WeMo shows potential with simple installation, simple to use, and a lot of possibilities with the help of IFTTT support. The app shows some rough edges, but the main downside is the current (limited) range of different types of lamps, with the extra plug that in the other regions has a larger range.
Pros
- Works well. For the time being no problems within the features.
- Installation is easy
- (Basic) using simple
- Thanks to IFTTT, you can quite a lot with WeMo, this requires further investment of time
- Lamps give considerable light and are dimmable.
- Works from within your own Wi-fi, and also outside the home.
- (Google) Nest Weave support announced (already is missing any kind of details)
Cons
- App shows some rough edges, and would still be a bit faster may
- WeMo has extension range of different lamps (RGB, other fittings, strips) needed in order with Philips Hue to compete.
- Possibilities without using IFTTT limited
- Not cheap.
Final conclusion
Score: 3Per criterion
Ease of use
Score: 4
In this review, I discuss several products, the above summary is applicable to the in the hundred linked product, For the summary and the summary of the positives and negatives of the other products, see the reviews out there are linked.
Review: Belkin WeMo
– Introduction
– WeMo lighting
– WeMo switch
– NetCam HD+
Installation
– In practice
– Conclusion
Product Page @ WeMo
The demand for a smarter household is strongly increased in the last few years. As a result, and the fact that there is still no major winners in the field of home automation, try a lot of companies have their ‘piece of the pie’ to address. Belkin, primarily known for their networking equipment, is doing that with their WeMo ecosystem. Under the WeMo flag are already plenty of products being sold and there are so many announcements of new products.
Today we are going to take the first steps in the world of WeMo to see what Belkin has to offer us. We are going to look at the ‘smart’ LED bulbs, the switch, and the camera. Other products in the WeMo range, I have simply not (yet), so although I have the capabilities of the WeMo ecosystem to go pick up, I can obviously not too deep in. Perhaps fodder for a sequel in the future. We’re going to start with the physical products to view, then we are going to look at the installation and the actual use.
My WeMo adventure began with the LED starter kit, a set consisting of a controller and two lights available from 69 euros. Now I have this set from someone else over, so unfortunately I can’t show how the packaging looks like, or what exactly is in it. On the other hand, gave it an interesting challenge: WeMo would be simple, so then I can surely install it without a manual?
The Link forms the basis and is indispensable when you have multiple WeMo bulbs to use. The lamps themselves make use of the ZigBee protocol, and so you have completed. n Link is required in your house to the light bulbs to be able to control. This Link will prick you somewhere in the electrical outlet, of course, within the wifi range of your network, and you do nothing further with it. The only button which we also find is a reset button. The Link contains an LED that blinks during installation, startup, e.d. but during normal use it does not light. The box is physically sturdy and also looks neat. Very unobtrusively he is with his depth, of course not. You can have up to 50 bulbs to completed. n Link to link, so the chance that you need is probably not very large.
The lamps look physically very solid, although it should be for the price. Bulb costs approximately 29 euros. Although in America many different lamps are available seems to be the choice in the Netherlands is still a bit limited, I’m just E27 (standard large bayonet fitting) dimmable lamps come with white light (3000 K) give off. The question is of course whether and when the other tones that currently exist at all, also go to the Netherlands, because the ‘tunable white’ set of different shades of white can display seem to be quite interesting. RGB lamps are not yet released but announced, RGB LED strips there are in the States, but you guessed it: Not in the Netherlands.
These lamps have a 9.5 W / 800 Lumens specification. In comparison, the Philips LED bulb with 3,000 K 800 lm has a 10.5 W specification. Replacing them, in fact, the old-fashioned 60W bulb, so you can rest assured that there is a lot of light comes out. With an expected lifetime of 25,000 hours, you will normally also known as forward can.
The second product that I started to work with was the WeMo switch with a price tag of approximately 49 euros. The switch comes in two variants, this simple variant, and the ‘insight’ switch for a tenner more a energy meter built-in. Where the bulbs use ZigBee operates the switch yourself directly on Wi-fi; a starter kit with lamps is not necessary if you only for a number of switches.
The switch is made of plastic, but feels very solid. No locker that you just breaks. There’s not much to do with the switch and the only button that you normally use (if you want) is the manual button to power it on or off. The same button that of course, you later through your phone can operate. This is also the only feature of the entire switch: on command, or according to set rules the power of the connected device on or off. Not more, not less.
