Unlike many recent devices from the company, the Evaporative Humidifier 3 is not HomeKit compatible. However, it can be added to either the company’s own Smartmi app, as well as Xiaomi’s Mi Home app, which is compatible with Siri Shortcuts.

To maintain cleanliness, integrated air drying technology activates automatically for 3 hours when water levels run low, eliminating the risk of harmful bacterial growth in stagnant water. This proactive approach prevents mould and odours while promoting long-term hygienic operation.

The Evaporative Humidifier 3 provides up to 14.2 hours of uninterrupted hydration to sizeable spaces. Its built-in pump guarantees a consistent flow of water onto the evaporator, ensuring a continuous moisture output of up to 350 ml/h. The top-fill design allows easy-access refilling during operation, eliminating the need to pause humidification. The Evaporative Humidifier 3 incorporates a high-precision sensor for real-time water level monitoring and offers a transparent viewing window on the water tank’s side. Users can set their desired humidity level, monitor it remotely via the Mi Home app, and seamlessly integrate it with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, as well as control almost all functions and features via Siri Shortcuts, once set up.

The device’s noise levels are below 50dB, allowing the Evaporative Humidifier 3 to run throughout the day and night. Its LED display automatically dims in sleep mode too.

The Evaporative Humidifier 3 introduces a constant humidity mode, allowing users to adjust optimal humidity levels between 30% and 60% in automatic mode, to maintain a comfortable environment. The separation of electronic components at the top and the water tank at the bottom prevents leaks from reaching electrical components. For safety and spill prevention, the humidifier features an automatic shut-off when the tank is removed and a child lock function.

Pricing and Availability The groundbreaking Smartmi Evaporative Humidifier 3 will debut in the CIS, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions in September 2023, with prices starting at $169. For more information and notifications regarding availability in your area, please visit www.smartmiglobal.com.

The post Smartmi Launch Evaporative Humidifier with Siri Shortcuts Support appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

As Matter closes in on becoming a reality for smart home users, there are still a few categories that it doesn’t support, that HomeKit does, namely cameras and video doorbells. However, HomeKit also still has limits to what categories are covered, and on this occasion, we’re looking at one such device – the Aqara Pet Feeder C1. This product has been available in China for nearly a year, but it’s only now getting an official international release, and whilst pet feeders aren’t supported in HomeKit, because the Aqara app supports Siri Shortcuts AND because many Aqara devices will work with both the C1 and HomeKit, you can get close to a full HomeKit experience. On that basis, we feel a review is justified!

When it comes to a device like this – some people feel it takes away one bond between owners and their pets – however,  there are definite benefits, as well as limitations; for example, a device like this can be of massive benefit to people with limited mobility, reducing something that could be a daily task, into something that only has to be tackled once every couple of weeks, when refilling the tank is required. It can also help with keeping track of your dog’s feeding regime if they are on a diet, for example. With the C1 issuing food in a constant and regulated manner, it also takes a lot of guesswork out of whether you’re feeding your dog too much or too little. It also helps keep a dog regularly fed if they’re left on their own when an owner may be at work.

The first limitation is that it only works with dry food, so if your dog is set on tinned dog food or fresh meat, this will only serve to supplement main meals. The other limitation is the height of the bowl and the size of the dog food it can cope with. This really is designed for smaller dogs, and more accurately, for cats, as the bowl is quite low to the ground. The kibble used can’t be too large either.

Still, if you think this can in any way benefit you and your pet, read on…

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Aqara has its packaging down pat right now, so you know what to expect right from the front of the box. The device itself is large, so the box is substantial too, but with everything inside well protected by polystyrene, there are no worries regarding damage in transit.

As this is not HomeKit compatible, it only states on the front that it offers “voice control via Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and more…” which essentially means that none of the three platforms actually support pet feeders as a category, but due to the Aqara app’s powerful inter-platform automations, it still makes the device easy to use, especially so for Siri via Shortcuts. It also works with IFTTT, if you’re still one of the paying holdouts for that platform.

As with nearly all Aqara devices aside from hubs, the C1 uses Zigbee 3.0, and as such will only work with newer Zigbee 3.0 hubs. So, the original M1 hub although for once, the G2H gets a look in. Of course, if you purchase the Chinese C1, you get access to more compatible hubs, but you lose Amazon and Google connectivity.

The contents of the box include the main C1, a stainless steel bowl, a plastic bowl tray, a power cable, a pack of desiccant, and the manual in a variety of languages.

THE PET FEEDER C1

The C1 comes in a few parts with the main section being the motor and food tank. On the front is a shute from which pet food issues, along with three buttons. There’s also a small blue LED when powered, to indicate the status of the device. Both sides have largish markers that you press when you want to remove the large translucent tank for cleaning, and the back simply features a coaxial port for powering the device. The coaxial cable is covered in a knitted mesh of (I assume) nylon thread, with one end having a coaxial plug to fit into the C1, and a USB-A plug on the other end. There’s no power brick supplied.

The underside is home to a battery compartment and a speaker, which I’ll look at a bit more later. The three batteries required for the C1 are the D type/LR20. The inclusion of a battery option is useful in the event power goes down, although assuming you’re only away for the day, it’s hard to imagine a dog struggling after only missing a couple of meals in most cases. I didn’t test the C1 with batteries.

The lid at the top of the C1 is held in place with a couple of spring-loaded catches that you press in to release it. On the inside of the lid is a small compartment where you place the package of desiccant. This is designed to keep moisture at bay, and keep the food fresh. The good news is that the lid also seems to keep the smell of the food contained.

The inside of the food container is where you find a couple of cogs, each with ‘paddles’ attached to them. The top cog has three paddles, which move the food along, so eventually, they fall through a hole to the lower section. The lower section is divided by the second cog, which has six paddles that divide up the food into portions. The lower section has a cutout so that when a ‘portion’ reaches it, that portion of food falls through a chute and into the steel bowl below.

The stainless steel bowl sits inside another plastic bowl that connects to the underside of the C1, thereby holding the bowl in place.

ON-DEVICE CONTROLS

The C1 has three buttons on the front, above the dog food chute. The first of these is for pairing, resetting or checking the connection status of the C1. The second, with a ‘fish’ icon, is to issue a meal (based on how many portions make up a meal as designated by the owner in the Aqara app). The Third and final button, once pressed, allows you to record audio designed to let you know when food is being issued. The first button has limited use, as once it’s paired, there’s little use for it. This also applies to the third button, so only the middle button will see any use, and even then, with automations, either involving directly issuing food or having a wireless button or sensor trigger a feeding event, even this button won’t see too much action, as useful as they may be on rare instances.

