With me having the Adobe Iota setup already in place, alongside a multitude of Aqara hubs with built-in sirens/speakers, I decided a while ago to take the plunge and buy the Abode Keypad 2 and add it to my Abode system, which I should state, is required for the keypad 2 to be used, whether it’s the Iota Gateway, that includes a camera, or the Smart Gateway, that doesn’t. Without one of these, it’s just an expensive paperweight. So, if you either have an Abode system and fancied the idea of a separate alarm panel, or don’t, but are enticed by the idea of one, read on…

PACKAGING/CONTENTS

The Keypad 2 (to distinguish it from its non-HomeKit original) is featured on the front of the packaging, and although it’s the second iteration, it still only shows it as ‘Keypad’. There’s no chance of buying the wrong model, however, as the old version doesn’t seem to be available. It’s also visually very different to the 2nd version. The rear of the box states the features, which are;

• Built-in motion sensor that lights up the display when you’re in close proximity
• Backlit buttons, so you can see what you’re doing when controlling the panel
• Rechargeable internal battery that can last up to 6 months between charges
• Completely wire-free apart from when recharging the battery with the included USB cable

It does state that an Abode gateway is required, as I stated in my intro.

Aside from that, there’s not a lot to see, but the box is very sturdy, and the contents are well-protected.

The first thing inside is the keypad itself, which is covered in a plastic sheet to protect it from fingerprints and dust. Underneath it and magnetically coupled to the keypad is a metal backplate, which we’ll touch on shortly. Below that is another layer that includes all the additional pieces;

• Two double-sided 3M stickers
• four screws and rawl plugs
• USB-A to Micro USB cable
• Quick guide

The aforementioned magnetic metal plate I mentioned can be attached to a wall or any surface with either the 3M stickers, or with the provided screws. The small sheet doesn’t really tell you how to pair the keypad to your hub, which is all dealt with in the Abode app, but it does give you a decent idea of the features of the keypad that you may not be aware of besides the obvious ones.

THE KEYPAD

So onto the keypad itself, and whilst it’s quite straightforward in terms of its looks, it’s nonetheless nicely laid out. around 70% of the front is taken up with buttons, which consist of 4 rows of three for digits 0 to 9, plus two buttons with a triangle and square symbol. Prior to the keypad getting an update for HomeKit compatibility, these were designated for ‘future use’ but are now in fact exposed to HomeKit, although not quite in the way you might be accustomed to (more on than later).

Next to these 12 buttons is a single column of 3 buttons, one for each alarm mode – Away, Home, Standby. The remaining 30% of the panel is taken up with a contrasting black section (just like the Iota gateway) that prominently features the Abode logo, along with a speaker, and a motion sensor.

The underside of the keypad features the Micro-USB port for recharging the internal battery, and aside from that, there’s nothing to see around the other edges of the device, which has the following measurements;

• width – 3.1″ / 79mm
• height – 5.7″ / 145mm
• depth – 0.8″ / 20mm

If it couldn’t get any more minimalist, the rear of the keypad has nothing to see with the exception of an indented section for the magnetic mounting plate (and screws) to match up with, which is simply white, with four holes should you want to use the included screws to mount it to the wall with. One of the four recesses on the back of the keypad features a reset hole should you need to factory reset the device.

Overall, my initial impressions are really good, and I like that the company have gone for the two-tone approach that matches some of their other products. The buttons are really well spaced out, so even the ‘sausage fingered’ amongst us won’t have any problems arming or disarming the alarm. I do have one reservation which I’ll mention later, but it’s nothing major.

INSTALLATION VIA THE ABODE APP

As with any device that requires a hub, you need to add the keypad to your Abode gateway first, via the Abode app. The Abode devices that go through the hub and are exposed to HomeKit – of which there are many – usually use the RF433MHz wireless protocol to communicate with the gateway, which in turn exposes them to HomeKit. The Keypad is one such device.

• Click on the ‘+’ icon
• Select Add Device
• Select Security Add-ons

• Select Keypad 2 from the list
• Follow the on-screen instructions to pair the device
• Once paired, name the keypad

• Next, you need to change the default user to a name of your choosing
• You can also set your own pin code at the same time
• Additional users can then be added, with up to 40 users

• After that, the motion sensor inside the keypad will be automatically paired
• You can also assign an appropriate name for the keypad if you wish

Once that’s done, you will see two separate entries in the Abode app – one for the keypad, and another for the motion sensor within the keypad.

As the keypad and the built-in motion sensor are essentially security devices, for the motion sensor, you have the option to set it up as a trigger for alarms in both the Home and Away modes. For either mode, you can have the sensor to be Inactive, Active after countdown timer, or Active immediately.

If you’re not familiar with how the Abode alarm system works, essentially you have three modes, all of which (sort of) correspond with the four modes you find in HomeKit. They are Standby (Off in HomeKit), Away (same as HomeKit),  and Home (which is the same as Home and Night/Sleep in HomeKit). As you can deduce, Abode doesn’t differentiate between Sleep and Home modes, which sort of makes sense, but if you set the alarm to Home in the Abode app, it’ll always show it as set to Home mode in HomeKit, which avoids any potential confusion.

When you set up any motion or contact sensor in the Abode app, you can have it so that the sensors don’t trip any alarm until the countdown timer you would have previously set, has expired, which is what is referred to by the option ‘Active after countdown timer’. You can have sensors to be inactive of course, and ‘Active immediately’, which means they’ll trigger an alarm as soon as the alarm is set regardless of the countdown timer.

The reason for the countdown timers, if you haven’t already guessed, is so that upon setting the alarm as you either go to bed or leave home, you have time to get yourself ready before the alarm and trigger devices become active. Conversely, upon coming home, you can buy yourself some time to get into your home and disable the alarm before the siren starts alerting your neighbours.

IN HOMEKIT

Onto HomeKit, and just like the Abode app, the keypad and the motion sensor are both exposed as separate devices, although as there’s actually no ‘keypad’ functionality that relates to HomeKit as such, what you get is options to assign functionality to the two buttons I mentioned earlier that have a square or triangle symbol on them.

