Controlled Outlets

Recommendation, and I am not kidding: Use a timer for the fridge or anything mission-critical. Preferably a good old mecanical one made from metal, not plastic. At around $50 they are expensive but they last while just about anything else doesn't.

My experience with home automation gear is largely bad. I do not trust it.

Oh, and I'd stay away from X-10. BTDT, was not reliable at all.

Those timers have one fatal flaw, they don't have any way of knowing the time other than when you set it. If the power goes out they stop timing and fall out of sync with the intended schedule.

Yeah, X-10 is not very good. But there is a lot more options than that... If you haven't looked at anything since X-10 was out, you must be getting pretty old and set in your ways.

Rick C.

Is your fridge on a timer?

It's a flaw, but not a fatal one. But running a fridge on a timer could be. Motorised cam timers are as reliable as it gets.

NT

At least one of them a few years back contained confirmed bugs which allowed an attacker to gain control of the device over WiFi and turn whatever was connected on and off via a prompt.

Good ol' classic fixed-size buffer overflowing and smashing the stack caused by poorly-written C that didn't properly sanitize the input

I mean unless they're physically in the general location where they can connect directly to the device.

Virtually every fridge is on a timer.

Rick C.

an S instead of a U?) and want to automate turning off certain devices. Lo oking at switched outlets I found a number of devices that use a manual rem ote, some number of devices that work via wifi and so can be controlled by an android or possibly a PC. Those being controlled by a "smart" agent mos tly only are rated for 10 amps. I don't want to have to worry about what I plug into these things, so I am looking for 15 amp devices.

ave to get past the router and WISP modem.

Huh? You are worried about people having physical access to your fridge be cause they will tamper with the timer??? I'd be more worried about them ea ting my shrimp!

Rick C.

In whatever the range of the wireless protocol is, which might not be of much concern if you're out at the homestead somewhere, but maybe concerning if you live in an urban area.

I sure hope you're kidding here. But I've a feeling you're not.

NT

gnuarm wrote

Indeed, many years ago a burglar forced the door when I was away, took a nice printer, and... had a go the fridge.

A timer on a fridge makes no sense to me, I want the thermostat to control it.

Any remote control system should have _feedback_ so you can see if the command got through, have it repeat if not, see what state things are in any time. So TCP/IP.

the TPlink smart switches are cloud-based, I have not tried to reverse-engineer the android app, I shelved it and installed a mechanical timer instead.

Absolutely not. Google "refrigerator timer" and see what comes up.

Rick C.

I don't know about the fridge, but the icemaker usually has a timer to know when to stop re-filling the tray with water. Seems weird, but it works OK.

On Monday, August 6, 2018 at 3:24:12 AM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@nospam.org wrote :

because

nice printer,

l it.

The fact that you don't know why I want to use a timer doesn't mean my use is not valid.

One of the devices I'm considering has a current/power measurement. I am j ust looking for practical experience such as Jeff might have. So far the o nly experience based response is from Joerg who is channeling the X-10 prot ocol ghost and so has sworn off all remote control protocols.

Rick C.

I suspected you might mean frost frees. But most fridges are not frost free of course.

NT

On Sunday, August 5, 2018 at 11:19:06 AM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wro te:

S instead of a U?) and want to automate turning off certain devices. Look ing at switched outlets I found a number of devices that use a manual remot e, some number of devices that work via wifi and so can be controlled by an android or possibly a PC. Those being controlled by a "smart" agent mostl y only are rated for 10 amps. I don't want to have to worry about what I p lug into these things, so I am looking for 15 amp devices.

e to get past the router and WISP modem.

efrigerator which I won't want to turn off for days when I am away.

As is usual with popular items on the web the results were a bit overwhelmi ng. Not only are there many, many devices to choose from, there are many, many web sites with "reviews" and various forms of advice, often rather dif ferent.

I did find that a number of devices are only rated for 10 amps load. I don 't want to deal with having to worry about peak current vs average current of a device being controlled, so I want the controller to at least handle a 15 amp load. I don't see power consumption specs on any of these. It is important to me that the controller not use more power than I might save by using it.

The software seems to be the part that is hardest to get any real info on. I haven't found one yet that works with a PC, all the apps are for smart p hones. None explain if the controller is capable of remembering the schedu le or if it depends on the app to control the controller at a low level, tu rning it on and off at each scheduled time. This is important to me becaus e I may not be there with my phone at the time it needs to switch. Then th ere is the memory in the controller, will it remember a schedule when power fails? Will it come back up with the device on or off?

This is why I am asking for practical experience. I expect there are other issues I have not considered as yet. I could buy one and connect it to so mething not operationally critical to see how it performs with all the glit ches and power cycles in a real world setting. It doesn't look like anyone here has experience with these things since the Internet was invented.

Rick C.

Seriously? I doubt that one can buy a refrigerator that is not frost-free.

Odd thing to say. None of my fridges, freezers & fridge freezers are frost free, I refuse to buy them.

NT