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.

* I may in the course of the review refer to the company as either Terncy or Xiaoyan

THE MOTOR

Xiaoyan sent the prototype of the motor, along with a set of blinds for me to test, but as this product is yet to hit the market, I didn’t get any fancy packaging as such, so no unboxing on this occasion. The motor itself is quite basic in many ways, as it’s really not meant to be seen at all. It feels quite heavy, so I’m assuming it has a reasonably powerful motor inside and taking into account the blinds that the company sent me are quite hefty too, it really does work hard to ‘pull its weight’, so to speak. I’ll get into the actual blinds in a bit.

This is also a bit of a prototype, so you can see in the picture above, there are three cables coming out of one side. I’m told by the company, that the final model will dispense with two of these, as they’re already redundant for the forthcoming models. The short cable you can see in the picture above was originally designed to connect to a controller, so you could physically open or close the blinds as the Aqara version has, but Xiaoyan decided against this, hence the reason it’s capped off, and also the reason why the cable won’t be in the production models.

The second cable in the first picture, with a bit of black tape on it, is for connecting to the Zigbee module (see above). This will also be removed for the production model, with the Zigbee module built inside the main body of the motor. As it stands for the prototype I’m testing here, you can see that I have the cable plugged into the Zigbee module. This comes with a button to initially pair the device. Once it’s all up and running, there’s no need to touch it again, unless for any reason it disconnects or you want to remove and re-add it at some point.

The third and final cable is for powering the motor. This comes with three wires, so it’s going to need a three-pin plug. As this motor is designed to be used for regions that use 110-120V, then you’re quite likely to be using a Type B North American Type plug, although any three-pin plug will be fine, as long as your region uses 110-120V, as it’s not suitable for 220-240V regions. The device didn’t come with a plug, but it was a very easy process of adding one. I imagine once the company ships these products, they’ll come with a plug, but I can’t confirm that at this time.

FITTINGS

The end of the motor that has the three cables coming out of it, has a slot. This slot allows for one of the two brackets to hold the motor in place. This bracket has a hole for the cables to be fed through, along with a flat piece of metal, that fits into the aforementioned slot. The opposite end of the roller tube has a circular ‘plug’ that fits on the end of the tube, that comes with a free-spinning bar that slots into the bracket on the other side.

HOW IT WORKS

The end of the motor is held in place using the bracket with the flat metal. The motor comes with a plastic circular cog with a small cutout that corresponds to a notch inside the tube. The other end of the motor has another cog with the same cutout, that slides inside the tube. this helps spread the load along both ends of the motor. When the motor turns, only the white portion of the motor moves, also moving the two cogs that attach to it, which in turn allows the cogs to turn the roller blind. It’s actually quite straightforward, but a little difficult to explain, so I hope this all makes sense so far.

SETTING UP

In theory, this should have been easy enough to fit; affix the two brackets into the ceiling, feed the wires through the hole of one of the brackets, fit the motor and blinds into place and plug it in. Unfortunately – and this is in no way the fault of the product – it didn’t initially quite go as planned, for three reasons;

The original blinds that I had in place, were situated in a recess in front of the window, with a wooden valance to hide the blinds from view. As you can see in the image above, one of the brackets for the blinds is right up against the wall, as the window frame also abuts the wall. This was my first issue, as, for the brackets for the new blinds, I needed a bit of space away from the wall for the power cable to pass through. Add this to the fact that the blinds were actually a tad too big for the area the original blinds were located. The final problem was simply me trying to do this all on my own. A heavy set of blinds and the tube alone are probably too much for many people to fit on their own, but add to this the motor, and it became impossible to fit by myself.

Eventually, realising that the blinds were never going to fit without me doing some DIY maintenance on the tube itself, I simply fitted the blinds in front of the valance. The original blinds are still in place for the time being, until I finally adjust the roller tube with the proper tools. Once fitted in this way, it was easy, although I’d still recommend it’s a two-person job.

HOMEKIT SETUP

You initially have to add the motor to the Terncy app, which is added to the company’s own Zigbee gateway, the Terncy Home Center. Setting the motor to ‘discover’ mode, is done by pressing the button on the previously mentioned Zigbee module. Once it has been discovered, you can add it to a room and name it, although you’ll have to do this again in the Home app, so you don’t necessarily have to do this unless you plan to use the Terncy app on a regular basis.

