New Neo Coolcam powerplugs can't change settings and/or show weird power meter value

A warning for all who bought the plugs recently (end of 2018, start of 2019):

It appears there are new plugs on the market. You can’t determine this from the package, the plug itself or the manual. The only way you can see this is after adding it to the network.
The new devices are marked as “secure” and have a different id, see picture.

image

At this moment there are 2 known problems with the device:

  1. The device settings are not adjustable. Not with the standard options on the device page and not via the RAW option.
    The reason for this is that apparently the device parameter ID’s have changed. They don’t match the settings in the APP anymore.

  2. Some of them will show a negative power meter value of a -21 million Kw after adding. Resetting to factory defaults doesn’t help.
    Why this happens is unknown. Resetting this value by RAW command should work, but the parameter ID is unknown at this moment due to the change of the parameter ID’s.

For problem 1) I guess the app has to be updated with the new plugs to be able to manage the settings. I already raised an issue on Github for this: https://github.com/mruiter/com.neo/issues/92

Problem 2) can only be solved when the new parameter ID will be known. I’ve already asked the guy from the Official Coolcam Store on Ali, but received no reaction to this moment.

Settings should be no problem for most . Neo should give me the new ones next week but i dont think much changed .Driver gets a split in the future . Negative is a firmware error of the plug . Contact neo and you could get a extra free plug

Thanks for the reply Marco. How can i contact Neo? I bought them via AliExpress at the “Official Coolcam store” and they are very reluctant concerning warranty…

Btw, i tried an old and a new plug this morning and i know for sure that the parameter id’s for the ‘LED status’, the ‘power change value’ and the ‘power meter reset’ have changed. They work on the old ones but definitely not on the new ones.

I received 2 new plugs from the official coolcam store . I send them a message to adres the firmware bug and also send the zwave log with the error.
This only happends on the eu version of the plug . All other country versions dont have the firmware bug of the negative values . The Manual with the plug indeed has the wrong settings in them . They would send me the reply of the developer of the firmware with the new settings and a response on the firmware bug somewhere this week ( translate from Chinese this means lets hope that iT Will be this month :wink: )

Hi @MarcoRuiter, what is your experience with the range of the plugs?

My Homey is located on the 1st floor (livingroom) next to the windows on the garden side of the house where the garage is located approx 7-8 mtr away.

Right below the Homey (ground floor in the kitchen) i can control the plug. Once i have moved it the garage it seems to be out of reach.

Creating a mesh is difficult since i only have a PIR2 in the kitchen.

Any thoughts?

Buy a few more and place them on strategic points to create a covering mesh. You have 3 of them for the price of 1 fibaro… :innocent:

That’s what i was thinking about too but i do not have anything to plug in :joy:

95% of my devices are smart already :man_facepalming:t2:

Well, that just isn’t necessary. Just plug it in, add it and it acts like a repeater. Even when OFF.
I have a few in strategic places for this purpose. They just sit in the socket and that’s it.

LOL. The guy from Coolcam states that it may not be the plug, but the Homey system that is not updated yet. He says:

“our engineer say,zwave have updated… our plug are S2, the hub Homey may not update their hub yet…
i know the Homey engineer… and send a new plug for him to test… maybe it is hub. or our plug firmware issue,we will test it…”

So, no luck to get a replacement from them… But i already knew that they are very reluctant to replace a defective plug.

Until now the new plug has not given any negative values . Its been running for 5 days now but iT also has a small load.

Will connect a higher load to the plug tonight . For now with the low load it looks like the new plug they send me doesn’t have the problem . Honey does have problems with s2 but only on battery powered devices . And the negative value comes directly from the zwave communication of the plug. Homey just grabs it and displays it .

Yeah, i know. I had 2 with the negative values, one got rid of it after a factory reset. The other one still displays it, even after more then 5 resets and various loads.

Another problem with them is that it is impossible to adjust settings. Switching off the LED or changing the reporting time is just being refused and not registered. Not by the menu and also not by raw parameter setting.

So i am really curious if you indeed will receive the data for the new plug from him and if they really differ from the old ones. I am a bit afraid that the security setting has to do something with this problem.

I have the same, four plugs, two older working perfect. The last two ones have the same issue as you discribed. I hope a solution Will comedy soon.

Maybelline not for this topic but since Homey sw release 2 my Neo temp sensor shows unrealistic values.

Any update from the Coolcam guys?

Removed. Will post a new how to in the Neo Coolcam Powerplug topic.

1 Like

Hi,
First of all thank you very much for your post!
I am still having some struggles with changing the parameters.
I tried changing the led setting to try it since it is visible if the change worked.
However I did not manage.
Which ID should be used? since there are four in the settings pages (Apparaat ID, Fabrikant ID, Product type ID and Product ID)
I have tried all of them in the following way by entering in the raw configuration “ID,3,1,0”
To turn the LED off. However the LED did not turn off. Furthermore I do not have a save settings button, only a checkmark on my keyboard.
I hope you can help.
Thank you in advance, kind regards.

The device id is the number it has in the Z-wave network. It is shown in the network overview (the colored number at the front).