The switch may be up to 3680W be in charge, not really a limitation. Just like the starter kit is the switch only for use within the home. If you expect to move: the switches that are sold in the Netherlands (according to the specifications) does not provide support for, for example, the 110V in the states.
The third product is a little more to show, and this time also completed. n that neat new out of the box. The packaging of the NetCam HD+ is quite good. Incidentally, it is here that this product Belkin branded, and not WeMo. Anyway, I take him in this review because the Belkin Netcams integrate well into the WeMo system. This NetCam HD+ is the upgraded version with 720p quality and two-way audio, but there is also a simpler version with 480p quality. At this moment completed. n shop this camera for 59 euro, the other shops start, however, at 130 euros, keep that in mind.
The specifications for the good order:
We see a modest viewing angle for an IP camera, with 720p recording, a max of 25 images per second, night vision, built-in microphone and a built-in speaker is a pretty complete picture.
The NetCam HD+ is mostly made of plastic. High gloss white plastic looks not very luxurious, but still feels very sturdy. The foot like some steel, which makes the camera very solid, and thanks to the rubber feet slide and he certainly does not. I was positively surprised because the stock pictures me a ‘plastic fantastic’ feel ‘ gifts, but that wasn’t good. Of course, it is not you-of-it, and if I go back to the price look I must tell you that that money is still what more would expect. We do see that there is a speakertje and a microphone for two-way audio. At the rear we see a number of status lights and a switch after the installation actually does not need to use.
The camera is powered by an included ac adapter. Although the roughly 3 meter cable best flexibility, I wonder if a USB connector with a loose plug would have been better to have the flexibility to give shorter or longer cables to use.
The camera is pretty flexible on the foot, but the movements you will with the hand; an automatic movement is missing. Our dear BB-8, the NetCam HD+. Long time did the same, but finally, the NetCam HD+ to win by a 90 degrees tilt to perform that BB-8 his head took.
Installation begins with the WeMo App which is available for iOS and Android, I use the last. I began my experience with two products without packaging, so no idea really how the setup is now to work. The App makes it easy and asks you to simply be product you want to install, and gives you which steps you have to go through. It actually comes with each product down to the same thing: Punch the product into the outlet, create on your phone to connect to the wi-fi network what is the product emits (You’ll see the WeMo.Product name. Something in your list of networks), and go back to the App. Then the product is added to your local wi-fi set up. As long as the user knows how to connect to a Wi-fi network, you can productjes install, plus points for ease of installation.
The NetCam HD+, install in the first instance, via the NetCam app, that’s because it’s not actually a WeMo product, but the WeMo-compatible product. Installation goes the same way: install App, connect camera, connect to the WiFi network that the camera emits, and the app start. Then we see the camera next to the other installed WeMo devices in the WeMo app back. Also here is the installation a breeze. For connection from outside, it is an account, which you also easily create in the app.
I have the WeMo devices now a few weeks in the house, and still working what is supposed to work properly. I have no faults seen, no crazy issues, if I use the devices after installation from the wall outlet, pull, and elsewhere, plug the equipment back (think e.g. to a power failure). If you are the first time out of the house, the lighting turns on and off that’s kind of fun to see, especially if your partner is not as alert and from the other side of the street (you can finally just about 3g/4g your small business to operate) the lamps shows flash. It is all very simple. I must say that the application really still float mag, and on some parts there is also, simply, not. The software development team of WeMo has still some work to do.
Everything is childishly simple install is fine, and also the use is in the rule nice and simple. Click the camera to take a look, then click the speaker to listen to or the mic to the camera to speak, click the switch to on/off, click on your lamp and you can turn on, dim, or when the versions with different light tones (or the RGB strips) you can adjust the colors. But once you get further if you go against restrictions. Now you can of the WeMo Switch, which has no other feature other than power on/off, of course, little expected, but of a “smart” system you expect that you have the camera can tell where he files need to save, or complex rules to create. Although in the first instance, a lot of think to do with the ‘rules’ page that simply.
Two examples of the opnamekwalteit. It can be there just by.
