“From smart showers to smart faucets and smart switches to smart buttons, CES 2018 has been jam-packed with some of the best, most viable smart home products we’ve ever seen at the trade show,” Mikah Sargent writes for iMore. “If you’re a smart home enthusiast with a particular preference for HomeKit-enabled products, these are the smart home accessories you’re going to be adding to your home this year!”
Products covered:
• Kohler Konnect
• U by Moen
• iDevices Instinct Smart Switch & Fan Switch
• Belkin Wemo Bridge
• ConnectSense In-Wall Outlet
• First Alert Onelink Safe & Sound
• Philips Hue
• Nanoleaf Remote, Elgato Eve Button, Fibaro’s The Button
MacDailyNews Take: That ConnectSense Smart In-Wall Outlet is interesting. Here’s the press release, verbatim:
ConnectSense In-Wall OutletConnectSense, a leading manufacturer of home automation products, is unveiling its connected In-Wall Outlet at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Building upon the success of the original external Smart Outlet, ConnectSense has designed a hard-wired version, the Smart In-Wall Outlet. Once installed, the Outlet allows for complete control and monitoring of any device that is plugged into either one of the WiFi-connected outlets, including lights, fans, and other plug-in devices. The built-in plug detection automatically senses when a device is plugged in, and can be controlled using the app, built-in touch controls or voice control via third party devices.
The Smart In-Wall Outlet is integrated with Apple HomeKit technology providing quick and powerful access to control Smart In-Wall Outlets anywhere in the home via Siri voice commands through an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, or by using the Apple Home app. This allows for control over both individual and groups of devices, as well as allowing interaction with a growing list of other HomeKit-enabled products from many different manufacturers. Additionally, ConnectSense will be adding support for other smart home ecosystems in 2018 for the In-Wall Outlet and other ConnectSense products.
The Smart In-Wall Outlet has also been designed to operate in commercial environments such as office buildings, airports, factories, universities, and IT locations. The Smart In-Wall Outlet allows for various networking options to meet the needs of commercial customers allowing them to choose their connectivity type dependent on the network used.
“We are focused on building best-in-class smart home devices that provide consumers with convenience and simplicity to their daily lives” said Adam Justice, Founder of ConnectSense. “The In-Wall Outlet is our next step in expanding our connected product offering allowing customers to take the next step in smart home technology from augmenting their existing home to building it in. By harnessing the power of Apple’s HomeKit we are able to ensure a simple and secure way for our customers to control their homes.”
The Smart In-Wall Outlet will be on display at the Sands Expo, Booth 42355.
For more information on the new ConnectSense Smart In-Wall Outlet, including high-res images, or to schedule an appointment to demo the product in-person at CES, contact Kristen Mondshein at kristen(at)sourcecodecomms(dot)com.
Specifications:
• Equipped with two connected outlets
• Features on/off controls
• Easy setup and configuration
• 125V/20A commercial rating
• Precise power monitoring
• Plug detection for safety
• Pairing using NFC technology
• Tamper-proof
• Wiring screws
• Sustain up to 6000V / 10KAmp impulse
• Multiple wireless networking options
One problem with that ConnectSense outlet is that there doesn’t appear to be a manual power button. Other similar external adapters with outlets allow you to manually turn things on and off, which is helpful when there are network/phone issues or when you’re just right there and don’t want to launch an app to turn something on/off.
I was impressed by a kickstarted project for a similar device, but that one had a physical switch built into the socket and the switch could be manually operated. When it was operated electronically, the switch physically moved to reflect whether it was on or off.
In effect a conventional switch was being nudged by an actuator so that the switching happened normally and the switch lever was an indicator, but also an over-ride.
I have mixed feelings about the smart home. We are building a new home and I don’t see us using very much of this.
A few things are useful such as light switches. If you want to be able to switch lights on from various locations it is easier to do that from your phone than to run wires to various places. Patio lights, garage lights and such are good candidates. A lot of this seems like solutions in search of a problem.
