WIFI switch for aircraft tanis heater

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Luigi

Line Up and Wait
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Luigi
There is WIFI access at my tiedown, my question is can I purchase one of those low cost wifi activated switches and use it to turn my Tanis heater on and off?

something like this: https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F7C063/
 
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I like this one. I have a small bit of experience with one almost just like it. However, I'm not a big fan of wifi switches; so much instability and reliance on some phantom IT service.

But, I now use this gizmo since there is no wifi where I am. I'm super happy with it. 1000 watts of electrons can pass through it. So my Reiff hot pad and bands (600w total) are not an issue, and a 60w bulb for accessory side. There are higher watt systems available. Cool thing, I can just text my box and bam! Heat! I can even set a time off, and which outlet. Cool gizmo. The guy that makes them (http://www.fstllc.com) answered a call from me on a Sunday afternoon, and fixed my issue pronto. There wasn't a problem with my unit, just my failure to "charge up" my cell service for the gizmo. Totally not getting a kickback, it's just nice to be able to brag about a cool product made in the USA. 'Murica!
 
We use the WEMO switch for our pre heater as you described. The nice part about it is that we set a rule on it to turn off after four hours. That way if you lose connection or forget to turn it off and not fly it will shut off automatically.
 
Just drain the oil into a pot and put it on simmer on a camp stove in your hangar. Just remember to pour it back in before you fly . :thumbsup:
 
Is there an issue with getting the"PLUG" permission to log on to the airport network, i.e. that page one has to typically agree to??
Is that accomplished via the iPhone app?
 
Luigi said:
Is there an issue with getting the"PLUG" permission to log on to the airport network, i.e. that page one has to typically agree to??
Is that accomplished via the iPhone app?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. In our case two of my partners work for cell phone companies. So they just put an old hot spot in the hanger with very limited data on it. It works great. No connecting or disconnecting for us.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm brand new to ownership, and am going to do this for my preheating, as in getting the wifi switch. I found a wifi plug that has two outlets controlled independently, I was thinking of one for the oil pan heater and one for something in the cabin as I heard it was good for avionics, but then realized I'm not sure if thats an issue for me... The ol '47 C-140 has no gyro driven instruments, and the heater will cook you out, so do I really need to heat the cabin ahead of time? Fanciest instrument is an electric Turn Coordinator...
 
I just rigged up my remote heat / security camera setup about a month ago. I bought the following:

- Hotspot ($10/month)
- Same remote wifi switch as @Eric Stoltz
- Blink XT & hub
- Cheap waterproof enclosure from Amazon

The hotspot is shared with our cellphone data plan.

The remote wifi switch is awesome in that it also reports current draw...so you know the Tannis working :) About 3.6 amps and a little over 400 watts.

And the Blink XT is outdoor rated and works great. The image takes a few seconds to arrive with the hotspot buried in a all steel hangar, buy I'm surprised I get any wifi at all.

Oh yeah, on cross country trips like last week I grab the hotspot and bring it with since my tablets aren't 4G.
 
Luigi said:
There is WIFI access at my tiedown, my question is can I purchase one of those low cost wifi activated switches and use it to turn my Tanis heater on and off?

something like this: https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F7C063/
Click to expand...
Actually, the one you linked is not outdoor rated. Since this is for a Tannis then it's gonna be in the cold so get something designed for cold weather.
 
Huckster79 said:
I'm brand new to ownership, and am going to do this for my preheating, as in getting the wifi switch. I found a wifi plug that has two outlets controlled independently, I was thinking of one for the oil pan heater and one for something in the cabin as I heard it was good for avionics, but then realized I'm not sure if thats an issue for me... The ol '47 C-140 has no gyro driven instruments, and the heater will cook you out, so do I really need to heat the cabin ahead of time? Fanciest instrument is an electric Turn Coordinator...
Click to expand...
Just my opinion...but I would not remotely heat the cabin of a plane unless you have a heater specifically made for this. I plug in a small heater when I arrive at the airport. I only run it while I am in the vicinity of yhe plane. Only takes about 30min if all the doors and windows aRe closed.
 
Bought This one:
meross MSS620 WiFi Smart Outdoor Plug with 2 Grounded Outlets, Plugin Heavy Duty, Remote Control, Timer, Waterproof,
 
As far as I can see -

One thing to notice with these remote control WiFi things is that they need an infrastructure to operate. If the company goes bust, or perhaps dumps an old product - what happens to the infrastructure?

Your Wifi Smart-Thing will need to quite frequently contact a server to update its status and to see if there are any commands for it. Similarly the controller (phone/tablet/PC) will use the same server to retrieve the status and send commands. For a small number of devices (maybe thousands) this will be pretty small beer but for a large number (maybe millions) it could get quite fancy.

This will not be essential (but they likely will all work the same way as described above) in the case where you have your own broadband connection and can (either arrange a static IP address OR use Dynamic DNS) AND can configure your router/firewall to let you in (static NAT). To use Dyn DNS you will need to register a domain name (cheap and easy). No consumer device can succeed if this configuration complexity is required of the users.

I have no actual experience of these things but am a Network/Firewall engineer to trade and I think I know how this stuff works.
 
Spring Ford said:
If the company goes bust, or perhaps dumps an old product - what happens to the infrastructure?
Click to expand...
Sorry to reply to my own post however it seemed the clearest way to deal with it. I did some searching and ...

Add - or gets bought by google.

This has already happened it seems.

