Adding to the app
After installing the application, we can add the first equipment.
Before we do this, however, an important question arises: where did you buy the Acara center? If from China, set the region of mainland China, and if in Europe, set to Europe.
Good, now we can start adding the device and configuration. We have three ways to do this:
If the device works via Bluetooth, click on the device search icon and the app will find it by itself.
Once you start adding equipment, the following screen will appear in front of us, informing you what to do first: Hold down the top button for 10 seconds (hold it for as long as you want) until the yellow option light starts flashing, t.е. so-called. Pairing the device, We will note this later The operation is confirmed and select which house will be the gateway. This is the basic configuration of Aqara Xiaomi.
Two important actions related to this button should be mentioned at this point:
Holding it for more than 10 seconds causes the device to reboot. If I accidentally hang you, this is the best way to restart it. The basic rule for all computer hardware also applies here.
A quick press of the button for more than 10 seconds brings it back to the factory settings. This means that the Aqara Hub will forget all the devices associated with it and you will have to start all over again. This is called as a last resort when the Hub is completely unresponsive.
In the next step, the app allows you to add your device to HomeKit. For this reason the following paragraph is only for iPhone users. If your device is running on Android, you can skip this point.
First impression of Xiaomi Gateway 3
The packaging and execution of the gateway itself is of the highest quality. The box is well-designed, a bit Apple-esque. The HomeKit code is in the right place, and all the cables for Xiaomi Smart Gateway devices are hidden. This is cool! The gate is also very nice and completely minimalistic. Small white unit with one lamp on the front. Plus the micro-USB cable (why not USB-C?!) And the plug. Everything looks great.
It’s easier with these gates because you don’t have to plug them directly into the socket. For example, you can connect the cable and put the wicket itself on the shelf. It looks much more aesthetically pleasing than the Aqara Hub. We can easily put it next to an Apple TV or TV set-top box, and it will look great as a kind of smart home surveillance center.
Xiaomi Mijia Sweeping Vacuum Cleaner 1C integration with Home Assistant
Robot vacuum cleaner Xiaomi Mijia Vacuum Cleaner 1C. not expensive robot vacuum cleaner model with wet cleaning. Consider the integration of the device with the automation system Home Assistant. All of the following applies to the model STYTJ01ZHM (Chinese version: SKV4073CN, global version: SKV4093GL) dreame.vacuum.mc1808.
Pre-preparation
Vacuum cleaner in the local network works on the protocol Xiaomi miio, so to connect to third-party automation systems we need token device. How to get a token is written in detail in the article: Xiaomi miio getting a token for access to the device.
Integration with Home Assistant
To integrate Xiaomi Mijia Sweeping Vacuum Cleaner 1C with Home Assistant, you need to install a third-party component, t.к. with the integration out of the box with the component xiaomi_miio vacuum cleaner does not work. Download from the component page on GitHub archive, from the archive folder xiaomi_vacuum with all the content put in.homeassistant/custom_components. If it does not exist, we have to create. For Linux/Unix systems it is like this
Remove the archive and unpacked files and folders:
Fill configuration file.yaml.
name. Vacuum cleaner name in Home Assistant, set arbitrarily
host. IP address of the vacuum cleaner in your home network. You can check on your router in your home network. To be on the safe side, it is better to set a fixed IP-address for your device in the DHCP-server settings.
token. Device token received on “Preliminary preparation” stage.
Check the configuration at the Home Assistant Configure. Server Controls. Check Configuration. If all goes well, we reboot the Configure automation system. Server Controls. Check Configuration. Restart.
After rebooting in the Configure section. The vacuum cleaner should appear in this section.
Adding the control card to the Lovelace panel
In the Home Assistant go to section HACS. Frontend. and add the Vacuum Card.
How to install HACS is described in detail in the article: Installing HACS in Home Assistant.
