Safety recall smart socket

I often feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place with smart home stuff. As a disabled person, it's totally life changing as an accessibility tool and enables so much more independence. But equally as someone with a computing background and an interest in electronics, I know just how bad a lot of it is. I appreciate people like Clive who dissect them so I don't have to and can make a much more informed decision. And fortunately I do have that knowledge and it allows me to make decisions about what to buy and how to set it up that allow me to get the best of both - the independence and as much control at possible over risks. Not everyone has that though and it makes me so sad that people either miss out or don't realise the risk they're taking because manufacturers are often in a race to the bottom rather than actually following both cyber security and electrical best practices.

For some reason both of my cats were totally fascinated by this teardown. I hope that they learned something.

They used to sell mains double adapters in Australia that swapped the active and neutral pins, because that was the easiest way to do it with physical strips and one socket upside down.

The most shocking thinking was seeing that it was designed well enough to be dismantled without the need for the dremel of enlightenment or snips of gnostic-gnibbling. I'm not sure I've seen a socket come apart non-destructively before(this may admittedly be a feature rather than a bug).

— They recalled it because it's so dangerous. — Yeah, Clive needs to see this product for sure!

I have to say that I'd never install one of these things without a hard on/off switch next to it. My Mum had one of those simple USB sockets and one day it started to smoke. She panicked as she couldn't turn it off and had to call me, whereupon trying to explain how to isolate the circuit at the consumer unit while she was flapping around and stressed wasn't ideal. I eventually had to tell her to "flip the big red switch" to turn off the whole supply and then drive over as quickly as possible because she doesn't have a mobile and was calling me from a cordless landline phone that got disconnected when the power went off.

Well, it's got the other problem of being an internet-connected wall socket, but that doesn't appear to be a design flaw in their eyes

I wouldn't necessarily have thought to check the continuity across the earth terminals - every other socket I've ever seen has a bloody great bus-bar joining the mounting holes/earth terminal. Having installed it, I've got a little rudimentary plug-in tester, there's no guarantee that I'd have tried both sockets. So, maybe I'm painting a picture of me as an oaf, but it's the danger of making assumptions about how stuff works: that "an earth" would mean the whole thing earthed. I think it would be easy to be caught out if not checking stuff that shouldn't need checking. A lesson learnt - thanks Clive.

In IOT, the S stands for security

"There's always a bit of a weakness" in Web-connected things. How right you are, Big Clive. Years back there were Chinese USB-rechargeable vape sticks that contained malware/spyware, and they got plugged into computers used by US government employees. It is a real problem. The ol' "trust but verify" has become "don't trust at all" for good reason. We love your channel!

BS 1363 sockets normally have 2 E terminals because, until a month ago, BS 7671 required circuits with high cpc ("earth wire") currents to have 2 separate cpcs attached via two separate terminals. Think of a bunch of computer equipment in a data centre with lots of filtering capacitors giving lots of earth leakage. If there's only cpc and it disconnects, any metalwork becomes live via the relatively low impedance of the capacitors.

I've never quite understood the inclination to fill a house with security flaws and fire hazards. Maybe that's just me though.

Today on "sounded good on paper" we see a dangerously smart wall socket.

as someone who is DIY and has been changing out GFCI's in the u.s I likely would have thought both shared a ground/earth. this was good to know, and now i'm going to be testing all new outlets.... Clive, you're amazing, and i can't wait for you to hit 1m <3

I absolutely agree with your trepidation around all things IoT. I was gifted one of the Sonoff wifi controlled switching devices, and I chose not to use it until i flashed my own code onto it. Which was surprisingly easy. And, yes, it was the same chip as this one.

I think we need to see a hot dog across that flash tester...

A decent piece of kit let down by dumb earthing, even a label would help, definitely the instructions should have the fact in large red letters. Lots of non smart sockets have dual earth connections, a lot that I've installed in recent years have, but every one of them had the earth terminals connected, normally by a metal plate going around the live and neutral brown connection block and picking up the mounting screws at the same time and yes I tested every socket with a continuity test at the *distribution board or at the socket with radial circuits and spurs. *Consumer unit, if domestic. I have mainly done commercial & industrial installations as well as event work (stage sound & lighting) for the last 47yrs. Some electricians I've worked with use the second earth for a metal back box strap putting the ring earths in one terminal which is something I do myself but most times I've seen the terminals used to complete the ring earth with plastic back boxes. I often - even with plastic boxes - put the ring earths in one connector, there is just something nice about seeing the wires connect in one terminal especially as 2.5mm (ring circuit) twin & earth has only a 1.5mm earth. Top tip! Never twist any of the solid-core wires together on a ring circuit before inserting into a brass terminal hole, that can cause the grub screw to sever one of wires with very little torque when tightening. Inserted straight, side by side shotgun style into the orifice so the screw can clamp both wires firmly from the top creates a much stronger connection.

I prefer Germoline over TCP, it's down to the smell. 😆👍

it does give wiring at 1:23 near the bottom left, step 8, although it doesn't tell you to put it in both earth holes

Clive you missed the first part of the recall! At 1:21 you can clearly see that in the instructions leaflet they show only one of the earth lugs connected in the wiring diagram! (there is actually a small wiring diagram on the other side of the paper)