The way in which Abode has done this is a little odd, but it still works once you’ve got the hang of it. For the Keypad 2, which is exposed to HomeKit as a button, it lists one set of actions, with Single press and double press. However, the single press actually relates to a single press on the button with the triangle symbol, whilst the double press is actually related to a single press for the button with the square symbol. It would obviously have made more sense to just expose each button separately, with just a single press option for each, but it is what it is.

As with all sensors since iOS14, the Keypad motion sensor is grouped at the top of the Home app screen. Strangely enough, this motion sensor is listed separately from the other motion sensors in the same room, as HomeKit sees motion sensors and occupancy sensors as separate. After speaking briefly to Abode’s online support as to the difference between their motion and occupancy sensors (I believe there is inherently a difference), I was told that the occupancy sensor is actually just a motion sensor, and was simply assigned to the ‘occupancy’ section when it was originally set up. This is also the case with the company’s standard motion sensor, which is also exposed to HomeKit as an Occupancy sensor.

THE KEYPAD IN USE

Speaking of the motion sensor, when you approach the keypad, the display automatically lights up for a few seconds, so you can see the keys. The motion sensor is supposed to cover 90 degrees, which I assume is in the horizontal plane, at a distance of up to 3 metres/118in. So far the sensor has picked up motion very well, so there are no complaints in that respect at all. The keypad itself doesn’t have an alarm as such, and merely activates or deactivates the alarm/siren built into the Abode gateway, as well as being a trigger for the alarms via the built-in motion sensor, if used. However, it does have a speaker, which allows the keypad to emit elementary beeps when you press the buttons or set the different alarm modes.

When the keypad lights up as you approach it, the Abode logo will also light up and display the logo in one of three colours to show you which mode the alarm is set to at that time;

• In Standby mode, the logo will simply appear white, like the rest of the lights on the keypad.
• If the alarm is set to Away, the Abode logo will appear red.
• If the alarm is set to Home, the Abode logo will appear blue.

Additionally, when you’re recharging the internal battery, the logo will appear green and will stay illuminated. Once charging is complete, the logo light will turn off. The first three colours are also replicated on the LED on the front of the Iota Gateway, so if you are in Away mode, the LED on the Iota will be red also.

This brings me to the one thing I’m ever so slightly less keen on with the keypad buttons, which are made of durable rubber. I don’t mind the material used, but because of this, on occasion, if you don’t press them squarely in the centre, the buttons can slip to the side slightly, which in some rare instances means a button can get slightly caught under the surrounding plastic casing. Usually, the button pops back into place by itself or with a little light help, so it’s really a non-issue for the most part, but something to be aware of if you start to notice it happen more often.

When it comes to how you operate it, I’ll assume that anyone reading this has never used an alarm panel before, but it really is quite straightforward. If you’re going to bed or leaving the home, you tap on the appropriate button (Home for bedtime, Away for leaving the house). Once you do that, you have a certain amount of time before the alarm is armed, which is something you set in the Abode app. Once you’ve left home or gone to bed, and the alarm is armed, you’re set. If you want to disable the alarm, you simply have to type in the code you created by yourself in the Abode app, followed by tapping the Standby button to disarm the alarm. Once again, you should set the amount of delay time to give yourself enough time to deactivate the alarm before the siren goes off (more appropriate when you’re coming home and the alarm is in Away mode).

EXTRAS

As the Keypad is wireless and it’s magnetic, it can be placed almost anywhere where there’s a magnetic surface, although using it with the provided plate in a permanent location is really the best place for it, as the metal plate provides a lot more ‘grip’ ensuring there’s no chance of the keypad falling off. The magnets are really quite good, and so I don’t have any worries that it’ll come crashing to the ground unless someone deliberately gives it a pretty good whack!

What you might have missed is that the three mode buttons each feature additional small icons – an exclamation mark on the Away button, a fire icon on the Home button, and a Plus or Medic icon on the Standby button. These represent a Panic Alarm, a Fire Alarm, and a Health Alarm once set up via the app or the keypad. It should be noted that these functions are generally the preserve of the paid monitoring services that Abode offer. Long pressing any of these keys will activate the appropriate notification to Abode, who will then take the relevant action to deal with the request, so if the ‘Fire’ alarm is activated, they’ll call the fire department for you, or an ambulance if the Health alarm has been triggered. The Panic trigger will, as I understand it, trigger a call to your nearest police department. As these paid features are only supported in North America (and maybe the UK now that Abode has a presence there), in my case, living in Taiwan, there’s no option for me to use such things, and so I can’t test it – not that creating a test to call out the cops out is ever a good idea of course…

The Keypad can also be used as a quick way of changing the settings for the built-in motion sensor. Long pressing the 4 & 6 buttons together will enable or disable the motion sensor, whilst long pressing the 7 & 9 buttons will disable or enable the button press and countdown sounds.

ABODE KEYFOB

If you purchased the Iota Security Kit, you would also have received the Abode Keyfob which also allows you to control the gateway’s different alarm modes, but only when you’re within range of the hub. The only downside is that the icons on the fob don’t match up with the icons on the keypad, which is a little confusing. Still, if you forget to set the alarm and don’t fancy opening your door again to set the alarm via the keypad, this is a handy solution. Of course, when you’re outside the door, you can also use the keyfob to disable the alarm before entering, assuming your gateway is within range. You can check out our video below of the Abode Keyfob as part of the video on the Iota Security kit;

SUMMING UP

I guess first off the bat, the question would be is it a necessary device? Well given that you can set the alarm modes using a variety of methods, especially in HomeKit with automations and geolocation functionality, or even by making use of a spare wireless button to do much the same, then no, it’s totally not necessary. But then in the world of Smart Homes, when has that really mattered? Still, for those of you that have various family members, some of which either don’t have a smartphone or even if they do, don’t use HomeKit, Google, Amazon or Abode’s own app, then a traditional physical device for an alarm system is going to be a welcome sight for just about anyone – except for burglars of course. It’s this aspect of it that works for me on one level, and the fact that it does it for a reasonable price (usually between US$80~$100) only adds to its appeal.