Those rules are almost bizarrely simplistic. The first thing I wanted to: “If the camera detects motion, then turn on the lights” was excellent. But “If someone the light turn on, then make a recording” could not. Anyway, can you actually do anything with the camera other than manually watch and record. However, you can from your cell phone to look, simultaneously, from a computer look at the same time as a friend or girlfriend to let them watch, than anywhere local images or images to save, but that’s where the camera capabilities immediately. Do you want the camera recording on motion detection, so when your own ‘manual’??? Then you a cloud solution that Belkin has outsourced to “Seedonk” and where you for video recording, 100 euro per year is allowed to tap. A month free is nice that you can try, but it is a painful fact that alternatives are lacking and ge lwa-in functionality is limited. You can just set up an e-mail with a motion detection, but then you will still have to manually have to look. Now the lines will be for many (simple) users comply with, but the real artistic freedom, you can forget it.
Yet, there is a nice ‘but’ to that last remark, and that is that WeMo IFTTT compatible. For those who are “IF This, Then That” not to know: IFTTT is a website/company/application that allows people to make smart rules to remember and to share with each other. This service is very useful for many purposes, for instance, you can set up that ‘IF’ I put something on facebook post “then” put it on Twitter. Simple example, but there are many thousands of to find. By your WeMo devices to IFTTT service (this was free), to link open you the door for many smart features, mainly because a lot of “IFs” do not meet the WeMo App or even products linked to sit, but to other IFTTT-compatible hard – and software. You can almost the entire WeMo app ignore everything in IFTTT to control, even the simple tasks like ‘turn the switch off manually’, but the real power lies in the many rules that are all ready available, and the ability to make them yourself. With IFTTT, you can really he-le-maal los: “Turn off the lights when the sun goes down”, “turn on all bewegingsmeldingen in a table with time” “register all the on/off switching of a switch” “send me mail when someone the light turn on” “when I am home I turn the lights on”, and so on. The last example requires of course that your GPS uses, or you would be able to set on when you are within your WiFi network range, so be careful and love me not liable for the consequences if you do “if my wife is almost home blink the lights on/off” IFTTT rule is not properly implemented. With IFTTT, you come so suddenly, a lot further, and IFTTT is now so well established that it is relying on this 3rd party not as a drawback may apply.
And so, this is just a small selection of the IFTTT options.
You notice in those examples already that some are only possible with specific WeMo products. Many rules are based, for example, around the WeMo light switches (which the manual switches in the wall to replace) or the motion sensor, and which products are not yet available in the Netherlands. That is a serious point of criticism for WeMo in our little country, because the products are there but are simply not making the extra cross. We look at America, we see even WeMo enabled coffee makers, heaters, and even a Crockpot (brilliant thing by the way, we have completed. n, but unfortunately without the WeMo support). That devices, you can even completely from your App control; how long the Crockpot, turn it down a notch, etc. We have to do here with the lights (but only the white, and only with the large E27 fitting), the switch, the switch with a meter, and the camera. The programmable maker is still available, but then you will be nice to bake the need to make something beautiful out of it. I have it myself, but have seen that you, for example, a pressure sensor may connect to the creator, and then to the enlightenment, or “when I’m on the door step, turn on the lamp”. Anyway, it is a bit of wait and see which way it’s going with WeMo availability, but for the moment let it be something left to be desired.
Wait is the right word as the external compatibility and the future to come. Belkin wants to, of course, that someone all of WeMo buys, just like a lot of competitors want you to get everything completed. n party is going to take. With many parties with a limited range, it is not exactly an ideal picture for the consumer, and it is always to wait to see which of the promises and the reality; also, WeMo has the last years a lot of at CES show, but not everything has been released, let alone come to the Netherlands. Thanks to IFTTT, you’re not really WeMo bound, but also not everything is IFTTT compatible. WeMo is with a little bit of skill to Domoticz to mount, a system I otherwise don’t use, but combine a modest market share of WeMo with a small group of Domoticz users, and then there is not much to find. More interesting seems to be the integration with (Google) Nest Weave, when completed. n club is that the resources and knowledge to bring a system to a new standard than is that Google does. With Weave want to be an (open) platform for a smarter household, and Weave definitely has potential and strong cards. WeMo is, like some significant others, mentioned by name in the press release of Nest (1/10/2015) as being completed. n of the parties that Weave is going to support, but further details are missing as yet. Thus, it is unclear whether only new WeMo devices are going to support, or that all of the WeMo devices Weave is compatible, and what a term we really have something concrete to expect. In other words: For now you will have to make do with what there is available, for the rest we have to wait.