Once added, you will have to calibrate the motor and the blinds. Much like a roll of toilet paper (sorry, couldn’t think of a better analogy…), you can have these fitted with the blinds in front or behind. This might typically be due to you wanting the power cable on one side rather than another, for example. To do this, you simply press the up or down arrow on the UI, and if the blinds start rolling in the opposite direction to the button pressed, you select ‘Reverse direction’. You then just need to set the open and closed limits for the blinds by setting them to fully open/fully closed and pressing the relevant buttons below so they’re set and won’t go beyond the limits you’ve now set.

Once that’s completed the blinds will then appear in the Home app. If you’ve never had smart blinds before, there’s not a lot to see really. There’s one tile, which when pressed, will fully open or close the blinds, depending on the state they’re in or the last direction they were going in. If you closed them to 50% using the slider, the next time you press the tile, they’ll go in the opposite direction.

The settings panel doesn’t show much other than give you direct access to the Terncy Home Center, but here you can also set the preferred icon, with a choice of curtains, Roman blinds, Venetian blinds, awnings, vertical blinds, or in this case, roller blinds.

CONTROLLING THE BLINDS

Because the blinds don’t come with a dedicated wired controller, which I think is a shame personally, you have to look to other ways of opening or closing the blinds. Luckily, Terncy offer a product called the Smart Dial, which whilst a fully functional HomeKit button, with single and double clicks (no long-press option, unfortunately), can also be manipulated with the rotary dial built-in. The rotary functionality is not exposed to HomeKit, so this can only be programmed within the Terncy app, but the app makes it easy for you to pair the dial to the blinds, with default settings;

• single click – fully open or close, depending on the previous direction
• double click – stop the blinds
• clockwise turn – opens the blinds by an amount dependent on the amount the dial is turned
• anti-clockwise turn – closes the blinds by an amount dependent on the amount the dial is turned

If you prefer not to have another button or switch, then you can quite easily program any existing HomeKit-enabled switch to do much the same job, albeit without the dial functionality described. All manner of automations, based on lighting, the time of day, occupancy status etc. can also control the blinds, as well as voice control via Siri. It’s only fair to point out that the blinds will also work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, and if you have a household where Mandarin is spoken, then the blinds can also be controlled with any of the Xia-Ai smart assistant devices from Xiaomi, once you’ve connected your Terncy account to the Mi Home app as a third-party provider.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE

I’ve had the blinds set up since late January, so I’ve had a lot of time to get used to any quirks, or potential issues. So far, I’m happy to report there simply are none. It has been incredibly stable, basically. I don’t know if this is due to the fact it doesn’t do much, or if it’s due to being a Zigbee device, but it literally hasn’t disconnected or failed once, which is uncommon for any HomeKit device in my experience. On the subject of Zigbee, I should state that the Terncy Home Center is at the other end of the apartment, and just out of reach of the motor for the Zigbee signal to reach, so I simply used the company’s Smart plug to bridge the signal. I fully expected this to be a potential issue, but it simply hasn’t been, and the blinds work as if the hub is right next to them. This is one of the reasons I’m very keen on Zigbee.

My wife isn’t too happy about the dangling power cable but has largely gotten used to it now. I guess having a battery-powered one, like how Ikea provide, is probably a better solution, but to me, it’s not an issue. I think eventually, I may well trim the roller tube and attempt to place it in the location of the original blinds, but where it’s located at present isn’t doing any harm, so maybe I’ll ‘let sleeping dogs lie’.

One of the questions many will be asking is how quiet it is. I find it hard to give a definite answer, as although I don’t find it particularly noisy – in fact not any noisier than the sound made when manually opening roller blinds – I’ve yet to experience other smart blinds to determine if it’s louder than comparitive products or not. All I can say is that the current volume levels don’t bother me at all, although if they were to open in the middle of the night, they could well wake me up. Luckily, there’s little chance of that happening by accident.

What the Terncy option does have over other options, like Ikea, is that the company intend to offer either just the motor by itself or the ‘complete package’, including the motor, a custom length tube, along with custom blinds. Xiaoyan has hinted that the latter option could be priced at around US$200, although they’re also keen to state this is just a tentative price at this time, with no firm prices until they go to market. If you went with just the motor, then sourcing the material for your own blinds and correctly sized roller tube is just as easy, if only with a little more work for you to do. The roller tube that fits the motor is a standard 50mm / 1.97″ tube size, and there’s nothing special about the motor that requires a specific tube, as long as the tube includes the notch to match the cogs on the motor.

