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.

The Cygnett Smart Wi-Fi Power Board contains 4 outlets and 2 USB ports with LED indicators. Using a smart device or voice assistant, you can turn on/off Wi-Fi, which is provided with surge protection.

Features:

• Consists of 4 outlets and 2 USB ports
• Each port has LED indicators
• Surge protection
• Master on/off switch
• Turn on/off using your smart device or voice assistant (HomeKit, Alexa, or Google)
• 1m lead length
• 2 × 2.1A total USB-A ports

The Cygnett Smart Wi-Fi LED Light Strip has a strong adhesive and a dramatic design statement to hide under shelves. It creates vivid colours and soft whites that accentuate the beauty.

Features

• 2m long LED strip
• 1000lm bright
• Strong 3m adhesive
• Dramatic design statement to hide under shelves or behind your TV
• White colour temperature adjustment
• Creates vivid colours and soft whites
• Includes power adapter

There is also a 1M Extension Strip for the LED Strip which can be purchased separately for AUD$39.95 boasting the following features:

• Add a 1m extension to your main 2M Smart Light strip
• Super bright 1000 lm
• White colour temperature adjustment
• Creates vivid colours and soft whites for accenting details
• White colour temp adjustment (Cool/Warm & Day/Night)
• Strong 3M adhesive

Personally, I think this is a great move on Cygnett’s part offering alternatives to popular brands such as Lifx with their Z LED Light Strip that starts at AUD$125 or Philips Hue Bluetooth Light Strip that starts at AUD$134, as well as offering the first Apple HomeKit Power Board to Australian consumers.

Cygnett is upping their game in the smart home environment and is becoming one of the popular competitors and you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be purchasing these very soon to review!

The post Cygnett release new Smart Power Board and LED Strip for Australian Consumers appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Not wanting to let the scarcity of Smart Switches get in the way of my home automation journey, I decided to look at things another way. I decided to repurpose the Cygnett Smart Control Button, which I recently purchased, and use the Home+ app to create a condition-based automation for when the button is pressed.

The best part of this is you can have a single click for turning on and off, and then save the double click and long press for activating different scenes or for controlling other accessories around your home.

The video below will show you exactly how I accomplished this:

The post Using a Smart Button as a Smart Light Switch With Home+ appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

The products that are ready for HomeKit out of the box are their Smart Bulb Colour, Smart Bulb Ambient, and their simply named Smart Plug. Both the Ambient and Colour bulbs are available with E27 or B22 bases, priced at AU$49.95 and AU$69.95, respectively.

The Cygnett Smart Plug, priced at AU$49.95, features the usual set of skills you’d expect of many smart plugs, in addition to energy monitoring. The plug itself is fairly slim, however, and features an offset set of pins, along with a physical control button at the top with a built-in LED.

The company also make a series of devices, that all work with the company’s own smart hub, which incidentally also has a built-in IR transceiver. The hub and the child devices, which includes a motion sensor, door sensor, temperature & Humidity sensor, and a smart button, would currently appear to be only compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, although, in the manual for the smart hub, it also seems to suggest that it is, in fact, compatible, with one section stating;

“Your Cygnett Smart Home device is compatible with Apple HomeKit and it allows you to control your smart devices remotely. Add your device by taking an image of the QR code affixed with the Home app.”

Additionally, in one of the company’s tutorial videos, the ‘Works with Apple HomeKit’ logo is clearly visible on the front of the packaging, although we’re unsure as to whether the current packaging is the same.

There’s also not a lot of information on how the hub communicates with its child devices, although it does seem to suggest they simply use wifi, with only a ‘Wifi Certified’ logo appearing in the aforementioned manual, along with the manual for the smart button stating;

“Cygnett Smart Home devices only support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks. The Smart Control Button requires a Cygnett Smart Hub + IR Remote Control to function.”

It does seem strange that a wifi device would need a hub in order to function, but it could be that the hub itself provides the necessary functionality for these devices to talk to both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

More information can be found on Cygnett’s website.

The post Cygnett Launch Smart Bulbs and Plug For Australian Consumers appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.