Smart plugs, dumb questions

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#1 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Guys - I'm planning to install 40 smart plugs in my Pinball Loft gameroom.
Worried about a few things that some of you may be able to answer ...

- Will my 2.4GHZ band of Wifi get saturated given I have about 20 connected items already and will add 40 more?
- During storms I have the ability to switch off the outlets to the machines, this will kill the Wifi connection too because there will be no power to the source outlet. How will my router handle assigning 40 new IPs mostly "all-at-once" when I start flipping the circuit switches after the storm has passed? This question is the same as when power goes out to the whole house ... how will these react (again 40) when the power comes back on?
- Anyone want to reccomend a brand of these that has worked for them (in larger quantities and over long time period)?

I'm using 4 pieces of the Gosund version from Amazon right now as a test and they have been working in all tests that I've thrown at them. I have them set up using an Echo Dot
The negative reviews are not good - mostly from 2018 ... but I've not experienced any negatives (yet)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079MFTYMV/ref=yo_ii_img

What matters to me:
Staying connected - I simply cant fiddle with 40 of these
Durability - if I spend $300-500 on these I want them to last

Thanks all

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#2 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

All very good questions. I to use a similar product. While your router can certainly handle the bandwidth of all these devices (next to 0) you have valid concerns.

Before I get to crazy, are you able to explain your current network setup? What type of equipment you have, etc? I only ask because im going to make a suggestion, but dont want to make one that will overwhelm you.

I will say this right off the bat, they make power strips with multiple outlets, and each individual outlet on said powerstrip can be individually addressed. May save you some money, and additionally, keep the ip addresses to a minimum.

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#3 4 years ago

CAM

cmack750

Pinside member

Media, PA

8y 57,800 659 9 6

To answer your questions:

Bandwidth for that many smartplugs is not an issue. Those things use next to nothing to operate.

As long as the range of the DHCP scope on your internet router (or whatever device you have assigning IP addresses) is large enough, adding 40 additional outlets/devices is no big deal. This can typically be customized on your router to whatever you want. In a typical home environment, default DHCP Scopes are set to pass out a full or half of a Class C subnet, minus a couple reserved for subnet control and 1 for the router itself. This leaves you likely 125-253 addresses usable in your home by default. Even with 60 smartplugs, this is typically more than enough. All of them "coming back up at once" is zero from a concern perspective.

Devices are assigned addresses from the DHCP Scope with a lease time. Typically multiple days. When they come back up, they should just retain the same IP info they had, so they should just start working automatically as soon as the internet router comes back up too. If power is out for multiple days (beyond lease time), the router will need to come back up first in some cases so the devices can reobtain an IP address.

If you are talking about terminating power to an outlet
These are great for control. Not for lightning/storm protection. If the machines are left plugged into the wall, even with the outlets off, or even the circuit breakers, a close-to-direct lightning strike or massive power inrush can still fry your machines... Even with the machines varistors in good working order. Shutting off the circuit breakers can prevent many in rush issues, but is not foolproof for every event that can happen. If you want totally foolproof storm protection, unplugging your machines physically is really the only option.

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#4 4 years ago

HAB

hAbO

Habo's Arcade

12y 271K 19,952

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wifi-enabled-smart-plugs

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2

#5 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from jandrea95:
All very good questions. I to use a similar product. While your router can certainly handle the bandwidth of all these devices (next to 0) you have valid concerns.
Before I get to crazy, are you able to explain your current network setup? What type of equipment you have, etc? I only ask because im going to make a suggestion, but dont want to make one that will overwhelm you.
I will say this right off the bat, they make power strips with multiple outlets, and each individual outlet on said powerstrip can be individually addressed. May save you some money, and additionally, keep the ip addresses to a minimum.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve got a long house and the gameroom is second floor laid out as in the pics. I’m using an older Netgear 4300 router. The 4300 is hung off a Netgear 1120 cellular modem (I’m in the country) and I’ve got a Wilson external cellular antenna running to it. AT&T 4G. DL speeds are 50mbs and UL speeds are 8mbs. Also deployed 2 Powerline Ethernet extenders at each end of the house. One for the theater room and one for my media server.

