The Belkin WeMo WiFi Power Outlet

[Slightly Medicated]

Thanks, SliM. Are there instructions for the tie in with IFTTT.com that come with the unit? Or did you do some Columbo work to figure that out?

Sounds very promising.

I'm still hoping for an app that cleans my glass and grinds my bud.

I was not impressed with the instructions. There were none... except a little print out on the inside flap telling you to install the iPhone app. The iPhone app will walk you through setting up the device for the first time. Other then that, I have just been messing around to figure out what works.

The biggest issue is running the Recipes while you are gone. They turn it off and on... which would mean it would stay running while I am gone. The only way to stop that is to turn off the Recipe (by logging in online and turning it off through your computers browser) or to turn off the power on the device.

The first will work if you remember to do it before you leave. The 2nd will work, but then you can't turn the device on from the phone on your way home since the power is turned off at the device. I am still trying to figure out what the best option is for situations like that.

 

[Stu]

Just turning the unit on and off from my iphone is a cool enough trick for me. I'm gonna pick one up tomorrow.

One more first-world problem to check off of my list.

 

[SD_haze]

Does anyone use something like the WeMo Switch that would work with an android phone?

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Just turning the unit on and off from my iphone is a cool enough trick for me. I'm gonna pick one up tomorrow.

One more first-world problem to check off of my list.

I am pretty much with you there. I will probably trash the recipes and IFTTL.com stuff till they work everything out... I can just rely on manually power cycling it every hour with my iPhone. Being able to have it warmed up when you get home is a huge improvement.

Does anyone use something like the WeMo Switch that would work with an android phone?

I can't find anything that works with android... sorry SD_Haze. They are working on an android specific version though.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

I trained myself to switch it on and off before the WeMo. I would just naturally walk in the room every 45-50 minutes and cycle the power manually. I think I only left it running once out overnight once since I owned it. I was on the couch and fell asleep. I knew though that was okay because of the auto shutoff. I would have gotten up and turned it off manually had there not been the auto shutoff.

I found a good system for the WeMo that I like to use. When I am focused on something around the house (like video editing, cooking, or cleaning). I will turn on the IFTTT.com Recipes to auto cycle the power at the top of the hour. This keeps the cloud ready to go at all times, without me having to think about it. When I need to leave the house, go to sleep, or don't want to the Recipe to run. I will turn off the IFTTT.com support and cycle the power through the iPhone app. This allows me to turn on the device upstairs in the morning, or on my way home when I am out of the house.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Well... the Belkin WeMo crapped out on me today. It works when I am on my WiFi at home, but when I switch to 3G or go remote it looses the connection. I have been trying to get help for the past 4 hours but their service is not set up to well. You have to either use e-mail or a forum. They make you pay for premium phone support. The guy on the e-mail is trying... but the delayed response is beyond annoying to me. A company as big as Belkin should have phone support.

I am really annoyed that it crapped out. They said they did a firmware update yesterday. It was working fine until the update. They force you to update the firmware... otherwise I would have avoided it. I am one of those people that always refuses to update something until it breaks. If it is working... why update it.... I can't tell you how many times an update has made something go from fine to broken.

I have tired every suggestion and nothing. Even the customer service guy is starting to admit he does not have an answer to my problem...

Edit: I am taking it back to the store. The customer service said basically said they have no idea. I should wait a few days and see if it fixes itself once they update the application. After spending the better part of a day trying to get it to work... I am frustrated. I am going to take it back to where I got it and see if they will do an exchange. Maybe another unit will not have the same issue.

I am thinking something happened during the firmware update to mess up the device. Starting over with a new device might fix things. The convenience of it was so great that my pattern to walk in there and turn it off and on every 45 minutes is shot. I have come in to medicate three times today to a cold unit. Very very very annoying. I am going to give it one more shot with a new unit. If this one messed up than they are not ready for prime time and I will return it and shelve the idea for now.

 

[green2brown]

Well... the Belkin WeMo crapped out on me today. It works when I am on my WiFi at home, but when I switch to 3G or go remote it looses the connection. I have been trying to get help for the past 4 hours but their service is not set up to well. You have to either use e-mail or a forum. They make you pay for premium phone support. The guy on the e-mail is trying... but the delayed response is beyond annoying to me. A company as big as Belkin should have phone support.

I am really annoyed that it crapped out. They said they did a firmware update yesterday. It was working fine until the update. They force you to update the firmware... otherwise I would have avoided it. I am one of those people that always refuses to update something until it breaks. If it is working... why update it.... I can't tell you how many times an update has made something go from fine to broken.

I have tired every suggestion and nothing. Even the customer service guy is starting to admit he does not have an answer to my problem...

Edit: I am taking it back to the store. The customer service said basically said they have no idea. I should wait a few days and see if it fixes itself once they update the application. After spending the better part of a day trying to get it to work... I am frustrated. I am going to take it back to where I got it and see if they will do an exchange. Maybe another unit will not have the same issue.

