Review Euro socket with 3680 W energy monitor and Zigbee 3.0 interface for Tuya Smart, integration into Home Assistant 2022. In this review, we will consider another device for the Tuya Smart ecosystem – a controllable patch socket with an energy monitor function, designed for loads up to 3680 watts. Of particular interest here is the very budgetary cost of the device, as well as the interface – Zigbee 3.0, which gives the device another useful function – a router, a device that can transmit data through itself from other network participants, thereby expanding its radius and capacity, that is, the number of simultaneously connected nodes.
Buy Tuya Smart Zigbee 3.0 Power Plug 16A EU on Aliexpress
The outlet from the review on Aliexpress – the price at the time of publication from $ 11.30 for 1, to $ 101.05 for 10
Parameters
- Model – Tuya TS0121
- Interface – Zigbee 3.0
- Operating voltage range – 110-240 V
- Maximum load current – 16 A
- Power – up to 3680 watts
- Body material – plastic
- Fire resistance class – V0, self-extinguishing within 10 seconds, without the formation of burning droplets
- Operating temperature range – -20 45C
- Basic application – Tuya Smart / Smart life
- Size – 50x50x84 mm
Supply
Supplied in a cardboard box without the manufacturer’s logo with the inscription smart socket. There was an indication of the interface – zigbee, Smart Life control app and compatibility with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. In addition, there was a sticker on the box indicating the version – 16 A, since there is a 10 A version.
In addition to the outlet itself, there was also a small instruction in the box. There is nothing particularly useful in it, all you need to know additionally is that to reset to factory settings, you need to hold down the button on the side for 5 seconds.
Appearance
The device is designed for use in European Schuko sockets with earthing contacts. Accordingly, the output is exactly the same connector, that is, it is something like an adapter.
There are no identification marks or inscriptions on the case. Except perhaps the characteristic-looking button, by which you can recognize the device.
The plugs are thick, so it should be, taking into account the power of more than 3.5 kW. There is no easy way to disassemble the case, only destructive, so in this case – without disassembly.
Let’s move on to the logical part of the review, let me remind you – to reset the socket and put it into pairing mode, you need to press and hold the button on the case.
Connection
The LED on the button started blinking – it means it is ready to connect to the zigbee coordinator.
Let’s start with the native control system – Tuya Smart. I have an Ethernet – Zigbee gateway from Moes, I reviewed it. I will connect to it. In the plugin, I select to add a new device and press the button, the LED is already blinking.
In about a minute, pairing will take place, after which it remains to select a name and specify the location for the outlet and it will appear in the list of devices.
It will be visible not only in the control gateway plug-in, but also in the general list of devices. Here you can see its status – on or off, it can be controlled. But to access all the functions, you need to go to the plugin.
Most of the plug-in window is occupied by the on / off status icon. At the bottom there is a row of small buttons, after switching on – a timer button, which has as many as 4 options for settings – the first is a countdown.
Further – there is a scheduler that allows you to set the time and days of the week for turning on and off the device, the circulation mode, that is, alternately turning on and off, with the start and end setting and another interesting mode – random turning on and off in a given period, you can use it, for example to simulate the presence of people.
The socket has a built-in energy monitor – which takes readings of current power, mains voltage and load current. A consumption graph is plotted for the period. But there is one feature that you need to know – the outlet has a small, within a minute, time lag for updating the readings, this is due to the fact that they are transmitted only by an external request.
There is also something interesting in the settings section. The first menu gives access to the trigger log, and let’s go over the rest of the items in more detail.
Status when power is restored – can be always on, always off and save the state that was before the shutdown.
LED indicator mode – to be honest, it doesn’t work. The indicator is always off, you can see its work only in pairing mode.
And this is an exclusive – children’s mode. When activated, in order to turn on or off the outlet from the button on the case – it will have to be pressed 4 times in a row, after which the blocking mode is turned off.
The socket, through a compatible gateway, of course, is able to work with various control systems such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung Smart Things and so on.
Well, my personal recommendation is to always check for firmware updates.
Automation
In automations, the socket can work both in the IF section and in the THEN section, that is, it can serve as both a trigger and an action. Moreover, as a trigger, it has quite a few conditions, starting from the status of the socket relay – on or off.
Before the readings of the energy monitor – where one of the conditions can be set – more, less or equal, for the values of current, voltage and power. For example, disconnect the outlet when the voltage or power drops or, on the contrary, increases.
In the action section, everything is simpler, like other similar devices, relays, switches – the socket can be turned on, off or toggled state.
