Like this project! Couple of thoughts:
(1) the use case of detecting a phone plugged in is great and will be popular I suspect. How will that work? Detecting of something physically plugged in, or detecting of power draw? If detecting something physically plugged in, would that prevent someone from leaving just their power cord plugged in all the time? And if detecting power draw, will it be able to account for the optimization of charging that the phones do and/or trickle charge where there is sometimes not any or not much power draw? And will this feature be available on the usb-c or the outlets or both?
(2) I would definitely use the mmWave addition if/when that makes its way into this product, as that would greatly expand the places where presence sensing could reach!
Quick update: No real update other than we still have the downpayment on this, but the timeline is going to be shifted as we had to transition the mmWave switch over to this manufacturer and made it our top priority. As it stands, these are the projects ahead of this one:
Fan Switch - White Series
Fan/Light Canopy - White Series
mmWave - Red Series / Blue Series
Button Controller - Red Series / Blue Series
On/Off Switch - White Series / Blue Series
From a hardware side, all of these are completed, so the Outlet is next up. However, from a firmware side, thereās quite a bit ahead of it.
I believe power draw, but Iāll have to wait for the engineer on this one to confirm.
Great question, let me check!
I like the idea, but Iām nervous of two things:
Space on the PCB
Cost
With the space, while I havenāt seen the PCB layout yet, Iām guessing it will be difficult as most of the front is covered by both outlets and the USB-C making it tough for the mmWave sensor to fit (let alone the potential EMF interference).
With cost, this is already a fairly expensive product. Just some back of the napkin math has it looking like it would be an MSRP of $105+
Base cost is 50% higher than our Dimmer
mmWave switch is double the base cost of our dimmer
@lnjustin ā heard back from the engineer, but Iām not quite sure I completely understand his answer. Maybe you can better decipher it otherwise I can just ask for clarification.
"The Type-c interface can automatically detect USB insertion, recognize the interface signal, and automatically manage the charge. An outlet socket cannot detect a physical insertion, it can detect a load insertion by metering, and the load must work."
I donāt think he answered the question that was if it detects it specifically being a physical detection or metering detection, but maybe thatās just what he meant by āautomatically detect USB insertionā.
Let me ask for clarity real quick, but I wanted to make sure I at least let you know it has been asked.
GFCI protection is safety-critical and will open up a whole new world of certification requirements that you just donāt want to deal with. Plus it will take a lot more physical room in the plug, and itās easy enough to just put GFCI protection at the circuit breaker.
Some clarification about the differences between ā15Aā and ā20Aā outlets:
Part of the UL certification requirements for standard 15A receptacles is the ability to carry 20A of current between the two plugs and devices wired downstream in a āfeed-throughā configuration (rather than pigtails). This requirement is one of the main reasons why the NEC specifically allows 15A receptacles on a 20A circuit. Also, while the requirement that allows this only applies if there is āmore than one outletā on the circuit, a standard duplex receptacle like this one counts as two āoutletsā in the terminology of the code, so that exception would always apply to this product.
So the only practical difference between a ā15Aā duplex NEMA 5-15R and a ā20Aā duplex NEMA 5-20R is that the 5-20R is tested to deliver up to 20A on a single plug, while the 5-15R is only tested to deliver a total of 20A on both plugs combined.
There are a small number of devices that use the NEMA 5-20P plug, which can only plug into a 5-20R receptacle, and not a 5-15R, but these are very uncommon.
If you build the 15A version, and itās a hit, then it might be worth considering adding a 20A version, but probably not, and itās definitely not a āversion 1ā idea.
