Energenie ENER002-2PI remote control sockets with Raspberry Pi controller board - white

Brilliant,

EASY to setup with PI

Python script is simple to use

integration between, php website, python script and these sockets is great, I walk into my house I have a touch screen running my house, and i just press the button for the socket and on or off it goes, also can be scheduled with a cron job to turn the sockets off say after midnight and save energy.

the possibility are endless, just limited on how many of these you can control at once, thats the only down side !

These work really well. One of mine came faulty but the other worked perfectly so I've got a replacement on its way. Will be purchasing 2 more eventually

The smart sockets works perfectly. They paired without issues with the PI board and they work as intended.
Range is a bit limited so I recommend to use an antenna to increase the range

Works well with raspberry Pi 3. Can also be programmed to work with remote switch units I had from Maplins

Great product. Easy to install, easy to use. The transmitter is small and easily fits inside my existing Raspberry Pi case.
The range is less than I expected (a receiver on the floor in a room directly above the transmitter is not 100% reliable). However
a) I bought this for the mains switching capability and wireless is just a bonus.
b) there are instructions on fitting an aerial to extend the range that I haven't yet tried.

These are pretty awesome, had them up and running within 5 minutes. There's a python module and example which makes things much easier than building the code from scratch.

Got them interfacing quickly with the example script for basic on and off functions for a lamp with openHAB. There's a limit of four plugs, apparently, but there is a two-way aerial for RPi available with plug for £36 (you can add as many items as you like and receive data from them.) I wish I'd seen that before but I'll get them soon, along with a Z wave dongle. =]

There is also pinout and schematics available to view online. I'm honestly really impressed with it and the information available, with some work, Alexa will turn them on and off for you. My only gripe is that they don't give any feedback, so you don't really know if they worked. You just run the script and hope, for a cheap solution into a world of home automation, I'm chuffed.

My journey has begun..

The possibilities are endless; you just need to use your imagination a bit and be aware of its limitations.

I have used it to automate power for 2 oil heaters in the conservatory. The thermostats on them are not that good, and they keep switching on even during the summer months when the conservatory is basically a green house (reaching temperatures of around 30 degrees C etc). So they are switching on when they really don't need to, increasing my energy bill unnecessarily.

With the use of the Pi, running Python, specifically, the Python "ephem" module (which allows you to do astronomical calculations) along with the Python "energenie" module, throwing some timezone calls into the mix, I have written a little script that runs every 10 minutes which calculates, based on my longitude, latitude and time of day, the sunrise and sunset times for the current day which allows it to then determine through simple logic if it should send an ON or OFF signal to the sockets (I want the heaters ON during the night and OFF during daylight). And it works perfectly.

This is going to save my energy bill being unnecessarily high now for the rest of the year, because it really is only activating the heaters when required, and also doing it based on mathematical calculations, not relying on any light-sensitive switching equipment which is prone to messing up if someone switches on the lights during the night or indeed having to deal with cheap light-sensitive units that just don't work well due to poor manufacturing or design processes.

Only bad points are that the range is not as high as I expected; I have had to move the Pi into the conservatory for the signal to reach the sockets (not a huge problem). I was expecting the signal to reach the sockets from two rooms away in the living room, through two walls, but this hasn't been possible. Also, sometimes the sockets fail to register the signal and do not switch, which is why I have had to run my script every 10 minutes regardless. If it was more reliable, I would have implemented this solution to only send two signals a day (OFF at sunrise and ON at sunset).

Brilliant product and very pleased customer.

NOTE: I would NOT use these for mission critical applications as anyone could potentially send a signal to your sockets and switch them ON or OFF at will. In my case, the sockets are only controlling a couple of heaters so I am not bothered by this. There are alternative, more advanced, units available which are able to hook on to your wireless network which allow for more secure control if you need to go down that route.

UPDATE: As for the range, the documentation does state that this can be increased by soldering a 13.5cm length of copper wire onto the Pi-mote board (there is a little antenna hole marked for this purpose). So for people who want to drastically increase the range of the device, this DIY modification will need to be performed.

FURTHER UPDATE: I experienced reliability issues with the sockets not switching and called Energenie directly to enquire what they thought. They offered a full product swap with RMA of the units from Amazon. After further testing with a new RF board, I have indeed had to solder a 13.5cm antenna to it to resolve my problems and have found one of the 4 sockets (from both my original Amazon kit and the replacement kit Energenie sent out) faulty as I could not get it to learn the transmitter signal. I suspect the lack of antenna wire was causing failures for the sockets to properly learn the transmitter signal on my original setup. I am now returning the RF board from Amazon along with 2 sockets (one of them suspected faulty) to Energenie as part of their RMA package.

I now find that the reliability of the socket switching is 100% whereas before it was unreliable and sometimes did not work at all. So, if you are having reliability issues, definitely try the 13.5cm wire hack for the antenna (and also re-train the sockets after applying the antenna) and definitely contact Energenie directly so they can send you more sockets as some do not appear to be reliably manufactured. I cannot fault their customer care and support regarding these issues. Brilliant customer service!

Fabulous bit of kit if you are a bit of a geek and prepared to do some scripting on the pi. I have a couple pi computers I have used for various things and was going away over Christmas and wanted to be able to turn on and off some Xmas lights remotely. Yes, I could have used a timer, but I have a growing pile of dead ones that have stopped operating for various reasons and I thought it would be nice to be able turn the lights on and off when I wanted. The two sockets and the pi PCB arrived quickly and I fitted the PCB into a pi. I also added the extra aerial wire that is recommended. This needed a small hole to be drilled in the pi case. There is some rudimentary Python code available from the manufacturer, but I would recommend searching around on the net a bit, since there are some nice websites giving better instructions and code. I ended up using "pi-mote" linked with the bottle Python web framework. This allows you to log into a simple web page hosted on the pi that gives you control of the sockets. This allowed me to turn on and off two different sets of lights whenever I wanted to. I could check that it had actually worked by viewing an IP webcam. It worked really well either over 3G from my phone or from my iPad over wifi at home or when I was away. As I said, a bit geeky, but it did the job well and I can control a radio or other lights if away at other times.