Belkin WeMo Switch

Thanks to Myer's free $20 voucher, I decided to buy one of these Belkin WeMo switch that you can turn on/off via an iOS or Android device. I like to turn off the mains to my TV unit (which includes my TV, my china no name brand media player and also my Logitech Z5500) every night before I go to sleep. Having to reach to the back of the TV is starting to be a tedious task.

I have also been a fan of Belkin's hardware although there are two device that I own from Belkin that has failed on me but I still truly support the brand name.

Upon receiving this from Myer, I was obviously excited to set this up at home. When I open up the box there wasn't much instruction except a quick install guide as shown below.

As usual I never read the install guide and plug it straight into a power outlet. After turning the wemo switch on, I then realise that I needed to download the wemo app from App Store. As I was downloading the app, I got a few facebook message re 50% 2nd toy sale currently in Myer. What I didn't realise after plugging the wemo switch to a power outlet that has been turn on, the LED was flashing yellow and blue for 3-5 minutes or so.

During this time, I should be joining the default wifi that is broadcasting from the wemo switch to configure the device to my home wifi. Since I was too busy yapping away on facebook messenger, I missed this oppurtunity to set it up at first go, the device now thinks the user doesn't have wifi at home and would like to use this switch just like a normal power point (which clearly defeats the entire purpose).

I had to factory reset the device so I can start again, well oh well it almost took me 45 minutes to reset this. There wasn't a detail guide on Belkin support page (or perhaps I wasn't searching hard enough), I was reading from a few forum/blogs and finally got a solution from a reply posted by a Belkin rep.

Hold the restore button whilst plugging the wemo switch into a power outlet for 15 seconds. Release the restore button and leave it for 1 minute ++. Have your mobile device on standby and join the default ssid from wemo switch as soon as it appears.

After wasting almost an hour I finally got this to work properly!