Smart Home September – My Journey Into Home Automation (Part 2 of 4)
Letting the Geeni out of the bottle…
Sleepytime for Alton by Amanda Laine
So where we left off last week, the Google Home Mini was in the house, but nothing else. Our home wasn’t any smarter, we could just play music in our front room easier by blurting out “Hey google, play (insert song here)!” and it would magically pull up the song we wanted from Spotify.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that there was the potential to do other things with the Google Home Mini beyond just listening to music. I became intrigued by the idea of being able to switch our Christmas lights on and off using it, for instance, and as Black Friday would have it, the first “Smart Home” device that turned up on my radar was a replacement for our outdoor Christmas Light timer, the Geeni Outdoor Smart Plug. I noticed it in Wal-Mart’s ad, and set out to track one down. At a measly $10.00 sale price, I saw it as a way to experiment in Smart Home tech without having to spend a ton of money, and it would give me an idea of what the entry-level devices were like to work with.
From the Manufacturer
- No hub required, Wi-Fi is built-in
- Control your outdoor Lighting, pumps, and other outdoor devices using your smartphone from anywhere, at anytime using the Geeni app
- Weather-resistant design for safe outdoor use
- Schedule your devices to turn on or off anytime
- Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana
Observations
The device itself feels surprisingly rugged for being only $10 when I bought it, which caught me off guard. The one thing I noticed right away is that the device is only compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana (Serious question–is anyone actually using Cortana to run their smart home? It seems most of what’s out there is either Amazon or Google, if Cortana has made the jump from just controlling Master Chief’s suit to being a legitimate home manager, more power to her–but I know nothing about what Microsoft is offering in this space). If you were hoping for something that you could connect to Apple’s Homekit, this ain’t it.
The “No Hub Required” piece is what drew me in — There are some devices that require a hub to function properly. I didn’t want to shell out for a separate hub, so seeing them specifically called out as hub free was a plus for me. I also snagged an indoor plug for the Christmas tree, because I’m a giant nerd who hates having to unplug it at night.
Setup
The first thing I had to do was download the Geeni app from the App Store. Once installed, I had to register for an account, which could be done with either your cell phone number or an e-mail. This generated a verification code to activate the account. Once setup was complete, I went ahead and signed into the app. There are two setup options:
Easy Mode
- Plug in the device. If it’s not yet been set up, the light should automatically start blinking blue rapidly.
- Open the Geeni app (which you should already be signed in to–see above) while connected to your wifi and click “+” in the top right corner to add a device.
- The app will ask you “Is it blinking quickly?” — assuming it’s still blinking quickly, click “Yes, it’s blinking quickly.” If it’s not blinking quickly, press and hold the button for three seconds and it should start blinking quickly again.
- The app will ask for your wifi name and password. If you don’t know what those are, are you really sure you want to be setting up a smart home device?
- The app will magically connect the device like… well… a Genie. Not that Will Smith fella, either, I’m talking original Robin Williams. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Will Smith’s, I’ve honestly not even seen the movie yet…)
AP Mode
AP mode stands for… uh… I’m not really sure. “Afflicted Power?” Like, Easy mode doesn’t work so you have to use this? I have no idea, I didn’t find any explanation for what AP stands for, and I’ve only ever known Associated Press and Advanced Placement. In either case, the process… really isn’t that different.
- First, you’ll need to get it into AP setup mode. If your device is already blinking rapidly, press and hold the button for another 3 seconds until it starts blinking slowly (about once every three seconds). This means it’s in the AP setup mode instead of the Easy mode.
- Open the Geeni app while connected to wifi, same as the Easy mode. Click the “+” symbol to add the device, but instead of clicking where it says “Yes, it’s blinking quickly” click up above where it says “AP Mode” on the top right corner.
- The app will ask for your wifi name and password.
- Again, the device will connect like magic, but you’ll probably wonder other than pressing a few extra buttons, what exactly the difference is between Easy Mode and AP mode.
A couple of items to note:
- One of the things Geeni points out on their website, these items are 2.4 Ghz wifi only, they can’t connect to 5 Ghz.
- Reading comments on the Geeni help desk articles, sometimes people seem to have trouble connecting them at first. In reading those comments, I have a sneaking suspicion the items in question may be user error, but I’m not Geeni tech support. I can only tell you that I had little trouble setting these up and I’m not a professional network engineer.
The Experience
Once I’d set up the devices, it was really pretty simple to set up to work with Google Home–I simply had to link up the Geeni account to the Google Home App. The devices themselves arent’ overly complicated to control, you basically can tell Google to turn them on or off, and you can also set up schedules in the Geeni app. For the price point, they’re not at all bad devices compared to some of their more expensive cousins, and I’ve been happy with them for as much as I’ve used them so far. (For a while I set up the outdoor plug as control for part of my shop lights, however I upgraded the controls for that by… well… That’s a future post. We’ll get to that later.)
Have you installed any smart control devices in your home to date? Do you have a particular ecosystem that’s working well for you? Let me know in the comments!
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