Belkin WeMo and Ubiquiti mFi Home Automation Platforms Review
by Ganesh T S on April 27, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Automation
- Belkin
- Ubiquiti Networks
- IoT
Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks
Home automation needs to be 'green'. Tracking the power consumption of battery-operated devices is challenging. However, we are only looking at AC-powered devices today. In order to do some evaluation. we connected the WeMo Insight Switch and mPower (3-port) to the two outlets of a mFi In-Wall Outlet. The instantaneous power consumption was tracked every second over a 5-minute interval for different situations and the results are tabulated below.
| Power Consumption Metrics Belkin WeMo Insight & Ubiquiti Networks mPower |
||
| Device | Notes | Average Power Consumption (W) |
| WeMo Insight | Relay Off | 1.44 |
| Relay On - No Load | 1.86 | |
| Relay On - 38W Load | 39.14 | |
| mPower | Relays Off | 0 |
| Relay On x1 - No Loads | 1.54 | |
| Relay On x2 - No Loads | 2.05 | |
| Relay On x3 - No Loads | 2.55 | |
| Relay On x3 - 38W Load x1 | 40.05 | |
The mPower consumes insignificant power to remain connected to the Wi-Fi network, while the Belkin Insight consumes an average of 1.44 W for this purpose. Turning on the relays ends up consuming power as shown above. Based on the above observations, Belkin can optimize the firmware and/or platform choice to give consumers a more power efficient product. The mPower consumes power within reasonable limits with the relays turned on. However, the AR9331 is by no means a low-power Wi-Fi SoC. It will be interesting to see the Wi-Fi SoCs used by Ubiquiti Networks in future iterations in this product space.
Interoperability is another aspect of home automation systems. While the WeMo is officially a closed platform, the reverse engineered aspects have made it possible for even the mFi controllers to control WeMo devices.
Earlier this month, we arrived at a set of points to ponder when dealing with any home automation system / device. Using those, we have come up with a summary table that provides essential information about the Belkin WeMo and the Ubiqiuiti Networks mFi at a glance.
| Home Automation Device Aspects - Summary Table | ||
| Aspect | ||
| Evaluated Devices | Light Switch Insight Switch |
mPower mPower Pro InWall Outlet InWall Dimmer Switch |
| Communication Technology | Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) | Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) |
| Platform | Ralink / MediaTek RT5350 1x1 802.11n Wi-Fi SoC Host CPU: MIPS 24KEc, DRAM: 32MB |
Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 1x1 802.11n Wi-Fi SoC Host CPU: MIPS 24Kc, DRAM: 32MB |
| Power Source | AC Powered | AC Powered |
| Hub / Bridge Requirement | No | No |
| Control Center | Local Device (basic access) Cloud (rules and scenes) |
Local Device (basic access, rules and scenes) Local Server (comprehensive access, rules and scenes) |
| User Control Interface | Mobile Apps | Web Browser Mobile Apps (basic control) |
| Open APIs | Yes (via Belkin's cloud servers) uPnP (local, limited, unofficial) |
Yes (uPnP, HTTP, SSH) |
| Third-party / Hub Compatibility | None advertised | None advertised |
| Cloud Reliance | Optional Reverse-engineered for local server / control capabilities |
None |
| Security Notes | Connects to Belkin's cloud servers Authenticates purely via SSID |
Username / Password Authentication LAN Access Only |
| User Support / Discussion Forums | WeMo Community | Ubiquiti Networks Community - mFi Forums |
| Street Price | USD 42 (Light Switch) USD 55 (Insight) |
USD 60 (mPower) USD 95 (mPower Pro) USD 59 (InWall Outlet) USD 59 (InWall Switch / Dimmer) |
Belkin has an awesome ecosystem of products with the WeMo - the only thing it needs to do to make the ecosystem more reliable and user-friendly is to allow consumers the option of disassociating completely from the cloud service. They need to release the WeMo cloud server program officially and allow it to run on a machine in the local network. While there are third-party unofficial solutions such as Mike's WemoManager and WemoServer, they are only trying to fix Belkin's shortcomings. We do agree that machine learning on a large scale from multiple users (particularly for the WemoWater that is yet to be released) is possible when everything goes through Belkin's cloud servers. However, the current state of the cloud service and the apps mean that users might be better off just having a local system-based solution to go with the WeMo hardware.
Coming back to the Ubiquiti Networks mFi lineup, the non-Wi-Fi-based mPort sensors may pose a challenge to install for the general audience. The building automation / enterprise focus of the mFi lineup is an acceptable excuse, though - consumers involved in those types of setups are usually professionals and understand the technology. That said, Ubiquiti Networks will be the first to admit that their product is not designed and/or marketed for the average consumer. This is a pity, because, under the rough exterior (lack of official apps, requirement of an on-premises home automation server for complex scenes and rules, lack of marketing etc.), we have a very flexible and open-source friendly home automation platform.
There are probably many home automation devices that are more open / open-source friendly and/or user-friendly compared to the Ubiquiti Networks mFi platform. However, we recommend mFi due to the following aspects:
- Pricing: The mFi modules may be cheap in terms of the retail prices, but the build-quality and reliability are enterprise-grade.
- Right balance of out-of-the-box readiness to deploy and end-user flexibility
- Security and privacy aspects handled well by avoiding the cloud
- Support and user forums: Developers have a major presence and respond to user feedback and bug reports promptly.