IN THE AQARA APP

The Aqara app has a fairly clear user interface for controlling aspects of the C1; The main page shows how many grams of food your dog has been fed for that day, with a button below to issue one meal (in my case 5 portions). Below that is an automatic feeding plan, which can be deactivated if you wish. By default there are three meal instances; in the example above, you can see meals set for 9am, 1pm, and 5pm, with how many portions shown for each meal.

You can add further meals, with the ability to customise how many portions are issued for each meal. How the owner determines how many portions of dog food make up one meal relies on a few factors, like the size of the pet, the weight of one portion, and so on.

AUTOMATIONS & SIRI SHORTCUTS

In terms of automations for the C1, in some ways, they are a little limited, but as it only has one function – to feed your pet – it’s hardly surprising that automations are sparse. It’s really down to how other devices are used as triggers for the C1, essentially, which can be quite interesting. In the Aqara app, you have an IF section and a THEN section, so assuming an automation uses another Aqara device for the IF part, in the THEN section, you have two options for the C1 – Feeding (for) once, and Feeding plan. For the former, you can customise how many portions are given out. This could be used in instances where, along with the regular feeding plan you may have set up, you can create a separate automation to issue an extra ‘meal’ as a treat for your dog, as and when you want. The latter option simply allows the feeding plan to be turned on or off. Once again, this could actually be useful, so if you happen to take your dog out with you on a day trip, the last thing you’d probably want is the C1 issuing meals when there’s no dog to eat them.

If you have an Aqara Camera Hub G3 (review HERE, video HERE), you can make use of its built-in AI functions to trigger automations, as it not only has pet tracking but pet detection too. For example, if you don’t want to use the pet feeding plan for more flexibility, you could create an automation whereby the G3 turns on Pet detection between, say, 11:30 and 13:00. If a pet is detected between these hours, it triggers an automation to issue a meal. Once the meal automation is triggered, it would then turn off pet detection until the next meal time.

If you prefer not to rely on automations of this type, but also don’t fancy having to reach for the meal button on the C1, you can also use any of the numerous Aqara wireless switches to trigger an automation, after all, the C1 is quite low to the ground, so reaching for that button, even for someone totally able-bodied and healthy may become annoying. The great thing about using these kinds of buttons is that they’re already HomeKit compatible, so using them is ‘almost’ like controlling the C1 as though it were a HomeKit device.

Finally, if using neither pet detection nor wireless buttons appeals, you can always rely on Siri Shortcuts to do its thing, which simply requires you to create a simple feeding event ‘scene’, which is then converted to a Shortcut that has a specific phrase used to trigger the automation.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE

Even though Aqara provided an international version of the C1 to me, I actually purchased the Chinese model when it came out nearly a year ago, so I’ve had plenty of time to get used to any potential issues. In short, when it comes to functioning properly, there are no issues to report and it stays connected all of the time, with no disconnections at all in the time I’ve been using it.

There are a few downsides, but they’re more based on the way it is designed to work, rather than any faults or bugs. So, as already mentioned, the C1 is designed for small to medium dogs, and cats. As the bowl is quite low, even for a medium-sized dog, there’s the potential for neck strain (if that’s a thing for dogs) when trying to eat from the bowl. In my case, we now only have one dog who would be classed as medium-sized, so I ended up placing the C1 on a small stool, which is fine. The bowl was also a little too low for our beagle that recently passed away, but then he did have problems with his neck anyway. For short-legged dogs like Daschunds or Corgies, it probably wouldn’t be an issue, as well as puppies and of course cats, so it’s not a fault with the C1 as such.

There is a limit to the size of dog ‘biscuits’ that can be effectively used, so anything more than 12mm in diameter does have the potential to make the motor stick, if one of these biscuits gets stuck in a certain way, so once again, you need to plan accordingly to avoid such problems.

The third minor issue is with the custom audio recording feature. Either the volume of the recordings is far too low, or the speaker simply doesn’t have enough power to playback the audio to make it useful enough. Additionally, when the audio plays, it tends to get drowned out by the sound of the biscuits hitting the steel dish, so it seems poorly thought out in my opinion. This means that the third button really wastes space and where a third button for a different function could be used, like turning off the Automatic Feeding Plan, for example. Recording audio to your phone and transmitting it to the C1 could be an option, but as it uses Zigbee, the file could take time to be sent over.

All in all, I think given that these have existed for a while, it’s good that we now have a smart version, even if the ‘smarts’ are mostly focused on devices triggering it, as a lot of the time the device is autonomous, essentially. What is good is the ability to control it remotely, and even monitor it from wherever you are, as that’s not really something you can do with the ones that, whilst smart, aren’t ‘connected’.

Hopefully, as this is connected to Aqara hubs that will get either an update for Matter, we would only need this device category to be added to Matter to enable it to work more widely, so even though it’s not HomeKit compatible, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference.

The post Aqara Pet Feeder C1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Way back in the middle of 2019, we reviewed the Ambi Climate 2, a smart AC controller that was able to work with Google, Amazon, and IFTTT, but not HomeKit, at least not officially. Later on, the company – Ambi Labs – added Siri Shortcuts to their app, as a stopgap measure, so that you could at least set your AC using your voice via HomePod, iPad, iPhone etc. Moving onto 2021, and the Hong Kong-based company have released an update/addition to the Ambi Climate 2, in the form of the Ambi Climate Mini.

If you’re not sure what this device is, it replaces your standard AC remote, allowing you to control many aspects of your AC via your phone, voice, or using automation, depending on what route you take in using this device.

As you can probably guess, this new device is smaller than the previous model, but basically does much the same stuff. The main difference, aside from the much-reduced size, is that the company’s A.I. tech has gone from being free to a subscription service. Whilst that may give you pause for thought as to whether this device is worth a subscription, it’s also worth noting that the service you’re paying for is a lot more advanced than other AC controllers on the market. That said, as it’s still not officially HomeKit compatible, this could push you to look at alternatives. Today I’ll have a look at this newer model, and hopefully give you a better understanding of the product, as well as give you an idea as to whether the extras are worth paying for.

In case you find you’re interested in purchasing this product, Ambi Climate are offering an additional US$10 off the standard price if you purchase via their website, using the exclusive promo code HKN10. The code is valid until June 2021.

PACKAGING

The packaging follows on from the design used in the Ambi Climate 2, and looks good, clear and easy to see – assuming you’re browsing in a department store (less likely in much of the world right now…) – and even comes with the little plastic handle for it to be hung on a display. As you’ll see, there’s no HomeKit logo, which is a shame, and with another company making a similar product – Sensibo’s Sky AC Controller – gaining official HomeKit support, it looks like Ambi Labs are out on their own a little.

