New Arrival Setup for Apple HomeKit Enabled Kasa Devices - EP25, KP125
If you didn't hear... Kasa has begun to support Apple HomeKit!
This means that you can spend less time setting your product up for multiple environments and can spend more time exploring ways to use your devices.
We just released a new set of support articles with instructions on setting up HomeKit compatible devices to show how easy this setup can be. Currently, Kasa is offering two separate smart plugs with HomeKit compatibility - the KP125 and the EP25. The EP25 and KP125 are some of Kasa's newest Smart Plugs offering Energy Monitoring.
If you have never had a smart plug with energy monitoring before, I would highly recommend picking one up to monitor the energy usage of devices across your home. (Yes, you might even be able to finally find the device that added $20 to your electric bill last year.)
Feel free to comment below, as the team would love to hear what you think of the new feature and what devices you would like to see HomeKit support brought to next. Also, we would like to know what your experience was like if you configured your device using the HomeKit Procedure.
New Content:
New Knowledge Base Article: Setting Up Your HomeKit Enabled Kasa Devices
New YouTube Video: How to Configure a HomeKit-Enabled Kasa Smart Plug | DIY setup
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I'm having the same issue,
My KP125 (6 of them) go offline after several hours. unplugging and plugging in brings them back to connectivity.
I have tried
-setting up a guest SSID on 2.4GHz
-the previous setup is using "smart connect" one SSID with 3 bands (tp-link AX11000 MU-MIMO Tri-Band)
-the KP125 are the only devices on this SSID
-reset to factory state and and reconfigured on guest network (3 of the 6) The remaining 3 i left as they were.
-security is WPA/WPA2-Personal
All 6 went offline again.
-the 3 on the guest network showed orange light. the other 3 showed no light.
-I decided against removing security from the guest network.
-When they are offline they drop off the client list in the router
-Turning off wi-fi and using cellular only does not show reconnect.
-The schedule functions are still active and working.
-I do not see a way to assign a static IP address
I really wanted these to work. The scheduling is easy and seem to setup easily as well.
Any ideas would be appreciated
ba
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There are a few settings that you might try to disable on your router as they are known to cause odd behaviors for IoT devices.
I would first try to disable the "BeamForming" Option on your router, as this can cause devices to have trouble reconnecting to the network.
"Fast Roaming" results in the router moving devices from band to band, try disabling this; your devices will then be in charge of connecting to the network with the strongest signal.
When the devices go offline, do they happen to all go offline at one time?
The Kasa App does not have a menu to assign a Static IP address, instead you can assign an IP reservation on your router based on the device's MAC address.
FYI: The Scheduling Features of the devices are housed on the plug itself, rather than the cloud; and also Kasa devices require a secured network to connect.
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Riley_S wrote
There are a few settings that you might try to disable on your router as they are known to cause odd behaviors for IoT devices.
I would first try to disable the "BeamForming" Option on your router, as this can cause devices to have trouble reconnecting to the network.
"Fast Roaming" results in the router moving devices from band to band, try disabling this; your devices will then be in charge of connecting to the network with the strongest signal.
When the devices go offline, do they happen to all go offline at one time?
The Kasa App does not have a menu to assign a Static IP address, instead you can assign an IP reservation on your router based on the device's MAC address.
FYI: The Scheduling Features of the devices are housed on the plug itself, rather than the cloud; and also Kasa devices require a secured network to connect.
I would first try to disable the "BeamForming" Option on your router, as this can cause devices to have trouble reconnecting to the network.
The tp-link AX11000 has BeamForming on by default and there is no disable function available
"Fast Roaming" results in the router moving devices from band to band, try disabling this; your devices will then be in charge of connecting to the network with the strongest signal.
I cannot find Fast Roaming in the settings. I have half the plugs on the guest network. They should not want to locate a different SSID. The signal strength is -31dBm
When the devices go offline, do they happen to all go offline at one time?
Not necessarily. they seem to last about 5 hours. I am staggering the restarts now to see if this is the case.
The Kasa App does not have a menu to assign a Static IP address, instead you can assign an IP reservation on your router based on the device's MAC address.
i have bound 3 plugs MAC->IP. This did not help.
-I disabled QoS. This did not help.
-The Firmware version is 1.0.8
-Homekit does not always agree with Kasa app on what is or isn't on line.
-The time on the plugs is correct.
-Internet speed tested on the router is 254 Mbps.
