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HomeKit

My Review of the Yobi B3 HomeKit Doorbell

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Nice Packaging

So, the main reason I pulled the trigger on getting this doorbell is that our previous one (a Zmodo) was literally falling apart. I don’t know if it was age, sun or aggressive button pressing, but the button was half gone.

Yobi is the first (maybe second, but first for consumers) Homekit enabled doorbell (as advertised during WWDC ’20).

When you’re on the bleeding edge, getting cut is a likelihood. The Zmodo had a clever install. You installed and connected your doorbell wiring to a plate. The actual hardware slid on and locked down with a screw.

Yobi ain’t got time for that!

Installation

They Yobi comes with an ugly gold frame. You connect your wiring directly to the device. The frame leaves zero room for wiring. I guess Yobi assumes you have plenty of doorbell wiring that you can pull out to make use of, but that is easily shoved back inside.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get my not long wiring to connect to the device and shove back inside. Yobi provides some wire extenders which help, a little.

The solution I came up with was to use one of their little off-set bits. They include two, one that angles your device slightly up or slightly down and one that angles your device slightly to the right or left. The upside of these is they also provide some space for wires.

If you plan to go this route, get your own screws. This is the screw they give you, the head is so small it passes right through the slot it’s meant to hold your device to the wall through. Who thought this screw made sense? Oh and it’s such a shitty and soft metal, you’re likely to strip the head putting the screw in. One and done.

Thankfully I have quite the collection of random screws from other projects.

Overall

Once you get past the pretty janky install, connecting this thing to your network, and Homekit Home, is actually really easy, Sorta.

They put the homekit code on the back of the device. Nowhere else, not in the documentation, anywhere. Likely depending on your wiring, the device is on, when shoved into the frame.

Thankfully the iPhone camera is good and I could capture the code from severe angle.

Once you get past that, it’s actually really easy. Kudos to Yobi here, adding to HomeKit once scanned took one shot. I’ve had other gear that took a half dozen attempts.

What Would Improve?

I’d ditch the gold. I’d include usable hardware. If possible, I’d make the frame either have room for wires, or have the wiring attach to the frame.

Once I have more time, I’m going to have to take mine off the wall and tighten up the install, which I don’t relish.

That said, it’s nice to have one less app, and to have my doorbell in HomeKit. I assume once iOS 14 is released to the public, the whole “Homepod announce doorbell” thing will work.

Getting the Rachio 3 Set up

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We moved in November. I don’t recommend it, for one reason: Things are winterized, you don’t know what’s planted where, and you don’t know the condition of your sprinkler system. (Obviously, this last one only applies if you’re moving into a Single Family home).

As I’ve been smartifying the house, a smart sprinkler was a definite must. Even when we had a place down in Highlands Ranch, I hated my sprinklers running in the middle of a rainstorm. I still hate it and when I see a house where it’s happening I want to knock on their door.

I really wanted something HomeKit connected; one for the security, and two, for the convenience. The choices there are slim.

I like Rachio because their kit is attractive, and they’re a CO Company. I’ll support a CO company over another any chance I can.

Rachio S3 BoxI ordered the Series 3 sometime around the first of the year, and shipping was mid-April if memory serves. Well around mid-April I looked at my order and now shipping was mid-May. Not unexpected, shipping on new stuff slips. Still a bit annoying as I needed to get my sprinklers up and running. I had resigned myself to spending a few weeks with my (probably not horrible) original gear until the Rachio arrived, but was pleasantly surprised when I got an email letting me know orders were rolling out. There was still no firm date on mine, and I don’t know when the S3 started taking orders, so for all I knew I could be waiting until June. However there was a link to beg for earlier shipping, and I of course did :) And to my surprise a few days later a shiny new Rachio 3 arrived.

I spent some time running the existing gear through its zones so I knew what was what, taking copious notes on my iPad as I went. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was a weirdo, walking around iPad in hand like I’m judging water flow or something.

Rachio s3 labeled for installThen came install. FAR easier than I expected. I took note of the existing wires and used some handy paint pens to mark the wires and the corresponding zones on the Rachio 3. That helped a lot as the existing system had 12 zones, and there just aren’t that many colors of wire available.

Unlike my experiences with a Nest and two Ecobee thermostats, this was cake. Everything matched up to the same thing from one device to the next, no mystery wires or “What the hell” type things. 
Powered up Rachio 3

I was really impressed how easy setup was.