I am thinking something happened during the firmware update to mess up the device. Starting over with a new device might fix things. The convenience of it was so great that my pattern to walk in there and turn it off and on every 45 minutes is shot. I have come in to medicate three times today to a cold unit. Very very very annoying. I am going to give it one more shot with a new unit. If this one messed up than they are not ready for prime time and I will return it and shelve the idea for now.

That really sucks. Sorry SliM. But thanks for posting what's going on. I was literally about to leave for Best Buy to pick one of these up and decided to check the forum before leaving. What a save. I'll wait to buy one until some tweaks are made. Hopefully you can get yours working again or Belkin replaces it/gives you a refund.

Does anyone have experience with both the Hydraline and Double Chamber? I'm debating between the two. Basically, does the Double Chamber give that much bigger hits to justify the extra $100? I figure my Hydratree will remain my daytime HT, but I want something that can really kick my ass at night and fully relieve my pain and discomfort. Drag is only an issue if it's reeeeaaally noticeable but I assume all these high end glass HTs are going to be just fine in that department.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

That really sucks. Sorry SliM. But thanks for posting what's going on. I was literally about to leave for Best Buy to pick one of these up and decided to check the forum before leaving. What a save. I'll wait to buy one until some tweaks are made. Hopefully you can get yours working again or Belkin replaces it/gives you a refund.

I am hoping a new unit will smooth over the issue. It was working flawlessly up to that point. They admitted my unit is the only one that has has this EXACT issue. I really think it had to do with my phone closing the App during the firmware update. When that happened I remember thinking... I hope this does not cause any problems. Then I tried to power cycle off network and it froze the app.

I really really like the product. I can tell I liked it because in three days I was able to un-learn my habit of walking in there to re-set it. I am still hopeful that a new unit will fix things. I think my previous post was semi bitter because I was tired of working on the problem all day. Running back to the apple store in the mall during rush hour also did not make me any more enthusiastic.

I think if the new unit has the same problem right off the bat... than something happen to my home network last night that broke the ability for me to use the WeMo correctly.

Does anyone have experience with both the Hydraline and Double Chamber? I'm debating between the two. Basically, does the Double Chamber give that much bigger hits to justify the extra $100? I figure my Hydratree will remain my daytime HT, but I want something that can really kick my ass at night and fully relieve my pain and discomfort. Drag is only an issue if it's reeeeaaally noticeable but I assume all these high end glass HTs are going to be just fine in that department.

In terms of the double vs the HydraLine I like the double the best out of all of the pieces I have tried. I like more filtration for bigger rips. You really can rip that one much harder since you are doing double the filtration.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

I am hoping a new unit will smooth over the issue.

Well I got home and set everything up again. The new one worked... then it told me to update the firmware. That promptly broke the device again.

I have liked Belkin products for awhile now, and never had problems. A HUGE pet peeve of mine is pushing out an update that breaks a working product. I don't even know what to do at this point. I feel kind of let down when the customer service says they are clueless...

So general recommendation right now is to avoid the WeMo. I am going to keep trying to get it working... because when it worked it was amazingly helpful. Maybe they will come up with another firmware that fixes what they broke...

 

[Vapinghole]

Thanks for your good work, SliM!

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Well... I did what I really did not want to do, upgraded to IOS6. It did not help any. Now I lost Google maps and lots of features/settings that worked for my iPhone 4 for tons of new features the majority of which don't work for the iPhone 4.

I am out of options for now. Perhaps customer support will have a better answer soon. Maybe they will fix it in the future. Skip the WeMo for now. This current firmware seemed to break remote access for me.

The only other option I can think of is doing a 3rd exchange and refusing to update the firmware. From what I read thought he cloud will not work unless you run the current firmware.

Edit: The IFTTT.com support seems to be working. Which suggests that you can connect to the device through the cloud, but there is an issue with the application itself. I believe the recent firmware is the cause of the issue. I guess I will have to wait around to see if they can patch/fix it. For not though with the various problems I would only adopt this if you are a very patient person who does not mind hours of trouble shooting. It is testing my early adopter patience for sure....

At least I can leave the device running and the IFTTT.com Recipe going to keep the cloud from auto shutting off. The only functionality I do not have access to is turning the device on and off remotely while away from the house.

 

[Stu]

I can't get my WeMo to work with my Netgear router. I cannot recommend it.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

The plot thickens with the WeMo... so I had an idea. I knew the IFTTT.com recipes could do some crazy stuff. One example is you can set up a sensor and put it near say your cats litter box. When the cat walks into the litter box and trips the sensor you can make IFTTT.com e-mail you "clean up your cat's litter box". I am really liking this whole IFTTT.com stuff. I am going to have to mess around with it more... Anyway.

