Start with a small smart home outlet

Release date：2020-10-20   Views：2458

The socket is the product that everybody is familiar with again. The word "intelligence" not only pushes home appliances to a position of concern, but also transforms the common product of socket. The emergence of smart socket has brought more imagination space to home appliances, and the experience of its lack of intelligence has also been criticized by many people. In fact, smart socket is quietly evolving. With the emergence of more and more smart home appliances, smart socket, a seemingly insignificant basic component, is expected to become a platform product.

What can smart sockets do? Remote control + time switch

The function of intelligent socket is similar, basically through the support of remote control and timing switch and other functions, and then realize the control of household appliances, so that the original intelligent home appliances also support remote control and timing switch. The typical application is remote control of air conditioning, water heater, electric light and other relatively simple products, people have not yet reached the appropriate temperature in the room, the water heater has also burned hot water, and then they can take a bath at home.

For example, broadlink SP2, euribo WiFi smart socket, Belkin wemo and the newly launched millet socket are all such products. They have WiFi modules and can be connected to the local area network. After the mobile phone and the socket are connected, the socket can be controlled anywhere.

What can smart sockets do? Remote control + time switch

The function of intelligent socket is similar, basically through the support of remote control and timing switch and other functions, and then realize the control of household appliances, so that the original intelligent home appliances also support remote control and timing switch. The typical application is remote control of air conditioning, water heater, electric light and other relatively simple products, people have not yet reached the appropriate temperature in the room, the water heater has also burned hot water, and then they can take a bath at home.

For example, broadlink SP2, euribo WiFi smart socket, Belkin wemo and the newly launched millet socket are all such products. They have WiFi modules and can be connected to the local area network. After the mobile phone and the socket are connected, the socket can be controlled anywhere.

Take broadlink SP2 as an example, this is a new generation of broadlink smart socket. It has two versions of small five hole and large three hole. The current of small five hole is 10a, which supports appliances below 2200W, and the current of large three hole is 16a, supporting home appliances of 2200w-3000w. Broadlink SP2 not only supports remote control and timing switch functions, but also has real-time power consumption and historical power consumption query, and can edit the profile.

The so-called editable profile means that multiple actions can be set in a profile, and these actions can be executed at one time. For example, set a profile called "go home", and the actions include turning on the air conditioner, water heater and electric light. When operating, you only need to execute this profile to complete three actions at a time. The product functions of other brands are also roughly the same.

Intelligent controller makes socket more controllable

Smart socket can give users a relatively basic intelligence experience, but if we go deep into it, some people will find problems. The work mode of intelligent socket is a socket control product, such as remote switch air conditioner and switch purifier, but if you want to turn on the air conditioner and adjust to a certain temperature or turn on the TV, you will be transferred to a certain channel. It's hard to achieve.

In fact, several representative smart sockets mentioned above all have corresponding combination solutions to achieve richer intelligent control functions. For example, broadlink has RM Pro intelligent remote control, orebo has allone infrared remote control, Belkin has wemo package, and Xiaomi has Xiaomi remote control intelligent center. These remote controls or control center infrared, radio frequency and other functions can be linked with audio, television, electric curtain and other equipment to achieve more abundant control functions.

For example, one end of broadlink RM Pro intelligent controller is connected with router through WiFi, and the other end is connected with household appliances through infrared or 433MHz, 315MHz RF. It can remotely control all appliances supporting infrared and RF, with high accuracy.

After using such a controller, two distinctive functions can be realized. One is the scene mode function mentioned above, such as "open home theater", which can include multiple actions, such as turning on the TV and selecting the appropriate HDMI signal, opening DVD and playing, turning on the stereo, turning off the lights, and closing the curtain, etc., which can be realized with only one button. Another function is called ifttt, which can also be called "if it is" function. It can trigger the corresponding function after meeting certain conditions, such as turning on the air conditioner when the indoor temperature is too high, and turning on the humidifier when the indoor humidity is too low, etc.

Socket is only the first step, WiFi module can realize the platform dream

Some people may feel that this is not enough. After all, the settings of different household appliances are quite different, and there will be many details in actual operation. It is difficult for the third-party intelligent controller to truly achieve the same function as the original app. It's not surprising to have such an idea, because smart home is a platform concept, and the intelligence of a single product can't be called smart home. Only when more and more household appliances are intelligent and run under a unified standard, this is the controllable smart home. This is what Apple's smart home platform homekit has to do.

Homekit is a software development kit launched by Apple during WWDC in 2014. Household appliances only need to be developed with this suite to achieve a unified control experience. Both iPhones and iPads can be operated. For example, if you say "I'm going to sleep" to Siri, all the devices supporting homekit at home will automatically adjust to sleep state.

When chatting with a smart home entrepreneur, he told me that he hoped that Apple would quickly promote such a standard, so that the market would have a track to follow, and everyone could make great efforts to expand the market in one direction. But the actual situation is that apple, Google, Microsoft and even domestic Jingdong and Baidu all have the dream of smart home platform, but they are all in the fragmented stage. Therefore, some entrepreneurs have begun to do such functions. This enterprise is broadlink.

Broadlink's dream is not to sell sockets or wireless control sets. Its ultimate dream is to sell WiFi modules. Any intelligent home appliance needs a WiFi module. This WiFi module is also equivalent to the networking standard. Household appliances using the same WiFi module can quickly interconnect, and achieve more detailed and accurate control under the unified standard.

Broadlink has launched a solution called broadlink DNA, which works with many home appliance manufacturers to promote its WiFi module. In broadlink In the DNA list, I can see 83 enterprises, including Wanhe, boss, Zhigao, Galanz, aux, Hisense, Wanjiale, Supor, Pentium, Lenovo, Changhong, Opel and other well-known enterprises. Their products cover sockets, switches, air conditioners, purifiers, lamps, dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, set-top boxes, humidifiers, thermostats, etc All use the WiFi module of broadlink, and the controller of broadlink can achieve excellent control function.

In addition to these products with built-in broadlink WiFi module, broadlink also cooperates with most router products to support the fast connection function of its smart socket, such as Huawei, Xiaomi, 360, Netgear, polar routing, shell, Leke, Lenovo, etc.

In addition, broadlink has also carried out strategic cooperation with some enterprises. For example, Huawei and Meizu's mobile phones will be bundled and sold, and the price will be more optimized. With their mobile phones, the remote control of terminals can be better realized. LETV will pre install the control terminal specially developed by broadlink for TV end, so that the control of home appliances can be realized by sitting in the living room through TV.

It can be said that broadlink has completed the layout of the smart home platform to a certain extent. When the giant has not done more actions, it has done what the giant should do as an entrepreneur.

Summary: smart home starts with a small socket

The socket is an ordinary product, and intelligence brings infinite possibilities. From a single smart socket to the combination of smart socket and intelligent controller, and then to the expansion of smart home platform, this process of continuous improvement of intelligent functions is actually the process of increasing demand for smart home products, and all these are from a small smart plug The seats begin.

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