Homey Energy Dongle - Feedback

Energy
1

Here’s my experience with the dongle so far.

First of all, the cable that comes with the dongle is honestly a joke. I can’t even close the smart meter cabinet with it connected. In the photo you can see my old Smarty+ dongle, which had a 150 cm cable and a magnetic back so it could be mounted outside the meter cabinet when Wi-Fi reception was weak inside. That was a much better design.

After plugging in the new dongle, there was no red LED, so I assumed it was getting enough power and started the pairing process. Everything went fine until the Wi-Fi connection step — then the Homey app suddenly closed without any warning.

When I reopened it, the dongle appeared in the device list but was stuck with a red warning triangle. Trying to open it just showed a message like “{{device}} is setting up”.

I tried resetting it by holding a paper clip in the reset hole for 30 seconds, but it kept flashing pink. I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and was finally able to reset it properly.

I repeated this three times and got exactly the same result each time.

Then I moved to the living room, about one meter from the Wi-Fi access point. I powered the dongle via its USB-C port using a power bank and paired it again. This time the Wi-Fi connection worked, but it still showed the red warning triangle. When I tapped it, it said it was trying to connect to the smart meter.

So I went back to the garage — still using the power bank — and connected it to the smart meter again. This time it asked for the encryption key. I entered the key from my old dongle and it connected successfully.

After that I removed the external power, closed the meter cabinet, and everything kept working fine.

My takeaways:
The cable should definitely be longer, and the setup process is more fragile than it needs to be. It feels like the dongle may require more power during pairing and initial setup, but this isn’t mentioned anywhere in the instructions.

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2

Qorst you can do is unplugging devices during firmware updates

https://support.homey.app/hc/en-us/articles/18785793423260-Understanding-the-LED-of-the-Homey-Energy-Dongle

Blinking Pink — The Homey Energy Dongle is currently installing an update

You should be lucky it didn’t brick.

3

If that’s true, then that’s really poor software design and poor communication in the setup process.

I had no indication at all that the pink blinking meant a firmware update was in progress. The app crashed without warning, so there was no message telling me an update was running. After reopening the app, the only thing shown was “{{device}} is setting up”, which gives zero useful information.

It should clearly say something like:
“Firmware update in progress — do not disconnect the dongle.”

That would avoid confusion and potential bricking entirely.

4

even with {{somthing}} is setting up … is for me usually to see if I can keep my patience and investigate if I can see anything happening ;-).

pls report to Athom support using the Support button in the App, also report the Homey mobile App Version and your other findings. Below every article is a “Need help? Submit a request.” or type submit in the search field on the knowledge base site for the article with the link.

Feedback on Homey and Products to the community is nice but could just be seen as complaining by Community members.

The best chance to get it fixed is not here but by addressing it using the provided support channel.

Feedback is a present, if done the correct way Athom can improve. I am afraid it wil get lost here without Athom knowing.

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