Gadgets

The Aqara Motion Sensor P1 requires the Aqara Hub E1

• Configurable Detection Timeout
• Built-in light sensor
• Up to 170 degrees field of view
• 5 year battery life

The Aqara Smart Radiator Thermostat E1 requires the Aqara Hub E1. It can be controlled via Apple Homekit and Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and more.

It can be used with the majority of water radiators including space heaters, towel warmers or even warm floors.

• Zigbee 3.0 protocol
• External temperature readings
• Colourful backlit display
• Geofencing and multi home support
• Easy installation and compatibility
• Configurable smart schedules

I don’t like the way the batteries are inserted. In the battery compartment there are two battery slots for AA batteries. The springs in the slots are both at the same end of the slots. I usually put the batteries into gadgets with the negative end of the battery on the spring. Not in this case. The polarity is different on one of them. It took me a while to work out what I’d done wrong.

The Aqara Hub E1 is a smart home control centre, that enables your Aqara devices to support Apple Homekit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and other ecosystems.

Powered by USB-A.

210 degree adjustable shaft.

Up to 128 child devices

Wi-Fi repeater

WiFi certified

Zigbee certified

Model: HE1-G01

Dimensions: 108x30x8 mm

Input power: 5V @ 0.5A

Wireless protocols:

• Zigbee 3.0 IEEE 802.15.4
• Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz

Email
Online customer service returns a 404 not found, and suggests looking at the Aqara Facebook page

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi mesh

My granddaughter has a Google Mini speaker in her bedroom. I had set up an automation on Google Assistant on my phone which stops music on her speaker at 21:30 on weeks days.

Hey Google, stop pink speaker!

Unfortunately she then often just asked Google to play music afterwards when she was supposed to be going to sleep.

My BT Whole Home Wi-Fi mesh is now configured to pause the WiFi connection to her speaker at bedtime. Hopefully this will help her get a good night’s sleep. I had first set it up with a custom daily schedule before realising that it had a bedtime option, which is ideal for a child’s routine. i.e. Sunday to Thursday being stricter than the weekend evenings.

My 5G broadband router sits on the window ledge in my office (spare bedroom). It connects directly to a network switch, the TP-Link TL-SG1016D Gigabit Switch which has 16 ports.

1. Three ZTE MC801A 5G broadband router.
2. Lenovo K450 Desktop PC.
3. IKEA Dirigera Hub.
4. Synology NAS.
5. Philips Hue Hub.
6. Empty.
7. BT Whole Home Mesh.
8. Empty.
9. Sonos Hub.
10. Empty.
11. Empty.
12. Empty.
13. Empty.
14. Empty.
15. Empty.
16. Empty.

When I bought this Samsung Chronos 7 laptop it had Windows¹ installed. It always had a problem with overheating and it was very slow to boot up, but when the battery life dwindled so much that I always have it plugged in then I eventually decided enough was enough. I took a risk and installed Google’s Chrome OS Flex. This OS goes from strength to strength and I couldn’t be more pleased that I decided to install it.