[HH] Belkin WeMo Home Automation Switch

[Tom Metro]

It sees like consumer electronics manufacturers are taking another run
at home automation with a wave of new products...here's the Belkin WeMo
Home Automation Switch, which are modules that communicate via WiFi and
don't require a central controller.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089WFPRY/

  -Turn Electronics on/off from Anywhere

  -Motion Control your Lamp, never walk into a dark room again

  -Get SMS or Email Notifications when movement is detected at home
  (powered by IFTTT.com)

  -You've already got everything you need: WeMo works with your existing
  Wi-Fi router and any Apple iPod touch, iPhone, iPad - iOS v5 or higher

  -Modular system. You can add additional WeMo Switches and WeMo Motion
  sensors easily, any time. Control as much or as little of your house
  as you want to

  -Operates over Wi-Fi and mobile internet, at home and away


A "Before you Buy" review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD_MbTB4NqY


Currently selling for $72 for a lamp module and a motion sensor. $47 for
just the lamp module. (The bundle is in the same ballpark as what you'd
pay for Z-Wave modules, as motion detectors typically run $50+, but lamp
modules can be found for as little as $20.)

Clearly if you want to outfit a whole house with automation, this isn't
the way to go as Belkin has a very limited selection of devices (just
the two, I think; I also see a baby monitor that may or may not interact
with these devices). But it could be a good fit if you only need to
control a few plug-in devices and don't want the bother of a central
controller.

It can be controlled from mobile devices. It was iOS only when released,
but Amazon comments say there is limited support for Android app (in beta).

I'm guessing the device makes an outbound connection to a Belkin web
site, and that's how they facilitate it being controlled by the
IFTTT.com cloud service (where you can create rules to turn things
on/off in response to motion sensor input or other info gathered from
the Internet; see
http://www.amazon.com/review/RMGPVPT1LXOZH/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1 ).

http://www.amazon.com/review/R32HEKEUJQTV6N/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_3
  Pretty cool device since it is able to talk over the internet with no
  router port forwards, static ip address configuration or any
  networking knowledge. It just does it all itself, you don't even have
  to register an account. The scary part about that automatic config is
  that it must be talking to one of belkin's servers to perform this
  remote trick, which means if Belkin decides to kill the product and
  turn the servers off you basically have a paperweight.


I get the impression that the lamp module has a built-in scheduler, but
it sounds like they didn't bother to put a web UI on it - only
manageable via a proprietary app.

It sounds like if you are not making use of IFTTT.com, it doesn't depend
on a WAN link, and will continue operating if your Internet is down.
Obviously if you do use IFTTT.com, all bets are off when your WAN is down.

Several reviewers noted the use of "open standard" WiFi as a benefit to
this device, but if it uses a proprietary interface and depends on the
manufacturer's servers, it's hardly open. I'd rather used a licensed
protocol like Z-Wave, which can be managed with open source software,
and easily integrated into larger projects without relying on the
vendors servers.

Apparently they also tend to crash "...on the order of once every 2 to 3
weeks."

 -Tom