So, today was supposed to be simple. Really simple. Just get this new smart plug thing working. Plug it in, connect to WiFi, done. Right? Turns out, it became the ’26 st’ project. Yeah, twenty-six steps. Or maybe twenty-six different things I tried. I stopped counting precisely after twenty, honestly.
It started easy enough. Unpacked the box. Looked simple. Plugged it into the wall. Light blinked. Okay, good. Downloaded the app. That worked too. Tried to connect. Failed. Okay, no big deal. Reset the plug. Tried again. Failed.
The spiral begins
This is where it got stupid. Moved the plug closer to the router. Failed. Turned off the 5GHz band on my WiFi, because sometimes these cheap things only like 2.4GHz. Failed. Reset the router. Failed. Reset the plug again, holding the button for like, a full minute. Failed.
Checked the app permissions. All good. Tried my wife’s phone. Failed. Tried creating a guest network just for this stupid plug. Failed. I even dug out an old phone, thinking maybe my current Android version was too new or something. Still failed.
Here’s a rough list of the nonsense I went through:
- Standard setup via app
- AP mode setup
- Bluetooth setup attempt (it doesn’t even have Bluetooth!)
- Changing WiFi password to something simpler
- Disabling router firewall temporarily
- Assigning a static IP
- Chanting softly at the plug (okay, maybe not, but I thought about it)
You get the idea. Twenty-six bloody steps, or near enough. Why? Because the instructions were garbage, written in tiny print by someone who clearly never used the device. And probably because the plug itself is just a piece of junk.
Reminds me of my first job out of college. They had this ancient database system. Doing anything required navigating this maze of like, thirty screens, cryptic error codes… everyone just accepted it. ‘That’s just how it is’, they said. Spent weeks learning its quirks. Then one day, the whole system got replaced by a simple web form that did the same thing in two clicks. All that effort, wasted. Learned a lesson there: sometimes things are complicated just because they’re badly made or poorly thought out, not because they need to be.
So, this smart plug? After hitting attempt number 26, or whatever it was, I just unplugged it. Threw it back in the box. It’s sitting there now, mocking me. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow. Or maybe it’ll become a permanent resident of the junk drawer. Haven’t decided. Right now, I just need a coffee.
