Upgrading the Edimax SP-1101W and SP-2101W smart-plugs.

Your plugs need recent firmware in order for the EdiLife app to find them.

The Edimax SP-1101W and SP-2101W have been around for many years. The plugs are sturdy but the software delivered together with the product is a disaster. Luckily the plugs can be controlled directly using a webhook. Once connected to your wifi-network, it suffices to send a simple XML file in an HTTP request to port 10000 on the device for it to switch on and off (see a.o. here).

Mine have been in use for many years, a.o. to automatically control a set of space-heaters and have the ended up gathering dust in a cupboard. When attempting to revive them I discovered that the initial EdiPlug-app no longer exists and is now replaced by the EdiLife-app. However, the latter failed to find the plugs as that requires a firmware upgrade.

How to upgrade the firmware?

Insert the plug and wait for it to boot. When booting, the red light on the device is blinking rapidly. When booting is finished, the following can happen:

  • The red light is blinking slowly. In this case, the device is already in setup mode and acts as an access point. You can connect to the wifi network it is providing, usually called Ediplug.Setup or something similar.
  • The red light is not blinking. In this case, your device was likely already configured earlier to connect to your home network. Use a network scanner to find its IP address (an app like Fing on your mobile phone will do). If you wish to reset the device and have it create its own Ediplug.Setup network, press the reset button for about 10 seconds until the red light start blinking fast. Allow the plug to boot and connect to the Ediplug.Setup network.

The next step is to connect to the device itself. In order to do so, open a browser and go to http://192.168.20.3:10000/tnupgrade.html . If your device is already connected to your home network, replace the IP address by th eone acquired using the network scanner.

You will be requested to enter a username and a password. The username is “admin”. The password depends on your particular situation:

  • If the device is in setup mode, the password is mostly likely 1234 as written on the back of the device.
  • If the device is already connected to your home network, you might have already configured a different password in the past and must supply this one. If you can’t remember it, reset the device and go into setup mode.

After logging in, you will be presented with a simple website to enter a firmware file (a .BIN -file) and a button to “apply” the upgrade. We will explain in the next section where to obtain the firmware files.

Once clicking “apply”, a progress bar will appear. As soon as the progress bar hits 100%, the device is upgraded. Download the EdiLife app on your smartphone and add the plug.

Where the find the firmware?

Warning, a manual firmware upgrade is not without risks. If a firmware upgrade goes wrong, you will brick your device and will have to discard of it. Your warranty will not cover this. Do not perform a firmware upgrade if you are not prepared to accept the eventuality of complete loss of your device.

In order to ensure you have the latest version; we recommend going to the Edimax website and looking for the “firmware upgrade tool” in the download section. At the time of writing this document, it was found in:

Download the ZIP-file and extract it. Inside there is an EXE-file that you can again extract with a program like 7Zip. Once doing so, you will be presented with the desired .BIN-file.