OhmConnect not turning off smart plugs during OhmHours
I recently received and connected two tplink plugs to my account, but they are not being automatically turned off. I have participated in two OhmHours since connecting them to my devices and OhmConnect, and my connect page shows them as connected, but I have had to manually enter the app and turn them off. Any suggestions to get them automatic?
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If it's the TP-Link smartplugs, check the Kasa app to see if you have Remote Control enabled. Select each plug and click on the settings icon on the top right to enable Remote Control.
Hey there @dserfozo
There are known issues with the TP-Link devices but it's easy to work around. While you are home, assuming the plugs are already set up, open up the Kasa app, go to each device and make sure the remote control is enabled. Then, remove the devices from the OhmConnect Connect page if they are there. Next, add your plugs back to the OhmConnect Connect page, which should only require you to enter your Kasa login once and will activate both plugs. Once they show up on the OhmConnect Connect page, try to turn them on and off via the OhmConnect Connect page. If they are now working, make sure they are left on and do not use the Kasa app to control the plugs. I recommend using the OhmConnect app to control the plugs at this point. You can use the Kasa app while on your home network to access the timer functions or the energy use functions on some models, but getting the remote function to work in Kasa means breaking the connection to OhmConnect.
Clear as mud right
Feel free to tag me (using the @ symbol before my name) in this thread if you have any more questions.
New to the forums and I think I'm caught up on the TP-Link and Kasa issues. What I couldn't decipher is whether or not we can set up and then use schedules on the Kasa app. before connecting to OhmConnect and then controlling through OhmConnect only. I have my TP-Links scheduled to turn off in Kasa while we're sleeping and not turn on until we get back home on the week days and on for longer hours during the weekend. I love this as it saves us money at night and in the mornings/early afternoons.
But the TP-Links haven't been turning off when the OhmHours start and so I've been doing my best to remember to turn them off manually at the start of the OhmHour, but I'm not always on time.
And since we just lost our OhmHour streak of 23 or 24 on Sunday by only 0.002 kWh (And TP-Link HS110's take up around 1.7 watts. So not having two HS110's plugged in on Sunday..) and we haven't been getting tokens since first couple OhmHours after originally installing, I'm suddenly now a bit more interested in getting this whole thing fixed.
I don't really want to have to choose between TP-Link/Kasa schedules and automatic OhmHour turnoff.
Hi @SFMark, and good question. I still set timers and schedules and use the Kasa app while keeping the TP-Link plugs automated through OhmConnect; the one limitation is that connecting to OhmConnect makes it so I can't use the app remotely. It still works normally when I'm at home, though. I'd recommend disconnecting and reconnecting the plugs from OhmConnect.
Okay, thanks @WaterGuy for weighing in. I had taken off and reconnected my two TP-Link HS110's yesterday and didn't use Kasa to toggle their state at all. When should I expect the plugs to turn off in relation to the start of the OhmHour?
Today, 8 minutes before when I started watching they were still on through 2 minutes past the start, at which point I used the OhmComment Connect tab to turn them off as I want to hit my target.
Seems wrong. And no tokens unless OhmConnect changes the status for an OhmHour, correct?
@SFMark, I had the same issue with my plugs today, for the first time. It might be a bug--let's wait and see what others say.
Mine didn't work Sunday but worked today. That said, after multiple power outages yesterday, I had to go to connect, click add device, and log in with my Kasa account again, for the plugs to respond to the site.
@snetphilie, I didn't receive any notifications, either, so I'm nervous OhmConnect doesn't have me participating for some reason. That'd be a huge bummer, with the 3-hour, triple-points event. I turned everything off and left home, so I'm hoping they'll at least credit me the points even though I doubt I'll get the tokens.
This all continues to be weird. I had to turn off my TP-Link plugs by the OhmConnect Connect page at 2 minutes past the start of the OhmHour yesterday but the TP-Link plugs turned on at the end (8PM PST) and I received tokens for both plugs.
I do not have schedules turned on at this point and this sadly makes extra steps for using our entertainment center and office during normal hours.
I've also had this happen in the past, but last night, everything worked. Sounds like there are some bugs creeping around. Considering we're looking at software on a web server, communicating with software on another web server, communicating with an IoT hardware device, I don't envy the person debugging this!
I have TP Link smart plugs and the Wizer smart plugs as well. Last night I arrived home to find my Wizer plugs off at 5:30, 1/2 hour before my scheduled OH from 6-8 PM. The TP Link plugs turned off at the normal time, and all plugs turned on at the end of the event. Can't figure out why my Wizer plugs turned off early.... Also... I only receive 30 tokens for my smart plugs while I have a total of 6 smart plugs and a wifi thermostat. Are they shortchanging me on the tokens?
That's a [Profanity edited by moderator] fix... Kasa is more important than Ohmconnect. It's how i turn my lights on and off!!!
It's not ideal and I'm sure they're working to fix it. If I was to hazard a guess there's probably a few more issues ahead of that one in the bug queue. If Kasa is more important to you, take them out of OC, problem solved. Hopefully you got them via the OC store when they were 50% off so you're still winning!