CONCLUSION

Xiaoyan is largely not as high profile as Aqara, and whilst they don’t offer quite as many devices, the products are just as good in many ways. With the Aqara roller blind motor only working with 220-240V, the Xiaoyan option should appeal to North American customers, and encourage the company to open up more to the US market, which they have in fact done, even if in a limited way at this point. The company do have a lot more up their sleeve, so I don’t feel they’re a flash in the pan like some Chinese companies appear to be. You can check out our overview video above for some of the company’s other products.

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

Specifications:

• Material: Zinc Alloy
• Color: Blue/Black/Gold
• Power supply: 7.2~8.4V
• Battery: 4200mAh
• Quiescent current: <150uA
• Action current: <250mA
• Fingerprint Capacity: 100
• Unlock mode: Apple HomeKit/Fingerprint/Password/NFC card/Siri voice/App/Keys

Features:

• Phone APP remote control, check the lock locking status at any time.
• Using Sweden FPC semiconductor financial fingerprint head, Fingerprint identification is fast and accurate.
• Equipped with special encryption technology of high-security magnetic card, convenient for the elderly and children to use.
• Electromagnetic protection design, avoid malicious door opening hidden trouble.
• Apple HoneKit data security certification, built-in apple Mfi encryption chip.

The post Xiaoyan/Terncy Titan Smart Lock 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.

Smart Lighting Without Drastic Steps.
Conveniently schedule and operate ceiling lamps, wall lamps, fluorescent lamps, ventilator, etc. remotely from anywhere.

“Hey Siri, turn on the bedroom.”
Offers compatibility with various voice assistants and intelligent speakers, including Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Rokid, Tmall Genie, etc.

Simple to Install Without Modifying Wiring.
Even the old house may enjoy smart lighting. Just install it in an existing junction box with no need to modify the wiring.

Create a New Feature on the Programmable Button.
One click turns on a light, two clicks trigger a scene, and long-press turns off all the appliances.

Activate a Scene of Life with just One Click.
Specify a button with a “come home” scene. It will perform synchronized actions of several devices when you’re home and click on it.

Works with Apple HomeKit.
Terncy wall switch that fully supports the HomeKit ecosystem is the first wall switch compatible with Apple HomeKit in China. That ensures data safety and the stability in use.

Works as a Multi-way Switch.
Turn on the bedroom light at the door, and turn off it with the bedside wall switch, even without wiring of a multi-way switch.

Blazes with Six Colors.
Personalize your house in a modern style with 6 ideal colour options that are picked up from nature.

Delicate Design and Implementation in Every Detail.
The handpicked material enhances the tactile sensation at every time you press the button. The modest key travel and the fine-tuned feedback force highlight the sense of quality.

The post Xiaoyan/Terncy Wall Switch appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Xiaoyan, based in Mainland China, is a company we’ve discussed previously, with reviews of their suite of smart home products, which you can buy in one special pack, or as individual items. Outside of China, the company is now known as Terncy, to make it easier to pronounce, one would assume. Their suite of products include their gateway, called the Home Center, a combined door/window and temperature sensor, a smart bulb socket, a device we previously reviewed, called the Awareness Switch, which combines a programmable button (with a light ring for dark situations), temperature sensor, two motion sensors, and an ambient light sensor (wow!) and finally, the product we’re looking at today, the smart plug. You can check out an overview of the suite of products in the video below.

When I received the suite of devices back in 2018, they all came in individual boxes, and while the box, in this case, is a little small and doesn’t offer a massive amount of protection, I do like the clean, simple design they’ve gone for, which is carried over to all of their other devices. Now, as the more attentive of you might have noticed, the line drawing on the front of the box indicates that this is a Type I plug, which is used in Mainland China, Australia and New Zealand, but before you run away, stick with us, as this could also be of benefit to anyone who uses Type A (two-pin North American) plugs or even the European Type C Europlugs as well. The rear of the packaging gives some basic info on power output, voltage etc, along with dimensions. This plug works with 110-120v and 220-240v systems, so it will work pretty much anywhere. What is not mentioned (at least not in English) is that this is a Zigbee based device, not wi-fi. So, you will need the company’s hub for this to work, much in the same way that the Zigbee-based Mijia and Aqara smart plugs work.