I’m surprised the smart plugs connect and work as well as the do because the gameroom is at the farthest end of the house and it’s up a level but so far they have stayed connected OR do a good job reconnecting after shutting power off to them. I’m getting a reading of as low as 7mbs at the far end of the room but a Gosund smart plug there is functioning just fine.

If it was an issue (or will be). I’ve got a half dozen working router here and I could crawl up in the attic and run an Ethernet cable out to an old router that I placed in the gameroom and use it as an AP.

Just want to make sure I do this “once”

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#6 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from cmack750:
To answer your questions:
Bandwidth for that many smartplugs is not an issue. Those things use next to nothing to operate.
As long as the range of the DHCP scope on your internet router (or whatever device you have assigning IP addresses) is large enough, adding 40 additional outlets/devices is no big deal. This can typically be customized on your router to whatever you want. In a typical home environment, default DHCP Scopes are set to pass out a full or half of a Class C subnet, minus a couple reserved for subnet control and 1 for the router itself. This leaves you likely 125-253 addresses usable in your home by default. Even with 60 smartplugs, this is typically more than enough. All of them "coming back up at once" is zero from a concern perspective.
Devices are assigned addresses from the DHCP Scope with a lease time. Typically multiple days. When they come back up, they should just retain the same IP info they had, so they should just start working automatically as soon as the internet router comes back up too. If power is out for multiple days (beyond lease time), the router will need to come back up first in some cases so the devices can reobtain an IP address.
If you are talking about terminating power to an outlet
These are great for control. Not for lightning/storm protection. If the machines are left plugged into the wall, even with the outlets off, or even the circuit breakers, a close-to-direct lightning strike or massive power inrush can still fry your machines... Even with the machines varistors in good working order. Shutting off the circuit breakers can prevent many in rush issues, but is not foolproof for every event that can happen. If you want totally foolproof storm protection, unplugging your machines physically is really the only option.

Wow. Extremely helpful detail all in one place. Thanks so much for this info!

Yup. Totally understand the lightning risk. Just trying to make it smaller not take it to zero.

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1

#7 4 years ago

PPD

Boat

CPRepair

Calgary, AB

7y 107K 1,467 4 92 1

Why 40 plugs? Why not 7 plugs hooked up to ~7 power bars. Also to that point you would want to get ones that have 15amp 1500w rating, IMO. Also I found the circular ones don't fit well in sockets when you have two In the same wall panel.

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1

#8 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from Boat:Why 40 plugs? Why not 7 plugs hooked up to ~7 power bars. Also to that point you would want to get ones that have 15amp 1500w rating, IMO. Also I found the circular ones don't fit well in sockets when you have two In the same wall panel.

Great question. I want individual machine control. I play every day. But likely 1-3 machines. Nice to be to turn on and off just those machines. When I have a party that’s really the only time they are all on

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2

#9 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

OP
Quoted from MT45:
Great question. I want individual machine control. I play every day. But likely 1-3 machines. Nice to be to turn on and off just those machines. When I have a party that’s really the only time they are all on

amazing gameroom! i dont want to reinvent the wheel for you but the main concern seems to be covered. just wanted to make sure you werent using some isp supplied router, haha. i use these with the smart LIFE (not things) app. works amazing, and each plug can be controlled individually

https://www.amazon.com/TECKIN-Multiple-Protector-Bar%EF%BC%8CRemote-Compatible/dp/B07FM3P87S/ref=sr_1_9

personally, I setup routines to which you can add siri, alexa, etc commands to. so for example you can assign a plug to ghostbusters, and tell siri to turn only that game, or a group on, and itll work.

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#10 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from jandrea95:
amazing gameroom! i dont want to reinvent the wheel for you but the main concern seems to be covered. just wanted to make sure you werent using some isp supplied router, haha. i use these with the smart LIFE (not things) app. works amazing, and each plug can be controlled individually
amazon.com link »
personally, I setup routines to which you can add siri, alexa, etc commands to. so for example you can assign a plug to ghostbusters, and tell siri to turn only that game, or a group on, and itll work.