- Start/stop cleaning
- Set cleaning mode (quiet, standard, intensive cleaning, turbo)
- Make the vacuum cleaner sound so it can be found
- Send vacuum cleaner to docking station
- Shows statistics during cleaning
- Shows the charge of the vacuum cleaner and the status of consumables (filter and brushes)
Adding a card to Lovelace Edit Dashboard. Add Card. Press Show Code Editor on the added card. fill in:
Now during the standby mode the card will show the total number of cleanings and the state of consumables, while cleaning time and cleaned area will be shown.
Adding to Yandex smart home devices, controlling with Alice
If Home Assistant is configured to integrate with the smart home Yandex, the vacuum cleaner can be controlled by the smart speaker. So that Alice would understand what they want from her in the configuration file.yaml add to the integration section yandex_smart_home vacuum cleaner. How to manage devices in Home Assistant with Alice is described in detail in the article: Home Assistant and Alice integration by Yandex.
Check the configuration Home Assistant Configure. Server Controls. Check Configuration. If everything is OK, then reboot the Configure automation system. Server Controls. Check Configuration. Restart.
Updating the configuration in the smart home Yandex.
Now all you have to do is say to Alice: Vacuum.
Automation
As the vacuum cleaner does not have a lidar and instead has an overhead camera, it is well oriented only in a lit room. The idea of automation is that as soon as the vacuum cleaner starts cleaning, the overhead light turns on in the rooms where it has to clean, in rooms where there are motion sensors and the light turns on and off automatically, the light turns on and off only after the end of cleaning, while before cleaning the automation triggers values are saved, turned off and restored after cleaning.
So far I do not have time to do such automation, after its implementation it will certainly appear in this section.
Adding Wi-Fi devices to MiHome
Most of the smart gadgets in MiHome (with a few exceptions, such as wired switches, kettles) powered by 220V have exactly Wi-Fi on board. This is primarily due to the fact that since no batteries (batteries, rechargeable batteries) are used and there is no need to save battery power by using the more energy-efficient Zigbee and Bluetooth protocols, providing maximum speed through the faster and cheaper Wi-Fi standard.
To connect devices with Wi-Fi, you only need a Wi-Fi router, and there is no need to buy additional Zigbee or Bluetooth gateways.
Connecting Wi-Fi gadgets in MiHome
To add a new device to MiHome, click on “” in the right corner of the app. In the appeared context menu you will have 2 options. “Add” and “Scan QR code”.
Choose 1 option. “Add”. If you have enabled the “Search for WI-FI devices” setting in MiHome (Profile. Settings. Auto Scan. Search for Wi-Fi devices), then when you include a new gadget in the network, its image will appear on top, by clicking on it you will proceed to add it to our smart home.
If no device is detected, you can select it manually from the list of devices. Before adding a smart gadget to your MiHome, you need to reset its Wi-Fi settings. For each device you reset wi-fi by pressing and holding the button/ combination of buttons. For information on how to reset Wi-Fi specifically on your device, you can see when you add it to MiHome.
Let’s add the Smartmi 2 humidifier to MiHome as an example
1 Click on “” in the right corner of the app, then “Add device”. Find the “Humidifiers” tab and choose our model.
With the help of smartphone screen, reset the air humidifier wi-fi settings and check the box to confirm that the settings were reset successfully. Next, click on “Connect to another router”, or click on the router if it is already defined. Enter the password for our Wi-Fi network so that the humidifier can connect to the Internet.
3 The connection process begins. If the router settings are OK, the “ready” button will appear at the end and you can start setting and controlling our humidifier. If adding the gadget fails. follow the steps in order below in this article.
4 MiHome will ask us to choose the “Room”. This is a tentative arrangement so that we can quickly move to the desired tab, in this example “Bedroom”. Choose a room and rename it according to your taste, for example Humidifier or Bedroom humidifier if you have more than one, so that you can easily identify them. These options can be changed at any time to your liking.
5 In the case of this model of humidifier, as it is made for the Chinese market, you will need to additionally replace the plugin or use a subscription to the modified MiHome, so that the plugin is replaced automatically.