As you can see from the images above, the shape is quite unique compared to most other smart plugs, and that may or may not appeal to some, but it’s actually also really small, coming in at a mere 80mm tall, by 45mm deep and 56mm wide, so it shouldn’t keep anyone awake at night. The front of the plug has the socket, along with the Xiaoyan/Terncy logo and a small on/off button. Now with regards to the socket, as I’ve already stated, this is primarily a Chinese smart plug to accommodate devices with a Chinese…plugs, and also accommodate the North American style Type A two-pin plugs, although they have to be the older ‘unpolarised’ versions, as well as the Type C Europlug

Of course, this still requires that you have a Chinese socket to plug it into, to begin with, so in my case, I have a standard Xiomi power strip that I also use for one of my Aqara HomeKit hubs. I can now have the Xiaoyan smart plug added to this power strip and can then plug any device with the unpolarised type A plug into this and make it smart, so to speak.

Now you may think this is a bit of a convoluted procedure, and in many ways it is. However there are many people, including myself, that regularly buy products from Chinese stores, which come with Chinese pins, and as long as they’re ‘dumb’, having a Chinese smart plug of this kind can actually be quite useful. It’s not or everyone, but given that you can still use it for the Type A plugs, it’s handy for me. If you’re from Australia or China, then it’s quite obviously going to be handy!

I’ve already mentioned that this is Zigbee based, so the Xiaoyan/Terncy Home Center is going to be required. Of course, you can do the same with an Aqara or Mi smart plug (if you can find one), if you already have an appropriate hub, but the big difference here is that Xiaoyan don’t impose any requirements like regions or the need for having an account in order for you to use their devices, and for some, that’s a big deal, not having to be tied to a Chinese server and have an account. Of course, if you want to update your device, you’re going to need to download the Xiaoyan app and create an account, but that’s the same for most other vendors essentially. Speaking of Zigbee, I have to say I’m a big fan – in the case of this plug and other Zigbee based devices (Aqara, Mijia and Hue) they’re really rock-solid in terms of connection, and they seem to respond fast. Since installing this plug, it has not once disconnected or become unresponsive. Whether that’s just Zigbee in general, or more specifically to do with the company, I don’t know, but it’s something that I find quite reassuring.

The packaging does state that this is capable of a maximum of 2500W, although this is only when used in places that use 220-240v systems, so you’re not going to get that much if you’re using this in a 110-120V environment, this will still be more than capable of handling most home electronics, and if you’re going to be using something that only uses the two-pin Type A plug, then it’s unlikely your device needs a lot of power.

I’ll admit that I’m presenting a very niche use case for those of us that don’t require a Type I Chinese smart plug, but if you do have a need for this, I can really recommend it, if not for anything else but it’s reliability.

more information can be found on Xiaoyan’s website – xiaoyan.io

Full disclosure: Xiaoyan provided HomeKit News with the Smart plug for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made or requested.

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

As always, I like to start off with initial impression of the packaging; This isn’t the most sturdiest of boxes, so if this is going to be shipped anywhere at all, I’d like to think that some measure of protection would be part of the packaging that this would then be delivered in, but considering this has made its way from Shanghai to myself in Taiwan (still a fair distance), it seemed to manage the journey with ne’er a scratch. Full marks for the minimalistic design though, which I do like, and which matches the theme of all of their other product packages. The design on the front gives you a basic outline of the switch layout, but in addition, it tells you which version of the switch you have – so in this case, it’s a two-gang switch, indicated by the two dots in the centre of the each of the two top buttons. The three gang and four gang switches will have the corresponding amount of dots. Simple and effective.

As the packaging is quite ‘straightforward’, upon opening the box, you’re immediately presented with the switch itself, and it is a beauty! Really minimalist, but great use of subtle rounded edges, where required. Once out of the box, there’s really only the addition of a pair of screws that you need in order to fix this to the wall, along with a small manual (not pictured). The switch itself is designed for the UK and China, so the size is the standard 86 x 86mm. This means the currently available versions will not be suitable for US light switch recesses, although I’m told there will be US versions in the near future. As I’m in Taiwan, and we have the same setup as the US in terms of voltage, outlet style and switches, then the switch recesses I have weren’t large enough to accommodate this. However, I was able to wire it up and test it, and have since been able to create a temporary home for the switch itself – never say never!