Thanks for the follow up and yes, that is exactly what I’ve done with my test samples. I’ve got 4 of them setup through routines on my Echo Dot. I can simply say “Alexa - Turn on Spiderman” and just that game comes on. If I say “Alexa - Let’s play pinball” then the 4 test units all come on. “Alexa - Game Over” shuts them all down at once. Right now they work like a champ. Hoping this will be the same long term

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#11 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

OP
Quoted from MT45:
Thanks for the follow up and yes, that is exactly what I’ve done with my test samples. I’ve got 4 of them setup through routines on my Echo Dot. I can simply say “Alexa - Turn on Spiderman” and just that game comes on. If I say “Alexa - Let’s play pinball” then the 4 test units all come on. “Alexa - Game Over” shuts them all down at once. Right now they work like a champ. Hoping this will be the same long term

i think you are set! my only concern, and maybe someone more educated than I can chime in, is what happens if one of these companies goes belly up? For example i buy smart plugs from brand x, brand x goes out of business, do my smart plugs still work?

i mean someone is housing the servers that run the api, etc. to allow it all to work together. that (to me) is more concerning than the actual hardware failing. my hopes is im missing something, and itll work forever, haha.

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1

#12 4 years ago

EWG

kermit24

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 123K 6,538

I like to use plugs with a universal type protocol, like Z-wave, which in my experience is more reliable than WiFi smart home stuff. I am sure WiFi may be ok, but just my preference. It also allows you to easily mix and match brands if one company goes up.

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1

#13 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

i wish i knew what the hell you guys were talking about, because it sure sounds cool -

When I wired our game room 5 years ago, I didn't even know things like that existed. We knew where the games were going etc, and I split the load on 3 20 amp circuits and ran them through 3 wall switches so I can turn them on roughly 6 at a time, but it would be cool to do it individually too. And remotely - walk in, sit down at the bar and do it from your phone or whatever.
There are 3 switches behind Metallica that control the first 6 games on that wall, another controls the 6 on the far wall, and the other controls the other 6 ("middle" circuit).
I like that neon blue around the perimeter, I may have to do something like that - - -

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3

#14 4 years ago

JTD

JDissen87

Pinside member

7y 46,900 208

Quoted from kermit24:
I like to use plugs with a universal type protocol, like Z-wave, which in my experience is more reliable than WiFi smart home stuff. I am sure WiFi may be ok, but just my preference. It also allows you to easily mix and match brands if one company goes up.

I use Z-wave in my house and I prefer it over WiFi. Just a personal preference, but experience has taught me that keeping something on a standard that does not rely on the cloud or internet to work tends to survive the longest and have fewest security flaws.
My whole house is on Z-wave devices (switches, receptacles, dimmers, fan controls, power strips, whole house power monitoring, water leak detection, etc...) running on Home Assistant.

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#15 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

Quoted from JDissen87:
I use Z-wave in my house and I prefer it over WiFi. Just a personal preference, but experience has taught me that keeping something on a standard that does not rely on the cloud or internet to work tends to survive the longest and have fewest security flaws.
My whole house is on Z-wave devices (switches, receptacles, dimmers, fan controls, power strips, whole house power monitoring, water leak detection, etc...) running on Home Assistant.

wish I would have researched more. im in IT but the amount of options is just ridiculous. love what you guys are saying about essentially an open source device that isnt dependent on cloud. my stuff works great.... but who is to say company x stays in business. i fear one day everything will just stop working.