Even though it works primarily with Abode’s own Gateways, if like me you also have alarms via Aqara that are also exposed to HomeKit, then with a couple of simple automations, you can get those alarms to sync with the Abode, so all of your alarms are synced. You could also make use of the two programmable buttons to activate or deactivate your other alarms independently if you wish, so as long as you have an Abode setup in place, this is something I’d really recommend regardless of whether its necessary or not.

I’ve had it for a while now (around 6 months), and although I didn’t really start testing it until a couple of months ago, I’ve had no issues with it, other than one instance where I accidentally triggered the alarm. After that, even though I’d set it to Standby mode, the Abode logo was glowing red. At first, I thought the battery needed recharging, but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t the battery at all. In actual fact, the glowing logo was trying to tell me that the alarm had been tripped (even though it had since been set to Standby after), I guess so that I might want to investigate if I wasn’t there when it had happened. After a bit of quick Google ‘research’ it seems that to get rid of this, you have to activate either Home or Away mode, then turn it back to Standby, which then clears the ‘warning light’.

The post Abode Keypad 2 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Flowchart

To get started, take a look at this flowchart below which outlines how the automation actually works. This should make it a little easier to understand what’s going to happen and what I’m explaining.

The Automation

To get started, open the Home app and Long/3D press on the smart button icon. Choose one of the actions and select “add scenes and accessories”. In that menu, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and choose “Convert to Shortcut”.

Open the actions list, and choose “Get Date” and then set the variable as “current date”. So the automation should read “Get dates from Current Date”.

For the next action we want to format the date into short form. So choose the action “Format Date” and the variable should automatically assign itself to the date from the previous action. In that same action, choose “show more” and change Date Format to none and Time Format to short.

For the third action, we want to round the short format time to a single number. So choose the “Round Number” action and assign the variable to “Formatted Date” and have it rounded to “ones place”. And that’s all that is needed for the first half of this automation. So if the time is 11:30 PM at night, than the rounded number will be “23” (this automations works in 24 hour time).

For the next half of this automation, grab an If Statement and make the condition “If [Smart Light/Device] is off” and within that, use multiple if statements to determine the time and thus the action. For example, in my automation I have “If Rounded Number is between 7 and 10″ turn on the daytime scene”. Continue this until you have all the actions that you want and delete the otherwise tags for all of those inner If Statements. For the outer if statement, within the otherwise tag set the lights to turn off.

Thus, when the automation runs it’ll trigger when you press the button. It checks the time and then checks if the light is on or off. If it is off, then it will compare the rounded down time to the if statements and complete whatever action you set. If the lights are on, it’ll turn them off. And that’s all there is to it. As for the second and third actions of the button, you can do whatever you want. You can use it to control other lights or have it set scenes in its dedicated room. Automation runs as far as your imagination can.

For a visual look at this automation, check out the photo below so you can see what it should look like for you.

The post Advanced Smart Button Light Switch appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

It all started in 2015, when Shortcut Labs, then a newly established Startup, conducted a crowd-funding campaign that ended successfully, resulting in the creation of Flic buttons. In the beginning, they could only be used in conjunction with your smartphone, via an app for iOS and Android. Since then, the number of integrations with other systems has grown rapidly, and an app for macOS has also been added.

With a subsequent campaign, Shortcut Labs created its first Flic Hub, which extended the use of their Flic buttons, with options that allowed the buttons to be used without the need to use your phone as a bridge with other systems. Then, a year ago, new, improved versions were also created in the form of new buttons – Flic 2 along with an updated hub dubbed Flic Hub LR. An additional open platform was also created, which enabled the integration of Flic buttons into third-party applications, using tools available for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS and Windows platforms.

Fast forward to today, and we can now also use Flic buttons with the Apple HomeKit system, so today I’ll look to see what it means and how it works. For this to work, you are required to have the latest version of the hub (Flic Hub LR) with software version 3.0.2 or newer, which exposes the Flic buttons to HomeKit. This means we can use both the first-gen Flic buttons as well as the second-gen (Flic 2). If you have already bought the Flic Hub LR or the hub you bought does not yet have the required software, we describe the upgrade process to the HomeKit support version HERE.

PACKAGING

The Flic 2 starter kit comes in a simple white box with the grey Flic logo and basic information about the content and certification.  On the box, you won’t find any information about HomeKit and other integrations that you can use with Flic buttons, however. There are so many of them that it is even hard to imagine that information could be placed on the packaging. Therefore, if you are interested in a full list of available integrations and functions, please visit the official Flic website. Everything has been packaged in a very thoughtful way, using every free space to fit everything in such a small package.

Technical specs for the Flic 2 Starter Kit:

Flic 2 smart buttons:

• Line-of-sight range: up to 200m (requires Flic Hub LR or other Long-Range capable device)
• Indoor range: up to 50m (requires Flic Hub LR or other Long-Range capable device)
• Battery life: up to 3+ years
• Battery type: CR2032
• Customizable: Custom printing, removable stickers
• Connectivity: All compatible apps
• LED: Green, Yellow, Red
• Surface material: Durable high-quality soft-touch plastics
• Clip-on Rigid metal clip
• Size H: 8.5mm D: 30mm
• Chip: Bluetooth 5 LE Long Range
• Profiles: Flic protocol (multi-app) HID and MIDI (Coming late 2020)
• IP rating: P44 standard (not waterproof)

Flic LR Hub:

• Bluetooth 5 low energy. long-range BLE
• Dual-band WiFi 2.4 GHz / 5.0 GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Ethernet port
• Micro-USB Type-B
• Power Consumption 2.5 Watts (typical) or 5W Watts (max)
• 3.5mm audio port
• 2.5mm IR accessory port
• Size 85 x 65 x 12.5mm
• The Flic Hub supports up to 63 connected buttons simultaneously

Additional optional accessories are also available for purchase on the official Flic, io website:

• Additional Flic 2 buttons
• Flic Metal Clip
• Flic 2 Sticker Sheet
• IR Accessory

The kit I tested included four Flic 2 buttons (the number of buttons depends on the selected starter kit), the Flic Hub LR, a Micro-USB cable, a multi-regional USB power supply, an IR Transmitter (only available in some starter kits), removable stickers, warranty, and safety guide.

