my case I have a "Lights off" scene that does what I want, which switches off a subset (not not exactly all) of my lights, and it seems to work.

 

[name99]

While true, 2.4 has slightly better range than 5 ghz, in a reasonable domicile this really shouldn’t be an issue for coverage and what is very limited throughput. This isn’t transmitting video or even web pages or images. I would say though, that IN a domicile, things like Microwave ovens which emit as well in the 2.4 ghz range can impact wifi devices on those same frequencies. That happens often. As others have noted, setup over WiFi can be more complicated depending on the app and related third party… google, apple, other Matter certified partners. It’s often difficult to have to turn OFF the 5 ghz connections on a device or router, just to get a 2.4 ghz device properly connected and authenticated.

And if, things reset on the device (say after a firmware update) then it can often have to be done again and could lead to the device being unexpectadly offline.

I don't know what you define as a domicile but I would say
(a) I don't know who's using these unshielded microwave ovens that supposedly kill their 2.4GHz WiFi. Never in my life have I experienced this.

(b) an APARTMENT may well easily be covered by a single wifi unit, but not so if you have a reasonably sized suburbs house, especially if you want to also control outside equipment. For example my solar panel unit reports its details (current power and so on) to me, and I presume to the solar company, via WiFi, likewise my Racchio irrigation controller tracks the weather via wifi. Both are outside the house and it's not trivial for WiFi to reach them.
But honestly rather than futz around hoping 2.4 will reacher further than 5, it's better to just extend the wifi range somehow. Either with a range extender set like Orbi; or if you are slightly techy and have older WiFi equipment sitting around as many of us now do, you can usually hack together something by yourself (connect to the older base station via ethernet and put it in bridge mode, or suchlike).

 

[ChrisA]

Unfortunately no-one tells you whether an IoT device uses a sensible setup design (BT or a reasonable equivalent like NFC or even camera [eg Apple HomePod]), so you have to use heuristics like "does the design look like it was optimized to save every penny". And being 2.4GHz only is one of those heuristics.

That is not true. If the device says "Matter" and has the logo you know 100% for sure that it uses either Thread or Wi-Fi for data (both are 2 GHz) and that it uses BT for commissioning.

As of today (2023) there are no other options.

 

[RookiDT]

Dumb question. Do these devices have access to my internet and send data to to-link servers? Does WI-FI used only for matter??

 

[HDFan]

Wi-Fi is not the best solution for a smart home, it has a single point of failure. If the Wi-Fi router goes down, all the light, switches, plugs and appliances stop working.

It certainly has its issues. If you make any changes, such as a SSID name, then all of the devices have to be re-paired.

I have no use for a single plug device. I have 7 Satechi dual plugs, 2 per wall outlet, and they are all fully populated. Work great unless I mess up the SSID or there is a power or some other failure when I have to reseat them. Even though they are 2.4 and I have a ton of WiFi networks close to me (62) I haven't had any problems with interference. Waiting for Satrechi to release a thread version.

 

[RMo]

Once you start getting several devices, especially since these are 2.4 only, you start getting latency and congestion.

Thread works on a different frequency

Thread does not use a different frequency; it is also 2.4 GHz. So, it's like Zigbee (which significantly influenced the Matter specs), Bluetooth, and, of course, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, to name a few other popular usage of this chunk of the spectrum.

But is a different protocol and may work — and does, IMHO — work better than Wi-Fi for some applications (low power, low data rate, etc.) for that reason.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Thread does not use a different frequency; it is also 2.4 GHz. So, it's like Zigbee (which significantly influenced the Matter specs), Bluetooth, and, of course, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, to name a few other popular usage of this chunk of the spectrum.

But is a different protocol and may work — and does, IMHO — work better than Wi-Fi for some applications (low power, low data rate, etc.) for that reason.

I thought it used a channel outside the wifi range but I don’t have the exact information so I’m probably wrong.