Google home
Of the systems listed on the list of supported systems, I have Google Home. Interaction occurs at the account level, for this you need to go to the add to home mode, here we select to configure the device. Next, go to the menu of a device compatible with services and connect the required account in the long list of systems – for example, Tuya Smart.
After that, all compatible devices connected to the basic account will automatically appear in Google Home. Everything is simple here – you can turn it on and off, including through the voice assistant.
Socket operation
Unfortunately, this part cannot be shown in the form of a photo and text, so I will leave a link that goes directly to that part of the video review, where the following is shown:
Socket relay actuation sound.
Child lock work
The operation of the state recovery modes.
The speed of reaction to switching on and off from the application.
Time lag when updating the energy monitor readings. As it was established, the gateway periodically polls the outlet and only then the data is updated.
Link to the timecode of the video review
Energomonitoring
Comparison of the readings of the outlet with a household energy monitor. Left – right – no load, voltage readings are the same.
Light load – about 20 watts. Here the readings do not coincide perfectly, but still very close.
I increase it to 38 watts, and then there is already some, so to speak, lag on the outlet. Although so far it can be attributed to the fact that the monitor takes into account the consumption of the outlet itself.
The load is almost 900 watts, despite the fact that the voltage readings are the same, and the current at the outlet is even higher – the power is still less. If you multiply the current and voltage readings, it should be 874 and not 867 watts. Everything is in order on the energy monitor.
On a kilowatt – the same situation, the readings for current and voltage are almost identical, and the power – as much as 11 watts less, although 219 volts multiplied by 4.983 A – should be 1091 watts
Almost 2 kW – and the same situation, everything is ok with voltage and current – they are almost identical, but the power calculation is incorrect. With such readings, it should be 1879 watts.
Zigbee2mqtt
The socket is supported in zigbee2mqtt. Who remembers my review or has a Blitzwolf BW SHP-13 on the farm – the hero of the review is determined in the same way, since he has the same model number.
Namely – TS0121. This number belongs to several different devices, we already know about two for sure. The socket is naturally a router for the zigbee network
The Exposes tabs for these sockets are also identical – there is an on and off, setting the behavior parameters when the power is restored and 4 parameters for the energy monitor.
The time lag when updating here has not disappeared anywhere – up to a minute. This must be taken into account when used in automation. By the way, if you use it exactly as an energy monitor, then the data will be more accurate if you make a template sensor that will multiply voltage by current.
How the socket behavior modes work when the power is restored – I showed in the section Socket operation. Depending on the tasks, the right one is selected from the three right here.
All these parameters are transmitted as entities to Home Assistant – there are 7 of them in total, one switch and six sensors. Four are the readings of the energy monitor, the mode of operation after power recovery and the signal level.
SLS Gateway
The SLS Gateway functionality shown in the review works on firmware no older than April 23, 2021.
Pairing – as usual, we translate the gateway into join, the LED on the outlet should blink. The model is determined correctly – the picture is suitable.
Who cares – device parameters from the info tab. For it, the author of the firmware for the SLS gateway created a separate converter for maximum compatibility and functionality.
In addition to the parameters that were in zigbee2mqtt and the SLS gateway’s proprietary chip – lastseen, the time of the last response from the device, there is the possibility of activating the child lock and even the LED control has been transferred. But it doesn’t even work in Tuya Smart. So whoever has small children – in SLS you can use the lock.
Remember I said about polling the outlet from the gateway? Here, for now, you need to do the same, using the standard onemintimer script, in this example, the power and the current state of the child lock are updated every minute. Add for other indications if necessary.
And you can control the lock through mqtt – by sending the set / child_lock subtopic to the device topic – the values True for enabling and False for disabling.
Similarly, you can set the operating mode after the power is restored, I will remind you of three of them. True, it is usually enough to install it once directly in the gateway interface, but suddenly someone needs to change it using, say, automations
All parameters in the form of entities are forwarded to Home Assistant through the mqtt integration. Accordingly, one switch and as many as 8 sensors.
For those who are interested in the child lock function, to update the status of which you need to add a poll to the every minute script, you can do this kind of automation – it will track its transition to the off state.
After that, it will publish a command to turn it on in the device topic. Let me remind you that after you change the status of the outlet by repeatedly pressing the button, the child lock is removed.
Conclusion
In general, given its price and power, the socket left a pleasant impression. The main drawback is the time lag when updating the energy monitor readings – this can serve as an obstacle to use in some automations where these indicators are used.
Comparing with a functional copy – Blitzwolf BW SHP-13 – the hero of the review has an additional option – child lock, and more accurate voltage readings.
