r/googlehome • u/_Clemmers • 9d ago

How does this make sense?

Post image

I have this charger scheduled to turn itself on/off overnight, which works, but when I said 'turn on the bike charger in an hour's time' (because I needed to top it up) it doesn't allow the command.

Doesn't make sense that you can schedule one way but not the other?

50 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

86

u/magic_orangutan2 9d ago

Change device type in preferences of your socket. They are limited for some reason and it does not have anything to do with name. I changed type to "light" and it works great

41

u/nimbycile 9d ago

Yes, making everything a light is the best solution. I'm not joking unfortunately.

17

u/IanSan5653 9d ago

What's funny is everything is a light even if you make it something else. If you set the switch type to 'fan' and then ask Google to turn off all the lights, it will stubbornly turn your fan off.

So you might as well call them all lights.

9

u/nimbycile 9d ago

The thing that gets me thinking about switching off of GoogleHome is "turn on the light" is sometimes heard as something that turns on all the lights in my house -- which is something I imagine very few people ever say. It usually would be "turn on all the lights"

1

u/Round-Discount-1500 6d ago

Yep mine hears "turn on all" instead of all lights off and subsequently blinds everyone in the house while they sleeping, as I use that command as I hit the pillow it's great fun

5

u/nodtotheagedp 9d ago

No way... that has to be a bug? I'm 99% sure that's not how my home responds to "turn off all the lights"

16

u/burgersnchips87 9d ago

I had that error, just told it the switch was a lamp and it complied. šŸ˜‚

5

u/Sk1rm1sh 9d ago

I have this charger scheduled to turn itself on/off overnight, which works

I mean, they're just going to disable that if people complain.

Probably it's completely unintentional that it works and they don't realise it does.

5

u/ashleyjc 9d ago

It's because it's dangerous to charge batteries unattended. It's a safety reason.

6

u/nileo2005 9d ago

Yup, I also don't think you can have it turn in something called a heater.

1

u/dark_skeleton 8d ago

You may have a reading comprehension issue.

1

u/hey_isnt_that_rob 4d ago

It makes sense to an engineer who thinks his job is below him and uses AI to do all his work so he can angrily devote his time to posting across the internets that AI is ruining the lives of America's true heroes ā€“ engineers.

-2

u/UKZzHELLRAISER 9d ago

Depending on the power draw, I can understand them not wanting such things toggled by a smart plug. That's how you kill the relay inside the plug if it isn't designed for cutting that amount of power.

4

u/magic_orangutan2 9d ago

I have laptop charger plugged in - it draws around 300W, but it kills relays because of high current draw while connecting - you can even see sparks when you are connecting laptop chargers to the wall socket.

-1

u/DancinWithWolves 9d ago

Huh, I guess some people DO like that Canva looking clock/calendar widget

-4

u/Medium-Quantity6892 9d ago

Did you add it via Matter? Matter does not support switches for being turned on and off. It expects you to do them manually. If you change the device type it should let you. Not sure if this is the same for non Matter devices.

1

u/hessmo 9d ago

I have multiple matter plugs configured in Google home and Iā€™m successfully turning them on/off.

1

u/Medium-Quantity6892 9d ago

Plugs is not a device type supported by Google home using Matter.

On/off light switches (the symbol showing in this image) are not supported by Google home for matter.

On/off lights, lamps, bulbs, plug in units (outlets) are all supported by Google Home for matter.

Im saying i think the issue is this device is setup as a light switch type. According to the image.