All of the variants are suitable for 110-120v and 220-240v 50/60Hz systems, and currently there are switches with and without the requirement for a neutral wire;

• Single, 2 and 3 gang variants without a neutral connection
• Single, 2, 3 and 4 gang variants with a neutral connection

Each hardwired switch is capable of a load of 600w for the versions without a neutral wire, and 2000w for the ones with a neutral wire if you’re in a 220-240v region, while regions with 110-120v systems can expect a load of 300w for versions without a neutral wire, and 1000w for the ones with a neutral wire. Given that the programmable switches are merely used for triggering other devices, the wattage doesn’t apply like it does with the wired buttons.

The variant I have is 2-gang, with no neutral connection, which is suitable for Taiwan. When it comes to these different gang variants, essentially all of them are of the same design, so you get four switches, regardless. What this means is that with the single gang switch you get one switch that is wired and therefore controls the light that it’s wired to, with the other 3 switches being of the programmable variety, like any smart button (e.g. Eve, Fibaro, Aqara etc). By that logic, it follows that my variant controls two wired lights, and has two programmable buttons, the 3-gang switch controls 3 wired lights, with one programmable button, and finally, the 4-gang controls four wired switches but has no programmable buttons. There are plans to further enhance the functionality of all switches, but for now it’s as outlined.

As this is a ‘no-neutral required’ switch, it was relatively easy to set up, and once I’d figured out which wire was which, I was up and running quickly (in part thanks to Xiaoyan being available via WeChat to make sure I had it all set up correctly) . I’ve actually never had the opportunity to wire up a switch, so although this was all new to me, it was actually very straightforward. Once I’d restored power to the lights, the central LED lights up, although I was surprised to see that it was green and not blue as per the promotional images. I spoke to Xiaoyan about this and it’s something they’ll be correcting, not that it ultimately matters, as long as you’re not averse to green, or you were really counting on blue.

This switch works from the mains electricity and connects to the Xiaoyan hub (Home Center) via Zigbee, which in turn connects to your network, so in order to get it all connected, you simply follow the instructions in the Xiaoyan app, to get it paired with their hub, and from there it’ll appear in the Home app. This obviously means you need the hub for this to work. In the app, you get three tiles, two of which control the wired lights, and one tile that represents the two programmable switches, so whilst the wired switches can be controlled via the tiles themselves, the programmable switch tile just leads to the settings page, which enables you to program them. As these can control anything from lights, to a coffee machine(via a smart plug), or anything you can drop into an automation or scene, there’s plenty of scope as to what you can do with them. Of course, even if you had the 4-gang switch and no programmable switches, you can still create condition-based automations via the status of the lights they’re connected to, so there is tonnes of potential for this product.

Although I didn’t initially notice at the time, largely due to the switch initially being tested in a brightly lit area, all of the buttons that are connected to the wired lights have small white LEDs underneath and in the centre, to show you what state they’re, in whilst also giving you the ability to see them in a darkened room. Response time for both the wired and programmable switches was really great, largely thanks to using Zigbee as the preferred communication method, and in the two weeks that I had it wired up, I don’t recall any issues other than a slight delay from one particular automation, which I suspected was down to the end device rather than the switch itself.

Taking a look at the design of the product itself, Xiaoyan have gone for the durable matt plastic finish you’re seeing a lot these days, especially with devices coming from the likes of Xiaomi and Aqara, and I do like it. The switch surfaces aren’t immune to dirty or greasy fingers, so it probably pays to keep on top of cleaning them regularly if you want to keep them looking pristine. I’m not so keen on the silver trim, but it’s not ostentatious enough to come across as gaudy, so I can easily live with it. I’d have liked to have seen a white option ultimately, but the silver is growing on me. The buttons themselves have a nice, reassuring click when pressed, and although they feel a lot firmer than something like the Philips Hue Dimmer switches, which definitely have a lot more ‘wiggle’ when pressed, if you do press the buttons right on the inner edges (where the central LED is) then it’s harder for them to register, which given the design, is not surprising. This is far from a negative point though, and of all the switches I have tested, these seem the most robust in terms of the feel when pressed.

