Eco Plugs Wi-Fi Controlled outlet by KAB

Hi @ule. I can confirm that the devices do not show up as UPNP devices, and yes, I can see other UPNP devices on the network.

Walmart sells these as the “WorkChoice 1 Ol Wi-Fi Indoor Switch, White.” The model number from the manufacturer’s web site, and on the back of my devices, is the same (CT-065W), and the description mentions the “ECO plug” app. I have a few coming in the mail, so I’ll confirm when they arrive.

I contacted the manufacturer for these as well and asked if there was an API to control them outside of the app but they would not divulge any such info. I sure would like to get them to work with Smart Things because I have 4 of them and they are quickly becoming the worst part of my home automation only because I have to use a separate app to control them and there is no way to trigger them based on events. The do make great timers but would be 10 times more useful if they could be integrated. I did order the power strip but returned it once I found out that the 4 wifi outlets were all controlled together, a strip with outlets that could be controlled separately would be better.

Just got the shipment from Walmart, and they are indeed the same controller. They’re more expensive – at Home Depot they came two to a box for $15, and they’re $17 for one at Walmart – but they’re still less than half the big name brand versions, and they don’t require a central controller.

I agree that it’d be awesome to be able to connect to them over a protocol and send commands, but I’m still stoked that they work so well, for so little cost.

Hi @Sean_Russell, Could you check if they have a web interface? I have read some of the esp8266 and I think the eco plug can have a web api , can you access to the ip of the unit?

Thanks

@ule I have several of these in my network and doing some basic scanning it appears they respond to port 1932 but that is about all I have figured out at this point. Using a browser to point to that address/port returns a “No Data Received” error so I suspect we just need to figure out what data it is looking for. I plan to do some re-cabling of my wireless network soon and will put a sniffer in to see what data is being sent when I control the plug remotely however it may be a couple of weeks before I get around to doing that. If nobody is able to find this info before I do I will post my findings.

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HI @molley, Great news, I think the sniffer will give us all the information we need, I thinnk this device must have a simple interface , I have get some switches online but I’m not in town until 8 days more.

Hi,

First, I’ll say that I’m not using Smartthings today, but another system. However, I’ve been tracking this thread as I have a bunch of the Eco Plugs that I wanted to figure out how to control. FYI, someone has figured out what is needed, and has written a plugin for homebridge (a HomeKit emulation server). The plugin info is here:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-ecoplug

I can confirm that it works, as I have homebridge running, and am able to control my Eco Plugs using the homebridge-ecoplug plugin. However, I am not good enough at reading code to actually see what is being sent received. If you look at the github page, there is an index.js file that contains all the code. If there is anyone that is versed enough to look at the code and figure out what is being sent/received, I would love to know what the actual http commands being sent are too. Hope this helps…

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I have not had a chance to re-cable my network yet in order to put a sniffer in front of my wifi access point but I did take a snapshot of the traffic going out of my phone when turning the switch on and off from my phone. I was not able to find much from that other than my wifi SSID and password are transmitted in clear text to some remote web address so I am removing them from my network (and changing my network password) until I can figure out what to do with them. I may hack them up like the person at the below site did since I don’t want anything transmitting my wifi info in clear text. I am posting this info so everyone is aware of the security risk when using these.

I also sniffed the traffic going out of my phone when controlling the switch, but I don’t see anything like what @Motley is describing (i.e. there isnt anything sending the Wifi SSD and password somewhere, at least not from my phone). Are you sure it isnt something else on your phone doing that?
Thanks to what @bigeazy000 shared (and the well-documented JS code on that project), it looks like a particular 128 byte (for reads) or 130 byte (for writes) UDP byte stream sent to port 80 is how you control/read from the switch. This aligns with what I am seeing from my packet sniffer.
I plan to port this over to a python script when I get a chance and will post back when I do

Just an update, I have been working with someone to get this working on a Vera, and already have done the packet captures, etc. You can see everything here:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,35997.0.html

Well obviously I am not going to paste my wifi info but you can see the packet below captured on my phone which appears to have the wifi SSID and passphrase in clear text, the erased spot near the beginning of each line is my public IP and the second erased spot on each line is clear text wifi SSID and passphrase. These captures are obviously part of the ECO plugs as they have the names I gave the outlets. I don’t feel secure knowing that information is being transmitted with each press of the button in the app. I am not sure why the SSID and passphrase need to be in the packet at all, especially with it being transmitted to some unknown IP address (210.65.89.22).

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I managed to load some home-brew firmware on the device; I have a how-to here:

Reading this about the security risks; I’m happy I did. My firmware doesn’t require authentication for control yet so it should only be used on networks with trusted clients. Atleast it won’t transmit your SSID and Password outside of your network!

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@scootermcgoober Thanks for sharing. I will likely try that with at least a couple of mine.

Has anyone figured out how to add more than 12 devices to the Wion app? Meaning reprogramming the app for 12+ devices.

Thanks

If you are using their cloud, you can use the Eco app and the Woods app separately. They will both show all the local devices, but while local to something you can attach it to the cloud and it will keep that connection in that in that specific app. So you could have double the number of remote links. Anyone else know of a third copy of this app by another vendor that could be installed?

I’ve seen these at Home Depot in Canada, and they are definitely cheaper than any z-wave or zigbee controlled devices I’ve seen. I’m not a programmer so I can’t help much, but I’d love to see a way to make these work with SmartThings!

When the plugs are in local mode (no internet access available) the app and the plug seems to use UDP / QUIC to pass a quick message (sent a couple times) to turn on or off the device and then a couple of repeated packets back in confirmation.

When the internet cloud is available and you’re not local to the device, it’s more complicated internet stuff and includes the SSID, etc that Motley was concerned about. (but that can just be blocked at the firewall, so the power module never talks to the cloud and is always in local mode.)

I wonder if we are allowed to have the ST Hub send a UDP packet using Groovy. I’ve seen a rare bit of code here or there where people tried and it used to work but doesn’t now, etc…all rumors. Maybe the solution is a little webserver that takes an address along with an on or off and releases a little UDP packet into the net. I Hope that another device to run a gateway just to make the worlds cheapest power switches work is not needed. :wink:

…then again, maybe they aren’t cheap anymore and its best left alone.

Has anyone figured out how to reprogram the app to add more than 12 devices?

I emailed Kab asking about the password and ssid being sent to the server and in the clear and here is their reply. So hopefully they will no longer be doing this for much longer.

We had sent this information to our engineer team and have checked the design plan record. Why the telecommunications have this action? Our engineer team considered the 2nd Wi-Fi Plug setting, it hope can use it and easier to install when end user want to setting it under same SSID, so the 2nd Wi-Fi Plugs can easy complete the installation. Anyhow, we had the meeting to discuss this issue; the result is we will update the App and modification. When this App is updating it, we will let you know and also thanks your advice again.

Have a nice day.

Yet another company selling rebranded KAB products. So now it’s HD’s, Walmart’s, Wood’s and Vivitar.

http://www.vivitar.com/products/115/smart-home/2361/smart-plugs

I was browsing at Fry’s and stumbled across the products. Tried to find the app, but it looks like it may just be the Eco Plugs app. Even the product packaging has their logo. Pricing is reasonable. Especially for the wall switch.

http://www.frys.com/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&cat=0&query_string=vivitar+smart

If someone could only get them working with SmartThings.