The Flic Hub LR is a small, flat, rectangular box made of plastic that is pleasant to the touch. On the rear side of the hub you’ll find all available connections; a port for the IR accessory, a 3.5mm Audio Out port, an Ethernet port and a Micro-USB power port. There is also an LED that lets you know that it’s operating, and a pin-hole placed under it, to restore the hub to factory settings,  as well as to force firmware updates. Underneath are four rubberised feet to prevent the hub from moving, which is very light, and a sort of diagram with a description of the ports. In addition, you’ll also find the serial number of the device and the factory password that is needed after restoring the hub to its factory state. While using the device, you can also protect it by setting your own password.

From the outside, the Flic Hub LR looks identical and has the same dimensions as the previous Flic Hub. The only way you can distinguish between the two versions, in addition to the print underneath, is the side of the hub, which has the letters LR.

The Flic 2 buttons are also made of ‘nice-to-the-touch’ plastic and are probably the smallest smart buttons available in HomeKit, except for the first version which is even smaller. In addition, the first version also differs in the material used, with the first version using soft silicone. The Flic 2 buttons are powered by a single CR2032 battery, which, according to the manufacturer, should last for over 3 years, so we won’t be able to test that claim very soon. Battery replacement is very easy. All you have to do is twist the button base and take it off.

The base is covered with a reuseable self-adhesive material, so after placing and sticking a button in somewhere, if you then want to move it to a new location, you only have to rinse the self-adhesive surface with water and you can just place it somewhere else. If you prefer a magnetic solution, it is also very easy to stick a flat magnet on the underside of the button. In the future, I’d love to see such a solution from Flic.

unlike the first version buttons, which were slightly convex, the top of the new buttons are almost flat, but with a very slight concave profile, so these have been adapted to be used with stickers, making it easier to remember the functions set for a given button. The set includes one sheet with 9 stickers. You can also buy an additional set of two sticker sheets, for a total of 40 stickers, containing various useful symbols and a few blank ones for you to print your own graphics onto.

The set also includes a white short Micro-USB Type-B cable used for power, and a black universal USB power supply with adaptors for use in the EU, UK, US and China/AU. The Flic Hub LR can also be powered from other power supplies or directly from USB ports, with recommended power being 5V+/1A. All parts of this set have been carefully made and the whole thing made a very positive impression upon me from the very first moment. Don’t look for a HomeKit code anywhere, neither on the packaging nor on the devices. You won’t find it, because it just isn’t needed anywhere in the case of Flic 2. Which I’ll explain next.

INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION

The first step when installing the Flic 2 system in order to use it with HomeKit is to install Flic app, version 5 or newer, for iPhone or iPad, available for download from the App Store. The Flic app is also available on the Android platform, but since we mainly deal with the topic related to Apple HomeKit, I will focus on iOS only.

After installing the Flic application and connecting the Flic LR Hub to the power supply, an account must be created. which is needed in order to use some functions, integrate with other systems and provide firmware updates for the hub.

Then, while remaining logged in to the hub, we can connect the Flic buttons with the hub following simple instructions from the Flic app. It is also possible to connect Flic buttons directly to a phone or computer, without using Flic LR Hub, but then integration with the HomeKit system won’t be available.

After successfully adding the buttons to the hub, in the options for each of them, you’ll see a button offering the option for the button to be exposed to HomeKit or to be solely used with Flic functions. Unfortunately, as of today, it’s not possible to use Flic 2 in HomeKit and your own Flic integrations at the same time. I don’t know if this is due to restrictions on the part of Apple, or if Shortcut Labs will be able to allow simultaneous functionality in the future, as is the case with some other similar products. Knowing a very large amount of Flic 2 integration, adding concurrent commands in HomeKit would certainly further enrich the functionality and attractiveness of this system.

The Flic 2 buttons appear in HomeKit just like any other device of this type. To each button, you can assign three independent commands containing any number of scenes or device settings, run using Single Press, Double Press and Long Press. Communication between the buttons and the hub takes place using the Bluetooth protocol and is then transferred via the Flic LR Hub to HomeKit via an Ethernet or Wifi connection.

I must admit that personally, I am not a supporter of Bluetooth-based solutions, at least where one expects and requires a quick response to sent commands, but there are exceptions, and one of them is Flic 2. From the first click, you could easily forget that the Bluetooth protocol is used because everything works so quickly, smoothly and reliably. HomeKit reacts almost instantly to every click. It is also impossible to notice the typical experience from Bluetooth devices powered by batteries, where they first wake from sleep after not using them for a while, which results in the initially long, delayed response.

If you encounter any minor issue, they’re most often caused by the HomeKit system itself, not the Flic 2 buttons, and the same applies to other devices in this category. Restarting you Home hub (Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod Mini etc) will typically restore the HomeKit system to full functionality.

The Flic LR Hub also has a built-in LED showing the current status of the device. It is also possible to set the LED on the hub to confirm each click. Since the hub also has an Audio Out port, you can connect any speaker to it, thus allowing you to receive click confirmations by sound when using the Flic buttons in HomeKit.

It is impossible not to mention, even briefly, other functions that Flic 2 offers apart from cooperation with HomeKit. As the Flic 2 buttons use Bluetooth technology, we can connect them not only with the Flic Hub LR but also directly with mobile phones and computers. As of today, the Flic application is available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android. Technically, it’s possible to connect the FLic 2 to multiple devices at once, but Shortcut Labs does not recommend doing so for reasons of system reliability and stability.

The button programming itself is very similar to HomeKit. To each of the three button actions, Single, Double and Long press, we can add an unlimited number of any functions from all available integrations.