IMPORTANT If you suddenly want, for any reason, to move to a different connection Region of your devices, you will need to reset WI-FI and re-add them to the new server. For example, when migrating from China to Russia, using the modified MiHome by Vevs app.
Problems with adding Wi-Fi devices
If you for some reason can not add a smart gadget in MiHome, the loading of the plugin fails, or a message “Could not add a device” appears, do the following steps in order.
1 Make sure that you connect the device to the “right” region. If there is Chinese writing on the box, the power supply has a flat Chinese plug, you need to add it to the China region. Most of the devices, however, can be added to the region of Russia (or any other) using the MiHome mod (only available on Android).
Xiaomi HomeKit Robot Vacuum Cleaner?
If switching to another region added the device to MiHome, it means that the problem was with the region, the firmware. If the smart gadget is still not connecting go to step 2
2 Turn on geolocation on your device. Some of them require GPS enabled while connected.
3 Make sure that the router you connect your device to has a Wi-Fi network password, Xiaomi smart gadgets will not connect to open Wi-Fi networks.
4 Check if the name of your Wi-Fi network contains any special characters, such as !,@#%^_= и.т.д.
5 Make sure your router is running on 2.4Hz. Sometimes they purposely disable this standard so that everything works on a faster, free 5hz channel. But most smart devices connect exactly at 2.4 Hz
6 If you are still unable to add the device, try disabling the WPA/WPA2-PSK hybrid encryption on the router, leaving only WPA2-PSK. In some cases this may solve the problem.
7 If the problem doesn’t go away, distribute the Wi-Fi with a second smartphone. You can use the access point name and password, as in the home network (router should be unplugged during connection). Try to connect via hotspot. If the connection succeeds, then the problem is in the settings of your router/provider. There is a chance that after connecting through the access point of the second smartphone, the gadget will also work on your router, the main problem is at the time of adding to MiHome.
How to set up a Xiaomi robot vacuum cleaner through the Mi home app
Mi Home app is very popular among users because it provides the ability to remotely control all kinds of “smart home” devices. And robot vacuum cleaners are no exception. By installing such a plug-in on your smartphone, you can not only control cleaning from anywhere in the world, but also access to the data of your vacuum cleaner. whether it is the level of battery power, or the technical condition of all units and parts.
Mi Home app functionality to control the Xiaomi smart vacuum cleaner
There are many basic and additional options, with the help of which the user can customize the vacuum cleaner.
- Go to send the vacuum cleaner to a specific location for unscheduled cleaning.
- Dock the robot is sent to charge.
- Clear run unscheduled cleaning.
- Zoned Cleaning cleans a specific area (you must select it).
- Timer cleaning starts after some time.
- Voice and volume allows you to change the robot’s voice settings.
- Cleaning mode gives you the ability to select the cleaning mode. They are displayed by increasing power quiet, balanced, turbo, full speed. On most devices, this mode is set to Balanced by default. That is, the first time you start the vacuum cleaner, it will work in this mode.
Setting up shared devices in MiHome
This is the easiest and fastest way. You simply give your account username and password to whoever you want to share the device with. Anyone who has this data from your account, to which the device is linked in MiHome, will be able to manage it, view it, update the firmware and create automations. The number of users is unlimited.
NOTE: The person who has your account details will have access to all automations and devices added to this account and not to a specific one!
This can be convenient if you are sure that the other user to whom you gave your username and password will not change your automation, change settings, or accidentally delete your device from your account.
IMPORTANT Don’t forget that your device is bound to a specific Xiaomi server (cloud, region), so you need to have the same regions as your users.
This method, in addition to its simplicity, has many disadvantages, let’s list the main ones:
- Insecure, you cannot know how many users have access to your MiHome account.
- In case you change your mind about giving other people access, you will have to change your Mi account password.
- Users with access to your account will be able to edit/delete your automations changing the operating logic and settings of your Xiaomi Smart Home.
