Saturday, April 17, 2021

I recently purchased a couple products that solved long time issues that I have had. The first was a device that would limit the amount of time a device was charged. Some required only 2 hours while others required 4 to 6 hours. Leaving some things plugged in over night sometimes ruined the batteries. An Amazon ad popped up one day with this "Gosund" Power strip that was controlled by it's own timer. 3 AC outlets and 1-3gang USB set. All could have a "scheduled" time for on/off or a count down timer. I could set the USB for 2 hours and plug in the device and forget it until later. I could also put an Apple Power brick on the AC outlets and set a different timer for each outlet. This allowed 4 different battery settings at once, so I could charge different cameras and different batteries all at the same time without fear of overcharging. I got it on special but the List price was 21.99. Controlled by iPhone or iPad. https://www.amazon.com/Gosund-Outlets-Protector-Charging-Extender/dp/B07TS2GZCJ
The second device(s) is a WiFi AC switch that also has both timer and scheduling for the outlet. Sold at Costco for 26.99 (3 Pk). Ebay as low as 19.99 for 3 Pk. Home Depot 9.98 each. These are controlled by iPhone or iPad app. They can be told to turn on a lamp and then turn it off on a schedule. One nice thing is that they will automatically adjust to Daylight savings due to getting timing from the App. They will run on schedule even f the iDevice goes away (Summer Home auto lights etc.) ANother feature is you can set several timing schedules, then choose which one you want. I use this to adjust the ON time during seasonal changes. The sun sets later going into summer so I switch to different settings 30 minutes later every week of so for the lamps I want to go on later. These can be grouped to switch multiple outlets at the same time, known as a "Scene". A manual override can be done on any outlet at any time, then the schedule will pick up again automatically when the next time event occurs.