April 2016 article.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nest-killed-its-smart-home-hub-what-do-they-owe-customers/
"Revolv promised "lifetime subscriptions" for buyers of its home automation hub. Then Google's Nest Labs bought the company and killed the product. "

"Imagine, for example, if Nest itself went out of business, and the cloud service to control and integrate the thermostats and smoke detectors stopped working."
 
Spring Ford said:
As far as I can see -

One thing to notice with these remote control WiFi things is that they need an infrastructure to operate. If the company goes bust, or perhaps dumps an old product - what happens to the infrastructure?

Your Wifi Smart-Thing will need to quite frequently contact a server to update its status and to see if there are any commands for it. Similarly the controller (phone/tablet/PC) will use the same server to retrieve the status and send commands. For a small number of devices (maybe thousands) this will be pretty small beer but for a large number (maybe millions) it could get quite fancy.
Click to expand...
For under $20 for one of these wifi switches I'm willing to take that risk.
 
My question is....what kind of signal strength is everyone getting with the doors closed...inside all that metal. Mine is good with the doors open....not sure if this is gonna work with the doors closed. I thought of getting one with a WIFI antenna....but, no joy on that. They aren't available.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
My question is....what kind of signal strength is everyone getting with the doors closed...inside all that metal. Mine is good with the doors open....not sure if this is gonna work with the doors closed. I thought of getting one with a WIFI antenna....but, no joy on that. They aren't available.
Click to expand...

Wish I had doors, I am at an out door tiedown. "T" hangars at my airport are over $700 per month.
 
I use a highly directional WiFi antenna inside the all metal hangar to 'borrow' internet from the FBO into a repeater at about 2000 feet. Works well enough. No local WiFi switch, but I do graph temperature and humidity. Considering trying a switch one of these days to see how it works, not that I have an engine to heat right now.
 
Sinistar said:
Just my opinion...but I would not remotely heat the cabin of a plane unless you have a heater specifically made for this. I plug in a small heater when I arrive at the airport. I only run it while I am in the vicinity of yhe plane. Only takes about 30min if all the doors and windows aRe closed.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, is it necessary at all with no gyros in the old gal? My panel has a radio, an electric turn and bank, airspeed, verticle speed, altimeter and a whiskey compass- does warthm even help any of those or just gyro driven instruments?
 
They work well, verify the switch can handle the wattage of the heater.

Also make sure the device can get cell signal inside a metal hangar.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
My question is....what kind of signal strength is everyone getting with the doors closed...inside all that metal. Mine is good with the doors open....not sure if this is gonna work with the doors closed. I thought of getting one with a WIFI antenna....but, no joy on that. They aren't available.
Click to expand...
My Verizon hotspot will do about 20Mb download and 5Mb upload outside the hangar. Inside the hangar with the door closed and inside a NEMA enclosure I am getting about 3Mb download and 2Mb upload. The inside numbers are with a $18 external antennae that is still inside the hangar. It is more than enough for controlling the switch, monitoring current draw and fetching images. We do all this with 2 smart phones and the hotspot sharing 2Gb/month and don't go over.

Another way to look at it is the hotspot shoes 4 bars outside the hangar, 3 bars inside the hangar but with hangar door open and either 2 or 3 bars with the hangar door shut.
 
Huckster79 said:
Makes sense, is it necessary at all with no gyros in the old gal? My panel has a radio, an electric turn and bank, airspeed, verticle speed, altimeter and a whiskey compass- does warthm even help any of those or just gyro driven instruments?
Click to expand...
Maybe it's not necessary without a gyro. Ours has a gryo and a pair of old KX155s and preheating the cabin seems to really help the DG and our lower KX155S display is much less goofy at startup when preheated. But most important of all..the cabin is just nice and warm and my old DC backup headset seals aren't frozen.
 
No WIFI reachable at my hangar BUT I built a DTMF (telephone touch tone) device (from a kit) that provides four (4) individual switchable outputs each one of which (in my configuration) drives high power 110 VAC relays to feed engine heater, cabin heater, hangar lights and one spare circuit. I have a "pay as you go" cell phone that is on all the time and "auto-answers" when called. The phone is connected to a charger and timer that charges the battery once a day. The phone's audio output drives the DTMF decoder which reports acknowledgement of the specific circuit activation/de-activation. Phone costs less than $10 a month and I can operate the system from any phone, anywhere. I have used this for many years and it is nice to drive to the airport at night to find the hangar lights on, engine toasty and cabin warmed up, or just a warm airplane in the daytime! I have even called from the plane after landing at night to turn on the hangar floodlight and internal lights. Eat your heart out, Rube Goldberg!!!
 
Arrow76R said:
No WIFI reachable at my hangar BUT I built a DTMF (telephone touch tone) device (from a kit) that provides four (4) individual switchable outputs each one of which (in my configuration) drives high power 110 VAC relays to feed engine heater, cabin heater, hangar lights and one spare circuit. I have a "pay as you go" cell phone that is on all the time and "auto-answers" when called. The phone is connected to a charger and timer that charges the battery once a day. The phone's audio output drives the DTMF decoder which reports acknowledgement of the specific circuit activation/de-activation. Phone costs less than $10 a month and I can operate the system from any phone, anywhere. I have used this for many years and it is nice to drive to the airport at night to find the hangar lights on, engine toasty and cabin warmed up, or just a warm airplane in the daytime! I have even called from the plane after landing at night to turn on the hangar floodlight and internal lights. Eat your heart out, Rube Goldberg!!!
Click to expand...
does your phone get spam calls all day long? How does it handle those? Maybe I'm missing something, but is there more than just answering calls to activating or deactivating circuits, like a voice response system? "Press 1 to activate circuit 1...."
Greg
 
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