If you’re a traveler or spend time away from your home, the DSP W215 Smart Plug is a great way to automate your home and allows you to monitor or control any device that is plugged into it.
You are able to turn devices on or off via your mobile app and control your Smart Plug from anywhere you have an internet connection. You can even create individual schedules to turn the device on or off for each day of the week. It won’t make your home like Fort Knox or anything but what it will do is to add a bit of a deterrent for any would-be thieves taking notice that you’ve been out of town for a while.
Additionally your DSP-215 WiFi Smart Plug reports power consumption and even has a built in thermal sensor to automatically turn off the connected device should it experience volatile temperatures. Not only will it report power consumption, if you’re that energy conscious guy, you can even set limits on power usage if necessary.
It measures 3.54 x 2.40 x 1.40 inches and weighs 4.41 ounces. You may run into issues when plugging into tight spaces since it’s rather boxy and with something plugged into it, the device becomes bit tall or deep. Plug your desired device like TV, Lamp or whatever and complete the setup via your mobile device or PC. The unit operates on a IEEE 802.11n protocol to easily hook up to any existing network at your home or office.
Set up is pretty simple, although it can be sluggish but luckily this isn’t something you do more than once typically unless you swap networks or need to reset your device. We did experience an issue setting up multiple units, simply unplugging the other units while you set up another makes it easier and avoids any confusion when setting up your DSP-215. DLink has streamlined their setup across their WiFi devices and the process is almost the same. You can even use the DLink mobile app to set it up on both iOS 6 and Android OS 4.0 or later. An available WPS or WiFi Protected Setup button makes it just a little easier and more secure during set up should your home router support the WPS feature.
The user experience is convenient overall. Log into your DSP-215 Smart Plug via the mydlink WiFi Smart Plug app for basic on/off and monitoring control of your device from any internet connection anywhere and review your settings, stats or even set schedules; it also offers you presets so you can swap automated schedules easily without having to re-set up the times.
Should you experience a power outage, the unit does not seem to power itself back on for you and you may need to push the physical power button on the unit itself or would even need to be re-set up as the network would not remember the unit; UPDATE – These two issues have however been corrected as of the latest firmware updates and am happy to report that we are not having the aforementioned problems post firmware update 1.12. Stay up to date on your firmware updates for both security and functionality reasons.
Response time has improved with the newer 1.12 firmware update as well, the on/off action itself is quite quick; within a second or so, though I cannot say the same for the app’s response. What I mean is that I’ve been both remote with someone at the install location and also standing next to it on another, the device you have connect responds immediately, but the app lags and is noticeably sluggish. But I’ll always take stability over speed however the DLink apps could use some smoothing out.
One inconvenience might be that in order to administer your DSP W215, you will need to download yet another DLink app; While I can understand from a developer standpoint why there might be a multiple apps to control different devices, from a consumer standpoint it can be quite confusing as there are no lack of function and/or device specific apps, mydlink Lite, mydlink+, mydlink Home, mydlink Cloud app, D-Link SmartPlay, mydlink View-NVR, mydlink Baby Camera, myDlink Access-NAS, D-ViewCam Mobile, mydlink WiFi Smart Plug, mydlink SharePort, D-Link Media, D-link one-Touch, D-Link Mobile, JustConnect+, D-Link QRS Mobile… You get the idea.
The Firmware and setup process have been unified across the DLink devices. Updating firmware is no longer the technical quandary it once was for some that aren’t that computer savvy; firmware updates can be done on the fly through your WiFi Smart Plug app. Typically you’d want to be running a wired connection with any firmware update to steer clear of any firmware update failures potentially bricking the device, but since this unit doesn’t have an Ethernet port, you’ve got no choice but to do it wireless. That said, the process couldn’t be any easier and less technical with the newer interface that DLink has incorporated across their devices. I would not recommend this, you should always be local to the device your doing a firmware update on obviously, but for the sake of testing, we had initiated a firmware update from outside the country over a 4GLTE connection and the unit successfully updated itself and came back on line a few minutes later, very nice.
The DSP-215 WiFi Smart Plug is an excellent addition to automate and control basic functions, it gives you some remote reassurance that you’ve turned off your devices after leaving or even to help give the illusion that you’re still home for those would-be thieves. Additionally DLink offers the DCH-S150 Motion Sensor that you can use in tandem with the DSP-215 in case you’d like a light to turn on when someone enters the room. At the 2015 Las Vegas CES, DLink also launched an array of new WiFi and Z-Wave compatible devices, hub, Water sensor, 3 in 1 motion and open/close sensors to enhance your home automation or wireless security adhoc system including a new DCH-S220 WiFi Siren due to be released this coming Spring 2015.
DSP W215 WiFi Smart Plug available for $49.95 from
www.DLink.com