It is what it is, so if you’re aware of that, or use HomeBridge/HOOBs, then it matters less. It does work with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT though, and also includes the new ‘Add to Siri’ badge, meaning it works with Siri Shortcuts. I’ll go into that more, later.

The rear goes to great lengths to let you know that this AC controller makes use of what is described as a ‘Comfort AI Assistant’ – this is the subscription option I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The good news is that whilst you get a free one-month trial, you don’t need to use this functionality in order to use the Mini and can control the AC along with all aspects of your particular AC anyway.

The base of the box lists a few details, including compatibility, the contents of the box, and basic specs;

Compatibility

• WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz
• iOS 10 or later
• Android 4.1 and above
• 2-year support and limited warranty

Contents

• 1 x Ambi Climate Mini
• 1 x USB adaptor (100 ~ 240v, 5v/1A)
• 1 x USB cable (1.8m / 70.87in)

Specifications

• 110.2 x 24.5 x 46.8mm / 4.33 x 0.96 x 1.85in)
• 50.8g / 1.8oz

The inner box contains everything you need and even has little ‘hand drawn’ icons to show you what should be in the box (cute). The mini is at the top, with the USB cable, power adaptor, and mounting bracket kit in the lower section, a bit like a bento box (look it up…). The USB cable is USB-A to USB-C, with the power port on the Mini being USB-C also, which is a step up from the Micro-USB setup with Ambi Climate 2. The USB power supply I have is suitable for both China and North America, being a Type A, non-polarised plug. The company also provide localised adaptors for Europe (type C), the UK (type G), and Australia/New Zealand (type I), so if you’re purchasing this locally, you should get the right plug, although if you buy from Ambi Climate’s own website, you need to specify your preference.

In addition to all of the above, there’s a small box containing a wall mounting bracket, a screw, a matching rawl plug, and a single 3M double-sided adhesive strip. The documentation includes a fold-out sheet that goes through the basic setup process in a variety of languages – English, Chinese (trad), German, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish.

THE AMBI CLIMATE MINI

I did like the design of the previous model, but I have to say this one is way more impressive, despite taking on many of the same thematic design queues; the plastic, magnolia body, and a large black ‘eye’ that houses the IR sensor, and not one, but two light sensors, both take their starting point from the previous model. The Mini also has temperature and humidity sensors which are actually located near the back of the device where there are vents to allow these sensors to measure the relevant metrics without being affected by any heat coming from the other electronic parts. One edge of the mini has a USB-C port for powering the device. It may seem like a small thing, but using USB-C does make a difference, even if it’s not the kind of device you’re generally going to plug and unplug.

As with the Ambi Climate 2, the base is a sort of wooden plinth that houses the aforementioned vents. As the Mini is designed to be mounted on a wall, the wall bracket clips into place on the underside, which is quite simple but effective in its design. You can use either the screw to fix it to the wall, or the double-sided strip, and as the Mini is so light, the strip will hold up without any issues.

Of course, you don’t have to mount the Mini, and can just as easily have it sat on a desk, coming as it does with a pair of rubber ‘feet’. The only issue with having it wall mounted is the sight of the power cable trailing underneath and down the wall, although there are ways of fixing this. I’ll just leave that to your imagination.

INSTALLATION

The initial installation process needs to start in the Ambi Climate app, beginning with adding a device, selecting the particular model, and following the on-screen prompts, which go through your location, your wifi settings, and pairing with your AC.

You then allow the app to find your location, before then deciding the name for your location (home, office etc), and then what room it’s in. If you’re going to add this device to HomeBridge or HOOBs later, this info will also be needed, so it’s best to give the location name some relevance.

With all that done, you then need to place the device in the relevant room and make sure the device is within I.R. range of the AC it’s going to control. To add the device to your network, you need to temporarily come out of the app, and select the device from the list in the WiFi section of the settings screen (in iOS). I imagine it’s much the same on Android.

With the Ambi Climate 2, I had odd issues with connecting to one of my WiFi networks but somehow managed to overcome it eventually. I’m happy to say I had no such issues with the Mini and was able to connect it to my network, although it did take its time doing so.

After that’s all in the bag, you need to go through the process of setting the Mini so that it can control your AC. It’s a short process thankfully, which in the first instance asks you to enter the details of the make and model of your remote, as it’s the remote that is being replaced by the Mini, essentially. If your model isn’t listed, it’s simply a case of instead, teaching the Mini to learn the basics of your remote. This requires just a few steps that involve pointing your remote at the Mini, so that it can figure out the remote and what functions of the AC it can control. After it’s done, it’ll tell you what your AC is capable of via the Ambi Climate app. This will include the basics, like setting the temperature and the mode (Cool, Heat, Auto, and Off), but it can also include things like the fan speed, and control over the swing and louver of your AC (these are the blades that direct the flow of air from your AC).

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Ambi Climate Mini is essentially a wall-mountable IR remote control, connected to an app, that can send instructions to your AC, as well as set conditions for when it comes on and off (via timers), or maintain a specific temperature range. Whilst some of this may be achieved with your original remote, the app and device also let you control the device whilst you’re out of the house, so this is where it’s taken beyond the realms of even the fanciest hand-held remote you can think of.

AMBI CLIMATE APP

Once you’re all set up, you move to the main screen. From here, you can access a ton of different sections, including the control modes;

• Comfort mode
• Temperature mode
• Away mode
• Manual mode
• Off

All of these modes, in addition to other options I’ll skate over are also available to owners of the Ambi Climate 2, so nothing has changed in this respect, apart from the fact that for Mini users who want to use the A.I. functionality, will now be required to pay for it, after the free one month trial. You can still use the other modes without a subscription, but you’re going to have to set the AC yourself without Comfort mode, which basically controls the AC for you, based on the feedback you provide in this mode. It takes time for the A.I. to learn your preferences, as it’s built, in some measure, on you telling the A.I. if you’re too hot, a little hot, too cold, a little cold, or just right. It takes this data, in combination with other factors, like local weather conditions, the temperature and humidity in your room, and thermal readings of your surrounding provided by the two light sensors (IR light, and visible light sensors) to build up a picture of your environment, and what you feel is comfortable. It all sounds quite impressive, and for that reason, you can maybe appreciate more why the company want to charge for this functionality, which also requires a server connection that they have to maintain. I’m not going to try and convince you one way or another as to whether it’s worth it or whether the company should be charging for this, but to paraphrase a saying, “there’s nothing in life that’s free”.

The Analytics tab at the bottom gives you three subsections, the first of which, Historic Data, allows for a lot more detailed information on the temperature and humidity readings, over the course of 24 hours, 7 days, or a calendar month. There’s a lot more to this section than I’m showing here, going into a LOT of details regarding the measurements in your home. Insights provides further data on your AC usage so that you can see where you might need to adjust something in order to fix potential issues, and Deployments shows how, when and who controlled the AC unit, as well as show when the A.I. side of things take over.