Edit: yes it does use the exact same band but the bandwidth is only 5Mhz so there’s still a good chance to get a non-overlapping channel unless you’re drowning in 2.4 in which case nothing is going to work well.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Thread is a mesh network were every device is able to re-transmit the signal.

Not every device. Only ones that are mains powered. A battery powered one will be an endpoint, not a relay.

 

[svish]

Good to see product from TP-Link. Expecting to see more products released soon.

 

[zapmymac]

I bought their new gen2 outdoor switch and have been quite happy with its hardware & software. More Thread and/or Matter support gladly welcomed even in my Apple-only house.

 

[ChrisA]

It certainly has its issues. If you make any changes, such as a SSID name, then all of the devices have to be re-paired.

I have no use for a single plug device. I have 7 Satechi dual plugs, 2 per wall outlet, and they are all fully populated. Work great unless I mess up the SSID or there is a power or some other failure when I have to reseat them. Even though they are 2.4 and I have a ton of WiFi networks close to me (62) I haven't had any problems with interference. Waiting for Satrechi to release a thread version.

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So you "smart house" has 7 devices? Of course, it works well. But try building out 50 to 100 devices. This is the idea, not to retrofit a few plugs, but to build Matter into EVERYTHING, every switch, plug, appliance, HVAC and lightbulb. I'm talking abut new construction, not a retrofit.

Think of a typical bathroom, there is a motion sensor and 2 or 3 lights and fan and ceiling heater and you really need a door sensor too. It is easy to have 10 devices in one bathroom

Now imagine a condo complex with 30 to 100 units, each unit has 50 or so devices and you have a few thousand Wi-Fi devices in one building.

Again this is about new construction on a building in the late 2020s. Today we only see a few hobby users doing small projects. Matter is designed for the contractor to put in during construction.

I'm actually doing this in a first floor remodel. $1000 in smart devices is not a big deal on a $50,000 project. I showed a client a Philips Hue light, warned that they are $50 each and that we'd need a couple dozen of them and then showed a Lutron Caseta system for much less. The Hue system sold itself, A person building a house in California is not going to care about a couple thousand bucks one way or the other. My client is not unique. People are going to be putting a hundred devices in each unit.

 

[name99]

Dumb question. Do these devices have access to my internet and send data to to-link servers? Does WI-FI used only for matter??

Differs on a company by company basis. Much depends on whether the equipment was design for HomeKit first or HomeKit was added on as hack.

Eve definitely do not need to talk to the company.
I believe the same is true for Hue, Nanoleaf and Ikea.
Wyze definitely needs to talk to the company.

 

[name99]

So you "smart house" has 7 devices? Of course, it works well. But try building out 50 to 100 devices. This is the idea, not to retrofit a few plugs, but to build Matter into EVERYTHING, every switch, plug, appliance, HVAC and lightbulb. I'm talking abut new construction, not a retrofit.

Think of a typical bathroom, there is a motion sensor and 2 or 3 lights and fan and ceiling heater and you really need a door sensor too. It is easy to have 10 devices in one bathroom

Now imagine a condo complex with 30 to 100 units, each unit has 50 or so devices and you have a few thousand Wi-Fi devices in one building.

Again this is about new construction on a building in the late 2020s. Today we only see a few hobby users doing small projects. Matter is designed for the contractor to put in during construction.

I'm actually doing this in a first floor remodel. $1000 in smart devices is not a big deal on a $50,000 project. I showed a client a Philips Hue light, warned that they are $50 each and that we'd need a couple dozen of them and then showed a Lutron Caseta system for much less. The Hue system sold itself, A person building a house in California is not going to care about a couple thousand bucks one way or the other. My client is not unique. People are going to be putting a hundred devices in each unit.

Honestly doing this is 2023 sounds crazy to me!
I made much of my house (built in 2021) smart and for a brief period my builder was interested in starting a new business to do this formally in his new houses. But what became very clear in 2021 (and remains just as clear in 2023) is that THIS STUFF IS NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME. It is just way too flaky, breaks for the stupidest reasons, is impossible to debug (especially remotely), is impossible to design as an actual architecture (as opposed to a hacked series of scripts) and is generally amateur hour run amok.

