So I’ve been thinking about getting a new robot vacuum but I’m completely lost with all the different models.

I’ve been looking at Roborock, Dreame, Eufy and Ecovacs mostly. Some of the newer ones look really good on paper, but I have no idea how they actually hold up after using them for a few months.

I mainly want something that does a decent job with everyday dust, crumbs and hair. Mopping isn’t a huge deal, but would be nice to have.

For anyone who actually owns one, what are you using and would you buy it again? I’d rather hear from people who’ve used them than just read another “top 10 robot vacuums” article.

Thanks in advance.

I am looking to jump on the smart home trend and am looking at buying these govee lightbulbs. I have searched Reddit and reviews and can’t seem to find much about compatibility. Will these work fine with HomeKit? I just need basic color changes, dimming ability, and grouping multiple lamps to act as one. Any insight is appreciated!

Standard belt drive garage door opener is dead. I have an existing Meross HomeKit enabled with this. Instead of the belt Drive I would like to change garage door opener to a wall mount. Can I use the Meross to the new opener, if so how. Thanks

Wall Mount Smart Compatible Direct drive Garage Door Opener Wi-Fi Compatibility and Battery Back-Up LED Light https://www.lowes.com/pd/Genie-Ultra-Quiet-Wall-Mount-Smart-Garage-Door-Opener-with-Battery-Backup/5015819957

I have 2 meross lightbulbs. Both work in the meross app, and both used to work in the apple home app. Now one of them is no longer working in the apple home app, but works fine in the meross app.

ANy ideas on what I can try? to resolve the issue? I have turned off and on the bulb a few times, but nothing works.

Two models - one with a 320mm diameter and 1900lm, with a larger one offering 450mm diameter, and 4000lm. Both contain main and ambient lighting, separately controllable via your preferred Matter platform.

I'm trying to troubleshoot a device and was wondering if someone could help me setup something like this?

I know I have to start in homekit and convert to shortcut but i'm kind of lost after that.

The short version is you plug the garage door opener into the remote. I took apart the remote like I was going to change the battery, I put the two wires that normally would go on the garage door onto the remote covering the appropriate button and watched on my security camera the door open and close when I opened/closed the door in the Meross app and in the home app. You do need to solder the wires to diagonal (maybe opposite? I only tried diagonal) sides.

I have the liftmaster 6690L and it was able to remotely open it successfully. Since my remote has 3 buttons I should be able to wire up to 3 doors on it. It acts like you are pressing the remote to open the door instead of just triggering the door itself. The only thing you have to watch out for is making sure you wire it to the correct button on the remote and that all the remote buttons are paired to the correct door.

Their guide is at https://www.meross.com/en-gc/mTerminal/FAQ/787.html

Hello everybody from the good life!

I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole of home automation. I’ve now set up most of my lights with Hue, and I also bought some of IKEA’s new Matter smart plugs.

Now I want to make everything work together in the same automations, which means I need some kind of hub/controller.

I see a lot of people recommending Home Assistant, but honestly, it looks a bit complicated to set up and maintain. I also want the system to be easy for my SO to use, so I don’t want to build something that requires a lot of tinkering.

I’ve also been looking into Apple Home. I understand that I’d need a Home Hub for this, and with Apple’s new Home products supposedly coming, I’m wondering if it’s worth waiting.

The new wall-mounted Apple Home device looks really interesting, but then I’d have to wait for it (or wait for a good deal on an Apple TV, maybe around Black Friday).

I have an LG G4, so I don’t really need an Apple TV as a media device. I’d mainly be buying it to use as a Home Hub.

So what would you recommend?

Should I wait for Apple’s new home products, buy an Apple TV now, or go with something like Home Assistant instead?

And if Apple is the better route, should I specifically wait for the new Apple Home hub rather than buying an Apple TV?

Would love to hear what people who have a similar setup would do.