- Can kick out of the account. MiHome keeps track of the time on devices you sign in to your account for security purposes. So if time on your smartphone is different for different users (different time zones, or just no auto-sync) you may get kicked out of your account.
Set up sharing with MiHome tools
This is a more secure and preferred way to set up sharing for smart devices. Key benefits:
- You can revoke access at any time
- Other users will not have access to your automations, only control or view gadgets
1 Go to “Profile” tab, then “Share”. Here we will have 2 options. “Share” all devices at once. “Access your home, or a specific device. “Access to the device”
2 A screen opens with two buttons where you can share access to all devices at once, selecting. “Home Access” or share a specific device. For example, if you want to share the wi-fi camera installed in the house with all the neighbors.
Selecting.”Access to device” will open a screen with two tabs. On the first tab. “My devices” will be all the gadgets connected to the account. On the second. “Accessible to me,” those devices shared with us.
3 For example, let’s give access to a robot vacuum cleaner. Select it from the list of devices and click on it. On the next screen, click on. “Grant access”.
4 On the screen you will see the button “Via My Account”, once you click on it, a screen of information about the user with whom we want to share the device will open. You can enter the account number, email (if the registration was made by email) or phone number (if the registration was made by SMS to the phone).
This screen can also be accessed through the settings of the vacuum cleaner itself, using the item “Share device”, or on the main screen with a long “tap” on the desired device, through the pop-up context menu.
5 Enter the details of the account, by entering the email address and click on “OK”. A screen will appear, allowing you to share the device with the selected account. After pressing the “OK” button, the user will be prompted.
IMPORTANT The invitation will be sent to the region in which you have your device. If the end user has selected a different region in MiHome, the invitation will not come.
6 The user with whom we share the device will receive an invitation in a push message. You can also view the sent push invitations by going to: “Profile. Sharing. Accessing the device. Accessing me.
IMPORTANT If you have installed the MiHome mod in which most devices can be connected to any region, and you for example, want to share a Chinese robot vacuum cleaner connected to the region of Russia, the one with whom you share the device must also have the mod installed, otherwise he will not be able to see the device with shared access. Since the version with PlayMarket, the Chinese robot vacuum cleaner will not work in the region of Russia.
Smart Home Aqara Home
I guess we all know how “well” works the system of smart home Xiaomi. To do this, just go to the article “Mi Home is not working” and see the number of Комментарии и мнения владельцев. The question arises of testing an alternative smart home system, and it is desirable that the transition was the fastest and most painless.
And then I remember the application from Aqara, which I tested a couple of years ago. Then it was full of crap., But it’s been a long time that the company has been actively developing. And it’s been a year since their devices are officially sold in Russia. But I have all the devices for China, so I will check the Chinese region. I would have checked the Russian one as well, but representatives of the Moscow office did not respond to my offer.
In this article, I will describe my experience with this app and compare it to the capabilities of Mi Home.
Aqara app
The application can be downloaded for both Android and iOS. Looked at the scores and reviews, and got a little discouraged, the average score is lower than that of Mi Home. But for the most part, they are about the cracks after the updates, so I’m not giving up on my idea.
Download and install the application. The first thing that catches my eye. No authentication with your Xiaomi account. So we register a new account:
In the process, choose the region for which your devices (for example, the Chinese gateway will not connect in Russia, etc.д.), press register and enter your email address (do not pay attention to the phone code in the top line, we do not need it). In a couple of seconds we should get an email with a confirmation code:
Enter it in the app and come up with a password. The registration is complete. After this, we get to the main page:
There is no point in showing the possibilities without connected devices. And here we meet the first minus. They are a hundred times less than the Mi Home (106 vs. 1365). And this is for the Chinese region, only 21 devices are available in Russia.
To begin, we add a gateway Aqara Hub (ZHWG11LM). Everything is similar to Mi home, press the add device button, at the very top find “Smart Home Center”. Reset the gateway holding the button for 10 seconds, after which it should start flashing yellow.