In the Device tab, you have a section for device settings and timers. The device settings include various sections relating to network connections, AC pairing, LED and bleeper control, and even wallpaper options, in addition to the option to calibrate your sensors if you think they may be off by even a small amount. The timers section not only allows you to program your AC to turn on or off at a particular time and day but also allows each of the aforementioned modes to be active in a particular timer. Admittedly, this is standard for smart ACs, but with Comfort mode, it could make things more useful.

the AC Settings tab gives you quick access to everything that your AC is capable of. This is going to look different depending on the type of AC you have, but as you can see in my case, I have control over the four modes, the fan speed, the louver, and the swing. In addition to this, you get to control which of the four modes is accessed by A.I. mode.

Going hand-in-hand with the A.I. functionality, you can access data on your user profile to see progress on how the A.I. has built up a profile of your usage and preferred settings, that eventually is able to provide the best ‘comfort’ settings to match your habits. if other members of the family use the app and also set up and account, the app can create a combined profile that analyses the data for all users, showing data across the board.

Now if this all sounds like a lot of trouble, and just want to be able to control your AC in the simplest of fashions, then, of course, you can just speak to your preferred voice assistant to control the AC. If, on the other hand, you have ACs running for much of the day in different rooms (like in Florida for example), this could be of use for those than don’t want to have to constantly adjust the settings.

IN HOMEKIT

We’d be negligent if we didn’t bring up HomeKit integration of course, and the two options currently available to you are via a plugin within HOOBS/HomeBridge, or via a MacOS app called Ambi Bridge, which does the same thing as the HomeBridge plugins, but resides on your Mac computer, if you don’t have use for HomeBridge besides getting the Mini into HomeKit. You can read our review of the HOOBS package HERE to learn more.

Whichever method you use, the Mini in HomeKit looks and acts just like any other thermostat in the Home app. I’ve been using the Tado V3+ Smart AC Controller for quite a while now (review HERE) and it has served me well, but what it doesn’t offer in the Home app is the Auto mode. The Mini does, which can go some way to reducing the need to keep adjusting your AC. It’s a small but possibly useful extra.

Another device I’ve had on test for a while, is the Aqara P3 AC companion, a smart plug specifically designed for larger Chinese AC plugs (16A) that typically come attached to wall or window-mounted AC units, that also acts as a Zigbee 3.0 hub, and alarm, as well as an AC controller, using IR. The P3 only exposes the standard three modes to HomeKit, so no Auto mode in this case, but what it does have is the ability to control both the fan speed, and the louver (labelled in the Home app as oscillate).

It should be noted that there are a few different HomeBridge plugins for the Ambi Climate devices, and some of the functions, like fan speed and oscillate are also exposed to HomeKit. It just depends on which plugin you go with.

AMBICLIMATE MINI IN USE

I’ve not had the Mini for too long, but as it uses the same functionality and sensors as the Ambi Climate 2, I feel like I’ve experienced it long enough to know it well, given that I’ve been running the latter for over a year now. Whilst it does the same job, it’s important to monitor any issues, like connectivity issues, sensor inaccuracies, or even any odd behaviour. So far the Mini has been very solid in its connection to my network, and it hasn’t disconnected once in the test period. I currently have it mounted on a wall directly below a Qingping Temperature and Humidity sensor (review HERE), and also above a OneLink Environment Monitor (review HERE) so I’m able to keep tabs on the relevant sensors in the Mini. I’ve found the sensor to be fairly close to both of these other sensors, so only a half percentage point out for humidity readings, and 0.5 – 1.0º for temperature, although this has fluctuated on occasion. Whilst that’s not a big deal at all to me, it could make a bigger difference to some, so it’s good that the app has the option to adjust these sensors if you want them to more closely match a sensor that you put more faith in.

I currently have the Mini running in HomeKit using the macOS app Ambi Bridge. I’ve also had it running in HOOBS, although my HOOBS box was offline for a period of time during my tests, so I stuck with Ambi Bridge. The small disadvantage with this option is that it relies on your computer running in order to control it via HomeKit, however, if you’re running Google or Amazon devices too, then there’s always something available to control it.

I was also going to mention that the other alternative to HomeBridge plugins would be the Siri Shortcuts integration, however, at present, I feel it’s rather limited, and as such isn’t a great alternative right now. In Shortcuts, you only have the ability to set the Comfort mode (so essentially turning the AC on, but only in this particular mode), or turning your AC off. They really should have more options, at least for turning the AC temperature up or down, so I’m not sure why it’s so limited.

That all said, if you’re going to use the A.I. functionality offered, it’s going to be a case that you shouldn’t need to control the AC yourself at all. Whether the subscription cost is warranted, is down to the individual, but the vast array of data you can glean from the Mini and the app is quite impressive nonetheless.

If I were to boil things down to exclusively using the Mini in HomeKit, then I would absolutely prefer they have official support, but I can’t see that happening for the time being, which I think is a shame. Still, if the company believes in their A.I. functionality to any large extent (which I’m sure they do), then having HomeKit integration does seem like a step-down, given what isn’t exposed to HomeKit. With that in mind, if you want a simple AC controller, there are a few other options available to you.

Full disclosure: Ambi Labs provided HomeKit News with the Ambi Climate Mini 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 AmbiClimate Mini Smart AC Controller (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

There are many areas in which HomeKit needs more devices (video doorbells being a perennial ‘favourite’), with some product categories simply totally lacking. One category that currently has just one option that I’m aware of, is standing fans, with the only known HomeKit compatible fan being the Airmate SA35195R Smart Fan, which, if you can actually it, is very expensive.

With that in mind, and with Siri Shortcuts and the Shortcuts app expanding its capabilities in iOS13, one obvious solution is with devices that are part of the Xiaomi ecosystem. The Xiaomi Home app (also referred to as Mi Home) works very well with Siri Shortcuts and has many smart standing fans as part of its smart system. These fans are available in many parts of the EU as well as Asia and international stores like AliExpress, GearBest and Banggood. Although there are a few variations of the basic same model out there, with slightly different names, depending on where you are, many of them look the same and have the basic functions. Some come with a built-in battery but essentially do the same job and in many instances have the same app interface. The one we’re reviewing today is simply known in Taiwan as the Mi Standing Fan and can be bought here for only NT$1995 (UK£53.00/US$65.00), although you can expect to pay a fair bit more from the aforementioned international stores. So, how does it work with Siri Shortcuts and more importantly, is it any good? Read on to find out.

As this is quite a large device, even when unassembled, the packaging is rather plain, so there’s nothing to talk about in terms of this aspect, although you’ll be happy to note that the fan is really well packed and should easily withstand overseas shipping without any issues.