Belkin's WeMo is popular amongst consumers, but, even after 2 years in the market, they still have a lot to do in terms of delivering a consistent user-experience. On the other hand, the support software ecosystem for the Ubiquiti Networks mFi lineup needs to cater better to the non-tech-savvy consumers - However, that doesn't prevent us from recommending the Ubiquiti Networks mFi to the AnandTech audience.
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Daniel Egger - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
> But since an led light usually uses around 5 watt an hourWell that depends on your LED lighting, 5W will yield around 400lm which is equal to around 40W of incandescent lighting which is not really much unless you're talking cozy reading lamp. For my ambient living room lighting alone I have 2 PSUs with combined 210W output and running all channels at full brightness (which is crazily bright) they use around 130W. In addition I have 26W of Living Colors for accent lighting and another 12W lighting my bar.
> how many decades do you need to keep the light on before a 50$ light switch and 2-300$ total solution pays for itself
How would it *ever* pay for itself? Those solutions increase power consumption and do not offer any savings whatsoever: if I need my lights they're on, if I don't they're off -- it doesn't get simpler than that.
V900 - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
HOLY CRAP that's a lotta lights and wattage you got there!I think my whole living room is lit with 10-12 watts or so. Then again, in Europe power can easily cost ten times of what it costs in North America. Especially the parts of NA that get their power from nuclear power plants or through hydro electric means.
And even in Europe with high power costs, LED bulbs has made conserving the lights and power sorta meaningless. Even when you pay 1-2$ pr kilowatts, forgetting to turn off the lights costs a lot less when your lightbulbs use 5-10 times less power.
Daniel Egger - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
> HOLY CRAP that's a lotta lights and wattage you got there!Yes, but a regular nighttime light scene only takes around 40W in total which is not much. Even the 200W halogen uplight I had a couple of years ago took 120W at the darkest dimm setting while only lighting a fraction of the area. Heck, even the projector over my head is using almost 200W right now.
> I think my whole living room is lit with 10-12 watts or so.
You must have a small living room or prefer candlelight setups. ;) As I said my bar has 4 downlights with 3W each (80lm/W) and is by far the best LED light I've ever seen, very halogen-like -- I totally love that beautiful setup and it's easily as good and bright as the 4x20W halogen downlights which are installed next to them in the kitchen. But it's not even remotely possible to light the whole living room just with those...
malcolmh - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
"$1-$2 per kilowatts"? Not sure where you get that assumption from.Here in the UK I'm paying £0.0945 / kWh, which is about 15 cents US. My plan also has a £0.25/day flat rate standing charge, but since that's a flat rate it's not really relevant here.
I also can't see the point of these devices though. /Maybe/ if you integrated them to a whole-room voice activation system, that worked as reliably as the video promoting Amazon Echo...
ganeshts - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Couple of examples:Vacation mode : You are out on vacation, but need to make your house look occupied to the outside world - If you could randomly turn on/off lights at night remotely / set such a schedule, that would be a deterrent against would-be burglars.
Home Theater setting : If it is night and you are starting to watch a movie on your TV, slowly dim and then switch off the lights.
Energy sensing outlets can help you determine what devices consume the most power and how you can optimize their usage. Check out reviews of smart outlets on Amazon - there are plenty of usage models. I do agree that they need to come down in cost - which is where the InWall outlets come into play - they don't really have that much premium over the generic outlets that are installed in the walls.
steven75 - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
"they don't really have that much premium over the generic outlets that are installed in the walls."I beg to differ. $59 vs about $1.50 for a duplex outlet at the local hardware store is a massive premium.
I like the idea of this stuff very much, it's just that the price needs to be lower by a factor of about 10.
ganeshts - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
You are right.. I was having the dimmer switches in mind when I wrote that:http://www.homedepot.com/b/Electrical-Dimmers-Swit...
The minimum is around $22 - the good ones around $30 ; There is a premium of around $30, but that is still less than the ~$60 premium for the outlets.
Daniel Egger - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
> Vacation mode : You are out on vacation, but need to make your house look occupied to the outside world - If you could randomly turn on/off lights at night remotely / set such a schedule, that would be a deterrent against would-be burglars.Right, because burglars are utterly stupid; they don't notice that the car is absent for weeks but are easily fooled by randomly flicked lights (because that's what people do, rather than say turn it on on demand and depending on the sunset). Not to mention that the best protection against burglars here are roller shutters which tend to counter the idea of making light inside for the outsider to see.
> Energy sensing outlets can help you determine what devices consume the most power and how you can optimize their usage.
You'll only have to do that once per device. There's no point in doing it constantly; it's a huge waste of energy without any information gain.
V900 - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Actually, today's modern burglar doesn't have to sit in a parked car for hours to do surveillance on a potential house to burglarize.(I actually doubt they've ever done that, though that is the whole logic behind setting your lights on timers. No matter if we're talking about 3$ manual dollar store timers or 50$ Belkin internet timers.)
Even today's poorly equipped burglar can go on Facebook to see whether the owners are home, or if the whole family is in the Dominican Republic for two weeks.
And the 70$ Android handset put an end to the good old "What kinda burglar brings their smartphone to work?!?" argument.
Daniel Egger - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
> Actually, today's modern burglar doesn't have to sit in a parked car for hours to do surveillance on a potential house to burglarize.My point exactly. Even though I don't use Facebook et al, it's quite easy to spot -- just by driving by -- whether we're at home. Hm, maybe I should switch my parking spots every now and then to create the illusion I'm at home. ;)