All in all, given this is the first time I’ve tested out a hard-wired switch, I’m first and foremost relieved at how easy it was to set up, but also that this particular switch does give you a lot of options, with more to come. Once they do bring out US versions (also hopefully with a no neutral option) I’d love to get more to put in the apartment, as I do think they look slick and modern, but also understated.

more information can be found on Xiaoyan’s website – xiaoyan.io

Full disclosure: Xiaoyan provided HomeKit News with the Smart Switch for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made or requested.

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Before I begin, even though Xiaoyan are new to many readers, it’s important (for me at least) to let you know how the name is pronounced! so, the first part is Xiao, pronounced “shao”, which means small or little. The last part – yan means Swallow, as in the bird, and it’s actually pronounced as though the ‘a’ is an ‘e’, so “yen” not “yan”. Good to get that out the way, seeing as I pronounced it wrong in my overview video…

ok, so let’s get into a quick unboxing; As you know, if you’ve read my other reviews, I like the packaging to be decent – both sturdy and well designed. This packaging is on the understated side, but I like that, and if you see the current complete range, you’ll see that they have a consistent theme of white boxes, with green and blue print (with black for small text) which I’m a fan of. The box isn’t the strongest I’ve encountered, but as long as it has a reasonable level of protection and the device is held in place, that’s good enough, and it is held in place really well. There’s not a lot on the box itself other than some basic info on the back, most of which is in Chinese (given that this is from China, and for the Chinese market currently). The contents of the box consist of the Awareness Switch itself, a manual (also in Chinese) and a circular double-sided sticker for adhering the switch to a surface. It already comes with one sticker already attached to the back of the switch, so this is a spare, should you want to relocate it after you’ve already stuck it in place initially.

I must state from the outset, that this and the other Xiaoyan devices that will be reviewed later, aren’t HomeKit compatible in and of themselves as such. Only the Xiaoyan Home Center is HomeKit compatible, and all child devices go through this hub, and then go on to be exposed to HomeKit, much the same as the Philips Hue Bridge, and in the same way, these devices communicate with the hub via Zigbee, whilst the Home Center connects to HomeKit via a connection to your router/modem via an ethernet cable, just like the Hue Bridge. So, all devices will have to be added via the Xiaoyan app initially before appearing in the Home app.

Getting onto the Awareness Switch itself, it’s certainly not massive, but you’re also not in much danger of losing it down the back of your sofa, coming in at 88 x 88 x 23mm. It also has a bit of weight to it, but not unduly so, feeling like it can take a bit of use without any real trouble. The same also applies to the main part of the device, the switch itself, which has a bit of resistance, making it feel quite high quality, with no movement or ‘wiggle’, like you tend to get with the Hue Dimmer Switches. The two different actions can be programmed as with any HomeKit based switch, and if you use a 3rd party app, like the Eve app, then you can get more out of the two actions. As this has an ambient light sensor built-in, it can also detect if it’s dark where the button is placed, and emit a green ring if colour around the switch for roughly one second once pressed, so you can not only see the switch in low-level light (once it’s been pressed), but it also acts as confirmation that your press has been registered.

The base of the device doesn’t really feature much other than the adhesive ring that allows you to stick it to the surface, although personally, I prefer it freestanding at present, but with the presence of the dual motion sensors (which we’ll look at later), you may well need to stick it to a wall for some use cases. When you first get the device unpacked, there’s a small strip of plastic that needs to be removed to make the batteries active. You can see the slot on the base where the strip of plastic is removed from.

Looking at the edge of the device, you have a small slot that allows entry to the inside of the switch. Now this was the one thing I wasn’t so keen on, as I found it difficult to get into the switch without making some superficial marks to the plastic case. I used a thin dinner knife to slowly prize it open and it wasn’t difficult, but if it simply twisted off, then it would have been a lot better in my opinion. Once seeing the inner workings, it may not be possible to do it this way, but it still should be easier to get into it than I found it. Happily, the batteries last at least 12 months, so it’s not something you’d have to do often. The device is powered by two standard AAA batteries, so you’re not going to be struggling for replacements, thankfully.

Onto what else is on the edge of the device and firstly you have a small LED indicator light. This is normally only in use when initially pairing the device to the Xiaoyan Home Center, as previously mentioned. When you first go into pairing mode the indicator should flash green fast to show it’s attempting to pair to the home Center. A short but slow green flash will indicate a successful pairing. If it flashes yellow at a medium rate continuously, then pairing has failed.