Honestly, I suspect you will rue the day you ever did this for a client as a commercial venture -- either you'll be in court, or every three months for the next ten years you'll be driving to the house and spending a day trying to figure out why something no longer works the way it used to :-(

The issue is NOT costs; the issue is perpetual inconvenience because, as I keep saying, this stuff is so freaking amateurish. And it's not getting better! Sure, Thread is supposed to be so awesome? Good luck debugging a Thread network. Apple take this so seriously that the only (primitive!) tool for getting even a vague view into the network ships with a third party app, Eve.app, not in any Apple tool.
And I can tell you how to nuke a Thread network (and your entire HomeKit setup) very very easily...

 

[ChrisA]

Honestly doing this is 2023 sounds crazy to me!
I made much of my house (built in 2021) smart and for a brief period my builder was interested in starting a new business to do this formally in his new houses. But what became very clear in 2021 (and remains just as clear in 2023) is that THIS STUFF IS NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME. It is just way too flaky, breaks for the stupidest reasons, is impossible to debug (especially remotely), is impossible to design as an actual architecture (as opposed to a hacked series of scripts) and is generally amateur hour run amok.

Honestly, I suspect you will rue the day you ever did this for a client as a commercial venture -- either you'll be in court, or every three months for the next ten years you'll be driving to the house and spending a day trying to figure out why something no longer works the way it used to :-(

The issue is NOT costs; the issue is perpetual inconvenience because, as I keep saying, this stuff is so freaking amateurish. And it's not getting better! Sure, Thread is supposed to be so awesome? Good luck debugging a Thread network. Apple take this so seriously that the only (primitive!) tool for getting even a vague view into the network ships with a third party app, Eve.app, not in any Apple tool.
And I can tell you how to nuke a Thread network (and your entire HomeKit setup) very very easily...

The stuff is amateurish if installed by an amateur, as most of this stuff is today.

Most hobbiests are looking for a low-cost system and when they just barly get it to work they stop. But if you buy parts and test them over time and only use these tested parts And you design with the idea that "stuff fails" you can do well today.

SOme hints:
1) Philips Hue and Lutron Caseta are "bomb proof" product lines.
2) Homekit is only good for connecting to Siri. Don't depend on it.
3) User need switches they can touch but most of the time motion sensors should do the work.
4) NEVER use anything that depends on "The Cloud".
5) Home Assistant (not Apple Home) is the best integration platform by a huge amount

 

[_Spinn_]

Too bad it is Bluetooth. I’ll stick with my Eve Energy smart plugs.

 

[xmarcuswildx]

Not to be mean, but… couldn’t you just use a light switch? I’m not sold on a “smart home” yet, I still think it’s a first world gimmick.

*old man yells at clouds

 

[xmarcuswildx]

Man… reading these comments it’s like there’s some sort of $0.99 light switch disinformation campaign against using a smart home and plugs…

 

[imola.zhp]

Bluetooth-only is a non-starter after using Thread-based devices. There’s no going back once you get used to how fast and reliable Thread is compared to Bluetooth, and it’s frankly surprising to me that they’d launch it with Matter support without Thread.

I was so hyped for this! A decently priced smart plug that supports Matter?? I’d rather have Thread and no Matter than Matter over Bluetooth (or even just Matter over WiFi). I’m building out my Thread network in my home and need it for future proofing.

I switched to Wemo Thread plugs when they came out. They were touch and go until the first update. Then solid for like a year, now since iOS 16.3 (give or take) we have two that are delayed for some reason. In our "good night" scene one of the two will go off about 30 second later and the other will turn on (white noise machine) about 30 seconds after that. Annoying AF. Rebooting (unplugging and plugging back in) nearby HomePod mini's helps for a few weeks and then its back.

Long story short, there can still be issue with Thread if the maker of the Thread product is slow to release updates (or doesn't release any at all).