I live in a house with stone walls, oak floors and beamed ceilings. Running cables around the house is very difficult if they are to be concealed. For additional lights, fans and turning on certain appliances, smart controls are the most practical solution and are very convenient.
I have considerable reservations about fully committing to installing too many built-in points because I expect things like that to be good for at least twenty years and I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where my future iPhone 25 will no longer support protocols that were used on iPhone X way back in the past. I’ve never seen any promise from Apple saying that HomeKit will be fully supported for a couple of decades,
If I was building a house, for the investment value, it’d be worth it to look into it. If you ever decide to sell the home, a few dollars now to do what needs to be done inside the walls can mean an increase in resale value to a savvy buyer that will delight at not having to tear into the walls.
Well before this became a resale markup, I checked out a house for a friend that had Ethernet throughout. That made the difference in the sale between two similar houses. It’s kinda like a fireplace. There are many that wouldn’t use it, BUT it’s a marketable feature to those that would.
When I’ve renovated rooms in my house, I’ve taken the opportunity to lay ethernet cables beneath the upstairs floors, in the roof space and up through cupboards.
Not all rooms have been cabled, some rooms are almost impossible to cable anyway, but it’s working out quite well for not just computer purposes, but also distributing A/V signals and even my garden watering and greenhouse have been automated by means of ethernet cables run underground.
The house has a huge stone fireplace built from stone which is no longer quarried and lime mortar which is almost impossible to match, so you wouldn’t want to disturb it in any way. It makes a wonderful feature on that wall, but with the stone wall, solid floor and beamed ceilings, it’s difficult to neatly route cables from one side of the fireplace to the other for my HiFi, so when I fitted an oak floor directly on top of the solid floor, I ran ethernet and speaker cables around the perimeter from one side of the fireplace to the other so that signals can be passed across the fireplace via those hidden cables.
Visitors love our fireplace and it’s continually in use during the winter, burning logs from the trees in our garden.
ConnectSense outlet device was the first I bought. Sadly they were very unreliable and had to be reset several times. I have one unit that is always on that hasn’t caused trouble.
My emails to the company have been ignored. In the end I went with incipio’s product that has. Even very reliable.
ConnectSense In-Wall Outlet & Smart Outlet2 are nice concepts – on paper! got SO2. Product sucks.
It was installed by certified electrician.
Problems:
1. But connecting device is a nightmare. The iOS app does not connect smoothly, if anything after many tries, and never again.
2. CS blames Apple HomeKit for not connecting 2nd device/iPhone. HomeKit is problematic they say if connecting another family member to same CS account.
Excuse! Nest etc. SmartHome devices work with both HomeKit and independently!
Then why does CS not engineer it to work in separate account on same device or login same account and show up for 2nd user and/or Share as guest other smart devices?
3. CS support then says you can’t connect 2nd user through app well, so to use web app (app.ConnectSense.com/devices) but that option when logged in same account still does not show pre-installed outlets and when adding new device the temporary CS WiFi network does not show up/connect.
4. Called/eMailed ConnectSense support a dozen times, still not connecting after 3 weeks!
Does Apple have to do everything?! Third parties suck. Nest is an exception. Then again, Nest was created by ex-Apple employee Tony Fadell. If not testing products thoroughly before selling them, don’t bother!
One problem with that ConnectSense outlet is that there doesn’t appear to be a manual power button. Other similar external adapters with outlets allow you to manually turn things on and off, which is helpful when there are network/phone issues or when you’re just right there and don’t want to launch an app to turn something on/off.
Maybe I’m missing something, but in this case, wouldn’t you just turn the device off from it’s own power switch, or unplug the device?
Unless it was already turned off and you need to turn it on.
If you turn off the device from it’s own power switch or unplug it, you won’t then be able to turn it on remotely.
Or as C++ mentions, if it was turned off remotely, the socket is dead and you can’t turn anything on without your iPhone/network.
