Setting Up An Amazon Smart Plug

Shaun:
Yes, it's pitch black in the shed today. But no, I'm not turning the lights on, and I'll tell you why. I'm not using a light switch like some sort of caveman. This is the 21st century. Pressing buttons with fingers, that's ridiculous. You know what we need to do? We need to make this shed a smart shed.

Announcer:
Shaun of the Shed, an AMI original podcast.

Shaun:
Hello, you beauties, and welcome back to another Shaun of the Shed. I am that Shaun. This is that shed. And this is the show where I try and show you just how useful technology can be whether you are new to technology, or maybe you are new to technology as a blind or visually impaired person like me. I have in my hand a smart plug, and believe it or not, this is all I need to make this shed a smart shed. Because when we're talking about smart... So if we're talking about, say, the smart home, the only thing that makes a home smart is that it has at least one of these smart devices in it, like a smart plug. That's all there is to it. You don't have to rewire the place. You don't have to tear the walls down. Simply put in a smart device in your home, and suddenly it's a smart home.

But what makes something like this smart plug smart? What is a smart device? Good question. And it's really simple actually because all a smart device means is that it's able to control or be controlled by another device. So for example, if I can turn on my central heating using my smart speaker, there's two smart devices. Or maybe I could use an app on my smartphone to control my air conditioning. That's a smart device. So it's not about Terminator-style artificial intelligence running your home. Actually, all these smart devices are kind of dumb. All they do is they're controlled or control another smart device. Easy. Anyway, that's what the smart home is. But I guess the more important question is why should you care? I mean, who cares about a smart home? Do you need it? Well, it's a fair point, I guess, but I did start off this show making a joke about the light switch, about how I'm too lazy to use a light switch, or that it's too old-school.

Let's say I actually couldn't use a light switch. I was unable to through disability or whatever. I was physically unable to use a light switch. Well, in that case, a smart light bulb, which I can control using my voice, obviously, that would be fantastic. And something like this smart plug, again, that I've got in my hand, if I plug my TV or coffee maker or Christmas tree lights into this smart plug and then plug this smart plug into the wall socket, I can then control that device. I can turn those Christmas tree lights on or off. And you can group multiple smart devices together, so several smart plugs, and control all those devices all at once and turn a lot of devices on or off or maybe turn them on when you enter a room. There's so many different possibilities. And again, if you have a disability, or maybe, just like me, you're getting on a bit, and you don't want to scrabble around behind the sofa or underneath the table to turn off the TV, then the smart home starts to make a lot of sense.

Oh, that's it. I'm boring myself. Let's get on with it. Today I'm going to show you how to set up and use a smart plug. Now the reason I'm starting with smart plugs is that, I think, by far they're the easiest way to get into the whole smart home thing. They're really affordable. They're readily available, and well, they're really easy to use. So let's get on with it. I'm going to show you how to set up this Amazon Smart Plug that I've got here, but obviously, the procedure is pretty much the same no matter which make you have. Now before we get started, I should say that there are a few things you need in order to set up or use a smart device or the smart home. You will need a Wi-Fi network in your home, which is connected to the internet, obviously, and also a smartphone or tablet of some sort to set up the devices.

Also, honestly, if you have a smart speaker as well, it makes things so much easier when it comes to controlling those devices, but that is an optional extra. When it comes to setting up this smart plug in particular, I got to say it's incredibly quick and easy. This is great. Now before we get there, let me describe the smart plug, itself. Now it is a little chunky number. It's probably the size of a big bar of soap. On the left-hand side is a button for turning it on or off, and also, if you hold that button in, it will put it into setup mode, but more on that later. On one side are the electrical pins that go into the wall socket obviously. And on the other, opposite side are the holes to plug in the other electrical device obviously. And other than that, that's pretty much it.

Now to set up this smart plug, we need an app. So go onto your smartphone's app store and search for A-L-E-X-A. That's right, I can't say it. I can only spell it because if I say it, I'm going to set off everyone's smart speaker in the world. So let's call it the Lady A app, A-L-E-X-A. So download that from your smartphone's app store, and once you do that, sign in using your Amazon account details. And once you've done that, plug in your smart plug to the wall socket. So far, so easy, right? Well, that might be all you need to do because if when you bought your smart plug from Amazon, if you ticked the Register to My Account option, then as soon as you plug in the smart plug, it will set itself up, and you don't have to do anything else.