I figured since the IFTTT.com was still working remotely, I could set up something to trigger the on/off. I looked around and they have a feature for sending Text(SMS) messages to a particular number allowing you could trigger an action. I set it up so that if I SMS a particular number either #off or #on it will trigger the device to turn... you guessed it off or on. I gave it a try and it actually worked. Now everything "functions" with my CrAzY HAX/or skillz. I just can't get it to officially connect remotely through the application, which is inconvenient. Which leads me to believe it is some sort of weird bug they created with the new firmware. I am a little more hopeful it can be fixed.

I am sorry about Stu having issues. I have been trying to help him out. I am kind of determined to get him up and running. Hoping maybe the help forum will have an answer for his router issue. Honestly, when it was working %100 it made keeping the cloud running and ready for action amazingly automated and really organic.

 

[CentiZen]

Yeah, post a thread in the help forum Stu with as much detail as you can give and we can see why it is not working. Did you port forward on your router already?

Just finished up Networking at school so this stuff is kind of fresh in my head.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

I thought I would update what has happened. I had it working through a weird work around.

Belkin wrote me today and said that an engineer might have fixed my problem. I gave it another shot and indeed they did. Now everything is back up and running like before.

 

[Stu]

An update: I went in and changed some configuration settings in my Netgear router (I had the speed settings too high for the 2.4GHz channel, so I lowered it to "UP to 54Mbps") and it immediately fixed the problem. I also updated the firmware.

This thing is working great so far. It's nice to powercycle my Cloud from any room in the house on the planet.

Special thanks to @Slightly Medicated for his help. I really appreciate it.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

So glad it is working. Wait till you get the IFTTT.com stuff set up. I have my cloud auto cycle every hour... always ready cloud! I just make sure to turn off the IFTTT.com Recipe at night before bed, and when I leave the house.

 

[elmomuzz]

I keep my cloud in a tool shed so my usual routing has me popping into my shed to turn it on then coming back in about 15 minutes to actually use it. So I decided to get a wemo so I could warm up my cloud without leaving the house.

Setup was very intuitive. If you've setup other net enabled gadgets this is par for the course. It prompted me for a firmware update which I did. All in all a smooth experience. This will make my life a lot easier.

 

[Stu]

I really enjoy using this thing to turn my Cloud on while driving home. It's working very well for me.

I also use it to power cycle my Cloud from where I sit. It makes me feel like a lazy ass, but I'm trying not to judge people so much these days. My therapist will be happy.

 

[elmomuzz]

This thing is fantastic. I heated my cloud this morning from bed! Nothing like hitting the hydraline with your coffee. How do I get any work done? Lol ha

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Once you get it working it really is fantastic. Makes the cloud feel like a whole new device. You become really used to the experience quickly quickly. Then being without it is extremely frustrating.

 

[Purpl3_Haz3]

Well, from the looks of the recent posts, I'd say the road has smoothed out as far as the WeMo goes, and I think I will have to order one! I haven't been able to find one anywhere near me, within reasonable driving distance, so it looks like bestbuy.com for me. I'm excited to join the Automated Clouds

 

[Stu]

Well, from the looks of the recent posts, I'd say the road has smoothed out as far as the WeMo goes, and I think I will have to order one! I haven't been able to find one anywhere near me, within reasonable driving distance, so it looks like bestbuy.com for me. I'm excited to join the Automated Clouds

I couldn't find it at Best Buys around me either. They only carry it in their online store for some reason. I walked in with money in my hand, and walked out and went straight to Amazon.com.

 

[Purpl3_Haz3]

I couldn't find it at Best Buys around me either. They only carry it in their online store for some reason. I walked in with money in my hand, and walked out and went straight to Amazon.com.

I called my local BB before going in in person. The kind woman on the phone told me that they had none in stock, and that I could order one online, at a 5-7 day wait...That was a week or so ago, so I called again today (akin to those times when you open the 'fridge, knowing full well that nothing new or good is in it, hoping to find something new or good) and spoke with another girl, possibly the same one. She said the same thing, except she went further to tease me, by saying "we don't carry the WeMo switch in the store...Oh, wait, there is this thing called the WeMo switch plus motion, and we, oh, that's only available online as well...sorry"

So, I just placed my order on Amazon.com I really dislike how they taunt you with all of the different shipping options, and not the prices associated with them, and then offer you a free shipping service, that's slower that the standard $5 shipping. I splurged; saturday delivery. So much for the 4-5$ savings buying on amazon!

It will be nice to return home from work on my (short) lunch break, to a fully warmed up Cloud, leaving me enough time for a real session, and not a couple half heated ELBs.

 

[Slightly Medicated]

Yes things have smoothed out. There was that glitch when they updated the firmware. They impressed me with how quickly they fixed it. After about 24 hours they managed to do something to the system and it was working fine.

Amazon prime is your friend... Free shipping.