I was impressed by a kickstarted project for a similar device, but that one had a physical switch built into the socket and the switch could be manually operated. When it was operated electronically, the switch physically moved to reflect whether it was on or off.
In effect a conventional switch was being nudged by an actuator so that the switching happened normally and the switch lever was an indicator, but also an over-ride.
I have mixed feelings about the smart home. We are building a new home and I don’t see us using very much of this.
A few things are useful such as light switches. If you want to be able to switch lights on from various locations it is easier to do that from your phone than to run wires to various places. Patio lights, garage lights and such are good candidates. A lot of this seems like solutions in search of a problem.
I live in a house with stone walls, oak floors and beamed ceilings. Running cables around the house is very difficult if they are to be concealed. For additional lights, fans and turning on certain appliances, smart controls are the most practical solution and are very convenient.
I have considerable reservations about fully committing to installing too many built-in points because I expect things like that to be good for at least twenty years and I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where my future iPhone 25 will no longer support protocols that were used on iPhone X way back in the past. I’ve never seen any promise from Apple saying that HomeKit will be fully supported for a couple of decades,
If I was building a house, for the investment value, it’d be worth it to look into it. If you ever decide to sell the home, a few dollars now to do what needs to be done inside the walls can mean an increase in resale value to a savvy buyer that will delight at not having to tear into the walls.
Well before this became a resale markup, I checked out a house for a friend that had Ethernet throughout. That made the difference in the sale between two similar houses. It’s kinda like a fireplace. There are many that wouldn’t use it, BUT it’s a marketable feature to those that would.
When I’ve renovated rooms in my house, I’ve taken the opportunity to lay ethernet cables beneath the upstairs floors, in the roof space and up through cupboards.
Not all rooms have been cabled, some rooms are almost impossible to cable anyway, but it’s working out quite well for not just computer purposes, but also distributing A/V signals and even my garden watering and greenhouse have been automated by means of ethernet cables run underground.
The house has a huge stone fireplace built from stone which is no longer quarried and lime mortar which is almost impossible to match, so you wouldn’t want to disturb it in any way. It makes a wonderful feature on that wall, but with the stone wall, solid floor and beamed ceilings, it’s difficult to neatly route cables from one side of the fireplace to the other for my HiFi, so when I fitted an oak floor directly on top of the solid floor, I ran ethernet and speaker cables around the perimeter from one side of the fireplace to the other so that signals can be passed across the fireplace via those hidden cables.
Visitors love our fireplace and it’s continually in use during the winter, burning logs from the trees in our garden.
ConnectSense outlet device was the first I bought. Sadly they were very unreliable and had to be reset several times. I have one unit that is always on that hasn’t caused trouble.
My emails to the company have been ignored. In the end I went with incipio’s product that has. Even very reliable.
ConnectSense In-Wall Outlet & Smart Outlet2 are nice concepts – on paper! got SO2. Product sucks.
It was installed by certified electrician.
Problems:
1. But connecting device is a nightmare. The iOS app does not connect smoothly, if anything after many tries, and never again.
2. CS blames Apple HomeKit for not connecting 2nd device/iPhone. HomeKit is problematic they say if connecting another family member to same CS account.
Excuse! Nest etc. SmartHome devices work with both HomeKit and independently!
Then why does CS not engineer it to work in separate account on same device or login same account and show up for 2nd user and/or Share as guest other smart devices?
3. CS support then says you can’t connect 2nd user through app well, so to use web app (app.ConnectSense.com/devices) but that option when logged in same account still does not show pre-installed outlets and when adding new device the temporary CS WiFi network does not show up/connect.
4. Called/eMailed ConnectSense support a dozen times, still not connecting after 3 weeks!
Does Apple have to do everything?! Third parties suck. Nest is an exception. Then again, Nest was created by ex-Apple employee Tony Fadell. If not testing products thoroughly before selling them, don’t bother!