When using FLic 2 without the Flic LR Hub, its function is taken over by the device to which the buttons are connected. It can be a mobile phone or a computer. Depending on which method you use, different integrations and functions are then available. Some are common, such as those used for lighting control, and some, specific to a particular platform. For example, on macOS, we can take screenshots, on iOS, use FLic 2 as a Home Button, and on Android, open applications. Of course, there are a lot of these functions and integrations and it’s impossible to list them all here, but can find them all at the address mentioned at the beginning of this article. The scope of integrations with other systems is very wide. You can find integrations from many companies, in addition to standard ones, such as lighting control or smart speakers. There are also integrations with the IFTTT system, Slack, GitHub, or the ability to send commands via HTTP.

IR REMOTE ACCESSORY

Wen using Flic LR Hub, the IR function is also available, which means we can use Flic buttons instead of the usual IR remote. To use it, you need an additional accessory in the form of an Infra-Red transmitter that can be connected to the hub using the 2.5mm mini-jack contact located on the back of the hub.

This accessory is included with some starter kits but can also be purchased separately. You then need to learn the IR codes of the remote control and write them down, giving them your own names so that you can easily find them and use them while programming the commands on the Flic buttons. In addition, as already mentioned, the hub has an Audio Out port that allows you to connect the hub with speakers and play sounds. In the case of using Flic buttons via HomeKit, it’s possible to turn on simple sounds confirming individual button presses. In addition to HomeKit, there is also a function that allows you to play various pre-saved sounds. When you use the Flic button with a mobile phone, you can also record your own custom sounds that will be played on the phone when the button is pressed.

MY EXPERIENCES

There are many possibilities for using buttons, but you can rarely find such a versatile and universal product as the Flic buttons. The only disappointment I found was that when I decided to use the Flic buttons in HomeKit, I lost access to all the other functions they offer. I do not know what it is caused at this time, especially seeing other products that, despite working in HomeKit, retained their other functions but this could be due to some limitation on the part of Apple itself or it could simply be enabled at a later date with future updates. It is a pity that as of today we cannot use HomeKit and other functions at the same time, because it would open up a lot of new and interesting possibilities for using Flic, but it’s worth noting that this applies to individual buttons and not the entire Flic LR Hub. You can still use multiple buttons with the same hub and just use some of them in HomeKit, while others can still have access to all of the other functions within the Flic 2 system. In addition, you can also use the first generation Flic buttons with the Flic Hub LR, and they will also have the ability to be added to HomeKit. They just have a smaller battery life and range than Flic 2 buttons.

Since I started testing this product, I haven’t run into any issues other than the ones we sometimes see, which tend to be dependent on HomeKit, and really, they have nothing to do with the product you’re using. The reaction time is really quite fast, and not only for Bluetooth technology. The operation itself is very simple and each function and integration is also well described in the Flic app.

I found everything to be nicely designed and made of high-quality materials, so it’s hard not to recommend this product. The price of the starter kit may not seem so attractive at first, but it should not be forgotten that it does not differ from the prices of other products using the hub, and in the smallest starter kit you get the Flic Hub LR and three Flic 2 buttons. The price of the next buttons remains in the lower range of similar products, and in addition to the devices themselves, you get access to one of the richest offerings when it comes to the functionality of this type of device. The Shortcut Labs company also often puts various types of promotions, where an even lower price is offered. In each HomeKit setup, there is certainly a need to have at least a few buttons, for a variety of reasons. The larger ones will work (like ones from Eve or Aqara), but if you need small, discrete buttons, then you should strongly consider using the Flic buttons, as they can offer new and creative ways to use HomeKit.

Full disclosure: Shortcut Labs provided HomeKit News with the Flic Hub LR Starter Pack for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made, requested or has not in any way influenced our opinion of this product.

The post Shortcuts Labs Flic Hub LR (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Turn the 4th button into a panic button, and now with the latest firmware update, this button is exposed to HomeKit for use as with a long-press action, to trigger scenes or automations.

Give temporary access to neighbours, contractors, babysitters, etc. Arm & Disarm your system as you come and go for incredible convenience.

• Height: 2.06″
• Width: 1.35″
• Depth: 0.55″
• Battery: CR2032 (included)

The post Abode Key Fob appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• The new keypad is full of features designed to make it the ideal tool for easily arming and disarming your system.
• Set up to 40 unique PIN codes
• Backlit buttons allow for easy arming & disarming in low-light
• Built-in motion detection displays your system status every time you walk by
• Rechargeable battery lasts up to 6 months (charging cable included)
• Magnetic wall mount allows for easy, versatile placement
• Customizable: turn off sounds & motion detection

The post Abode Alarm Keypad 2 appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Before we go into the product unboxing, we should see what the product actually is, and although it might seem obvious from the name, we can’t presume so. The Terncy Smart Dial is essentially a smart rotary switch and button in one device, so it can turn 360º, as well being ‘clickable’ for additional functionality. To augment this, there’s also the possibility to use the Smart Dial with Sonos speakers and more. Let’s go!

PACKAGING

Although the Smart Dial can be purchased online at some of the regular international online stores, this is, at present, only officially available in Mainland China. This is also the case for the Aqara G2H Camera, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of people from purchasing it, so don’t let that bother you. So, with that, you do get a lot of the packaging in Chinese, although there’s not a lot anyway with the exception of the manual. So the front of the box has the Dial itself, and not much more. The rear of the device has some specs, in Chinese, which I’ll list here, translated;

• Model: TERNCY-SD01
• Dimensions: 35mm (H) x 42mm (W,D)
• Operating environment: -5 ~ +60ºC / Humidity 80%
• Wireless protocol: Zigbee 3.0
• Encryption method: AES-128
• Battery: CR2032

Once open, the contents are the Smart Dial itself, an included CR2032 battery and a small plinth for the dial, should you want to mount it somewhere. Not pictured above is also a small circular double-sided adhesive sticker for the said plinth.

