It's hard for me to tell from this thread, but are the smartthings zigbee smart plug a good alternative to the peanuts?
I like the new/2018 SmartThings outlet myself (the square-ish Zigbee one, model GP-U999SJVLDAA in the US and probably similar elsewhere; beware of the rectangular Wi-Fi one). Lots of my devices seem to gravitate towards it as a repeater. I'm actually hesitant to recommend Peanut plugs. They work well for some but seem to be problematic for others. If price is a concern--that's one of few reasons I think people recommend the Peanut--then the Ikea Trådfri outlet is also a good choice, though its signal is reported to not be as strong (and in my experience devices like it less). If you want something smaller and would rather get a USB charger (or just nothing at all) out of it instead of a bulky outlet, the Ikea Tråfri USB Signal Repater is also a good choice and not too much more (in the US, at least; I've heard it's cheaper like the outlet elsewhere).
I have 4 of the innr smart plugs and have not had any issues with them. The work fine w/Hubitat and are cheaper than most of the other smart plugs I've seen on Amazon
I’ll second the 2018 ST plug as it’s been working perfectly for me for 1 1/2 years and devices repeat very well with it. If the Tradfri outlets are underpowered repeaters, the USB repeaters specs are for much lower signal output. Sorry, I don’t have the specs handy, just found them when they were being announced.
I've had more than one Tradfri Plug die on me.. but to be fair I was using them in semi-extreme places like outdoor weatherproof box, and climate fluctuating areas like our mudroom. They do not seem to be very robust but are inexpensive and as long as you have them in fairly stable environments should be okay I guess. Really though those Iris/Centralite plugs on Ebay seem to be the way to go price/performance-wise.
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I’ve had a Sylvania plug outside in my garage for 2 years that still works flawlessly and turns on the shop lights instantly when I open the door. They’re $15 on Amazon or Ebay.
I have 4 indoors and 1 in the garage. It rarely drops below 40F where I live, and there's been no issue over the last year. I also like the Iris/Centralite plugs. The only advantage of the Tradfri's is their capacity to work as repeaters for non-standard Xiaomi Aqara sensors.
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I went through 2 in an outdoor weatherproof box - they just stopped working. Quite a lot of temperature variation in NJ as well as humidity - so I can't really fault them for this.
Peanut plugs worked for a whole season in that same box as well as in the garage but of course they have other issues so can't recommend them.
Have not tried the Iris plug in the box yet but it's been great as a replacement for the peanuts in the garage at least for this winter so far.
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Not to speak for @aaiyar, but I changed the minimum to 60 and left the rest as is and have been using this for my laundry monitor. It’s never missed a cycle since. I don’t need to be super on top of taking clothes out of the washer though.
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What is the power loss recovery behavior of the SmartThings plugs? Do they automatically come back on (my experience with Hue plugs), or do they stay off, or return to their previous state? Can this be changed on these plugs?
I'm sure Robert will reply with a definitive answer, but just to whet your appetite, I think the answer is "Restore to last state", and yes. But if @bertabcd1234 doesn't give you a definitive answer before I get home this eve, I'll check mine and verify. FWIW, I have standardized on the SmartThings plugs until the advent of decent Zigbee in wall plugs or a branded in-wall receptacle with power monitoring (that also costs less than the Sun, Earth and Moon).
Scott
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SmartThings plugs do seem to be the best. Not cheap, but in my experience deserving of the price they list for. I think “last state” is right. Had a power outage last week and pretty sure they kept their states. I’ll check if I can drag myself out of bed.
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My experience is also that they remember and restore the last state. This might be configurable, but if it is, Hubitat (and I'm not sure even ST) don't let you. I'd be curious if the Hue plugs on Hue did support configuring this, given that they recently added the "state in power restore" option for bulbs.
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I just tested them and the 2018 Samsung plugs and my GE zigbee plugs keep their last state after removing/restoring power. My Sylvania plugs switch off as soon as power is removed. And no, I wasn't in bed still, I just got sidetracked with putting on a new screen door to the deck.
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The Ikea Tradfri outlet is configurable. It can turn off, turn on, or remember the state when power is restored. At least on the 2.0+ firmware. I'm not sure what the firmware that ships with it is capable of. Also the Hubitat drivers don't support changing it but someone could write a driver that supports it.
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I just checked this with one of my Hue plugs. I paired it with my Hue Bridge, and allowed it to do a software update. I was then able to change its power loss recovery behavior, and it did work. (The only options are "Always on" or "Restore last state"). I then tried removing it from the Bridge, and pairing it back with my HE hub and, as I expected, the change did not carry over. The plug goes back to the "Always on" behavior.
Am I right in thinking that I need the plug paired to my HE in order for it to repeat for the rest of my HE-paired Zigbee devices? That's the main reason I want it paired directly to the hub. I can live with the always on behavior, it just means that I have to be mindful of what I use it for. I definitely need some plugs that will revert to the last state, so I will probably go for some of the ST plugs. (The Tradfri plugs don't seem to be available in Aus).
Thanks also to @scottgu3, @Ken_Fraleigh, and @oscopeaaron for your responses.
Yes. It can only repeat for the mesh it’s joined to.
You won’t be disappointed in the performance of the SmartThings plugs. In my experience you won’t need as many of them as some of the other cheaper plugs if using for repeaters.
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While I had zigbee2mqtt installed and could visually see my mesh, I noticed that my smartthings outlet pulled probably half the devices in my house to it. However they did the protocol implementation, devices like routing through it very much.
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I had the hubs powered down a couple months ago when I was replacing a couple old Z-wave switches on the same circuit (and cutting a bigger opening in the house for new french doors). When I powered them back up, there were 10 end devices listed routing through one of the Samsung plugs on the child and device info page. Devices have since distributed more evenly among the 4 Samsung plugs, plus a few GE in-wall dimmers and 2 Sylvania plugs.
