WeMo Insight Switch
Hello everyone,
so today we're doing something a little bit different. Today
we are going to be reviewing the WeMo Insight Switch from
Belkin but we're going to be doing it on the GalaxyS6.
That's right, we're using the 4k video footage from the Galaxy S6
and then blending that with our professional microphone. So
what is the WeMo Insight Switch? Well,
it's quite simple really. This is Belkin's attempt to
bring home automation to the masses with a device that is simple to use
attractive to look at and more importantly delivers
information that you wouldn't normally get from a device plugged into it.
Now the idea here is very, very simple.
Built into this particular device is wifi WeMo Insight Switch
and wifi direct. It also has a monitoring unit
as well which generates stats based on how much power is drawn
off the plug at any given time and it makes that information available through an app on your
smartphone.
So far, so awesome. Now what we found when we actually came to use the device
is it works well once you get it setup but that setup process
is prone to errors. Whether they're prone to errors because of user error or WeMo Insight Switch
because of the product
I'm not entirely sure, but looking online most people seem to report that it takes a
good three or four attempts to get this to work well.
The idea is fairly simple. You plug this into your power socket,
you then via wifi direct connect your phone
to this socket, essentially over the air
using your wifi. Now at this point you need to put in details for your wireless
access point, your router within your home.
Currently, when you first start this up, essentially it will just be talking between the device
and your smartphone,
not over your general network which is what we need to happen.
Now once you put in the details for your access point, effectively
the access point's name and password this will then communicate WeMo Insight Switch
with your access point and you don't need to use wifi direct any more.
Any smartphone running the WeMo app that is also connected to your wifi
will be able to talk to this device and pull stats off it. What we found in
practice is it required two or three attempts
to really get this to actually be happy on our main network.
Otherwise we'd have to reboot it, it would disappear off the network and so on. Eventually
several software updates coming down as well which may have helped to alleviate
that
initial out-of-the-box experience but it still wasn't as smooth as it could be.
Now statistics wise what can this device tell you?
Well, it can give you a very good steer on how much power is being drawn
off this plug socket at any given time. Now, you could, if you wanted to, plug-in
say a four-gang or an eight-gang plug, and have multiple devices all drawing power
through this at WeMo Insight Switch
one time. So you can get an idea for instance how much your entire home theatre system is
using, or
your PC setup or likewise you could just plug
one device into it directly and just monitor how much power that device is using.
It has the ability for you to put in how much your kilowatt
hour cost is, as well, so you can get an actual idea as to how much power you're
using in real time but also each day and over a
month as well as an average. Very useful. Because this is
connected to your wifi and by extension your internet
you can also control devices remotely as well. Now that means that if for
instance you want to turn your lights on before you come home
or even after you've gone out, you can do that simply by opening the app WeMo Insight Switch
and hitting a button and it will turn on or off this device.
Really, really useful. But likewise Belkin have gone a bit further.
What they've also managed to do is to put in a series of rules as well
which are based on the individual device. So for instance
you could say once this device reaches
say £2 of cost per day, turn it off.
Or you could say between these hours of say, 8am
and 9am, I don't want this device on but I do want it to turn on
after nine in the evening. All of these are rules
that can be triggered directly on the device. Very, very handy. But Belkin went yet another
step further.
Because this is internet-connected it has access to the wider internet
if you'd like it to. WeMo Insight Switch
It also works with if this, then that, allowing you to set up complex rules
based on
situations which the WeMo will respond to.
It can also store data that the WeMo has generated
in the cloud. For instance in Google Drive, all using if it.
This is really, really cool stuff. Overall
I really like what WeMo are doing here. Whilst I appreciate the additional
statistics in here are
really helpful for getting an idea, a handle
on your power usage, WeMo and the Belkin devices
have actually gone to a stage where now there are so many different types of
plug sockets and so on available that you don't just have to have
the Insights. You can just get a bog standard plug socket which also happens to
be internet aware, smartphone aware, and be turned on and work WeMo Insight Switch
remotely. There's a really good ecosystem growing up around WeMo
which in my opinion is making it head and shoulders above
the rest of the offerings on the market. Certainly this is so easy to use
for the general consumer.
WeMo Insight Switch