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The latest HomeKit-enabled accessory from Meross adds smart home convenience to a wide variety of existing garage door openers. Open and Shut
Being the most basic automation type, these are easily created in the Home app. The first step in creating any automation is to select a trigger. The Home app allows almost full use of the trigger types support by HomeKit, with some limitations. Here’s how to create these various trigger actions: Being able to control your smart home using your voice is awesome, but it’s not always the most convenient. Especially if you have guests around that don’t know the commands, or you don’t want to make noise at night. You can customise notifications for your HomeKit or Matter accessories to alert you at specific times and based on who's present in your home. I really like the design of these, but whether that’s enough for me to ignore the paltry battery life, despite CR2032 batteries being cheap, is a tough call. I already have many Zigbee door sensors, and a few Aqara hubs, so it’s not as though I’m short of sensors right now. Having said that, the day before I wrote this review, half my WiFi network went down (the 2.4GHz band strangely enough), and as a result, none of my Aqara devices would work, due to the Aqara hub not being able to connect to my Home Hub (Apple TV) via the network. The VS1 and some other Bluetooth devices (Eve Motion, Eve Door, Eve Room, Onvis Motion Sensor, and more…) were totally unaffected. That did make me think… It’s simple to set up, but you need to remember to set it up in the Meross app before adding it to HomeKit.When the UNTIL event occurs, this is used as a trigger for another automation that flips the dummy switch off. For an epic video doorbell that works with HomeKit, I recommend the Arlo Video Doorbell. Its AI can differentiate between objects and people to provide more intelligent alerts. Scheduled Time, which is limited to Time of Day and Day of Week rather than allowing specific dates. All of the apps expose the same functionality, either being able to enter a specific time of day (hour and minute) as well as the days of the week that it will trigger, or a Sunrise/Sunset value along with an offset time before or after that. This allows HomeKit to calculate the correct trigger time based on your location and time of year. HomeKit door and window sensors are an easy to install way to report on the status of your home. These sensors provide instant notifications when their status changes, and even work with other HomeKit accessories, enabling powerful automations. We love the Eve Door & Window sensor for its fast response times, and modular design, allowing it to function even if your surfaces are not in the best shape.
Smart home platforms implement rules in different ways, but they generally fall into some broad categories, not all of which are supported by every platform. These can be classified as: Trigger Actions (if A then B) The ismartgate Wireless Magnetic Sensor is an outdoor solution meant to work with gates that guard your home or driveway. This sensor reports directly to the ismartgate Gateway which is mandatory for use, but the convenience of knowing the status of your gate may be worth the investment. It can be used as a HomeKit hub and also provides convenient access to Siri so that you can control your other HomeKit devices with your voice. Siri can recognise up to 6 different family members via the HomePod Mini and provide personalised responses.Geofence presence. The Home app calls these “ People Arrive” and “ People Leave”. These events can be for one or more members of the Home specified as Anyone or by selecting specific users. Interestingly the ability to select specific users is limited to the Home app, the third party offerings can only use Anyone. You can also specify events based on the first to arrive and last to leave rather than specific people, but these can also be based on a filtered group of home members. Select the triggering value from the options presented. This will depend on the accessory you chose. It may be a binary value like Open or Close, or when a value Rises Above or Drops Below a certain number. These value-based triggers will likely need some trial and error to get the right threshold. You can customize notifications for your HomeKit or Matter accessories to alert you at specific times and based on who's present in your home. When it comes to the cool factor, there’s just something awesome about your blinds or curtains opening by themselves in the morning. This is no longer the work of sci-fi, Siri can now handle that for you.
One of the best features of the Onvis CT3 door/window sensor is its ability to integrate with other HomeKit-enabled accessories to create powerful automations. Here’s how to get started building automations using this device:
Siri voice control
Now that the inside of your home has had a Siri upgrade, now I want to share some smart devices for the garden, starting with some lighting. There are pros and cons, but we use it ourselves for its straightforward integration with Apple gizmos. The platform is baked into the phone you already own, so it couldn’t be easier to get started. You can simply add items like smart light bulbs or plugs to your home setup, and include a smart speaker through Apple’s HomePod or a streaming device like the Apple TV. Either of these can act as a “home hub”, enabling you to command and automate your home while you’re away.
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