Bestort – Best Home Security Products

What is a smart home?

What is a smart home? Hearing this definition, one envisions fantastic films of the future, with robots and wall-to-wall screens.

Smart home in movies

Of course, in reality, everything is not quite so, a smart home is understood as a unified control system that ensures safety, comfort and energy saving, with minimal human participation.

Doesn't sound so interesting, right?

But progress does not stand still, and the same primitive motion sensors that were recently used only in security systems are already in all entrances, helping to save energy and not look for a switch.

Ideally, the system should be able to recognize specific situations and respond appropriately to them. A leak has occurred - it is necessary to shut off the water supply. Unauthorized entry into the house - the inclusion of an alarm in a police call. Gas leak - shut off the gas valve, etc. And all this without human intervention.

Such systems are designed together with the house, or during major repairs, they are delivered on a turnkey basis and are not cheap.

Who is this Xiaomi?

I want to note that now marketers are trying to call everything smart that can be connected to the Internet and controlled from a smartphone. What's smart about a light bulb that you can turn on from your smartphone from anywhere in the world? Absolutely nothing. But if a light bulb turns on in low light, when someone is in the room and turns off when it is light, this is already part of the elements of a smart home. Although it would be more correct to call it home automation.

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So the solution "Smart Home" from Xiaomi, to which this site is dedicated, is more suitable for a home automation system, but let's talk about everything in order.

Xiaomi is a Chinese company formed in 2010, which became known for its MIUI firmware, based on Android and branded smartphones. The range of products grew rapidly, from towels and orthopedic pillows to household appliances and electric bicycles. And at the end of 2014, Xiaomi introduced a home automation system consisting of a smart socket (Mi Smart Power Plug), a surveillance camera (Yi Camera), a smart light bulb (Yeelight LED) and an infrared control unit for household appliances (IR Remote Controller).

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The first Xiaomi smart home devices

These devices are combined into a single system using the MiHome application and are controlled via the Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz protocol.

For 6 years, the company has significantly expanded the composition of its automation system and continues to actively delight us with new devices. Now their number has exceeded 7 hundred devices.

Xiaomi smart home review

The Xiaomi automation system can be divided into 3 types of devices:

1. Devices using the ZigBee protocol, battery-powered and requiring one of the control gateways to integrate the devices into a single network.

2. Devices working on the Wi-Fi protocol, powered from the mains.

3. Devices connected via Bluetooth.

And now about everything in order.

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To get acquainted with the Xiaomi automation system, it is advisable to purchase the Xiaomi Smart Home Kit, which includes a multifunctional control gateway (Xiaomi Gateway), a universal button (Wireless Switch), a motion sensor (Occupancy Sensor) and a door and window opening sensor (Home Door / Window Sensors). The devices are connected to each other using the ZigBee protocol, and are controlled through a gateway, which in turn is connected to a Wi-Fi network.

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Xiaomi smart home kit

You can buy such a set today at FoxPox.ru. Devices can be checked before buying, and in the event of a defect, they can be easily changed under the store's warranty (6 months). One thing is bad, it only works in Moscow. But no one bothers to order it on AliExpress or GearBest. There shouldn't be any problems with buying now, ordering from China is usually cheaper, but you have to wait. Where better to buy Xiaomi, you can read here. Do not forget that devices intended for different regions will not work together, although there are some solutions for this.

All elements are made in a proprietary matte white plastic, the dimensions of the devices are much smaller than they look in the photo (for example, the largest Xiaomi gateway device is only 7.5 centimeters in diameter).

This set does a great job with several scenarios:

- Home alarm - the system may well frighten off people who entered your apartment. In case of motion detection, or the opening of the door at the moment when the apartment is protected, the siren sounds on the gateway and a notification is sent to your phone. Of course, the system will not be able to detain the robbers, but it is quite enough to scare you off and notify you in time.

- The doorbell is the simplest scenario, we hang the button near the door, plug the gateway into the socket, the doorbell is ready. It may be trite, but an average wireless call costs about 1,500 rubles, and in our case, for 3,000 we get a whole security system. You can also configure that when you call the phone, a notification is sent, and if you also buy a camera, we will receive a notification + a photo of the guest.

- Night light - Xiaomi Gateway has a built-in backlight, which, paired with a motion sensor, will become an excellent backlight at night (you got up to the toilet, the backlight turned on and you no longer wander in the dark).

- Radio - the gateway has a built-in internet radio function. Of course, you need to do some magic to add Russian stations, but a useful thing, for example, set the radio to turn on instead of an alarm.

If you decide to try an automation system, but do not want to spend a lot of money on it, then Xiaomi MiHome is perfect for implementing your ideas. The scalability of a smart home allows you to supplement the system with smart gadgets as needed, which is perfect for automating an apartment or house with a ready-made renovation.

And if the repair is only planned, then be sure to read the article about the organization of smart lighting using Xiaomi devices.

Be sure to read the article "How to set up automation scripts", this will help you better navigate the question and see all the capabilities and limitations of the system. You can see a detailed list of devices on our website in the "Smart Devices" section.

Xiaomi Smart Home is controlled via the Xiaomi MiHome application, available for both Android and iOS.

There is a possibility of voice control. Through Alice from Yandex, or Siri from Apple.