I didn't say it was pretty, just a workaround 'till they figure it all out. The other problem is this is split between 2 companies. They could be stuck in a position where OhmConnect says well we did it the way TP-Link told us to and it doesn't work, and TP-Link says, well we didn't expect you to do X, Y & Z, you should redo the whole thing over a different way, and OhmConnect of course says, we're not reprogramming the whole thing, you should fix this... etc... etc... Working in software, I see this all of the time. Most of the time it's not exclusively one groups fault but it will cost money for whoever has to fix it so, of course, everyone always wants the other party to fix it! If anything, this is a good experience for anyone in software to understand the frustration this causes for the customer!
Similar issue here: Received no start of OhmHour notification and the plugs didn't get turned off. Turned them off myself using the OhmConnect app at about 12 minutes into the OhmHour, and they were turned back on by OhmConnect at 5pm on the dot. Will watch and see if they turn off normally on the next OH.
@snetphilie - A little clearer than mud, and I wish I'd read your fix before my 2-hour OH today. I got home 80 minutes into the OH and the TP-Link plugs were still on. Major disappointment. I flipped all my circuit breakers off with the hope I'll be under. There is no Android OC app for me to check, and Kasa doesn't work at my office, so my hands were tied. The whole point of connecting smart plugs was so OC would turn them off. I wish there was a way to test this before the next OH. As it is, I'll just cross my fingers that your instructions take care of the issue. Thanks for posting!
I got a message from Matt at OC:
Sorry that you had trouble here and that you had to do manual intervention. We have not had any issues with TP Links before today, so apologize about that!
Apparently OC hasn't had any complaints about TP-Link smart plugs not being switched off. Anyway, I'll wait to see if disconnecting everything and re-connecting without using Kasa remote controls works with the next OH.
Hi all - thanks for weighing in here. We appreciate the feedback and the current state is that we believe that there is some conflict between the remote control of Kasa and OhmConnect. We have a partnership with TP Link, and we will be opening up a thread with them to get to the bottom of this. For now, @snetphilie has the best recommendation, so I would refer back to that thread.
Has anyone had issues with the OhmConnect turn off / on functionality that has not used the Kasa app or stored schedules on the Kasa app?
Matt just brought to my attention that one user had two plugs - one turned off and one didn't turn off. The one that didn't turn off had a schedule set on Kasa. I had both plugs scheduled to turn off for the OH. Neither one turned off. I've deleted my schedules on Kasa and followed @snetphilie advice. I'm hopeful the plugs will work as planned next OH. Thanks @Matt D for the time spent on this tonight.
Yes. And I've never used the Kasa app remotely. No schedules saved. No email at start of OH either when this happened. My take is that they work fine when the person/organization responsible for sending out the signals/emails actually does their job.
I see issues with some of my plugs and not others at times, so I don't see this as a someone sending a signal thing. This last OhmHour, for example, I'm pretty sure all of my plugs turned off, but one stopped responding, so on the connect page, it said it was "On", along with one other plug. I switched both off in the app and both appeared to respond. I then went in through my laptop and saw both still "On" so I switched them off again, and this time one turned off and the other generated an error. I then asked my Google personal assistant "what lights are on" and "what plugs are on" and she kindly told me everything was off except for one plug which was not responding. That plug was off and took a while before it started responding again and I was able to turn it back on. That plug is also the furthest away from the access point. Lots of moving parts in this puzzle.
I spoke with our engineering team, and we have carved out some time to work on the scheduling conflict issue so eventually TP Links can be scheduled with the Kasa app and have that not conflict with #OhmHours. Currently, however, please DO NOT make Kasa schedules as that will conflict with #OhmHours.
The engineering team also informed us of a couple of other edge cases which is in line with @John K's response above that will not be addressed:
Just as a point of clarification, we have no manual interaction with our users and devices for when #OhmHours are sent out. During a large #OhmHour, we will send millions of messages to both users and devices, which is not feasible for even a large team to do (our team is currently at 15 people).
@Matt D, thanks for the update. One other question: I'm still unable to remotely control my TP-Link plugs when they're connected to OC (I do still have local Wi-Fi control), though others have reported that this was recently fixed for them. Do you know anything about this and have any idea when/if I'll gain the ability to control my plugs remotely?
Guys last night I figured out the issue with OC not remotely turning ON the TP-link plugs. Basically the previous firmware update to the switch broke the scheduling functionality that OC uses to turn on and off the plugs during ohm hours. Good News: there is a new update available that fixed my TP-link Plugs! Go to Kasa app and into the specific plug then update the firmware and it will start working again. Oh and be sure to delete any current schedules with that plug. Hope this helps!
Thanks, @powersaver! Just to be sure I understood that last part: are you saying that you still can't use Kasa schedules and have your plugs connected to OC at the same time? For whatever reason, my schedules haven't created any issues for me like they have other users, and I'd prefer to be able to use schedules over remote control through the app if the update will change that.
My TP Link devices also stopped responding to the OhmHour shut off, but they respond to the Ohm Hour turn on at the end of the hour.
You can see below on the Kasa app that the scheduled off/on for the 5-6PM OhmHour successfully made it onto the SmartPlugs, but for some reason they ignored it (note it's past 5PM, they're all on, but they have scheduled OFF at 5 PM). I manually turned them off from Kasa since I was away from home, and when I got home at 6:20PM, they were all on. Very confusing.