THE FAN AND COMPONENT PARTS

When you open the box there are quite a few different parts, but a quick glance at the manual and it all begins to look a lot easier to put together. The parts for the fan itself consist of the seven-blade fan, a screw fitting to hold the rear half of the fan cage in place when connected to the stem of the standing fan, and a cap to hold the fan itself in place so that it doesn’t fly off when in motion.

The fan and the fan cage, which comes in two halves, connect to the fan motor, which is attached to the stem of the fan. The stem also connects to the base of the standing fan.

The stem of the fan is secured to the base with a large bolt, so it really is quite straightforward to put together.

The base of the stand contains a cutout for a port to connect a C7 type power cable, with the cable also having a non-polarised type A plug on the other end (in the case of my version).

The base has a connector with which the stem of the fan connects to the base. The underside of the base has a hole for where the bolt can be inserted, in order to keep the fan stem and the base securely in place. The base of the fan has nothing to distinguish itself, other than a small indented marker to show where the front of the fan should be pointing. The front of the fan cage also has nothing, save for a simple Mijia logo on the front, so the whole product is actually quite minimalist.

Although the fan can be controlled via the app, or via voice control (which we’ll get to later), you can also control the fan with the four included buttons located at the top of the fan motor housing. There are also five small green LEDs to indicate various states;

• The single LED at the top will be solid green if the fan is on and connected to your wifi network. If the LED is flashing, it means it is attempting to connect to your network or is offline.

The four LEDs in a row have three main functions, but by way of a quick explanation regarding functions I’ll be mentioning, the fan has a ‘normal’ fan mode which is capable of four different standard speeds, and a ‘natural wind’ mode, which attempts to replicate a gentle breeze, with an ebbing and flowing speed applied to the fan;

• the LEDs will slowly glow to indicate that the ‘natural wind’ mode is active. If in the normal fan mode you had the speed set to the highest, then in the ‘natural wind’ mode, the four LEDs would glow, with only one of the LEDs glowing at the lowest speed, and so on.
• The LEDs will each turn on, in turn, to indicate the fan speed, so if one LED is on, then it’s at its slowest speed, with four LEDs on indicating the top speed.
• As in the previous point, the LEDs will each turn on, in turn, to indicate the oscillation angle at which the fan has been set to when you press on the oscillation button. So, if one LED is on, then the fan is set to a 30º oscillation angle, with four LEDs on indicating 120º oscillation angle.

After the LEDs there are four buttons;

1. The first button turns the fan on or off when you press and hold it. A simple short press will alternate between ‘normal’ fan mode and ‘natural wind’ fan mode.
2. The second button allows the fan to rotate in the horizontal plane, with options for oscillating angles of 30º, 60º, 90º, 120º or off. Each subsequent press cycles to the next option sequentially, before returning to off.
3. The third button is for turning the timer function on or off. Timers are set in the app.
4. The fourth button controls the speed of the fan in ‘normal’ fan mode. Pressing the button cycles through the four different speed steps in sequence.

Whilst the fan’s rotation can be controlled in the horizontal plane remotely from the app, the fan motor can also be physically adjusted with a 100º field of movement in the vertical plane, although this can’t be done remotely.

BASIC SPECIFICATIONS

The fan is mostly ABS plastic, with a metal tube for the stem. The fan is 900mm/35in from the base to the top of the fan cage. The base is 330mm/13in wide, with the fan/cage 340mm/13.4in wide. The model I have needs 110v @ 50/60Hz, but other models would also cover 220-240v, which I suspect this model also does.

IN THE MI HOME APP

In order to control the fan from your iPhone initially, you will need to add it to the Mi Home app. If you don’t already use it, it’s free but you need to register an account with Xiaomi in order to do so. On the main screen on the Mi Home app, you can turn the fan on or off without having to go into the control panel, but within the settings for the Mi Home app, you can also enable a feature called ‘Shortcut Card’ – which is totally separate from the Shortcuts app and functions. All the shortcuts cards do is give you access to additional functions for the relevant device. So in the case of the fan, you can control the speed of the fan, turn the oscillation on or off, as well as turn the fan on or off.

In the control panel for the fan, you get full access to all the settings. At the top is a nice (but probably unnecessary) little circle animation. Below this you have four buttons;

• Turn on/off
• standard fan mode
• natural wind fan mode
• Fan speed

The colour scheme will change from blue to green if you select the ‘Natural wind’ option. Below these four buttons is a slider bar that allows you to steplessly control the speed of the fan (from off to 100). Then below that, you have five individual buttons for the oscillation angle – off, 30º, 60º, 90º and 120º. One nice touch is a couple of rectangular buttons that allow you to move the fan left or right in single steps, should you want to move the fan in a slightly different direction, as opposed to setting the oscillation option on, and trying to stop it when it reaches the desired position. After this you get some basic preference controls, so you have a timer slider, which allows you to set a time for the fan to count down to before it turns off. 8hrs is the maximum it will count down from which is more than enough for most situations. You can both disable notification sounds (or confirmation sounds), which can be a little loud late at night, as well as adjust the brightness of the LEDs. The final two options are for an alert in case of a malfunction, and a parental control lock, which locks the physical buttons on the device, leaving the app as the only way of controlling the fan.

CONTROL USING SIRI SHORTCUTS

In terms of integration with Siri Shortcuts, I’v already covered this topic in a previous ‘How to…’ tutorial, however, I’ll go through the basics of how it works, as things have slightly changed in iOS 13 in this regard.

• Starting off in the Mi Home app you start by creating an automation – so click on the Automation tab at the bottom of the home screen and click on the ‘+’ icon in the top corner
• in the ‘IF’ section, select ‘Complete manually’ – you need to do this with any automation that you plan to use with a Shortcut
• In the ‘THEN’ section, scroll down until you find the Mi Standing Fan and select it.
• Select the automation you want to ultimately control via with Siri Shortcuts

• Once you have done this, the completed automation will be displayed.
• You then just click ‘Save’ and name the automation.
• The new automation will appear at the top of the list of automations you’ve created, with an ‘Add to Siri’ button at the top.

• When you click on the ‘Add to Siri’ button, a list of previously created automations will appear, with the most recently created one at the bottom, with another ‘Add to Siri’ button.
• Once you click on this ‘Add to Siri’ button, the ‘Add to Siri’ screen will appear, asking you to create a phrase in order to trigger the automation.
• once you’ve added your unique phrase, click on the blue ‘Add to Siri’ box to complete the Shortcut and you’re done.
• If you look in the Shortcuts app, a tile relating to the automation you just created will be generated, which in iOS 12 didn’t happen.