Next, we enter the data of the WI-FI network to which you want to connect (while remembering that it only works on 2.4GHz). And then I came across the first bug, the device offers to manually switch to the WI-FI network (although on Android it always happens automatically). But maybe that’s the idea, switch, wait and get the message “Error sending network access data:
As experienced Xiaomivod I have rebooted phone/gateway/router and it’s the same. Given that 2 months ago I have already done this operation and there were no errors. For a reason they stuffed the app with units, apparently they broke something during one of the updates. I was helped by an iPad, through which the gateway connected on the fly.
The control plugin has a different design than the MiHome, but the controls are almost the same. We can adjust the nightlight, and everything in general (the alarm mode is displayed on the start screen of the application). In the settings we can change the language of voice notifications, activate protection against accidental deletion (which I do not recommend doing) and set the volume of sound notifications.
But this is not the gateway article, so let’s connect some ZigBee devices to it to test the automation work (all that I have cannot be switched, Yeelight and Philips lamps are not available to add). Let’s start with the motion sensors. Let me remind you that there is both an Aqara and a Mijia version, and both connect.
You can even see a graph of changes in lightness, according to the built-in motion sensor. The possibility to view the ZigBee signal level is very convenient, now you don’t have to guess how far the device is from the gateway.
At first I only wanted to connect a temperature sensor and humidity switch, but then Ostap got carried away.
The point is that the functionality of the Aqara app is much wider than Mi Home, and I wanted to try additional features of each device. For example by rotating a cube you can adjust the opening of the curtains. But about that later, but for now let’s look at the interface and the app’s advanced settings.
It is very similar to Mi Home and has 5 main tabs:
Home
This displays devices and sensor readings (with the ability to filter by room). We can control devices with a single click. The first impression is that the response is fast, but conclusions can only be drawn after a long test.
Devices
A complete list of connected devices with the ability to filter by type and location.
Automation
There are scripts created that are run on commands from other devices.
Scripts
These are the scenes that are triggered by a shortcut in the application or by an event in the smart home. For example, the scenario of leaving the house, where you have to close the curtains, turn off the lights, etc.д.
Profile
settings for the application and the account. Notifications, updates and automation logs will be displayed here.
Now let’s talk about scenarios in more detail. This is a very broad topic, worth writing an article about, but I will try to explain the main features in the most concise way and give you some examples.
Automation Scenarios
Let me tell you right away that the scenarios in the Aqara app are by far ahead of the Mi Home in terms of their functionality (which you can read about here). A lot of bugs and crutches for trivial tasks. No, of course it all works, but the flexibility is clearly lacking. When I first installed the Aqara app 2 years ago, I had already seen some of the features and thought they would soon be added to Mi Home as well (they weren’t).
But let’s talk about everything by example, create a simple scene with the light sensor. if motion is detected in the dark. turn on the lights, no movement. switch off. Go to the Automation tab and click the plus in the upper right corner, a quite standard window with logic appears: If Then:
But even here there is an addendum: a single start switch (t.е. After the first execution the script will shut down). In the conditions select the Motion Sensor and the action “Motion and brightness below” where we set the brightness threshold, for example below 50 lux (approximate value can be estimated from the illumination graph).
Here we see the second difference, in Mi Home it is impossible to set the boundary of illumination. Let’s go further, in the executable actions use the switch Aqara, where the actions will select the inclusion of one of the keys:
Everything is clear here. Additionally, you can set the period of the script, for example, so that the lights only come on after lunch and at night:
The time works correctly, without deviation to the Chinese time zone (Mi Home suffers from this). And our script is ready, the final view:
But we can add an additional condition. Let’s assume that on the two-button switch the main light is on the right key and the backlight is on the left key. We have automated the backlight, but we don’t want to turn it on when the main light is on (yes, we have a condition on the light level, but let’s say we want to eliminate false positives). To do this, we add “Right key off” to the conditions:
Now the side light will only turn on when the main light is not on.
