Can identify Always On devices? Such as IoT?

[mingmok]

I have a lots of IoT devices such as Google Hub Max, Apple HomePod, and Ring Alarm.

I have already enable network sharing to Sense.

But is over a week and I am not seeing any IoT devices getting detected. Is it because they are considered Always On devices? What can I do to identify their usage ?

[kevin1]

Good guess. I have measured many of the IoT device in my home using a Roaming smart plug (a Kasa KP125 non-Matter version). Most will never show up in Sense without a smart plug for three reasons:

• Their dominant mode of usage is Always On.
• When they do have some kind of on/off dynamic behavior, like a HomePod playing music, the dynamic usage is generally smallish (3-8W) and doesn’t produce clear on/on “edges” that Sense can “see”.
• Network-traffic-based NDI, only works for devices with a specific profile as well - ones that are clear in naming themselves an signaling their ons and offs on the network, plus have well characterized usage, so Sense can create a lookup for on usage. So far, this has been limited to a few brands/models of smart TVs.

Question about detection and NDI

@Mcraeh, From what I heard at the webinar yesterday, NDI is nice capability for connected devices with challenging power profiles, but only works well when two things are in place: The device is well behaved in its network protocol when changing power states / joining / leaving the network - some brands or models do this well, other don’t. Many dongle type devices continuously re-register on the network regardless of power state. The device has to cleanly say “I’m on” and “I’m off” via it’s r…

The best way to deal with most IoT devices is to characterize them using a Roamer smart plug, then tally up their Always On usage by manually adding to the Always On Estimates.

More on the methodology in this article:

One User’s Method For Getting The Most Out of Sense - Sense Blog