TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology

TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology

TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology
TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology
Wednesday
Model: Tapo L530E  
Hardware Version: V3
Firmware Version: 1.1.9

Hi All,

 

This methodology of reset/configuration based on providing net power to the lamps is a real looser. Maybe you saved a button switch to be pressed but it's causing to me (and I think to a LOT of other people) a lot of headaches. 

If you're away from home (vacations?) and a power supply outage happens, if these lamps are connected to the power they all get crazy. Since it happens often, during a power outage, that the power goes away and comes back several times, the lamps think it's time to reset their configuration. This way they turn on, or they flash and then they stay on and they reset their original configuration settings. Well done ! The only way to regain control is to be with your smartphone near the lamps and restart the whole configuration stuff.

If you're going to stay one month away from your home the lamps will stay on 24hrs/day for one month !!!

Even if you're not away from home at every power outage you've to reconfigure manually ALL the lamps that is a real pain.

You cannot for sure call these lamps "SMART".

 

Quick and easy solution: 

Lamps are keeping almost for sure their configuration (including WiFi) in an internal non-volatile flash memory. In case power is applied and removed three times as the normal configuration initialization requires you can have two cases:

 

1) the LAMP was never configured previously. You can see this because the internal flash memory would show it. In this case you proceed with the normal configuration steps.

2) The LAMP already has an internal configuration for Wi-Fi etc. In this case you start the usual Lamp_-- WiFi hotspot for the configuration but with a timeout of 1 minute. If within 1 minute someone connects to the Wi-Fi hotspot of the lamp you proceed with the new configuration steps as usual BUT if no connection is made with the lamp within one minute you MUST restore the previous Wi-Fi configuration and switch the lamp OFF. This will restore the lamp operational status and remote control as it was before the power outage.

 

I hope you will implement the above. If not I will throw away all the smart lamps I bought from you since I already had to wait one week with all the lamps switched on while I was away for work. Today I had another power outage and I had to reconfigure all the lamps manually again. This will be the last time.

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#1
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3 Reply
Re:TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology
Yesterday

  @DisasterMaster 

 

Tapo smart bulbs are planned to update the reset method, this update should help to improve the light bulbs' connectivity issues caused by unstable power supply. If you're interested, check this article to get early access! Tapo Smart Bulb Reset Method Update -- Reducing Bulb Resets Due to Unstable Power Supply

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Re:TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology
Yesterday

  @Wayne-TP 

Sorry Wayne but the solution you're proposing looks like the typical quick&dirty lazy fixup. What's the point in adding two more on/off requests ? What are the guarantees that the process of configuration reset could not be triggered anyway by mistake during a power outage ? I understand that placing a "5" in the sourcecode of the while() loop where today you've a "3" then re-compile is really easy and quick but honestly speaking I don't think it's a solution.

 

The issue is that you overwrite and reset an existing (working) configuration even if a new configuration is not actually provided. This is the issue. If I enter configuration mode but noone provides a different configuration then the previously existing configuration MUST come back into play not to lose remote control of the device. This is the point.

 

Your new (really new?) approach is just making manual configuration requests more difficult without actually solving anything. These are my two cents.

I'm surprised you make so good (and SMART!) camera devices (I have 16 of them with a fully working ecosystem) and you fall on similar silly pits for configuration of simple devices like lamps. Invest 5 minutes more fixing the firmware and you will see your customers to become much more happy.

 

Note: a simple pushbutton on the lamp would have saved the hassle of all of this discussions and fixes. To be noted for the next time.

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Re:TAPO L520 & L530 (possibly others) dumb reset methodology
14 hours ago

  @DisasterMaster 

 

We appreciate your feedback. I'll forward it to our relevant team to review it. 

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