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#16 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from pinzrfun:
i wish i knew what the hell you guys were talking about, because it sure sounds cool -
When I wired our game room 5 years ago, I didn't even know things like that existed. We knew where the games were going etc, and I split the load on 3 20 amp circuits and ran them through 3 wall switches so I can turn them on roughly 6 at a time, but it would be cool to do it individually too. And remotely - walk in, sit down at the bar and do it from your phone or whatever.
There are 3 switches behind Metallica that control the first 6 games on that wall, another controls the 6 on the far wall, and the other controls the other 6 ("middle" circuit).
I like that neon blue around the perimeter, I may have to do something like that - - -[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

You wired your room EXACTLY like I did ... only difference is I have 8 switched circuits. This gives you a ton of flexibility and DOES allow you to add smart plugs later like I am doing. If you need any help adding LED lighting drop me a PM or at least check out my gameroom build thread where I shared the components and install. You can make this LED any color you want with a simple push of a button!
Post #126 in my build thread shows the components and following that the install, the moldings were DIY but if you want a fast install, check out these on Amazon

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameroom-advice

https://www.amazon.com/Muzata-Aluminum-Mounting-Installations-Diffuser/dp/B01M09PBYX/ref=sr_1_2_sspa

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2

#17 4 years ago

DAD

Astill

Pinballrom

Collingwood, ON

11y 74,300 820 18

hi power bars can still control games individually. my smart bars take 5 games and you can turn on all at once or name each plug and just say game name.

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#18 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

OP
Quoted from MT45:
You wired your room EXACTLY like I did ... only difference is I have 8 switched circuits. This gives you a ton of flexibility and DOES allow you to add smart plugs later like I am doing. If you need any help adding LED lighting drop me a PM or at least check out my gameroom build thread where I shared the components and install. You can make this LED any color you want with a simple push of a button!
Post #126 in my build thread shows the components and following that the install, the moldings were DIY but if you want a fast install, check out these on Amazon
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameroom-advice
amazon.com link »

Sweet, thank you! I remember looking at that thread months ago when you were starting - in fact, you have a shot of our game room as one of your inspirations - lol - funny how things come back around!

AWESOME looking room you have there!

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#19 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from pinzrfun:
Sweet, thank you! I remember looking at that thread months ago when you were starting - in fact, you have a shot of our game room as one of your inspirations - lol - funny how things come back around!
AWESOME looking room you have there!

Yes sir ... just checked your game room pics. Remember it well and it's looking beautiful!

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#20 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from Astill:
hi power bars can still control games individually. my smart bars take 5 games and you can turn on all at once or name each plug and just say game name.

Did not know that. Thanks for the info. Sure wish I had considered this before I bought all my Tripp Light surge protectors. Looks like the smart "bars" can take care of surge, and add individual remote function

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1

#21 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Update:

I bought 44 of the Gosund wifi smart plugs and started installing them last evening.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079MFTYMV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00

First 14 went great. Easy connection in the Gosund app, then easy setup in Alexa too
Could not get #15 installed no matter what. A little internet sleuthing and I found the issue ... router had reached maximum number of connections per the 2.4ghz channel.
The number of max devices connected is almost an industry secret but I finally discovered that my Netgear router can handle 32 connections per channel. I was already using 18 connections for other devices so I hit the max allowable.
Bottom line is that if you have a large collection OR you already have a bunch of Smart devices already, Wifi smart plugs won't work well.
---
Shifting gears now to use Zigbee as the connectivity protocol. The plugs will be Innr brand (a private label manufacturer for lots of majors) and they will connect directly to the Echo Plus I just ordered (because the Echo Plus has a built in Zigbee hub). Price for the whole setup just doubled from $300 to $600 because wifi connectivity was the cheapest route. Good news is that because the hub is the only device making internet calls, you can add dozens and dozens of smart thingies.
I'll report back soon when the Innr plugs arrive!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SQGG8Z7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00
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#22 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

2 Innr brand Zigbee enabled plugs came in. Installed them along with the Echo Plus (has a Zigbee hub built in) and all are working perfectly. Only issue was getting the old wifi plugs deleted from Alexa. Heads up that you cant do it from the mobile app. Oh, it will let you ... there's a trash can button, that leads to an "are you sure" warning along with a confirm, but next time you use the discover devices function they all come back again! You'll need to go to the web based control area on a laptop or desktop and choose "forget".