This is a big plus of Aqara Home, you can use the state of any device as an additional condition, and this greatly extends the flexibility of scenarios. Do not forget about the additional conditions for starting, you can be tied to turn on or off a certain scenario, alarm settings, start at a certain time and the weather outside.
If in Mi Home for weather conditions you can only select Chinese cities, in Aqara the choice of Russian cities is available. But the joy was premature, when saving such a scenario throws an error.
I can’t say whether this bug is in the Russian or European region, but in the Chinese region it is.
And now let’s look at the additional options in the executable actions. You can enable or disable previously created automations, run a manual script, use a delay or configure notifications.
Speaking of notifications, and here Akara beats Mi home. First, you can set the type of notification (alarm and normal), and second, you can set your own text:
The notifications themselves come steadily, during the test there were no failures. Of course don’t forget to turn on autorun and remove the power limitation on Android phones.
In addition, we would like to note that the app sends a notification when the device has gone offline:
Moving on. Decided not to pass on the home security system or alarm system, because it, too, has advantages. Available in 3 different modes of protection, each of which can be set different conditions. Set the device which state change triggers the alarm (it can be almost any device, even the opening of curtains or turning the cube). We can set a delay before arming or disarming (this is not the case in Mi Home). And the standard setup siren and notification.
And now let’s analyze one of the most frequently used scenarios related to the temperature and humidity sensor. Recall that in Mi Home similar sensors work only by crossing a given boundary temperature or humidity. But if you add a time to the script, it may simply not work (if at the time of activation of the script the indicators have already gone beyond the specified limit). You can read more about how Mi Home works in this article. But let’s return to Aqara and test the scenario based on the temperature, humidity and pressure sensor Aqara Humidity Temperature Sensor.
For example, let’s imagine that we want to automate the heating of the room with the usual heater, which is connected to the smart socket. But it is necessary to limit the operating time, so that the automation works only at night and turns off in the morning.
Let’s create two scenarios, one responsible for turning the socket on, and the second for turning it off. In the Automation tab create a new scenario, in the conditions select the temperature and humidity sensor:
In addition to familiar to us the conditions of crossing the boundary (the temperature rose to) there are additional actions, we suit the “Below the selected temperature” and set the value of for example 20 degrees. Do not forget to set the interval of operation, for example from 9 pm to 9 am. And in the actions we choose to turn on the heater socket, we get this scenario:
Such a script will turn on the heater regardless of the temperature (as long as it’s below 20 degrees) at 9 p.m. But in one scenario we will not prescribe the disconnection of the socket, so we create a second one and configure by analogy. Let’s take the boundary of, for example, 24 degrees, and do not forget that we do not need to set the time of operation here. It turns out this way:
Done, these 2 scenarios will automatically keep the temperature in the set range during the night.
Tested the frequency of action on the temperature sensor, came out about 5 to 20 minutes:
Apple HomeKit and Aqara Home
Now let’s move on to the question of voice control, starting with Apple HomeKit and the Siri voice assistant. But here it’s rather not the merit of the Aqara app, but pairing the gateway directly to HomeKit (by scanning the Qr-code near the plug). But unlike Mi Home, all devices and sensors are compatible with Apple’s smart home.
Controlling devices in HomeKit, you can forget about the problems of slow response time, less than a second to execute a command from the iPad, and about 2 seconds to open the video from the camera Aqara G2H.
Regarding Alice and Yandex Smart Home, when you connect the devices to the Chinese region will not work! Only if you buy a gateway with a Euro plug and configure it in the Russian region, but then you have to put up with an even more limited choice of Smart devices.
I tried to sneak devices into Yandex through the application Mi Home, there is a function to connect third-party platform devices (Section Profile. Other platform devices):
After connecting these devices detected Yandex, assigned a room, renamed, no problems. But when trying to control it gives out an error.
I was upset and gave up, but the next day the device management appeared! It is true not all, you can control switches, relays, backlighting gateway. And curtains, although it stopped giving an error, but it does not want to work (applies to both horizontal and roller blinds). I will try to wait, maybe the curtains will work.