You’ll have to forgive the ugly mess under the unit, I was more interested in getting it up and running than appearances. I will likely go back and trim these wires to more cleanly fit.

That said, the Rachio 3 powered up, the app found the device right away and walked through testing and labeling each zone. Ten minutes later I was all set.

I’m looking forward to seeing how it works as far as watering. I suspect I’ll have some adjusting to do as the next few days unfold, but I love the idea that it knows where it is, and knows the forecast so plans around expected weather.

 

If I had one gripe, right this second, it’s that there isn’t an iPad app. I love that I can fire up the ecobee3 (which I LOVE) app on my iPad and do more than I can on the iPhone. It’s nice to have an app that knows the device it’s on and offers an experience that matches the real estate. The Rachio app isn’t an iPad friendly app even, so it just runs the iPhone app in 2X (which means I immediately uninstalled it.) Maybe Rachio should send their Dev team to 360|iDev :)

More adventures in Home Automation

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So I’ve been slowly “smartifying” the new house. When we moved we brought most of the smart kit with us, so I immediately had some iDevices Wall Switches, door locks, and cameras. Since then I’ve added another Camera to the front porch, and some smart bulbs.

HomeKit Home app viewFirst the Camera. It’s a Logitech Circle 2 (Wired, so that it’s HomeKit friendly). Overall it’s a good camera if you can get past Logitech’s mostly horrible install and set up instructions. Really a homeKit code that’s grey font on black plastic, 2pt font, under a piece of the camera, so you need to write it down since you can’t pair while the camera is unpowered… Really Logitech? Beyond that, it’s a great camera. It is weatherproof and does a great job at night. I don’t pay for the smart alerts, because nearly $10/month is a bit extreme. It’s great as is and really I want it more for watching for upcoming appts and watching for deliveries.

 

HomeKit app Automation for lightsAfter that, I added some Philips Hue White bulbs. I’m not a huge fan of smart bulbs vs. smart switches since smart bulbs have a point of failure that switches don’t, the switch. I’m going to have to get some covers or something for the switches in question. That said, they’re a great addition. Using the Home app on iOS I’ve chained two bulbs (one fixture) to turn on with another set of lights, so now it’s one and done, lighting the living room. Handy for sure. I’ve added a bulb to our jam cellar room in the basement, with the intention of adding a motion sensor. Right now that little room has an old-timey pull string. I’m hoping to just make it, “open door, the light comes on. Motion stops, light off”

The last of the four-pack Hue lights went into the front porch light. I’d attempted to replace the switch with a smart switch, but the j-box is really, REALLY old. The existing switch barely fits in the box, a smart switch would never fit. Thankfully a smart bulb does the same job. Since I hate running lights when not needed, it’s been annoying me to have my porch light on 24/7, now the light is on sunset to sunrise only, just like the back porch lights.

 

My Review of the D-Link Omna HomeKit Camera

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UPDATE:

Ok, so I’ve been using the Omna for a while now and wanted to update my review. I decided to not post a second one, but just update this one, so the original is below.

Overall I’m still happy with my two Omna cameras. There are however some issues that kinda suck. Namely the SD recording function. Specifically, it’s unreliable at best.

There are times I’m certain someone is in the house (thankfully my Schlage Touch sense deadolt is WAY more reliable) and yet the camera never once captures it. Worse even, half the time the camera fails to capture things, it will capture before and after someone is in the house.

Example; I leave the house for a showing (we’re selling). My lock tells me the realtor has arrived. Some time later my lock tells me they’ve left. I take a peak at the camera to see if they walked around and liked the house or walked in and right back out. No recording. The camera captured me leaving, then captured me coming back home, but somehow never once captured what happened in between.

I still like the Omna overall, but it’s functions as a security camera are pathetic and I hope D-Link does something about it. I certainly won’t be adding any more Omna to my Homekit set up until this is addressed

 

So I’ve been keeping on eye on the HomeKit field since Apple announced it. Seeing what devices and manufacturers were launching. One of the things I’ve been waiting for is home security/monitoring. Finally, the D-Link Omna is out.

