Hey folks,
I’ve got some Meross Smart Plugs (MSS315) for my apartment and overall I’m really happy with them. The only issue I experienced is, when I disable internet access for them in my router (FritzBox), I can’t use the power monitor feature in the Meross App anymore, even when I’m in the same Wifi. When internet access is allowed, its working properly.
On/Off functions via App or HomeKit are not affected by missing internet access permission.
Also every other Meross product I own works flawlessly without internet access.
Has somebody of you made the same experience and figured out how to bypass this limitation?
I don’t think its necessary that the Meross products have full access to the internet since they are IoT devices.
This is a Matter device, right? Well, Matter doesn’t support power monitoring. Just like Matter lights don’t support dynamic events.
One theory is that Google and/or Amazon weren’t prepared to support power monitoring based events or dynamic lighting so they voted it down. Another theory is that endpoint device manufacturers intentionally removed a key feature from the spec to ensure you would still need their app/cloud so they could have vendor lock-in/data harvesting/etc. Third theory is “Why not both?”
Despite Matter having been hobbled, it is still the best IoT mass-market solution as when Meross inevitably obsoletes these devices, they will still be locally controllable. (Some would argue an MQTT based solution is better but as there’s no 3rd party validation, you can get insecure products like the Nexx garage door opener)
I , however, detest IoT and stick with zwave devices, which have no innate ability to be on the internet, can’t get firmware “downgrades” or be hobbled by a cloud outage and all get 3rd party validation.
fyi, Matter now supports energy monitoring as of the 1.2 specification release. Hopefully products like the one OP is using get updated firmware that uses the new Matter capabilities.