Besides the indicator, we get to the main unique feature of this device, which is not one, but two motion sensors. Just so you know, these are two separate sensors that appear in the Home app individual devices, and as such can be used separately for triggers and automations, although Xiaoyan inform me that they’ve been working on special algorithms to make them also work together intelligently if need be. It should be noted, that the timeout/reset for these motion sensors is set to 15 seconds, and there’s currently no option to configure the timeout length like you can with the Eve Motion sensor. From my rudimentary tests, the motion sensors are pretty fast, and have a reasonable detection distance, even in low light, so it only remains for me to figure out what I can do with these sensors to work in tandem. One obvious use would be for use in a long corridor, where one sensor detects someone coming from their bedroom and turns the corridor lights on, so then the person heads down the corridor to a bathroom at the other end. When the person passes by the Awareness switch, they would then trigger the second sensor, which would turn lights off behind them. If anyone can think of other instances, then ‘answers on a postcard’ as they say! The sensors have been cleverly angled, so that in the situation where they’re placed on a wall, you’re not losing some of the motion sensors’ potential ‘field of detection’ that would otherwise be covering a static wall if the motion sensors were pointing straight out.

This leaves the two other sensors, which is the ambient light sensor, that I touched on before, where it’s used to detect the light levels in order to let the switch emit the green ring of light if it’s dark enough, but as with the Philips Hue Motion Sensor, you can get quite creative with using the light sensor in automations or triggers, although only 3rd party apps have this ability at present, not the standard Home app. The other sensor is the one that measures temperature, which once again can be cleverly deployed in automations, should you need it.

Wrapping up, we’ve got ourselves a programmable switch, two motion sensors, an ambient light sensor and a temperature sensor, all of which are represented in HomeKit with their own tiles, so you’re going to have to accommodate five different tiles in your Home app. This review hasn’t been a chore in this case, as I find it intriguing to think of the potential with a device that packs in so many things, and although it might seem to some that these sensors aren’t somehow useful to each other, they’d be wrong, because all of these can and will work together to make sure that wherever it’s placed, you’ll get light (from the ambient light and motion sensors), and warmth (via an automation linking a thermostat to the temperature sensor), as well as special functionality from the switch, depending on what you program it to do. As it’s based on Zigbee, there’s no problem with it communicating to the hub, even if the internet is down, and I’ve always found Zigbee to be very fast and reliable in other devices, whilst also not bogging your wi-fi strength down.

You can currently purchase this switch and any of the other sensors separately via AliExpress, but you’ll have to search for yourself I’m afraid, as I don’t want to point to stores there that I can’t verify as reliable. That being said, Xiaoyan have said they’re working on getting their devices onto amazon.com, so hopefully buying them will be very straightforward soon. In fact Xiaoyan are already on the shelves of a few official Apple Stores in China, so this bodes well not only for the quality of the products, but also their availability.

You can check out more information on Xiaoyan and their products at xiaoyan.io

Full disclosure: Xiaoyan provided HomeKit News with the Smart Switch for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made or requested.

The post Xiaoyan Awareness Switch (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• Programmable switch: The function of clicking, double-clicking and long-pressing can be customized in the app
• Human body induction: Double body sensor detects the direction of human body movement, realizes the operation of automatically turning on the light when the person enters the room, and automatically turns off the light when leaving the room
• Illumination induction: The illumination intensity around the device can be monitored at any time. It can realize the operation of turning off the light when the illumination is high and turning on the light when the illumination is low
• Temperature sensing: Even if you are not at home, you can always know the temperature in your home
• Support for Apple and Google ecosystem: Support for Apple HomeKit and Google Home systems, as well as support for Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa voice control

The post Xiaoyan Awareness Switch appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• Support for Apple and Google ecosystem: Support for Apple Home and Google Home, as well as support for Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa voice control light
• Compatible with traditional light bulbs: traditional light bulbs with smart lamp holders enable intelligent control of light bulbs
• Multiple ways of control: time switch, remote control, voice control, making lighting more convenient and intelligent
• Easy to install: as long as the smart light socket is installed on the traditional lamp holder, the intelligent control of the traditional light bulb can be realized
• Multi-device linkage: With the Terncy sensor switch, people can turn on the lights. With the door magnetic sensor, the door can be turned on

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