BG Smart socket

[Tricky Dicky]

Just noticed these the other day so ordered one from TLC for £14.99. Fitted it today and I am quite impressed, it has the usual features of plug in adaptors switching on using the app as well as timer settings. You can manually switch on at the socket by pressing a button but the most impressive for me is that you can control each socket on the device separately so no more need for all those adaptors sticking out of the socket and the whole thing fits in a 25mm deep box.

It also works with Alexa but she is being a bit awkward with mine in that she will not switch it on manually from the Alexa app but will using voice control and unlike the BG Home app she does not control the sockets separately so will need to work on that!

Richard

[Tim+]

Interesting. I do worry a little about the parasitic load of all these USB/smart/whateveriscomingnext sockets though.

Link for those interested...

Tim

[Theo]

I give it 4 years until the app stops working...

Theo

[ZakJames]

How much are you going to pay me when mine still works fine. Given its zigbee, it already works with all of Homekit, siri, google and alexa, and wont be stopping any time soon.

The X10 system still works after more than a decade but I havent used it for years now.

[David Wade]

I can't find anywhere that says its ZigBee, any links? Alexa and Google support seem to rely on the BG app being set up so I would expect them to need the app.

Dave

[Michael Chare]

Can you connect to the switch remotely? or does the phone have to be connected to the local wifi?

[ZakJames]

No they do not. All you need to do is set up the devices in Homekit or the other zigbee supporting systems. No need for the app.

And there isnt just one app for the Hue system, there are dozens of them from 3rd parties.

[Andy Burns]

At a rough guess your phone connects half way round the world to a server that the smart socket has already connected to, and the phone asks the server to tell the socket to turn on/off ...

[Michael Chare]

Could be, I have a thermostat which works like that. You just have to hope that the server is kept running.

[David Wade]

ore than a decade but

We are talking about a BG socket, where does Phillips Hue come from...

Is there any doc on that?

Where does it say its part of "hue"?

Dave

[ZakJames]

From the usual thread divergence when someone said they would never use anything like that because you'd be lucky if the remote server or app stayed viable for long. The big advantage with a standard like zigbee is that it will continue fine even if the manufacturer goes bust etc.

Yep google Homekit, google and alexa.

It doesn?t because it isnt.

[Andy Burns]

except the BG socket has WiFi, not ZigBee

[ZakJames]

Duh. If the quoting hadn't been stripped back so aggressively, it would be obvious that comment wasn't about the BG socket, it was about whether all of those sockets would be at risk if the manufacturer went bust or gave up on the socket.