You can now trigger your automation via Siri or by pressing the newly created tile in the Shortcuts app. With the expanded abilities for Siri Shortcuts, there are a lot more possibilities, but I’ll leave that for another article for now.

AUTOMATIONS VIA HOMEKIT…?

This is sort of a trick question in a way, but with two distinct answers – first of all, if you’re familiar with HomeBridge or HomeAssistant, then the fan can be added to HomeKit and is fully functional as if it were a standard HomeKit device.

Now the other alternative isn’t, strictly speaking, HomeKit, although the fan itself can be controlled with a HomeKit compatible device. If you’re lucky enough to own the Aqara hub and have either Mijia or Aqara temperature or motion sensors, then you’ll know that these are HomeKit compatible. If you’re also using the Mi Home app (not the Aqara app, unfortunately) and have the fan installed along with these sensors, then you can create automations with them to trigger the fan. Admittedly, the automation isn’t created in the Home app as such, but if for example, an Aqara temperature sensor is the main sensor in a given room of your house, then essentially the temperature sensor is both able to monitor and report back on the conditions in your home from within HomeKit, but also control the fan when it’s relevant to do so, via Mi Home – if the temperature in the living room got a bit high for example. Maybe one day we’ll be able to create automations via the Shortcuts app that will allow any HomeKit enabled sensor to trigger the Mi Fan, but as it stands, that’s either quite complicated or simply not possible right now, although I’m told IFTTT may possibly be able to achieve this kind of thing with the use of Webhooks, depending on the app and company.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE
I’d love a fan that’s compatible with HomeKit, but for the price of these, I can live without such a thing for now. Aside from that, is the fan any good? The answer is a short “Absolutely!”. There are some products that are part of the Xiaomi ecosystem that really stand out in many ways, either for their design, their list of functions, or not forgetting the value for money you tend to get. The Mi Standing fan is one such device, along with a recently purchased Roborock S6 automated vacuum cleaner, which we’ll be reviewing soon.

The fan is actually quite quiet for the amount of air it pushes out, which whilst not as powerful as some fans we have here (all Taiwan households seem to have a selection of fans) the ‘noise to power’ ratio is good enough for me. The Mi Standing fan uses Wifi to connect to your network, and until recently was very reliable in this respect – the Fan itself is reliable, but for some reason, a couple of Xiaomi ecosystem devices seem to be reporting poor wifi connectivity, despite being close to the router. This has been reported by other people too, so I know it’s not an issue particular to my home, and will hopefully be fixed with an update to the Mi Home app, which I feel is the culprit in this instance. Regardless of this, it doesn’t in any way affect the fan, and either via the app, automations, or via Siri shortcuts, the fan has excelled every time. It also looks good too, and regular cleaning of the fan isn’t an issue, as taking it apart to clean the relevant pieces is actually quite easy (as can be seen in the video earlier in this review).

In all honesty, I don’t have a bad word to say about it. If only it could get official HomeKit support, I think Xiaomi could do really well, as there really isn’t any meaningful competition out there in the HomeKit arena. Now I’ve already stated that there are a few different versions of this fan, with one particular model even including a battery for cordless power, but in general, the differences, including the different names (like SmartMi instead of Mi for example) are mostly cosmetic.

I’m fairly sure that there will be some that would argue that a cheap smart plug, along with a cheap and powerful fan would be just as good, but a setup of that type is going to give you on and off, and nothing more. A smart plug isn’t going to be able to change the speed of the fan, or enable or disable an oscillation option – if the fan even has one – so, this alternative doesn’t come close to what can be achieved with this fan and the associated app – and Siri Shortcuts of course. If you’re in the market fora fan, and are happy with Siri Shortcuts for your voice control, this is easily one of the best options around right now, at least until someone makes a HomeKit compatible model.

The post Mi Smart Standing Fan (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

We know eating healthily is better for the body, and the same applies to the air we breathe. The Mi Air Purifier 2 is simple, elegant and has a new compact design that is 40% smaller than the first Mi Air Purifier. Despite this, it still offers a high 310m³/h Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) and takes just 10 minutes to circulate purified air in a 21m² room. Go on, isn’t it about time you give your lungs a treat?

Send powerful gusts of air to the farthest reaches of your room. Inspired by aircraft engines, the aerodynamic pressure system created by our R&D team draws inward from the base and expels air upwards with great force. Smartphone controls let you switch on and off remotely, even when you are away from home. That way you can always be sure to come home to clean air.

The 360° cylindrical filter takes in air more efficiently from every direction compared to conventional air purifiers. Its triple-layer design removes particles larger than 0.3μm with a high-density EPA filter from Japanese manufacturer Toray, while an activated coconut carbon filter removes formaldehyde, bad odour and other harmful substances. Replacing the filter is simple and you will be automatically notified via the app when it needs replacing.

Enjoy better air even when resting on the sofa. Mi Air Purifier 2 quickly removes PM2.5 particles, dust from unclean air conditioners, germs, indoor plant pollen and pet hair. It even filters unpleasant odours that may waft through from time to time.

Use your phone as a remote to power on, power off, and switch modes. The Mi Home app also lets you monitor home air quality from your phone at any time. Create schedules to power on, power off, switch to Night mode, and more.

Sleep soundly with the ultra-quiet Mi Air Purifier 2. Advanced aerodynamics reduce noise and wind resistance so you can enjoy peace and silence at night. The custom Japanese motor from Nidec is extremely power efficient,
consuming 58% less energy than Mi Air Purifier and using only 4.8W on normal mode – that’s even better than energy-saving lightbulbs.

SIRI SHORTCUTS OPTIONS

• Turn on
• Turn off
• Turn on/off
• Switch to Sleep mode
• Switch to Favourite mode
• Switch to auto mode
• Cycle through modes

The post Mi Air Purifier 2 appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Welcome to the first review on our site of devices that work with Siri Shortcuts. As already stated across the top of this review, and for all listings of this class of device, whilst they’re not HomeKit compatible, they do work with Siri Shortcuts, which can be combined with other HomeKit created scenes, which in turn can then be triggered with a voice instruction to Siri, so essentially I like to refer to this class of devices as ‘HomeKit-lite’. The level of use that you can get out of any of these Shortcuts-compatible devices varies, but as long as there is some basic functionality, we will list and review them.

Onto the particular product itself, and this is the latest offering from Aqara, the G2 Camera (gateway edition). It’s called ‘Gateway Edition’ as this is actually an Aqara hub/gateway in addition to being a camera.