I swear, more time gets wasted with these "smart things" than is ever saved through convenience (says the guy that just ordered 38 more Innr smart plugs)

Update soon ...

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#23 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

The wifi thing sounds like a router restriction rather than protocol restriction. Ill read up on zigbee.

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#24 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

Can you fit 2 of any of these into a single outlet, or only 1 per?

I might have to try a couple of these out -

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#25 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from jandrea95:
The wifi thing sounds like a router restriction rather than protocol restriction. Ill read up on zigbee.

You’re spot on. Router restriction. From what I gather there are varying max device specs from manufacturer to manufacturer. The Netgear brand seems consistent in what little documentation I could find to be 32 per channel. So a 3 band router would be almost a hundred connections.

The issue starts with the fact that the 2.4ghz band is used by so many devices that by the time you start adding ioT devices you don’t have a whole heck of a lot of spots left!

I just think that WiFi is simply not designed for this when you start to really scale the number of devices. You are going to saturate the 2.4ghz channel and without a doubt start to impact performance of either the smart devices or your other connected devices with things like loss of connectivity due to IPs being assigned and leases not expiring fast enough.

Hubs and the Zigbee/Zwave type approach just make more sense. Have all the smart things talk to one hub then that hub makes one connection to your WiFi.

We shall see as my saga continues next week. What I thought was an expensive (but worth it) $300 effort has now grown to $800 including the Echo Plus I had to buy to run it all

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#26 4 years ago

KJM

KevInBuffalo

Buffalo Pinball

11y 131K 3,184 11

Quoted from pinzrfun:
Can you fit 2 of any of these into a single outlet, or only 1 per?
I might have to try a couple of these out -

You could always do some short extension cables to fit 2 into 1 if you needed, something like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CEJW0WQ/

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1

#27 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from KevInBuffalo:
You could always do some short extension cables to fit 2 into 1 if you needed, something like this amazon.com link »

Love those things! I bought 40 of those when I was setting up the gameroom- they are a lifesaver for a million reasons. Extends a cord that just a little short. Helps to move a wall wart off the power strip and give you back 2 plugs on it. It also helps to do the same to relocate these smart plugs off the surge strips. I could use them to run one Zigbee to two games but then I can’t control each game singly and that’s my goal

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#28 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

Quoted from KevInBuffalo:
You could always do some short extension cables to fit 2 into 1 if you needed, something like this amazon.com link »

Found some similar ones - these might be fun to horse around with.

Plug (resized).PNG

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#29 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

I have 3 or 4 of these in the game room, one or 2 in the mad scientist lab - I could hook up one of those outlets to this monster and have the whole lab turn on at once, that would be cool -

Power strip (resized).PNG

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#30 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

Ok, I'm stupid - what does "No hub required" mean?

pasted_image (resized).png

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#31 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from pinzrfun:
Can you fit 2 of any of these into a single outlet, or only 1 per?
I might have to try a couple of these out -

Can't put 2 in one outlet but if you plug the Innr smart plug into the top outlet, you can then plug a standard cord into the open outlet below it

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#32 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from pinzrfun:
Ok, I'm stupid - what does "No hub required" mean?[quoted image]

If they are wifi connected devices (like the ones you pictured) then they don't require a hub to connect to and "work". They connect first to your wifi and to control them you might use the provided mobile app

Hub connected devices use a different protocol than wifi to talk to each other and the hub they all connect to. These devices use a protocol (connectivity standard) like Zigbee or Zwave. They talk to a hub using that protocol and then the hub connects to the internet

Hub examples are Almond, Phillip's Hue, Samsung Smarthings, Hubitat, Echo Plus, etc.