It will simply say, "First plug is ready for use." And that's it. You couldn't get any easier. Now if that doesn't happen for you, or you didn't tick that option, then I am going to show you the long way round to set it up. But to be honest, it's still really quick as well. So let's get into it. As soon as you plug it in, you’ll see a popup saying your smart plug is ready for setup. Now just click on the Continue button in the bottom right corner there. And on this next screen is just the permissions. It's saying, "I want to use your Bluetooth and camera of your smartphone in order to set up this smart plug." So I'm just going to tap on Allow and move on, which is to this screen, which is Barcode.

Yeah. Now there is a barcode somewhere, but you know what, I'm going to struggle to find that barcode because I am blind. So I'm going to click on the Don't Have a Barcode button. Let's see what we can do to work around this. So what it's telling me to do here is hold down that power button, the side button on the smart plug for a few seconds to put it into setup mode. So I'm going to do just that. I'm going to hold it down to five seconds and then tap on Next. Perfect. That seemed to work. So now I've got a list of all the Wi-Fi networks near me, so it's asking me to connect the smart plug to a Wi-Fi network. I'm going to choose the Studio Network here and just double-tap. Now I've got my studio Wi-Fi network saved to my Amazon account, so it knows the password. If you don't, when you double-tap on the Wi-Fi you want to connect to, it'll ask you for the Wi-Fi password. Simply type it in, and we'll go to the next screen.

So just give it a minute or two to do its thing, and eventually, it will tell you that the smart plug has been connected, and that's pretty much it. The next screen is just asking you, "Where is this smart plug? Add it to a group." Is it in your living room? Is it in your shed if you're weird like me... And that is it. You are now done except for one thing. The plug name is auto-generated. So this one is called First Plug because it's my first Amazon Smart Plug, but I want to call it something different. I want to call it whatever device I've got connected to it because in order to control the smart plug, I say things like, "Turn off or on," and its name. In this case, First Plug, that doesn't work for me. If I'm using it to turn on or off a lamp, I want to call the plug where the lamp is. Turn off corner lamp, or turn on desk lamp, something like that.

So let's rename the smart plug. To do this, go back to your lady A app, or if you're still in it, tap on the Devices tab in the bottom right corner. Now towards the top here, you'll see a list of your smart devices. Let's double-tap on Plugs. And here is a list of all the smart plugs I have in my house. So let's find the new one, First Plug, and tap on that. Perfect. And now let's edit, top right button, and simply double tap on the name First Plug and type in whatever you want. I'm going to call it Shed Lights, and we're done.

Now that truly is set up and finished with. Let's test it out. There are a couple of different ways we could control this smart plug. We could continue to use the Lady A app. Under the devices tab, you will find Shed Lights or whatever you've called your smart plug, and you can simply double-tap on it to turn it on or off. But I'm going to use the Echo smart speaker, which I have in front of me. And when I give it a certain command, hopefully, the studio lights in front of me will turn off. So let's give it a go. Good luck, everyone. Break a leg. Alexa, turn off shed lights.

Hey. (singing). Beautiful. Okay, now here's the real tester. Alexa, turn on studio lights. Hang on, wait a second... Ooh wow, my creamy dead retinas are burned out by that. But hey, it's back on. So there you have it. That is a smart plug. The easiest first step into your smart home. There are, as I said, many different makes out there, but it all works pretty much the same way. Basically, you need an app to tell the plug your Wi-Fi password, so the smart plug can connect to your Wi-Fi network no matter which app it is. For example, I know the Tapo from TP-Link Smart Plug has an app, but sadly there were... I don't know how it is now, but there were some accessibility issues with that, so that's the reason I went with the Amazon Lady A Smart Plug because I know the Lady A app is totally accessible for me using the voiceover screen reader on my iPhone.

So there you go. Now you've done that, who knows what's next, maybe smart light bulbs, smart toilets, smart vacuums. The world is your oyster. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this. As ever, if you want to hear more, you want to be notified of any new episodes, please click on the Subscribe button, which is around somewhere. And if you enjoyed this video, please tap on the Like button. My name is Shaun. This has been Shaun of the Shed. Thank you so much, and I will see you next time. (singing)