Insight Switch

Want the ultimate for home-automation? This simple little device is a great way to control anything that plugs in - either with scheduled on/off, remote on/off or even automated on/off based on "rules".Here are some of the options:* Remotely power on/off any device from your iPhone or Android (from home or away)* It apparently also works with voice commands for Alexa/Echo (but I could not test that)* Set a specific on/off time - by day of week* Set on/off time based on sunrise/sunset* Set other rules using IFTTT - you could probably do something like have the lights go on when your mobile phone joins your home network (for example)* Hook any number of these up to your home network to control everything in your houseI noticed a few people complained that when the power went out, or when they moved it from one plug to another, they had to reconfigure it. That's not the case with the one I use (the firmware upgraded right away, so maybe this is a problem that was fixed). I configured it while sitting in front of the TV on a nearby plug, then moved it to a different room of the house and plugged a lamp in. It took 30-60 seconds to reconnect to our Wifi after plugging it in, and after that it worked just fine.I also noticed that some complained that they have to open the app to control their device because there are no "widgets" for it. Maybe this is an update, but I did notice a widget app for it (which I have not tested). There is also a button on the top of the plug that can be pressed to manually power the device on/off.One review said that this covers two outlets. That's not exactly true. If you put it on the top outlet, it leaves the bottom one open for almost anything else to plug into (some oversized plugs may not fit). You could not, however, plug two of these in above and below each other.I do see some similar devices at a lower price on Amazon. But I've not been able to test those and they appear to have a larger and less attractive footprint.The only negatives I've noticed so far: it occasionally seems to "unlink" from our Wifi - so I can't control it with my phone (it always comes back within a few seconds, so it is a minor annoyance). And when remote (not on my home network) the WeMo app on my phone takes a ridiculous amount of time to start up (again, a small annoyance since I rarely need to power anything on/off when I'm not home).

As a frustrated user and professional network engineer, this is my story. My use case for the Wemo Insight Switch was this: I had it plugged in to a space heater that was turned on the low setting in my bedroom, so that I could remotely warm the room before bed, on a schedule. It seemed like the perfect little device for that, and had the added bonus of letting me monitor electricity usage. Well, it didn't work out.The Wemo was a complete hassle to connect for the first time, the app didn't "see" the device for a long time after connecting to the Wemo's WiFi, to the point where I thought I had done something wrong. After it connected, it required several updates, each of which would go on for a very long time with no indication that they had finished and no reconnection afterwards. So I'd unplug it, reset the device, wait for the app to see it again, then get a new, different update that would require the process to be repeated again. And again. I have no problem with firmware updates, in fact I appreciate when companies improve their products on a continuous basis, but this was absurd.After the final update was seemingly post-office mailed to my device, I installed it in the location in which it was going to be used. The area has excellent WiFi coverage, as I have multiple access points spread throughout my home and this was very near one. It wasn't a cold day, so I only had it on for a bit to test the usage of it, and everything seemed fine. After a couple hours, I went back in the app, and it was no longer listed. I don't own any other Wemo products, so the list was just empty. Annoyed, I refreshed the app discovery and it still didn't pop up. I went to the Wemo Insight Switch and noticed that the amber WiFi light was flashing, indicating that it had lost connection. So I pulled it out of the socket and held down the connection button while plugging it in and then kept holding it for a while after it was powered on, as per the instructions and my previous experience after the updates. Then I reconnected to the device's WiFi on my phone, started up the app, and set it up again as a new device. After that, it worked again.Fast forward a couple days, and it had disappeared from the Wemo app again, amber light flashing. I tried just unplugging it and plugging it back in, but that did nothing. So I reset and re-paired it again. This happened with obnoxious frequency, from every couple hours to every couple days, there was no rhyme or reason to the insanity.As a user, I cannot stress to you enough to avoid this product. For something so simple, it fails miserably at the very task it is purchased to do. The firmware updates I performed must have been placebo updates, because for something getting so many updates to still be this broken is unfathomable.I never tried the Amazon Alexa integration, because today was the first day it was cold enough to start to use, and when I tried to add it to my Echo, it wasn't found. Lo and behold, it had disconnected again overnight. This was the final straw.At first I would assume I received a faulty device, but after reading reviews I think this is just the nature of the device and how it operates. I'm returning it and going to try another brand of similar device, because even though other brands don't have the decently-known Belkin name, they couldn't possibly be more poorly-executed than this Wemo Insight Switch.

It was a little difficult to setup. After plugging in the Wemo and waiting for the wifi signal to start flashing green the orange; (or "Amber" as they call it) the app didnt want to connect to the Wemo insight switch at first. If you have a phone from later than android 4.0 I'd ditch the "Wifi settings" instructions included with the Wemo Insight Switch. These instructions look like they are from an android phone that was popular in 2008 lol. I basically had to have my nexus 6p manually connect to the Wemo insight switch, then when a popup came up asking if I wanted to stay connected because there was no internet access; I had to check a box saying "never ask again" then clicked on "yes". After this I force closed the app, made sure I was still connected to the Wemo insight switch for my wireless signal, then restarted the app. It took a minute, but this time it connected and went through the setup process. After the initial setup process; there was a firmware update that took QUITE A WHILE (IE at least 5 minutes) but after that it seems to be working as intended. I've setup a wake up time for the light, as well as a shutoff time, and a "Turn on at dusk" time for my lamp. I will update this review if the Wemo doesn't do what it's supposed to.On a weird FYI / side note; I've noticed that the app seems to be EXTREMELY sluggish / slow when I'm connected to the app via the same wifi the Wemo is on, however when I turn off wifi and go back to cellular service, the app gets about 100x faster - IE it's instantaneous.. I have no idea why, but thought I should add that.