-No other devices are experiencing connectivity issues. I have 3 plugs and 5 cameras from a different manufacturure and they are solidly connected. IF i have one that looses connectivity i am notified and it reconnects itself. This may happen once in 3 months. But, i don't have to do anything to reconnect it. The KP125 plugs require unplugging to reboot and for some that requires moving furniture.
-Restarting the router does not help. I also restarted the modem.
Is it possible to downgrade the firmware?
Thank you for your help
ba
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glgeek wrote
i have bound 3 plugs MAC->IP. This did not help.
-I disabled QoS. This did not help.
-The Firmware version is 1.0.8
-Homekit does not always agree with Kasa app on what is or isn't on line.
-The time on the plugs is correct.
-Internet speed tested on the router is 254 Mbps.
-No other devices are experiencing connectivity issues. I have 3 plugs and 5 cameras from a different manufacturure and they are solidly connected. IF i have one that looses connectivity i am notified and it reconnects itself. This may happen once in 3 months. But, i don't have to do anything to reconnect it. The KP125 plugs require unplugging to reboot and for some that requires moving furniture.
-Restarting the router does not help. I also restarted the modem.
Is it possible to downgrade the firmware?
Thank you for your help
ba
UPDATE:
Success!
Last Sunday (today is Thursday) I cleaned up all the settings I had modified while troubleshooting and started again. Here is where I ended up.
-guest network with only Kasa devices (6)
-no MAC address binding in the router
-no QoS
-the rest of the router settings are default
The plugs have been connected continuously.
I am able to see the plugs on the cellular network when away from home.
The plugs are unavailable with Homekit. This is not really an issue for me since Kasa is working great and i don't have a hub and it may be because of my local network access setting. I have not spent any time chasing this issue and don't plan to, these are my only Homekit devices.
I do not know if the plugs will reconnect if they go offline for some reason. This may or may not have happened, I have not seen any occurrence of offline and reconnect.
This is how i expected the plugs to work when i first purchase them. I liked the ease of programming schedules and the initial setup.
I hope you are also successful.
ba
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@Riley_S if I understand you correctly the solution is to remove all the security features of the network?
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I believe that the only reason that you are not seeing the devices available to Homekit is because of that second box that is left unchecked for seeing devices on the main network. The main thing to remember is that if that box is not checked, the communication from your plug to your phone will always be a cloud-based connection. If your phone can see the device on the network, then it will send commands directly through the LAN to the plug. This often doesn't make a difference, but it is something you should be aware of in case your WAN connection fails; that way you know what setting needs to be changed.
Additionally, I do not believe that QoS settings affect devices on the guest network; so you can try to reenable and set this at or above your expected speeds.
Glad you were able to get it all working
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Not at all, the smart plugs will actually not be able to connect to a network that has no protections and will require a secured network for use. The only security feature that we sometimes recommend is to change the encryption method, as many smart devices can have difficulty with certain settings, specifically enterprise grade encryptions. The key is simplifying your network configuration, settings, and traffic so that you can be sure that any connections or commands arent being blocked by things like your firewall, parental controls, or just by bad luck with dropped packets. Guest and IoT networks do not often have these features implemented and work better with IoT devices. This is why you may start seeing a general increase in the number of routers receiving support for or coming out with IoT networks.
The devices are as secure as your main network is when they are on the guest network; the guest network simply isolates these devices from the rest of the devices on the network; that way you don't have to worry about malicious activity when guests use your network.
Feel free to ask if there is a specific concern that you have, or a security setting that you think is the cause
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Re:
> Did you ever get an answer to #3? Or figure it out? I just want to use the Kasa app for the EP25's I bought. there seems to be no way to break out of the loop of doing it through Apple Home. I have no interest in using Apple home.
Any answer on this question? (Hello TP-Link ?)
I would like to do this also. I just got a box of 4 KP125 smart plugs (version US/1.6) and NONE of them broadcast their own WiFi SSID (e.g. TP-LINK_SmartPlug_XXXX) which prevents them from being added directly to the iOS Kasa app.
Thanks,
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I believe that the Apple Home process can be avoided, it's just awkward due to Apple's requirement that it be Homekit-only setup for 10 minutes. Check out the FAQ where there is a small section on how to skip the Apple Home setup.
If you have an Android device, this will be the easiest method as it cannot use the Apple home setup method.
As for the KP125, make sure that you are performing a full factory reset (10sec) before trying to configure the plugs. The plugs will only keep their setup network alive for about 15 minutes, 10 minutes of which are dedicated to Apple Home setup.
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