As the Smart Dial is a Zigbee device, it needs Terncy’s hub (Home Center) in order to both communicate with other devices, as well as get exposed to HomeKit. The Home Center connects to your router or modem via an ethernet connection, with any child devices connected to it using Zigbee, in much the same way that the Aqara Hub works. You can check out our overview of a few Terncy devices with our video of their starter pack;

THE SMART DIAL

Adding the device has to be done through the Terncy app, as it’s added to the Home Center hub. It’s very easy however and barely needs explanation, especially if you’re used to adding devices to an Aqara hub for example.

USING THE DIAL WITH TERNCY SMART BLINDS/CURTAINS

Once added to the Terncy app (you have to be signed in to add it), it’ll appear in your list of devices. You can get further details for the device, like the name, location and battery level. Incidentally, the screenshot showing the battery life at 73% was taken only a couple of days before this review was written up, and the rotary dial has been used at least twice a day since January, so you can see that you can potentially get a lot of use from a single battery with typical use. Based on the battery level here, after six months of use, it’s fair to assume that in my use case, I could easily get two years out of the one battery, which is par for the course with a Zigbee-based switch or sensor. If you click on the automations tab, you get access to different options, depending on what other devices you have connected. In the case of the images above, I only have the Smart Blinds (check out our overview video below);

Because the Smart Dial has certain functions that it has been designed for when you create an automation for a specific device, there will be ready-made presets available. The automation to control the smart blinds shows that single press, double press and rotating the dial already have functions set up;

• Single press opens or closes the blinds
• Double press stops the blinds
• Rotating the dial allows for the curtain to be opened and closed by a certain amount, depending on whether you turn the dial clockwise or anti-clockwise.

To have these presets immediately available makes getting up and running a breeze, although you can also create the first two options (single and double press) in HomeKit too, although it does involve a little more work. the rotary dial function can’t work however, due to this type of device function not being supported in HomeKit, so ultimately it’s better to simply do it in the Terncy app.

USING THE DIAL WITH TERNCY SONOS SPEAKERS

Like Aqara and some other companies, Terncy have taken the Smart Dial and integrated its functionality with Sonos speakers. The good news is that this also applies to the Sonos/Ikea shelf and lamp speakers. As with connecting the Smart Dial to Smart Blinds, when you connect to a Sonos speaker, you get a few preset actions to get you quickly started;

• Single press to play/pause music
• Double press to skip to the next track
• Triple press to go back one track
• Rotating the dial controls the volume of the speaker playback

USING THE DIAL WITH TERNCY PHILIPS HUE LIGHTING

Terncy also states that the Smart Dial can also work with Hue lighting products, so that would include their bulbs and the light strips. Although I have Hue bulbs here, I personally haven’t tried this myself, but Terncy has told me that to get this functionality, you simply add the Hue lights to the Terncy Home Center (having first removed them from your Hue Bridge), by setting the Home Center to ‘discover’ mode, where it will find the bulbs and allow you to add them. You can also use the Hue Dimmer Switch to force the bulbs to be discovered, by holding the top and bottom buttons simultaneously near the bulb in question.

Of course, adding bulbs via the Home Center means that they aren’t exposed to HomeKit, but if you’re only using Hue products, or perhaps you like to keep control of your Hue lights with Hue switches, then that doesn’t matter. With the Smart Dial’s button presses, you can only choose between on or off,  whilst the rotary dial can only control one parameter in particular, so either the colour, the colour temperature, or the brightness, but not all three, unfortunately. What control of Hue lights via the Smart Dial does give you is more natural rotary dimming control, that has so far eluded not only HomeKit (for smart bulbs, not switches), but eve Hue, who’s own Dimmer Switches are great, but still don’t feel as natural as a rotary dimmer, given that you have to hold down the middle buttons to achieve dimming. One final thing to note regarding the Smart Dial and Hue lighting; Whilst you can add Hue bulbs and the Light Strip to the Terncy Home Center hub, many other Hue products can’t. Additionally, if you were thinking of adding the Smart Dial to the Hue Bridge, that’s also not possible, despite the fact the Smart Dial uses Zigbee 3.0.

SMART DIAL IN THE HOME APP

As far as how it appears or works with Apple HomeKit in the Home app, it simply appears as a button. As already stated, the rotary dial part of the Smart Dial is not exposed to HomeKit at all, so in effect, you get a button with two distinct options – single press and double press. No Long press on this occasion for some reason. I’ve chosen not to program it in HomeKit for reasons stated in the next section.

IN DAY TO DAY USE

I’ve really only been using the Smart Dial in the capacity as a controller for the smart blinds, and because the Terncy app has this kind of functionality waiting to be activated, it was an easy choice to make to have it function there. As a result, I’m not using it in the Home app at present, although I could program the Smart Dial to concurrently work in HomeKit too so that when I close the blinds, the bedroom lights also go out. I could, of course, program the switch to only work with the blinds between certain hours, and program the switch for other purposes in the daytime and evening, but I already have more than enough buttons and automations for these kinds of functions, so it’s really not terribly necessary.

If you’ve watched the video demonstrating the Sonos control or more particularly the Smart Blinds, you can see how fast it is to react to the task in hand. Zigbee is great in this respect, and as already pointed out, battery life is astoundingly good when it comes to Zigbee devices. Being a HomeKit fan, it’s important to me to have my Hue bulbs controllable in Apple’s Home app, as that’s where most of the automations reside when it comes to my smart home setup, so if there was a legitimate way of getting the Hue bulbs into the Terncy Home Center AND get them exposed to HomeKit, that would be a great match, and provide as close as you’re likely to get with the ‘Holy Grail’ of a rotary dimmer switch controlling a HomeKit enabled device.

Of course, as good as the Smart Dial is, it’s of no use without the Home Center, but in all honestly, this can be applied to any Zigbee device – Aqara’s great range of buttons and sensors can’t do anything without the Aqara hub, for instance, so the Terncy Smart Dial is no different. It would also be nice, as an alternative, to be able to add the Terncy Smart Dial directly to the Hue Bridge, seeing as many people who already own Hue Bulbs will already have this hub, but anyone aware of the Philips Hue system will note, it is to some extent a walled garden when it comes to devices that aren’t labelled ‘Friends of Hue’.

