Avatar Controls Smart Plug - ?Dead

What's this?

Well from an external source, a "Smart" plug has come winging my way. A friend gave it to me saying that it was not working.

Ten years ago I might have had to explain what a smart plug was but they are pretty common these days. This one is marked as an Avatar Controls AWP14H 10 A UK 3-pin socket. I have no other provenance on it apart from that. I don't know why it isn't working (or even if it is or is not), how old it is, or where it came from.

A trip to Avatar's website only shows info on its latest model, a 16 A version, for which they have stupidly used the same model number. Their support pages are limited to pushing their control app (more on that later) with no product sheets or even any info for older models.

In an effort to track down some relevant data I had a poke around the Wayback Machine. The company have been on the web since 2016 (but only with a placeholder website initially). Our product pops up sometime between 26/06/2019 and 28/09/2019 but had disappeared two years later by 28/10/2021.

No product datasheet was available, with only the following information available.

AWP14H Smart WiFi Plug UK Socket

AvatarControls' Smart Plug is the world's first minimum size UK smart WiFi plug, which has a small size. It can be connected with your phone to control remotely, and support Amazon Alexa & Google Home and IFTTT protocol, which makes your home appliance more intelligent.

Features

• Minimum size design
• Voice Control Works With Amazon and Google Assistant
• IFTTT Put the internet to work for you
• Real-time Monitoring, Energy Saving
• Remote Control, support 3G/4G network, Free APP
• One button to set time function, Multi-group time setting function
• One button to share device to families and friends
• Max current 10A and Max power supports 2300 Watt

So not much on communication protocols (ie Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) other than which home automation services (ie Amazon Alexa, Google Nest, IFTTT) it will interface with, but at least a set of features to expect from it. Hoping that the support data for the associated app might give me some clues was fruitless as there was nothing present on the web around this time. A general web search over the product's "live" dates provided no further information either.

"But, why not just download the app from Avatar Controls and use that to test it?" I faintly hear you ask. Well, firstly, some plugs from some manufacturers have been caught sending large volumes of data out of network and a relatively recent press release from Nokia (remember them?) claimed that 40% of DDoS attack traffic was coming from IoT devices. Secondly, being reliant on the Avatar Controls app means having your data being sent back to them and potentially not just usage data but also voice data (under terms of use agreements that are notoriously easy to "readjust" after the fact). Finally, being reliant on the Avatar Controls app also means relying on their servers working and continuing to support your device. All in all I would prefer to stay clear of the app if at all possible and keep control of both the plug and its data local.

As it happens this may be possible. The Avatar plug seems to have been designed under licence from another manufacturer, Tuya, which is claimed to be the world's leading IoT cloud platform with 252,000 different types of device. They also provide a control app, Smartlife, but that only replicates the same risks as above. However it appears the industrious hacking community have developed ways to reflash the control chips with an open source firmware, Tasmoto, using tuyaconvert. So although not an easy road, it appears that there may be a way forward to making this plug more secure.

But only if it is working…

Ho hum. Back to first principles then, switch it on and see if it lights up.

No lights, no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth. Pressed and held what I thought might be the pairing button for 5 secs and still nothing. A dead stick. Time for surgery.

P.S.

On the Avatar Controls website I noticed that their UK web store gives a US address as their contact details, but only as a town and Zip code. As I have an enquiring mind I wondered what their offices looked like and it appears that "looked" is the operative word as the industrial unit that they gave as their address is marked as "Permanently closed."

A bit more digging gave an address for their Head Office in China, the very much more impressive Satellite Mansion in Nanshan, Gaugndong province.

Not having a local address and telephone number is a bit of a red flag for dealing with a company. But as I am not buying only repairing/hacking it is not of major importance, to me at least.