Zigbee Wall Outlet | Project Jambry

I’d like to put in a vote for a zwave version! Don’t leave us out of the cool stuff!

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Excellent idea.

For those not as familiar with USB-PD: A charger doesn’t have to support 12 volts at all; 12V was part of USB PD 1.0, but for complicated reasons, made optional in later versions. With all the other standard voltages, the rule is that any charger that supports a given voltage must also support all the lower standard ones (5, 9, 15, 20) at up to 3 amps. But 12 is optional, and not all chargers support it even though it’s super useful in certain situations.

@Eric_Inovelli I am game for several of these as well. Currently have 13 controlled receptacles with only one outlet able to be controlled. Also Zigbee repeaters in a few rooms. This perfectly seems to fit the replacement bill for me.

One thing to keep in mind when designing layout of the usb ports, make sure you test to see if usb can be used while a 3-prong grounded plug is connected. I have a couple of dumb outlets with usb that cannot be used when a grounded plug is attached.

The most pressing question is whether the marketing photos should show it ground up or ground down. (Psst… it should be down.) https://youtu.be/3AAKEeDcZ34

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This makes me wonder if there is a standard for the distance between the top and bottom outlets of duplex receptacles? I think there may be as I have a few multipliers that fit in and use both the top and bottom outlets as contacts and anchors. These work with standard and Decora styles. So the spacing is either standardized on design preference or mandated. This post made me curious if it indeed a manufacturing mandated standard in the US. Food for thought I suppose.

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I don’t think this is a “real” suggestion, but I thought I’d throw it into the thread and see if anyone can pivot the idea into something more useful, but what about some type of PLC or PowerLink capability? I can’t think of the use-case, but was thinking you could use the power system as a backhaul, etc. Obviously IEEE 802.15.4 provides a bunch of mesh capabilities, but it’s fairly low bandwidth, etc…

Edit: It might allow for example to extend your mesh over a greater distance to get from the 1st fl to the 3rd floor without having to have repeaters all along the way, just get 2x wall outlets.

Researching my own half-baked ideas: https://inria.hal.science/inria-00493435/PDF/hal.pdf

Also, I don’t see Zigbee binding in the requirements. Seems like it should definitely be in there? I’d also add maybe implement the Zigbee capability to change channels.

Also, is there any ideas for a side-by-side implementation where you have 2x wall outlets next to each other? That’d give you more space for PCB items, would there be any benefits to have a “side car” module that would add more functionality that needed more space? Again, crazy ideas, but maybe it gets someone else’s ideas flowing.

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The Zigbee/Thread single SKU is an interesting idea, but there would have to be a solution to for the initial protocol firmware load. You won’t want to have to do a Zigbee OTA update to load Thread firmware, or vise versa, so you’d need to have, for example, both codes on the device and a push button or dip switch setting for the initial Zigbee/Thread code load. Zwave is out of the question folks. It’s not 2.4GHz and requires physically different chipsets, etc.

Mac Book Pro needs 60w to work correctly with no peripherals, and the first party chargers are 95w usb-c. Many popular laptops want 45w

To be able to run indefinitely at full power, yes. However, all the USB-C Macs can charge (more slowly) from any USB supply. Even 5V 3A is enough to fully charge a MacBook Pro if plugged in overnight.

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This is awesome. I’d pick up a few of these for my house. I also wanted to put in my $0.02 for a mmWave version as well. :slight_smile:

Project Update: No real update here as the team just got back from Chinese New Year and are working with their suppliers on getting us a quote. I should know more in a week or so on what’s achievable or not with this based on the engineer feedback.

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As a more realistic option, a “hard” power reboot button or tab would be nice. Having to go to the breaker box to reset devices is frustrating. In other words, some way to remove power from the device temporarily without having to fiddle with the wiring, or having to go to the circuit breaker for the whole circuit and turning the power off.

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Yes! I have some Leviton (I think) receptacles and I’ve had to flip the break multiple times in the last month when they stop responding after I make a change to my zwave network.

I’m also in favor of that idea. Having an air-gap, similar to the switches, would be very handy

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Well I’m down for a crap ton of these myself. I just discovered the blue 2-1 switches and they check all of my boxes and more. Fantastic product. I’ve moved all the switches in my home to these and would love to compliment them with “smart” outlets.

Feature wise, I’m a fan of the KISS theory. I’m also a project manager (of sorts) and reading this thread I can see scope creep nightmares in my future. I think the original requirements list was pretty comprehensive and the initial design is quite elegant.

That said I will add a +1 for the USB port to have as high of an output and broadest compatibility as is practical given space/heat/electrical limitations. I would love nothing more than to be able to ditch the huge and unwieldy apple power adapter for my macbook pro.

Big Pete…

You can count on me placing a big ‘ol’ pre-order with the time comes!

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Ahem… Beta tester… Ahem…

lol…

Lol, put me down as a Z-Wave beta tester! (Though having a Zigbee repeater in every wall outlet would be super nice) :smiley:

Also, I didn’t see it mentioned, but Leviton now has a 60W USB-C outlet as well: Amazon.com
Silver Cymbal did a great review of them as always https://youtu.be/Zbq5pBaXWOc

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I have a TopGreener 60W USB A & C outlet at home. The USB C port does PD as well. So much cleaner than plug in bricks everywhere. Fingers crossed @Eric_Inovelli can wave his magic wand and get at least 60W in Project Jambry.

Ah, then you must not be familiar with Inovelli development… Generally it’s a wonder they don’t have the kitchen sink included in all of their products! :rofl:

For me, my requirements are fairly simple:

  1. Independent Zigbee/Z-Wave outlet control
  2. Independent outlet power monitoring
  3. Commercial grade contacts (See https://youtu.be/kX6xnOksQTc?t=164 for a comparison between “residential” grade and “commercial” grade outlet internals. Obv. the commercial grade is more expensive, but will last a lot longer)

If Eric can nail those at a reasonable price point ($30-$50/unit), I will want to buy as many as possible to replace the most used outlets in my house.

20A would be very nice, especially since it looks like the only other individually controllable 20A outlet by ConnectSense is no longer available.

Bonuses include almost everything else listed:

  • USB-C outlet (I don’t need to plug in a USB charger everywhere, and when I do I usually have a wall adapter anyways)
  • RGBW LED bar (While the LED bar is great on the switches, outlets will more often be in harder-to-see places, and far below eye level, so much less useful for notifications/dim level, etc)
  • And so on.
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@Eric_Inovelli - Another swag idea for the online store? :wink:

But seriously though, how difficult would it be to make a motion-sensing kitchen sink faucet that can display notifications, has a temperature readout, can be controlled remotely, and most importantly reports water usage back to the user’s HA platform du jour? :thinking: This is seriously an un-tapped market (pun intended)…