UNBOXING
Starting off, as always, with the packaging, this is part of the new generation of Aqara/Mi/Yeelight products that feature all-round better packaging, and while the containers still aren’t as strong or protective as they could be, generally it’s a massive improvement, at least in terms of presentation. The front features the product itself, whilst the two sides of the box show off, in icon form, the main features of the camera itself;

• 1080p recording/streaming
• H.264 and H.265 compression options (no longer selectable by the user)
• 140º field of vision
• Two-way calling and video messaging
• Smart gateway
• Night vision
• Various recording and playback options
• Motion detection

There is a lot more than this though, which we’ll attempt to touch on, but safe to say this is one fully featured camera!

Once inside, the camera is the first thing to greet you, and it really does remind me of one of the ‘Minions’ characters in the ‘Despicable Me’ animated franchise (I know many of them have two eyes (except for Kevin, Stuart & Phil apparently (thanks Krazy Ruskie)), but it’s the shape, ok?). 

Underneath the camera, you get a few extras, which are the manual, in Chinese, a USB cable and Type A power supply, and a small plastic bag containing a metal plate, which you can screw to the wall, an adhesive, double-sided sticker for attaching the plate, if you don’t want to screw it to the wall, and a sim pin that allows you to reset the camera, should the need arise.

The camera itself is quite minimalist, with the front being 50/50 camera ‘eye’ and body, with only a small microphone hole to break up the white plastic front. The rear is almost as minimal, with a small speaker grille at the back, along with the power input for the supplied micro-USB cable. The basic dimensions of the camera are approximately 82mm (H) x 56mm (W) x 50mm (D), so pretty small, and about two thirds the size of my D-Link Omna, and only a little taller than the Xiaomi XiaoFang camera.

If you’ve previously owned the Xiaomi XiaoFang camera (sold by Wyze Labs as the Wyze Cam), then you’ll be aware of the 3-Axis foot that allows the camera to be pivoted or angled in a variety of ways, and that same type of base is used with the new G2 camera, which makes it very adaptable to being placed on the side of walls, suspended from the ceiling, or simply stood on a surface. It isn’t motorised, however, so once you’ve fixed your angle, that’s it until you decide to move it again.

The base of the camera has an SD card slot, as well as a reset pinhole, all located in the middle of the swiveling ‘foot’. The top of the device simply features a multi-function button. If you double press this button, it arms/disarms the built-in alarm (more on that later). If you press and hold for 3 seconds, it allows you to record a video message, which can then be accessed via your phone or from the SD card itself. The button can also be used to stop an alarm, although you do need to be able to access the camera. The button can also be used as a quick way of adding devices to the hub part of the camera.

INSTALLATION
Installing the device is really quite straightforward, but if you’re new to products from the Xiaomi ecosystem, you will need the Mi Home app (recently rebranded as ‘Xiaomi Home’).

• Starting off on the home screen of the Mi home app, click on the ‘+’ icon to add the camera.
• Select the Aqara G2 from the list of devices.
• If need be, reset the camera using the sim pin, although if this is the first time you install it, this may not be necessary.
• Wait for the voice prompt (in Chinese), and click next.

• You’ll then see a screen with a QR code on the screen of your phone. put this in front of the camera lens to begin the installation.
• You will hear another voice prompt, and the camera will then begin installing.

• Once it has completed installing, you need to give the camera a name.
• Decide which room you’ll locate the camera in.
• If the setup has been successful, the camera will automatically launch and you will see a live stream from wherever the camera is pointed at.

FUNCTIONS
The camera, as I’ve already alluded to, is packed with features, and while this has many options based around the camera, it also has a built-in hub/gateway that allows for other Aqara or Mijia ZigBee devices to connect to it.

Starting off with the basics though, there are five icons at the bottom of the live stream screen.

• The Eye icon allows you to put the camera to sleep (Idle mode), which is great for those with privacy concerns.
• the Phone icon allows you to speak to the person(s) in earshot of the camera and have a two-way conversation.
• the Circle icon allows you to commence manual recording.
• the Crop icon allows you to take a quick snapshot of the live view.
• the Up Arrow icon gives you the option to arm or disarm the built-in alarm.

• At the top part of the screen, you can see ‘F…D’. If you press this, you then get options for streaming in Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), or SD (480p).
• Next to this is a speaker icon, which allows you to hear audio from the location of the camera (it’s muted by default).
• If you put your phone in landscape mode, the camera stream automatically goes to full-screen mode.
• Once you install an SD card, you get access to a timeline function. This appears as a ‘timeline’ at the bottom third of the screen and allows you to scroll backward and forward to find a recording at a particular time and day. If you have the camera set to record only when it detects movement (or abnormal sound detection events), then these will in the timeline as blue sections, so you can skip to the relevant time/date quickly.

Whenever you launch the camera from the Mi Home app, it usually shows the live stream on your phone in less than a second, and so far this is the quickest camera in terms of how long it goes from pressing the camera to the live feed. It may take longer if you use mobile internet/4G when you’re out and about, but I’ve noticed it to be pretty consistently fast.

When it comes to recording options, aside from the different resolutions you can choose from (FHD, HD, and SD), you have some other highly sought after options that most cameras don’t possess;

• SLEEP MODE
  If you’re concerned about the camera only recording when there’s no one in the home, or at night when everyone’s asleep, you’re able to put the camera in Idle/Sleep mode. You can schedule this with timers in the Mi Home app, or you can turn the Sleep mode on or off via the UI on the live stream screen for the camera. You can also put the camera to sleep using a voice command via Siri Shortcuts.
• TIME-LAPSE RECORDING
  You can choose to record footage in Time-Lapse mode, should you want to conserve SD card memory, or for times when you purely want a quick overview of any recordings. This can be scheduled for specific periods of time and specific days.
• DVR/REAL-TIME RECORDING
  If you want to have the camera record constantly, you can do via the camera’s storage management option the settings section. In this section, you can choose between ‘Stop Recording’, ‘Real-Time Recording’, or ‘Activity Detection Recording’. The first option is to make sure the camera simply doesn’t record, so you can only see the live stream. the second option records constantly, so to keep more than a day’s worth of footage, you’ll need a large SD card. You also have an option for all recording modes, that allows you to overwrite old footage when the SD card is full (Loop video recording).

If you click on the 3-dots icon, you then get access to all the other features of the camera and hub settings. Now there are so many options, I’m simply going to list them all rather than wax lyrical over each one, so…

• Status light – can be turned on or off.
• Mobile data protection – stop buffering in progress.
• Idle settings – either set to idle mode here or schedule times for this to take effect.
• Video settings – watermark can be turned on or off.
• Image rotation – used for adjusting the image if you’ve mounted the camera upside down for example.
• Infrared Night Vision – set to Auto, Always on or Always off.
• Video encoding settings – H.265 or H.264 (manual recordings only record in SD when using H.265)
• Time-lapse shooting – turn on or off, or set a start and end time for recording in time-lapse mode, with the additional options to choose specific days.
• Alert settings – detect movement can be turned on or off.