Each “smart home” system, what I see, or any other experience about that though, the feeling that everyone has a little bit of market share tries to pick up a new product category where there is still some space in it (read: there is something to earn). That battle lasts already for several years, and yet he seems also still not over. Go WeMo ‘the’ system in the coming years? There seem like they are even in the WeMo itself is still seriously doubt this, witness the (limited) number of available products at this time and the apparent ” we do it quietly’ number of product launches. Anyway, it is unlikely that a closed system seriously likely, to work together, or in any case, love playing together with others is inevitable. Perhaps that’s why that WeMo partnerships also is not afraid: As they work with o.a. Osram to make the lamps, and scissors, they are behind the Nest Weave to feature restrictions to take away and to ensure that they are part of a (much) bigger with serious potential for a truly smarter home. Why Nest is the Google prefix almost forced absence seems to keep understand I did not, because it’s the name that the platform awareness will give. Here we walk, however, at a disadvantage: absence significant details with regard to the development of Weave and the extent to which the current WeMo devices there can. What you can do in the future with what you now buy is so just wait.
WeMo, in and of itself, and then specifically what is on the table, has both beautiful and less beautiful sides. For example, the initials and on lwa le installation of the lighting, the camera and the switches really child’s play; it is simple enough that my mother can do it by itself, and such accessibility is crucial for this product to sell. Also in use the whole is then simple, because if you by the photos you can swipe, you can you switches turn on, your lighting dim, the camera view, etc. The App should be faster work, and also shows at times some rough edges (especially the camera app sometimes gives the impression that a half-awake engineer it well because it worked. Let someone with a bit of an eye for user experience there are a look at it please). But the main thing is that just being nice works, both from home and outside of the door, without me the last few weeks of crazy things have noticed.
It is actually in the limited settings that a little bit starts to sting, especially the limited capabilities of the camera in a device which is usually a eurotje or 130 should cost; for really useful functionality, we need to wait and see, or should you to a pricey cloud subscription for your storage. –Or – they have the features expand, or the price really should be well below 100 euro diving to be an interesting addition to the WeMo, or as a stand-alone interesting. Two-way audio is a nice feature, but the rest of the picture is really too slow. For the real WeMo hardware, the lamps and the switch, are the restrictions within the App (which basically looks and operates) is itself a clever solution by IFTTT support. Thanks to this well-developed 3rd party it is still possible truly beautiful, useful, or even downright crazy rules to implement. In doing so, IFTTT support opportunities to WeMo with other hardware and software work together. Note: IFTTT is not complex, but the system really tweak you must, of course, or just sit quietly. The problem for WeMo is that Philips Hue IFTTT support today, and also their API is public, allowing plenty of external tools can make use of that relief; something WeMo with their Nest Weave cooperation presumably trying to reach. Now you would think that a comparison with Hue not really fair is: Hue has, after all, no cameras, switches, smart coffee makers, Crock-Pot or stoves that you send us via your phone may let heat and focuses only on lighting. However, as long as the majority of those WeMo products in the Netherlands is not available also seems to WeMo here, especially the lighting should have, and then falls to the offer (in the Netherlands) suddenly at compared to Philips: no RGB lamps, no fittings other than E27 (standard socket), and no LED strips or other fun solutions. The price difference between similar products, or the ability to (also quite expensive) switches to add, feel still what did it all as an argument to WeMo to choose. Admittedly: The WeMo Maker is for the artist may be a lot of fun, but that requires quite a serious knutselkennis. In view of the aforementioned products already exist and in the United States to be sold is sticking a bit that ‘we’ they do not have. Wemo: Bring that trade to the Netherlands, add some other lights, and we’ve become a really interesting alternative in the field of lighting. As soon as the range of lamps increases, I would also so an asterisk can be added to the final score.
But to recap: It works, it shows potential, and the developments do not stand still. However, as long as the battle for the smart home is still in full swing, the current offerings are quite limited, and it is also unclear exactly what WeMo can expect in the coming years, I am more than a neutral to mildly positive attitude, don’t assume. Are you looking for at this time purely a solution to some (E27) lamps and some switches ‘smart’ way to manage from your phone, or possibly with some clever IFTTT rules, WeMo, of course, a good consideration, if only because both the installation and the use really a piece of cake.
You can find this review fun than I would have a nice comment below, of course, really appreciate it, this gives the motivation to continue with these reviews, but, of course, critical comments are also very welcome. Have a look at my other reviews; I like to make them, but also of course to share them!
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