D-Link Omna HomekitI immediately bought two. I still need an outdoor camera solution, sadly the one I have isn’t homekit friendly, nor is the app that I use to monitor it. However, the Omna is NOT an outdoor camera. You could put it in a window looking out, but I’ve never had good results with that since the moment the IR lights kick in, they reflect off the window back into the camera.

So, that said, I have now addressed my “Did I leave the garage open?” problem. Usually, it’s right after leaving and I just do a quick loop through our alley, but sometimes it hits me farther from home, or as happened most recently, “Did I leave that soldering iron on?”

The main need I had for in-house cameras wasn’t to watch the house as much as detect motion and capture it when not home. That’s why the Living Room Cam is at the far end of the house. I don’t need to see Nicole and I watching TV in full HD, but when not home, want to see if anyone is moving around who shouldn’t be. i.e. someone tall enough to be seen, and not my dogs. I think it’ll be a killer feature to set a rule like “When I’m not home, if the front door opens, start recording and alert me” Thanks to the Schlage smart lock which is also HomeKit capable, that’s possible (ish, depending on Apple’s automation piece).

Setup

Setup Is easy, HomeKit tech may have a semi-premium price tag, but set up alone makes up for it. From the Omna app, you add your camera(s). The app gets them on the network, adds them to your HomeKit “Home” in the room you want. D-Link Omna setup

Once that’s done, you really don’t use their app much. THere’s a few settings you set, but after that, short of checking for firmware updates, there’s no need for the app (Into the ‘Home’ folder you go)

The motion capture is pretty basic, which I hope is just a rev 1.0 thing. Once you add an SD card you’re able to configure recording thresholds, capture areas, etc. You can’t view the captured video in the Home app, so you need to keep the Omna app around for that. You also can’t control motion detection triggers in the Home app automation section.

Ideally I’d like to set up capture rules around capture when I’m not home, or certain times of day, etc. I don’ need my Home to turn on lights when there’s motion in the garage at noon, and it’s me, but at midnight that might not be a bad thing, whether I’m home or not. Like I said, hopefully this is just a rev 1.0 thing.

 

Usage

The cameras support two-way audio, though other than spooking Nicole I can’t imagine a use. I’m sure if I talked to the dogs, they’d lose their minds and destroy something looking for us. I’m sure it’s a handy feature, but not one I really care about.

D-Link Omna viewThe Wide angle lens is really as it gives you a more or less full view of the space. As I play with these cameras, I may experiment with putting them in the middle of our rather long townhouse floor, to see if I can still capture the entire space.

 

HomeKit

Overall so far I’m really happy, but for the most part, if I never have to look at them, that’s good, since that means someone or something set them off when I wasn’t around, LOL.

As more and more devices are released (This seems like a big year for HomeKit based on the last CES) the HomeKit ecosystem will get more and more awesome. I hope Apple keeps up with improving the base HomeKit app/API so users can get creative with the automation tools.

I’m Slowly Adding HomeKit Automation to our Whole House

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With HomeKit finally being pretty robust, and widely supported I’ve slowly started adding automation to the house. It started with replacing our Nest with an Ecobee, which has been awesome! Then recently I added a iDevices Outdoor Switch to the rooftop. We’ve got some nice patio lighting up there, that I hate plugging and unplugging. I used to just leave it on all the time, which is kinda wasteful during the day, but easier then going over to the plug and fiddling with the cover to turn it all on, etc. (yes, laziness rules the day)

img_0093With the Outdoor Switch not only can I just tell Siri to turn on or off the ‘rooftop lighting’, but also now the lights are on a schedule; sundown, on, 10pm off. Definitely makes it easy and more energy efficient.

The setup wasn’t super smooth. There’s an app from iDevices you use to get everything connected, and that’s a bit finicky. You have to make sure the device is in wifi range, the phone is on the wifi you want to connect (2.4gHz only of course) etc. but once set up, it’s pretty straight forward, and then you can just use the Home app in iOS 10.

I changed my wifi password and that caused some havoc. About an hour later and many many cryptic errors, i was able to reconnect the switch. I basically (YMMV) had to completely remove it from my “home” and erase it’s existence, then fuss with the iDevices app a few times to get it back to connected, then all was good. I’m not sure there’s a better way than that either, which is a bummer.

If you’re looking to upgrade your outdoor lighting controls, etc, especially with holiday light season coming, I can’t recommend the iDevices switch any more highly! Set up hurdles aside once it’s set up, it’s great and reliable.

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