• Detection region – You can select areas for the region of detection, and choose the sensitivity level.
• Motion detection notification – turn notifications on or off.
• Human detection notification – sends notifications, only if humans are detected, as opposed to strong moving shadows or pets for example.
• Abnormal sound detection – video will begin to record if loud or abnormal sounds are detected.
• Detection period – set a time for when detection is on and off.
• Alert frequency – sets a reset time for when detection is retriggered.
• Gateway settings – arm the alarm at preset times or manually.
• Choose a trigger device to set off the alarm. This can be the motion detection in the camera itself or an external sensor that is bound to the camera’s hub.
• Delay effective time – the delay time between the trigger and the alarm going off can be set.
• More settings – you can choose the sound for the alarm, as well as the volume.
• You can set the length of time the alarm plays for before turning off.
• you can get push notifications to your phone when the alarm is triggered.
• Linkage alarm – if you have other Aqara or Mi hubs on the same network and same Server in the Mi Home app, the camera can also trigger the alarms in those hubs if the camera alarm has been triggered.
• Child Device list – here you can add certain other devices from Aqara or Mijia.

SIRI SHORTCUTS INTEGRATION
Here is where things get interesting, as even though this is not a HomeKit device at this time (we’ve been told support is coming), you can still control many features using Siri voice activation, or via the Shortcuts app, much in the way you would in the Home app. The only limitation currently is being able to automate procedures. Here are a lot of things you can do with this camera and Siri Shortcuts;

• Enable arming mode
• Disable arming mode
• Enable/Disable arming mode
• Sleep (put the camera to sleep)
• Wake up (wake the camera)
• Wake up/Sleep
• Record video and push notifications
• Play a designated ringtone (read that as ‘alarm’)

I won’t go into the whys and wherefores of whether this is as good as a HomeKit camera, as it isn’t in respect of total integration, but given the cost of this device is, at a minimum, half the price of the cheapest HomeKit camera, with way more functionality, to me that’s more than a good enough reason to have it. Additionally, as it’s included in Mi Home, you can use many of the devices that straddle both Mi Home and HomeKit to create some rudimentary but still interesting controls.

For example, you could set an automation in the Home app like this;

• you’re about to leave for work, and you want to arm the camera as well as the alarm when you leave. You might also want to turn off some HomeKit enabled lighting. this can easily be achieved with an Aqara or Mi wireless button (both of which work in Home and Mi Home), that will activate both the alarm, wake up the camera and turn off the lights. The first two automations would be programmed in Mi Home, whereas the ‘lights’ automation would be done in the Home app. You could also combine the automation in the Mi Home app and a ‘lights out’ scene in Siri Shortcuts, and simply say a phrase like ‘set alarm’ and all three actions would be completed.

When you put all these things together, and if like me, you have begun to invest in the Mi/Aqara/Yeelight side of things, then it really isn’t hard to justify a product like this. Only time will tell if it’s as reliable as my other cameras and whether the rumoured HomeKit integration will ever arrive, but it’s still an amazing product for the price, and it’s cute looking too…

The post Aqara G2 Smart Hub Camera (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

I know what you’re thinking – what the hell is a Xiaomi/Mi product doing on a HomeKit website? Well yes, normally this wouldn’t be seen anywhere near a site like this, but as luck would have it, there’s a bit of software called ‘HomeBridge’ which to the uninitiated, allows non-HomeKit smart devices to communicate with HomeKit, and therefore appear in Apple’s Home app.

I’ve done this myself, running HomeBridge on my iMac, and now I’m able to pretty much control all the main aspects and functions of this Xiaomi Air Purifier – and that is why it’s here! Besides these reasons, since the introduction of Siri Shortcuts, and with the Mi Home App integrating Shortcuts, you now have basic control over this device, even without using HomeBridge.

So, what’s it like? First off, most people will be aware of how cheap Xiaomi ecosystem products are, and this was no exception, coming in at around UK£95.00. That’s damned cheap for any air purifier, so even if it wasn’t going to work with HomeKit, I’d still buy it. Where I live, pollution is an ongoing issue, so this is more essential than anything else.

So for this price, what do you get? I won’t go into the technical nitty-gritty, but it clears the 99.9% of the harmful particulates in the air in your house – so pm10 and pm2.5, pollen and dust amongst other things. it can’t remove VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) without the relevant filter, however.

It has three basic settings; Auto Mode, which allows the air purifier to increase or decrease the speed of the purifier fan depending on the readings from the built-in pm2.5 detection unit. A Night Mode, which is essentially a slightly lower speed than standard, but a lot quieter, and Manual Mode, where via the Mi Home app (and Apple’s Home app or via Siri Shortcuts, but we’ll get to that…) you can adjust the speed to your liking, from 10% – 100%.

There are three small green LEDs on the front to indicate which mode is running, and there’ also a larger green LED at the front, which changes to red when the air filter is in need of changing.

On the top, where the fan sends out the clean air, there’s a simple on/off button with another LED indicating whether the device is connected to your network. all four sides have a series of small holes allowing air and particles to be drawn in, cleaned up and then sent out via the fan at the top.

So back to HomeKit; Once you’ve got it all running via HomeBridge, the Air Purifier appears as a device that you can turn on or off, When you long press on the icon, it once again gives you a toggle switch to turn the device on or off, but there’s also a button that allows you to change the speed of the fan via the standard Home app slider, and when you click on Details, you can even switch between Manual and Auto modes or enable or disable the Child Lock, to prevent it from being messed around with.

But as if that wasn’t enough, the air purifier has its own set of sensors – one for temperature, one for humidity and finally the pm2.5 sensor. All of these appear as separate tiles within the Home app interface.

On the subject of the pm2.5 sensor, it has to be said that there’s a lot of evidence indicating the inaccuracy of built-in sensors, as they’re only giving readings from around their immediate vicinity, which is where the air is naturally already clean. With this in mind, I’d suggest getting an independent device for measuring these kinds of readings. I have a Kaiterra Laser Egg 2, and when you compare the readings between the two, it’s quite obvious that the sensor in the purifier is one of its only real shortcomings.

If you don’t go down the HomeBridge route, the much simpler alternative is via Siri Shortcuts. I won’t go into the details of how to set up the automations for Siri Shortcuts to work via Mi Home, as I go into this in detail elsewhere, but with this option, you can setup Shortcuts for the following;

• turn on
• turn off
• turn on/off
• switch to Sleep mode
• switch to Favourite mode
• switch to Auto mode
• Cycle through modes

All that being said, it’s a very stylish piece of kit, and it’s really cheap. Add to the fact I can add it to Homekit with just a bit of software and it has really become part of my HomeKit family!

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