Plugaway

[rthorntn]

I am liking the look of this, wifi power sockets with aussie plugs:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plugaway/plugaway-your-smart-home-on-your-smart-phone

Cheers
Richard

[Towger]

They pulled the initial Plugaway kickstarter after finding out how much was involved in getting it approved etc. An addition 6 or so months of planning has gone into the campaign before this relaunch. I think most of the development costs are already covered, the Kickstarter is more for marketing and additions funds for getting it approved in the different countries they are releasing a version for.

[codeboy2k]

I don't get these smart plug and smart LED campaigns on Kickstarter.  If it was me, I wouldn't do it, and perhaps that's why I'm not rich.  

There are plenty of smartapps/home-automation/smartplugs, etc. on the market already. I don't think these campaigns bring anything new to the market, other than cool looks. Maybe that's what people want more than anything else, and that's what I don't get.  I never see my home automation system. It just works, I don't care if the plug behind the bedside night-table looks like it was designed by Apple and it glows in 24-bit color.  Granted, my HA system does not have point of load power monitoring, and perhaps that's what this device has, but I've not been able to find out from reading their description  if it does or does not actually have load power monitoring built in. They talk about the possibility, so I presume it does.   Furthermore, I don't understand why they chose the Atmel ATMEGA128A part over an MSP430FE part. The Atmel part has a single 10-bit multiplexed ADC, the MSP430FE has 3 x 16-bit simultaneous ADC's.. it's designed for powerline monitoring.  It's also a mere 400uA active and 100 nA off and ready to wake up.  Furthermore, I trust TI more than Atmel to deliver 1000s' of these.   Sorry, but really, they picked Atmel for this very domain specific task, I really don't have much confidence in them when TI's been in this space for years already.  Plus, the TI part is <$4/1k and can be sourced for less than $3/1k ... the Atmel part is <$7/1k.. more money, less features.. why?

As for their smart LED bulb.. that's a complete marketing mistake. They absolutely cannot compete with the established market leaders in the bulb space.  This LED lamp will be their undoing, they should forget about it and focus on the plug and HA aspect of their smart offerings.  Leave the bulbs to the big guys.

[Psi]

There's nothing wrong with the idea, but they need to be cheaper, NZ$100 for a box of 10 would be fair.  NZ$50 for a box of 10 would be perfect

[codeboy2k]

Exactly.  I like the idea of smart outlets, I have remote control outlets now, just not smart outlets.

But they need to hit a better price point and they can't do that with Atmel parts and relays; They could have designed one board to be relay loaded or Triac loaded.  I have 15 triac controllers in my home for lights.  I have 2 relay controllers.  1 for a fan and the other for a gas fireplace starter.

They could have made it cheaper (plus more accurate re: power line monitoring) with a different choice of micro and used triacs as the default switch.  Relays should be an option, a different SKU.  I just can't justify 15 x $30 for lamp controllers. If I wanted to upgrade to their system, then each unit needs to come down below $5. 

Maybe in the future they will get major funding and get 100,000 units manufactured and sell them at the home stores.

I'll buy then

[Towger]

I think the plan is to mass market them to home stores and the Atmel is there because if is 'open' source.  Have your seen the price of the Belkin WeMo, they are not cheap.

[minibutmany]

Why does Matt get his own TV?

[Gallymimus]

Hope they have some extra money for FCC and international equivalents for intentional radiators.  Worldwide compliance can be close to $20k

[Kean]

Pretty sure the worldwide safety compliance tests on top of EMC will be more than $20k.
There are multiple versions of the socket all needing review and testing, plus the globes and 4 way power board.

[peter.mitchell]

I was wondering about something like this project, but with a little twist;

If you have a power board/strip (or whatever you weird people call them, i'd call then a plugglehopper if it were up to me), with say 6 outlets, you could cut down the cost per outlet a fair bit, and it gives you quite a large area (inside one of those cases) for your board ect. But wait, theres more! Instead of it being wifi, build in a powerline ethernet module and a 4(?) port ethernet switch. That way, you could say... stick it in your lounge in your entertainment center, plug in your telly, htpc, games console, sound system, some lamps, your HD devices now have a solid, fast ethernet connection without running new cables, plus, you can control them all and monitor them all.

If I didn't have this house cabled, i could see myself buying 3 or 4 of them, one in the lounge, study, bedroom, maybe kitchen/laundry if those internet of things stoves/washing machines/driers catch on.

[Towger]

Added to the list of dodgy projects: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/list-of-dodgy-crowd-source-funded-projects/msg621549/#msg621549