Smart Switch Review - AWS03F

So... @Eric_Inovelli pointed out (I took it jokingly) a colorful "Smart Switch" in this thread: https://community.hubitat.com/t/new-inovelli-switch/9760/94

Curiosity got me and I actually bought one. Let me state off the bat that I have NO INTENTION of installing this switch as it is not UL listed (or ANY safety certification). I also have not installed the app to actually do anything with the switch yet (and may not). But, here is some initial review of it based purely on it's construction and an initial power-up:

  1. The plastic housing is pretty generic for any normal electrical device. The housing itself is basically identical to a GE Z-Wave Fan switch I had laying around (for comparison).
  2. The screw terminals ARE NOT what I would normally expect. There is no way to safely connect wiring to the outside as the wires would only connect through the screw, there is no external metal pad. The screws are not of any of the types I have ever seen on normal outlets or switches either. The wire passes into a hole and is clamped down directly by the screw NOT by any metal plate as they normally would be (where the screw moves the plate). The screws also have no retention, unscrew them too far and they happily drop right out. Although you can easily put them right back in.
  3. Heatsink.... the heatsink faceplate is pretty decent seeming and substantial. HOWEVER, it only connects to the ground wire terminal. There is NO thermal connection to anything else and the ground terminal does not connect to the circuit at all (so it could never pass safety if it wanted to that I know of). So the heatsink is really just acting as a faceplate alone and has no value otherwise.
  4. The switch button itself really only works readily if you push the bottom. The whole paddle just pushes a smaller switch inside underneath it and that one is located towards the bottom. It makes a nice audible click but the feel is not like a normal button and definitely not like a normal paddle switch.
  5. Underneath that paddle are a whole bunch of LEDs on a single board that is connected (by pins only, no wiring) to the main controlling board. The LED board has a thin metal "shield" on top that may be meant to act as a heatsink but I have no removed it yet to see if it would actually do anything for them.
  6. The controller appears to be a fairly standard ESP8266 derivative, but I need to get a magnifying glass to be sure. It is mounted to it's own board in the middle of the device along with the switch and a couple components.
  7. On the very bottom of this stack is the relay board. It connects up using a couple pins and has 3 connectors on it that slot into the terminal locations to actually connect to the AC.
  8. When powered on it sat flashing a couple different colors and those changed when the switch was turned on or off. But it looks like it really wants to pair with something (that would be my thought at least) but like I said I am not keen on the app. There is no separate "pair" button. My phone also could not detect any new WiFi access point so it seems a little odd how they might be connecting (most cheap WiFi devices create their own point for initial configuration to get them on your network). Maybe their app is relying on something outside normal ports, but you would still expect it to show up as WiFi. Then again I did not want to let it sit powered on for too long.

That is it for this quick review so far. I hope to take some pictures and actually get some more information on this thing... eventually...

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