In terms of build quality, it’s pretty good. It’s not going to survive tons of drops to the floor as it has mechanics going on ‘under the hood’ to give you the graduated feel of the rotary function, but as long as you’re careful with it, you’re going to get a lot of use from this little device. When you compare it to the Hue Button, it’s leagues ahead in terms of functionality, albeit without the Hue ‘Passport’. The only other device that you could compare it to is the Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer, which is designed to sit over the top of a regular toggle switch, thus both stopping smart bulbs connected to said switch from being disconnected by someone who flips that switch. It has both rotary dimming and button press actions, but alas, whilst it’s exposed to Philips Hue, it doesn’t, in turn, get exposed to HomeKit, which is a shame.

Currently there are only a couple of Terncy products available on Amazon.com, and neither will work without the Terncy Home Center, so if this is something that interests you, at present, it seems AliExpress is the only place where you can find a range of Terncy devices, including their hub, including door sensors, relay switches, curtain motors and a lot more. Click HERE to be taken to this page (not an affiliate link). If you happen to live in China, then you can access many of their products at the official jd.com Terncy store. If you’re still not sure, you can also check out the company’s own website to learn more about their range of products as well.

Full disclosure: Terncy/Xiaoyan provided HomeKit News with the Terncy Smart Dial for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made or requested and has in no way influenced our opinion of this product.

The post Xiaoyan/Terncy Smart Dial (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Control your home with the click of a button, two clicks or a long press. Easily program the Smart Control Button to perform 3x customisable scenes or actions. For example:

• Click the button once – your bedroom lights turn-on
• Click the button twice – your bedroom lights turn-off
• Long press the button – your heating/cooling system turns on

And of course, you can change any of the scenes or actions to perform another task or work in unison with other smart products.

A smart control button is super convenient, give anyone in your home access to connected appliances. Have guests feel at home by giving them control of the lighting and heating. Hopped into bed and left the kitchen light on? Keep a Smart Control Button by your bedside that turns-off every smart light in your home.

Our Smart Control Button is small, discrete and blends in with any home décor. Place buttons around your home to perform different programable functions like, “evening chill” which lowers your smart bulbs to a calming yellow light at 40% brightness and turns-on your oil diffuser. There are thousands of possibilities.

• Program 3x customisable actions per button
• Place multiple buttons around the home
• 40m range
• Mounts to any surface
• Requires Cygnett Smart Hub & IR Remote

The post Cygnett Smart Control Button appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

In terms of packaging and presentation, there’s not a lot to say other than Hue definitely have their own style, and are always keen to keep brand continuity at the forefront. So with the box here, if you’ve seen any other Hue packaging previously, you’ll immediately recognise the styling here. The front simply has the Smart Button, along with the wallplate, on the front. The side of the box has more of the same but with the addition of the ZigBee logo. It’s important to note that whilst many new and updated Hue products now include Bluetooth in addition to ZigBee, this isn’t the case with the particular product, so if you were planning on buying this to work with any recently acquired Hue bulbs with just Bluetooth usage in mind, this switch will not work with them, at least not until you add the bulbs to a 2nd gen Hue Bridge, at which point, the Bluetooth part of the bulbs stops and they begin using ZigBee (yes, it sounds complicated…).

The rear of the box has the usual info you might expect of any electronic product and also has a little information on the basic features, including;

• The button uses a CR2032 coin battery (incorrectly states CR2450 on the packaging)
• the button is designed to withstand up to 50,000 presses
• has a range of 39ft/12m

The button and the plates (yes there are two…sort of) are all well-protected with an inner corrugated card structure, although the button itself is only held in place by the edges of the cardboard, so when I received the delivery, the button was, in fact, rattling around the inside of the box. The contents of the box, as you can already imagine are scant, with just the main wallplate, a mini circular mount, two booklets, and the button itself.

THE BUTTON & PLATES

Onto the device itself, and before anything else, the one question that has already been asked a lot is, how does it feel when pressing it? There isn’t much ‘travel’ when you press the button, but it doesn’t require much effort to press it, and when you do, it doesn’t feel soft or ‘squishy’ under your finger. There’s a definite click, sound and feel-wise, although you’d really have to have it close to your ear to even notice any real click sound, so if you want something that emits virtually no sound at all, then this could well be the thing you’re looking for. Also included are the main wall plate and a circular ‘mini mount’. The button is magnetic and can ‘stick’ to either of these plates, although neither of these is magnetic by themselves.

The front of the Smart Button has a debossed(?) Hue logo and not a lot else, which is fine by me, although I can easily see dirt building up inside the letterpressed logo over time. The material used for the button is, out of necessity, some kind of latex or rubber, which has a matt look and slightly velvety touch to it, which would also probably suffer from dirt from finger presses over time, but unlike a button made of PVC, which is generally easy to wipe, I’m not sure this material would be as easy to clean. To the untrained eye, it would be hard to notice a difference in the shade of white between the button and the plate itself, but there is a minute difference nonetheless, with the button having a slightly more creamy white hue, with the plate being a more sheer white. It’s barely noticeable at all, although it’s entirely possible that the rubber of the switch will turn more yellow over time, to make the difference more apparent. Come back in a few years, and I’ll let you know…

As you can see from the profile pic of the button above, it’s slightly larger at the base, coming in at 31 x 31mm/1.22 x 1.22in and 29 x 29mm/1.14 x 1.14in at the top and 14mm/0.55in in height. The full-sized wallplate is 6mm/0.24in deep, but because the wall plate has a bit of a recess for the button, the button and plate combined only come to 16.5mm/0.65in in total, which is only slightly deeper than the Hue Dimmer switch at 14.25mm/0.56in. The Hue Smart Button also has an LED under the ‘skin’ of the button, which flashes when you press the button.

Getting into the battery compartment does require a small screwdriver or some similar tool, and while it’s not massively difficult to get to the battery, there’s easily the potential to mark or damage the body a little. Putting the battery door back in is also a bit fiddly, so take care not to break it when you try forcing the cover back on.

