FWIW, The HA Emulator works very well. I use this functionality to report wattage on my variable speed pool pumps, and wattage on my Tesla Wall Connectors, to Sense.
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Just came here to rage about the 2.6 hardware - bought EP25s a few weeks ago and realized I wasn’t getting the device found popups in Sense.
Thank god the Home Assistant emulator integration works - been using that with Sense from the beginning to send it discreet devices it cannot detect correctly.
For those struggling who also have Home Assistant (or want to set it up) instead of ditching their EP25s and other 2.6 hardware, try it out:
home-assistant [dot] io/integrations/emulated_kasa/
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Add me to the chorus of disappointed Sense users who purchased the EP25 smart plugs and can’t get them to work with Sense. HW v2.6, FW v1.0.2.
Can Sense please issue some kind of statement of intent with respect to this problem?
It works well, (and its addictive) but if you have never used Home Assistant it will be a week or more of lost free time while you figure out how to use it and make it do what you want… the documentation isn’t good at all.
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Their Statement was “We put a silly little note at the bottom of our blog post that lists compatible plugs”
I also blame Kasa (TP Link) for this as normally a hardware revision would be released as a new part number, not as the same product.
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I just want to state/confirm here that since the EP25 2.6v is an update from v1.6, we can only presume these will be available moving forward; Amazon, which seems to be the main channel to get there, does not distinguish between 1.6 and 2.6. I know because I ordered a lot of EP25s and got a mix of each version—(one time, I also got a completely different smartplug in the same box as other EP25s)—which Amazon refunded, thankfully.
Therefore, we have removed the EP25 from the compatible list of smart plugs in the Help Center and advised agents not to tell folks these are compatible.
We added a note to the old blog post on smart plugs as there was some hesitancy to retcon a blog. Generally, if looking at a blog post - even Sense’s - with specific information, I advise checking the date and verifying it against the most current info that should be published in the Help Center: https://help.sense.com/
If you can find and verify any EP25’s V1.6, they should work at this moment. However, since TP-Link has made some significant and abrupt changes, I can not be fully confident that compatibility with any plug will stay that way.
We are very aware of the frustration this has caused and are concerned about it internally. Right now, for technical reasons, we have no current plans to include the EP25 V2.6. But we do know the importance of smart plugs, so we continue to discuss it.
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From a quick google it seems that python-kasa (used among other things by home assistant) has updated to support these new plugs. That is open source, so sense should be able to use it directly, or be able to look at the code changes to allow building support for these plugs.
What would be the reason for not doing so? I suspect that sense is not very focused on maintaining or expanding this product…
Unfortunately just having an available open-source API that gets around it (of which I’m familiar with and am actively using in Home Assistant), Sense would ALSO need to develop a new UI and user flow for authenticating via that API. Right now, smart plugs are only discovered via UDP on the local network - you don’t manually add smart plugs in the Sense UI.
So there probably won’t be any support for these unless/until Sense adds a more robust 3rd party device integration flow, which really isn’t in their best interest due to level of effort.
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Good points @atwixtor,
Add in that some changes would need to take place in the Sense monitor realtime firmware, which far more tricky than simple python-kata coding. I also suspect that if Sense was going to update the integration to support Matter, they would likely want to do a far more generalized multi-vendor, multi-device type integration, which would require far more extensive development efforts.
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You make it sound as if that development is some kind of major effort. Being a Mac and iOS developer for a long, long time, I know that is not the case. A capable engineering team would spend no more than a few weeks.
If sense cannot (capability), or will not (time/money/interest) do this, there is absolutely zero chance they will be (able, or interested) to develop more generalized support for monitoring devices.
What is in their best interest all depends on what role this product plays in their overall business plan, and I suspect that is where the real issue is. For several years now I have seen little to no improvement or new features, hardware or software. Active device detection features that have been hinted at have not really materialized. All that leads me to believe their focus is, and will remain, elsewhere. The opportunities there may be much bigger, or conversely, we don’t know how many sense devices there is room for in the overall market. It may well be that they have already come close the ever flattening top of the S-curve, making further investment rather questionable.
That said, I am happy with what the product does for me so far. On the other hand, I have a pretty standard single panel/PV installation. When this issue (Kasa) started, I was able to buy a sufficient amount of compatible plugs to serve my future needs. Not everybody can/could unfortunately.
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Hi Dolfs,
I understand your concern and appreciate the feedback,
Even a few weeks is a significant amount of time, especially when projects are scheduled far out. This is a serious internal discussion. I answer questions about smart plugs every day, so I don’t think we are trying to ignore them.
I can’t really speak for anyone else’s decisions, and I know you may not agree anyway, but I just thought I would mention it.
Thanks again!
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Thank you James. As others have stated, this is not on you. You are one of the few “real” people we can interact with and given, what I assume, limitations imposed on you, you do an admirable job.
You are, however, kind of confirming my point. You reference a few weeks as being significant in light of other projects scheduled far out. There are two things about that:
- If a company releases a product it is bad practice to not allocate, in some form or other, resources for maintenance, fixes and ongoing feature development. In this regard I see the firmware of the device as different from the web site and back-end, which each of have their own challenges (see quite frequent outages in the past year). It seems sense has not done this very well.
- “Other projects”: Unless something major is being worked on for us sense owners, this refers to other interests of the company (which we do know exist). And that was my point…
So anyway, I think enough has been said on this point.
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I suspect Other Projects is the integration of Sense directly into the utility meters, that was mentioned in the sense blogs not long ago.
Advanced smart meters that are compatible with the Sense app go to the next level by providing you with real-time data, similar to having the Sense Home Energy Monitor installed in your electrical panel. Sense-capable smart meters will soon be deployed to some utility customers in New York and Massachusetts
Mention of an S-curve made me look up the concept. I found this graph helpful (taken from 2. Logistic Growth (S-curves) – The Foresight Guide ). None of my friends have Sense, so I don’t think we are at the top yet.
In my experience, Sense-with-smart-plugs is far more valuable than Sense-alone. Thus I expect that Sense will integrate Matter plugs someday. For now, there are still several compatible smart plugs so I understand their reluctance to adjust developer schedules to make this a priority.
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Hi, I get what you’re saying, and I’ll pass it along. I know “pass it along” isn’t always a satisfying response, but I just thought I’d let you know I read this and we are thinking about it.
Thanks again!
So has sense lost the ability to pull info from the older Kasa plugs? Mine has disappeared for months.
Hi, @ymilord
Sense should not have lost the ability to pull from any previously supported smart plugs.
This may require some more troubleshooting; I suggest filing a ticket and asking to talk to me at: https://help.sense.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Also, if you want, you can private message me here.
You can try opening the Sense app > Settings > Tp-Link Energy Monitoring Smart Plug > and ensuring you are still connected.
Next, try rebooting your router by unplugging it and plugging it back in. Please then confirm if you are reconnected.
If not, I would write to support or message me. Thanks!
Yup. Enabled. I disabled it a couple weeks back. Waited about an hour and re-enabled it. Nothing came back. It just has “Looking for Plugs”
I’ve done that many, many times already. And have restarted the Sense device itself.
My 32 or so older Kasa outlets continue to remain integrated just fine. You should investigate yours if they worked in the past. Only the newest Kasa EP25s are showing this issue right now.
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My V1 hardware (approx 21 plugs) also continue to work fine. Only the V2 hardware doesn’t work
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