Advantages of Hubs are that the devices that connect to the hubs do not clog up the 2.4ghz wifi channel in your house AND the hub allows for tons more functionality (dimming, temp control, power consumption, etc)

Advantages of wifi (non-hub) devices is simple setup and they are dirt cheap ($8 vs $17 each)

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#33 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

OP
Quoted from MT45:
If they are wifi connected devices (like the ones you pictured) then they don't require a hub to connect to and "work". They connect first to your wifi and to control them you might use the provided mobile app
Hub connected devices use a different protocol than wifi to talk to each other and the hub they all connect to. These devices use a protocol (connectivity standard) like Zigbee or Zwave. They talk to a hub using that protocol and then the hub connects to the internet
Hub examples are Almond, Phillip's Hue, Samsung Smarthings, Hubitat, Echo Plus, etc.
Advantages of Hubs are that the devices that connect to the hubs do not clog up the 2.4ghz wifi channel in your house AND the hub allows for tons more functionality (dimming, temp control, power consumption, etc)

Gotcha! Thank you -

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#34 4 years ago

EWG

kermit24

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 123K 6,538

Good move going with a special protocol for your smart plugs. Adding 30 always listening devices to your wifi network is good to avoid if you can. The z-wave stuff I have is incredibly responsive and reliable. I am sure zigbee is the same.

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1

#35 4 years ago

NDE

Spyderturbo007

Pinside member

9y 108K 5,648

I’m a little late to the party, so this might not be much help. Since you already had the WiFi devices, a replacement router would have probably been the best option. I’m a huge fan of Ubiquiti UniFi products. I use them for all my deployments and in situations with 30+ users and piles of IoT devices. They are designed to handle much more.

I went all ZWave with mine and use Zooz ZEN25 double plugs for each set of machines.

The only issue I ran into is network saturation. You may or may not experience this with the Zigbee protocol. I’m not a Zigbee expert so I can’t say for sure. My problem was that Zwave is designed as a minimalist communication platform.

Power control devices also report, so adding 12 devices reporting Power, Wattage, State, Voltage, etc crushed my network. The controller was flooded and the system essentially crashed.

I had to edit the settings on all the devices to essentially kill the reporting. But things are fine now.

I added some in-wall tablets for control which make things easy. Add that to integration with Alexa and you’re all set.
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#36 4 years ago

ART

OLDPINGUY

Arts Arcade

12y 171K 12,507 7

Great Thread, and you have solved my needs exactly as I needed!

The Smart Strip with 4 plugs will work so well!

Thanks!

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#37 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

Quoted from OLDPINGUY:
Great Thread, and you have solved my needs exactly as I needed!
The Smart Strip with 4 plugs will work so well!
Thanks!

I am gonna go with 4 separate plugs since I have games spread out a bit. Plug a power strip into the smart plug. Probably have to get more smart plugs but just to see how it works.

Great thread, lots of information.

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#38 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from Spyderturbo007:
I’m a little late to the party, so this might not be much help. Since you already had the WiFi devices, a replacement router would have probably been the best option. I’m a huge fan of Ubiquiti UniFi products. I use them for all my deployments and in situations with 30+ users and piles of IoT devices. They are designed to handle much more.
I went all ZWave with mine and use Zooz ZEN25 double plugs for each set of machines.
The only issue I ran into is network saturation. You may or may not experience this with the Zigbee protocol. I’m not a Zigbee expert so I can’t say for sure. My problem was that Zwave is designed as a minimalist communication platform.
Power control devices also report, so adding 12 devices reporting Power, Wattage, State, Voltage, etc crushed my network. The controller was flooded and the system essentially crashed.
I had to edit the settings on all the devices to essentially kill the reporting. But things are fine now.
I added some in-wall tablets for control which make things easy. Add that to integration with Alexa and you’re all set.
[quoted image][quoted image]

Not too late at all and you've got some great info to share. - appreciate it.
I love Ubiquiti as well and have one of their commercial devices transmitting wifi to my barn a thousand feet away - great products.

Zigbee can support 6500 connections but to your point it's the data demand of the aggregate that determines success.