Hue has generously provided not only a regular wallplate but an additional mini mount, both of which use 3M double-sided tape in order for you to mount them to a surface. If you’re not really keen on having a large wall plate, or simply don’t have space, then effectively the mini mount is small enough to stick anywhere and is also small enough to actually hide behind the button itself. In fact, if you wanted to literally just have the switch mounted somewhere, you can as long as the surface is magnetic, although you’d be limiting yourself a little, given you can place the mini mount almost anywhere regardless of whether the surface is magnetic or not. Utilising the mini mount adds a mere 2mm/0.08in to the overall depth of the switch. The Mini mount also has the same Hue logo, whilst the Wallplate has the Philips logotype on the bottom.

The ‘standard’ wall plate is actually slightly bigger than the Hue Dimmer Switch wall plate, coming in at 124 x 79mm/4.88 x 3.11in, with the original Hue Dimmer only 115 x 70mm/4.5 x 2.8in. Although it’s a small detail, it would have been nice to have included some magnets to the wall plate, as is already the case with the original dimmer plate, which would have made it really convenient to have it in many more places, whilst allowing you to move it around, which, with double-sided tape, isn’t exactly an option.

SET UP (HUE APP)

As with any Hue product, you have to add it to the Hue app in order to get it exposed to HomeKit. So, assuming you’ve got the Hue Bridge and the app, it’s all very straightforward.

• In the Hue app, click on Settings > Accessory setup > Add accessory
• From the list of options, select Hue Smart Button
• Press the Hue button until the LED starts blinking

• If you encounter any issues with the button not connecting or even no flashing LED showing, you can reset the button with the reset hole inside the battery compartment of the button.
• The app will begin searching for you button and will eventually connect.
• Press Continue setup

• If you intend to solely use the Hue app, then you can choose a room for it to be located in. However, you can still add it to a room, and also have it in the Home app, if you wish.

• The Hue button has two distinct actions to choose from – Single Press and Long Press
• With Single Press, you can choose whether it uses time-based automations or cycles through a set of five different scenes
• For Long Press, you have three options; Dimming, All lights off or Do nothing. For dimming, you press and hold the button and the lights will dim down as you’re pressing the button

Once the button is all set up, it will appear in the Home app in the room you assigned it to in the Hue app. If you didn’t assign a room in the app, you can assign it in the Home app as normal.

IN HOMEKIT

This is where, in my opinion, things take a slight turn for the worse. Not because the product itself is bad, faulty or unreliable – it’s none of those – it’s simply due to the fact that when it’s exposed to HomeKit, you only get one action. So there’s no single, double and long press – just single press. It has to be noted that this is exactly the same for the Hue Dimmer switch, with each button only having one option, but I’d still argue that this is where I think it’s severely lacking. It costs around the same price as the Hue Dimmer, but you only get a quarter of the functionality. And whilst the button itself takes up very little space, with the wall plate, it actually takes up just as much space as the Hue dimmer (fractionally more in fact). Obviously, it would go against the whole way switches and buttons work with Hue if it were to have the functionality we already get with other HomeKit buttons, like the Eve Button, for example, but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not add – at the very least – a long press, especially when long press is an option in the Hue app.

There are, of course, ways around this, so you can have it so that the single press action can toggle between on and off, but this requires the use of a third-party app, like the excellent Eve for HomeKit, just to get it the most basic of use out of it. I would suggest that it has its limits even within the Hue world, but then maybe this is designed to provide more of a focused function rather than be an ‘all-bells-and-whistles’ type of device. As it stands in the HomeKit world though, it’s really a one-trick pony ( or should that be a one-legged pony?), which is somewhat of a disappointment.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE
As it happens, I do have a quite specific use case for this Smart Button, which really only requires one function. My elderly mother-in-law often needs assistance with opening jars and containers or reaching stuff on high shelves, and so by pressing the button, she can trigger a very specific scene that lets me know she needs assistance. As it only has the one function, there’s no need to explain complex instructions to her, or any chance of triggering anything else, due to the fact that it can only do the one thing in HomeKit. I previously had this functionality tied to an Aqara smart mini switch, but as that has double and long press options, then there’s always the potential for a mistaken press.

So far, the button has been a ‘hit’ in this respect, and it small enough to not be a dominant feature where it’s kept, and because it’s magnetic, she can pick it up and place it back with a fair amount of ease. There have been no issues with unresponsiveness, but given how generally solid Hue products are in this respect, I didn’t really have any doubts about that at all.

It Hue had somehow been able to include a way of letting the switch rotate whilst it was held in the wall plate, that would allow dimming in a rotary fashion, it could have held a more unique place, albeit just in the Hue app, but sadly I think if it had some form of functionality of this sort, we would have found out by now I imagine.

Summing up, I’m pretty torn, as if it wasn’t for the aforementioned use case, it would really be of little use, when I’m so used to a world where double and long presses are the norm. But I do like the design, and I do like the solid Hue system. It just falls short when it comes to HomeKit functionality, and that’s a real shame. My suggestion would be to seriously think what you could possibly use it for before spending the even modest price it’s asking, otherwise, it could end up sitting in a drawer until you do.

The post Philips Hue Smart Button (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Works with Apple HomeKit via the Terncy Home Center hub. The Smart Dial uses the Zigbee 3.0 protocol, uses a CR2032 battery for power, and also comes with a magnetic base that sticks to the wall with an adhesive back. The magnetic base allows the Smart Dial to stick to the base wherever you place the base – on the door of your fridge, next to another light switch on the wall, even on the underside of your table, if you wish.

The post Xiaoyan/Terncy Smart Dial appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• Control the lamps with one click
• Set your light according to the time of day
• Custom functionality
• Flexible, wireless attachment

• IP Rating – IP44
• Minimal battery life – 2yrs
• mounting options – detached | wall
• Upgradeable software – when connected to Hue Bridge
• switch depth – 14.5 mm
• Switch diameter – 32 mm
• Wall plate depth – 6 mm
• Wall plate height – 76 mm
• Wall plate width – 76 mm

Available on amazon.com

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