Buy Belkin WeMo Home Automation Switch + Motion Sensor bundle for Apple

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This product is not ready. The lag is unbearable. Constantly searching for devices. Tries to upgrade firmware 1540 all the time (or firmware upgrade never finishes). Motion sensor blue led indicates detections reliably, but the app has either a huge delay or unreliable detections showing. This causes the rule not to trigger most of the time. Just a simple rule to turn on switch for 1 minute when detecting motion fails 9 times out of 10.

I drop my expectation to just turning on/off the switch repeatedly. Guess what? It stops switching (long app delay) after 3 clicks. The control sometimes comes back after several (tens of) seconds, but not always. I repeat this on/off switching test and find the longest continual switching I can get it to work is 8. Granted that most folks don't do this but it shows the usability of the communication protocol (or lack of).

A normal use case would be starting the app and turn the switch to on/off. Again, the lag is unbearable. It doesn't show incorrect switch state. It just doesn't respond.

Taking picture to use as icon doesn't work either. It just shows white background.

Maybe all my issues are relating to old firmware. But firmware upgrade doesn't work. Any idea what to do except to return it?

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program These are well-designed and relatively intuitive remote control switch and motion detector. Once you get them set up they are very useful and versatile enough to perform all sorts of remote or automatic functions in your house. However, they do have some design flaws and are pretty expensive.

PROS

* Ease of use. Once you've had them properly setup, the WeMo switch and motion detector work very well. They are

* Reliability. I've used a lot of networked peripherals and stand-alone electronic devices before (printers, security cameras), and most of them come with some connectivity issues. So far I've been very pleased with WeMo it resides on your home network, and it's easily accessible remotely, either via Internet or cellular networks. Granted, I haven't been using it for too long, but my experiences thus far are very positive.

* Build. These sensors look and seem solid, and they can easily fit any environment from your bedroom to the garage or a workshop.

* Convenient. You don't need to completely redo your walls and wiring in order to get a very sophisticated level of home automation.

* Remote accessibility. As long as you have an iOS device and an Internet connection (weather cellular or WiFi), you will be able to control and program all of you sensors and switches.

* Versatile. The range of behaviors and responses that you can automate is truly remarkable for a consumer level device. You may not be able to do some things that a high-end professional home automation product is capable of, but for most regular everyday uses this switch and sensor can be more than adequate.

CONS

* Relatively obscure instruction manual. The designers of this system were obviously hoping to create something that you could just plug into your wall and use immediately, so they only provided a very minimalist set of instructions. However, even though I consider myself to be fairly IT savvy, I had some trouble properly configuring the motion sensor in particular, and even for that I needed to search online for the more detailed instructions.

* Very large. The wall plugins are as large as a two-outlet wall plug itself. You have to be strategic about how you place them, and having one of these on a power strip is all but out of the question.

* Control restricted to iOS devices. Yes, there are way too many OSs out there, and restricting your product to the one that is perhaps the smoothest and cleanest may make some marketing sense, but I for one would like to be able to access my switches and sensors from any device that I am using computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. Maybe even my Kindle. That would be really cool.

* Expensive. Getting one or two of these can instantly turn your home into a smart, automated dwelling. However, at the price of $100+ for each one of these units the expenses quickly mount and using these sensors for all but the smallest tasks would be prohibitively expensive for people on moderate budgets, and if you do have the money to burn then getting a more professional integrated system would be the more logical choice. I think that these switches need to come down substantially in price before they can make any impact on the average consumer.

So to conclude, if you are looking for a quick and relatively easy way of automating a few of your domestic appliances or rooms, then this is one of the best such systems that I've seen. However, it is costly and I would not recommend using these switches and motion detectors for full-home automation.

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Took 2 hours to try to get it set up without luck. Going through the first time setup, everything appeared to connect fine. But then the app would say "Looking for switch..." but never find anything. After multiple unplugging, restarting, plugging it in next to the router, etc. I finally gave up and emailed customer service. After 48 hours without a response, I'm going to return it.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, but there isn't any instructions in box. You must download the app first to get the instructions. However, after that, it is pretty straight forward, simple 5 step process.

I was a bit surprised on how bulky the item was, but that wasn't a huge concern of mine.

I love the idea of home automation, I think this product has a niche. I just wished I could get it to work.

Honest reviews on Belkin WeMo Home Automation Switch + Motion Sensor bundle for Apple

still can't get the motion sensor to connect .... And stay connected.doing everything right, restore,reset,reconnect. Found it once, to set up, but app never found the sensor.

Sorry guys not worth it :(

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Let me answer the first question what exactly does this do?

It controls ONE light. One side plugs in between the light and the wall this is called the switch. It can be operated via the iphone/ipad app on or off. The other thing is a sensor. It also plugs into the wall, but does not control a second light. Instead, the sensor monitors motion via the round can thing and reports that motion to the iphone/ipad app. The app allows you to set "rules" that turn on and off the switch based on movement or time of day. You can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor and the time the switch stays on after motion ceases. By having the switch and sensor separate, you can put the sensor at the bottom of a flight of stairs and the switch on a light at the top, so once you start up the stairs the light turns on.

You MUST have an iphone/ipad/itouch to use this. It is entirely dependent on the app.

Good

The switch, once set up, actually works as intended.

The sensor seems to work well and has a decent range of motion.

It works even when traveling (you dont have to keep your iphone/ipad in the same wifi network).

It integrates with IFTTT, assuming you know what that is (google it it is an "if this than that" service).

Bad

The set up can be problematic, not because of wifi issues, but because the app kept freezing on my ipad.

The sensor does not include a light sensor allowing you to not turn on the light if it is already bright in the room.

The switch makes a loud click when it turns on or off.

There are much less expensive alternatives.

The switch does not allow dimming it is on or off.

The sensor pod has a plug that plugs into the wall brick, but I cant seem to tell if the wall brick does anything on its own.

The iphone/ipad app is really just an iphone app. The ipad app works in "mini iphone" mode.

There were virtually no directions in my packaging just some pictograms on the back of the cover (but this was a review unit, so maybe there are instructions in the normal packaging).