Can I do some iPad/tablets with Zigbee too? Pretty cool setup

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1

#39 4 years ago

SGA

SGSA

Pinnovators

5y 54,650 126 11

OP
Quoted from MT45:
Thanks for the follow up and yes, that is exactly what I’ve done with my test samples. I’ve got 4 of them setup through routines on my Echo Dot. I can simply say “Alexa - Turn on Spiderman” and just that game comes on. If I say “Alexa - Let’s play pinball” then the 4 test units all come on. “Alexa - Game Over” shuts them all down at once. Right now they work like a champ. Hoping this will be the same long term

So my poor Alexa must think how boring I am. I just say "Alexa, Arcade on" or "Alexa, Arcade off" when I want to turn all the machines on or off. Now that I've read your post I need to change what I say, yours is so much more fun ! Glad you posted!

Done!

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#40 4 years ago

NDE

Spyderturbo007

Pinside member

9y 108K 5,648

OP
Quoted from MT45:
Not too late at all and you've got some great info to share. - appreciate it.
I love Ubiquiti as well and have one of their commercial devices transmitting wifi to my barn a thousand feet away - great products.
Zigbee can support 6500 connections but to your point it's the data demand of the aggregate that determines success.
Can I do some iPad/tablets with Zigbee too? Pretty cool setup

I can't comment on Zigbee, but it's that way with Zwave. It's designed as a low communication network and the constant reporting that occur with power control devices just flood the network.

As for the tablets, I think their software is designed for only SmartThings, so it would depend on which hub you choose. Smartthings does work with Zigbee.

https://www.actiontiles.com/

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#41 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

If u hook up too many games and blow one of these outlets, is there a replaceable fuse or is it junk after that?

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#42 4 years ago

ROB

Rdoyle1978

Pinside member

7y 117K 18,128 14 6 1

Quoted from pinzrfun:
If u hook up too many games and blow one of these outlets, is there a replaceable fuse or is it junk after that?

Pretty much junk. Several of the companies produce "industrial" outlets, which are made for controlling things with a higher electrical load, like an appliance or say, a pinball machine.

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#43 4 years ago

NGS

slicknick13

Pinside member

Pittsburgh, PA

10y 32,300 131 8

Quoted from pinzrfun:
If u hook up too many games and blow one of these outlets, is there a replaceable fuse or is it junk after that?

There's a relay in there and that's probably what will weld together if there's no other protection.

I saw a bigclivedotcom video recently that showed a failing capacitor which prevented them from latching on. I'm assuming these are all using a similar chinese circuit regardless of brand so that's something to look out for.

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4

#44 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Update and success!
Got all 40 machines working using the zigbee based Innr brand smart plugs and my Echo Plus
No other hub needed except the Echo plus. No other app needed to set them up, integrate them or create routines - just the Alexa app
Hooked up 38 of them in 2 hours
Got my sound system hooked to it too (4 pieces Klipsch R51M and 2 SVS subs)
Couple screen shots of my routines and setups inside Alexa in case that helps anyone

Videos show how well it works!

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#45 4 years ago

JAS

jandrea95

Pinside+ Addict

Independence, KY

5y 108K 3,790 4 15

That is so damn satisfying to see! I bet you were holding your breath waiting for those last couple machines to power down, haha. Great work

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#46 4 years ago

OP

TIM

MT45

Pinball Loft

Lenoir City, TN

11y 110K 2,371 38 10

Quoted from jandrea95:
That is so damn satisfying to see! I bet you were holding your breath waiting for those last couple machines to power down, haha. Great work

It was and I was

You could probably here me stop breathing for a second ...

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#47 4 years ago

ACE

pinzrfun

Pinside+ Frequent

Belleville, MI

11y 90,300 4,305 20

OP
Quoted from MT45:
Update and success!
Got all 40 machines working using the zigbee based Innr brand smart plugs and my Echo Plus
No other hub needed except the Echo plus. No other app needed to set them up, integrate them or create routines - just the Alexa app
Hooked up 38 of them in 2 hours
Got my sound system hooked to it too (4 pieces Klipsch R51M and 2 SVS subs)
Couple screen shots of my routines and setups inside Alexa in case that helps anyone
Videos show how well it works!
On

Off
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

By MT45

4 years ago

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