Home Automation Domotica Forum Europe, Bwired Forum

Any suggestions for Plugwise alternatives ?

My contribution: Plogg; check the plogg website for detailed info.
Plogg uses the Telegesis ZigBee modules which are based on the Ember EM250 ZigBee chip.
The Plogg advantages:
+ Plogg supports both Bluetooth and ZigBee for the RF communication.
+ Plogg provides a SDK with DLL's for interfacing to Windows software application
but evens provides the sourcecode of this library.
+ As a plug-in device, a number of international plug formats are already available
including Schuko (europe), French, Swiss, UK, NEMA 5-15 and Australian.
+ a RF-module is available with external current sensor
+ no privacy conflicts because you control and manage your data

Plogg plugs are ugly and you have to pay 3 x times the price of plugwise.

what will it bring more than plugwise? Open product.
Plugwise can also used with available hacks as open product.

TANE wrote:Plogg plugs are ugly and you have to pay 3 x times the price of plugwise.

Granted. The latter actually seems to prove Plugwise B. V.'s statement that they need to do data mining to keep the plug prises at their current level. (Which I actually doubt, as there are cheaper or similiar-priced (ok, non-Zigbee) devices on the market.)

Plugwise can also used with available hacks as open product.

Well, that sort of depends on how much of a pain-in-the-youknowwhere a growing use without sending data back, i. e. especially without using The Source, would become. As the Firmware can be updated OTA, in theory Plugwise B. V. could easily come out with a more difficult to re-engineer V3, plugging this "hole". (Or paying Maarten not to redo his work on V3 )

Haven't still given up my hope that Plugwise B. V. might document the protocol and embrache the Open Source community one day, though.

Regards,
-kai

We're still awaiting Plugwise to open up the protocol. In the mean time an open source alternative is emerging: https://github.com/mysmartgrid/hexabus/ ... xaBus-Plug

I've invested quite some time in adding support for the Plugwise hardware to my home automation system due to the closed-source nature of their protocol. But the Plugwise Circles were the only 'decent' option until now, so I went for it. The devices I link to above use 6LoWPAN over the 868 MHz band and are completely open source.

Admitted, the look still can be improved, but at least they encourage tinkering with the hardware. The plugs work in a lower frequency band (hence could offer a longer RF range), have a button and also use a solid state relay, so this should be a completely silent plug (to be confirmed).

A little bit more info here: https://www.flukso.net/content/power-ou ... asure-plug

hollie wrote:We're still awaiting Plugwise to open up the protocol. In the mean time an open source alternative is emerging: https://github.com/mysmartgrid/hexabus/ ... xaBus-Plug
[...] A little bit more info here: https://www.flukso.net/content/power-ou ... asure-plug

Cool, thanks for the update! But I get "Oops! Google Chrome could not find hexabus.org", is that project DOA?

Hey Wusel,

no it is not. The link points to github.com. Where did you find the reference to hexabus.org?

hollie wrote:no it is not. The link points to github.com. Where did you find the reference to hexabus.org?

Am searching on where to buy this, as it sounds very promising. The reference is found on github, at https://github.com/mysmartgrid/hexabus ...

Sorry for resurrection of an old topic.

After long time not really active with my system i'm now about to switch to HS3 (yes i now, HS4 is coming) and i'm wondering is Plugwise (source and plug's are from the start) is a solid combination with HS3 since i noticed that the PlugIn is also not maintained.

But i like the form factor of the plug's only disadvantage is that they can not be operated manually.

So since it's now 2019, what would be a proper alternative if i only use them for switching with status feedback. Power measuring would be nice but no must. Form factor is a critical one.

thnks, edwin