RF controlled electrical sockets - immersion heater control?

Hi Folks -  I've just been to Lidl and came back with an set of 433MHz RF controlled sockets.

Can they work with the OEM RF?  

2 of the 4 sockets will switch 20A/3000W and the controller has a 40m range.

I thought they'd be good for immersion heater control.  Here's a link to the product:

http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-AE3DDF35-775F1DCE/lsp/hs.xsl/product.html?id=11133081&title=Electrical+Sockets&count=1

I found these related posts.

http://marioboehmer.blogspot.com/2011/04/android-arduino-controlled-remote-wall.html

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291856622

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216065789

What do you reckon?

Cheers

C.T.

glyn.hudson's picture

Re: RF controlled electrical sockets - immersion heater control?

Hi,

Sorry for the slow reply I have been away.

Go for it! I've heard of other having success controlling such devices. It's a neat way to make the bridge from low power to high power controll.

The wireless protocol used will be OKK (on-off keying) either 433 or 868 Mhz. While the RFM12B (the wireless chip on the emonTx) is the correct rerequency is does not support OKK, at least not without hardware modifications. 

Probably the easiest way is is to use a simple OKK transmitter. JeeLabs sell such a unit in a JeeLabs sheild form factor, this will plug stright into a free port on the emonTx: http://jeelabs.com/products/ook-433-plug. I haven't tested this therefore I cannot guarantee it will work! The links you have posted look promising. 

Please keep us updated with your progress. 

 

 

 

 

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