Buy Aqara devices
Chinese versions of Aqara devices look for on Aliexpress and Foxpox.ru, and European on Yandex-market or the official Russian store. At the same time you can compare for Chinese and Russian devices.
Aqara Home or Mi Home
The choice of application depends entirely on your needs. If you need automatization you can realize only with Aqara devices. I would settle for the app from the review. flexible scenarios and app settings, as well as faster performance (personal experience). Everything is spoiled with Alice, but if you use Siri on your iPhone or HomePod speaker. this is not a problem for you.
The situation is worse if you already have devices from Xiaomi, which are not in the Aqara Home. The most frustrating thing about Yeelight, which is missing from the app. It’s better to opt for Mi Home.
In general, I liked the system. There are many settings that are missing from the Mi Home. The app works faster and without bugs (although I admit that just 2 weeks for testing is not enough). Of the shoals we can only highlight the problem when connecting the Aqara Hub.
And if there was a normal support for the Chinese region with Alice, I would have stayed on it, but otherwise I will return the device back to the Mi Home. Maybe in the bright future the situation will change for the better.
Thank you for reading this, and if you have any questions. ask them in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев. See you later!
Yandex smart home with Xiaomi devices
It’s been years since Xiaomi’s smart home system. And all along the way, Russian-speaking users have been deprived of full-fledged voice control. There was talk of working with Microsoft to integrate the system with their Cortana voice assistant. Google home supports few devices and only in English. Siri from Apple has moved on, the ability to control in Russian, but not all devices are supported and not everyone likes the Apple manufacturer.
And now, Yandex has announced the launch of its smart home platform, which makes Accent on Xiaomi devices. Right off the bat, you can now control your smart home through the voice assistant Alice, and without exaggeration. This is a huge step forward in terms of the convenience of home automation systems (especially for fans of smart home Xiaomi)!
Let’s try to understand in more detail what the system is, how to work with it and what it can do.
Yandex Smart Home
The question immediately arises, isn’t the Xiaomi smarthome system itself with their Mi Home app?
I answer, until the Chinese make a voice assistant in Russian (or use a third party one), it is difficult to use the system to its full potential. Lots of consoles and buttons, it’s certainly convenient, but only if you know the purpose of each of them. And it is much easier to give the voice command “Alice, turn on the light in the hall”.
Plus, you can add devices from other manufacturers to the system. Currently it’s just Xiaomi, Redmond, Philips, Samsung, Rubetek, but over time, this list will grow (you guessed it).
I will explain right away that the principle of interaction between Yandex Xiaomi. issuing commands to devices and their subsequent execution. And requesting the current status of devices. The rest of the actions remain at the manufacturer’s discretion, t.е. The automation scripts configured earlier will also continue to run. Scheme of interaction:
At the same time, pairing with Yandex, does not in any way limit the use of devices in Mi home, t.е. devices will be connected in both systems simultaneously.
How to add devices to the smart home Yandex?
Let’s move on to configuring the system itself. First, we need to download the Yandex app on your phone (available for both Android and iPhone). Let’s enter the application, pre-authorize in it if necessary. Press the “menu” button in the upper left corner and select the item “Devices”:
We will be prompted to add Yandex branded devices, but the item we require is called “Smart Home”:
We don’t have any devices yet, but no worries! Press the button “Add device” and see what the service offers us:
If in the beginning there were only 5 manufacturers, at the beginning of 2021 there are already about 100. But we’re only interested in one of them, so we go to Xiaomi and click “Merge Accounts.”
We enter the login data from the Mi Home app. Here I would like to point out that I was not authorized by email, only by Mi account ID.
It was successful? Excellent, press the button to update the list of devices and wait.
Not really a second, more like a few minutes, then not all devices are loaded, press the button again or two. Hurrah! The devices have been added:
Smart outlets, lighting devices, Aqara switches, robotic vacuum cleaners and air purifiers are added to the app.
The app doesn’t like Chinese characters as well as Latin letters. You can rename devices in the Mi Home app, and then run a device list update, or just rename each of the devices in the Yandex app itself. Click on the device, which hangs the mark “Requires Configuration” and set the name in Russian:
An example of the settings of my Roborock S50, nicknamed “Pancake”. Set name, and choose a room (which were imported from Mi Home), then click save. Do the same for the other devices.
I spat all over myself while I was trying to figure this out. So far, it works very poorly, renaming devices works 1 time out of 5. I used to get the error “My server is out of order” a lot. From time to time it releases and works steadily, I hope that this is only a problem of the first days of the system.
But it is incorrect to strongly criticize the system on the first day of release, let’s see how to manage the devices.
As of 2021, the system works steadily, but malfunctions occasionally.
If you use Tuya Smart devices, there’s a more detailed tutorial on this particular system.
Device control
The set of actions is limited, for example, only the on/off command is available for the vacuum cleaner:
The commands execute clearly, but if you replace the word “off” with the word “stop,” for example, it no longer understands:
Similar commands can be given to switches and sockets:
And with lamps is more interesting: 32 commands are available for colored ones and 22 commands for white ones (you can see them all in the tab “Voice commands” of the device).
On the downside, the number of commands is severely limited. For example, in the Aqara two-key switch, it is not possible to control each key individually, but only two keys at the same time. Fixed, switches are controlled correctly.
Capabilities of the smart home platform
We already remember that it is now possible to combine devices from different manufacturers into one system. Which means you can run entire scenes with one voice command, engaging all the devices in the room. To do this, there is a tab “Scenarios” in the Yandex Smart Home system:
I’ve set up a “Goodnight” command, which by voice command turns off all the lights in the apartment. It looks like this:
I have a similar scene, set up by Mi Home automation scripts, which I trigger when I leave my apartment with a wireless button. And so will start it from the button, because Yandex can not yet perform some actions, or rather to activate the alarm and close the automatic blinds. Curtains have already learned how to control.
Through the scripts, you can reconfigure the command to launch:
If there is interest, you can also connect third-party devices with the help of Yandex-dialogs. But this requires a certain knowledge and free time.
P.S. If you or a family member named Alice, do not worry. You can switch it in the settings of devices:
Yandex station
The cheapest way to control the voice. Install the app on your smartphone. But not the most convenient. Yandex Station was released last year, it’s a smart speaker with Alice’s voice assistant. And on the occasion, I also have one:
Here through her we will manage our smart home Xiaomi. I will not dwell on it in detail, the device is not new, and there are already a lot of reviews on the Internet.
It’s simple, say the command, the list of which we saw above, and Alice sends a command already on the device. Reaction time of about 4-5 seconds, understands commands from the far corner of the room. But it takes time to get used to. If you rephrase the command, Alice may simply not understand it and run a search, or respond like a chatbot.
The speaker is not small, it is 3 times larger than the smart speaker from Xiaomi, which has never learned to understand commands at least in English.
But, already on sale other speakers with voice assistant Alice. And recently I bought myself a Lite version, just for 3300 rubles and put it in the kitchen.
If you want to fully manage a smart home in Russian, you will have to shell out money for a smart speaker. If someone is afraid of total eavesdropping, this device is not for you, and the smartphone would be better to throw away.
Personal experience of using it
So far, double impressions. I like the fact that there is a full-fledged voice control in Russian. Minus. the limited list of devices and that Alice understands not all commands. And it is worth realizing that some actions are easier to start with a button, than to spend time on a voice command.
But this is only the beginning stage, a couple of days since the system came out, and already supports many devices Xiaomi and not only. I hope that Yandex will actively develop this direction, adding new manufacturers and devices.
It’s a pity that the system does not support IR Remote Controller, and we would really like to control the TV with voice commands. We will have to order a branded device from Yandex.
That’s all, ask questions and share your opinions in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев. See you later!