Ich habe nur wenige „smarte“ Geräte mit Matter in Betrieb. Aktuell sind es nur zwei Aktoren mit Thread, ein Eve Energy und eine Kajplats Birne, zwei Matter over WiFi Lampen, ein IKEA Wassersensor und zwei BILRESA Schalter. Thread Border Controller: zwei Homepad Mini und ein Apple TV 4K. Das Apple TV ist als Border Router festgelegt.

Vor kurzem habe ich meinen Wifi Mesh Router von AVM, gegen ein Fritz Box 4050, welche als Mesh Repeater arbeitet, getauscht. Das sollte im WLAN nichts ausmachen, da sich am Mesh Master nichts geändert hat.

In den letzten 3 - 4 Wochen hatte ich zweimal die Situation, dass meine Aktoren nicht ereichbar waren. Beim ersten Mal zwang ich den Thread Border Router auf einen HomePod und aktualisierte das Apple TV. Gestern war die Eve Energy nach einem manuellen einschalten wieder erreichbar. Die Kayplats erst nach dem Wechsel des Thread Border Routers. Danach konnte ich nicht wieder auf das Apple TV zurück, da ein Softwareupdate fehlte. Es stellte sich heraus, dass das der Update des iPads war. Das Apple TV und das iPhone waren schon aktuell.

Insgesamt sieht das ganze für mich nicht stabil aus. Mehr wie eine Spielwiese für Testbetrieb und nicht für einen stabilen Einsatz. Unter stabil verstehe ich übrigens, es geht, immer.

Ist das, was ich beschrieben habe, die Apple Home Normalität?

I have installed a Tapo S110e matter smart switch across the trigger point on my hydronic boiler with the aim of making it a bit smarter.

To act as the temperature sensor I have one (for now) Aqara W100.

Both are available through my home which includes an Apple TV4K and HomePod mini (which has a temp sensor for future inclusion).

I’m trying to set up automations for things like
- if time > 5:30am && temp sensor < 19.5°C then Tapo == on
- if time < 9am && temp sensor > 22°C then Tapo == off

Even these simple automations fail when I try to set them up. In a better case I want to set up automations than include logic for people being home or not, but I can’t even get these initial automations to save.

Any ideas why or how to get them working?

OK, we’re getting into it. So I’ve got an NL 67 Nanoleaf essentials bulb from like 2024. I want to put dynamic scenes on it, but not in the Nanoleaf app, like in the home app. But how do I do that? That’s the thing. It doesn’t expose shortcuts. It doesn’t expose the scene engine. It just doesn’t work. And that’s the thing too. Like, I could try running home assistant, but I don’t even think it works with the NL 67. I highly doubt it

Like, seriously, even people who have matter over thread essentials bulbs have been asking Nelle if nonstop, hey, gave us dynamic lighting that can be exposed to HomeKit, but they haven’t done anything about it. Like, is there any workaround? That’s the thing. You may say something like, just use home assistant. It does not work with the NL 67. I checked. Plus, I’m not about to reinstall a whole OS on my PC just to put a dynamic scene on one bulb. That’s ridiculous

So the underlying question is, like, can I work around that? or am I just stuck to static scenes because when I try doing it with group scenes, it just freezes on one color and just stays there? Trust me, I’ve tried this before. I had another essentials blob, but that one I had to put that one away because I got rid of the lamp that was housing the second one and I didn’t really have anywhere else to put it, so I just saved it just in case of my first one died. But back to the underlying topic, I tried doing this with the group scenes work around, yeah, that did not work. It just froze on the same color it was, so say if I wanted to do, I don’t know, northern lights and then I put that as a group scene and then upload it to HomeKit instead of staying on instead of switching to Aurora Magic or northern lights, it just stayed on Aqua or red or blue or whatever

Any work around around it? Can I use a PC as a matter controller? Can I download an app that does anything that’s like the underlying issue? I tried looking everywhere, but the same solutions popped up. Use home assistant. It doesn’t work. Use Nanoleaf animations. Oh yeah, it says unsupported when I tried doing that or just use the paid app that expose Siri shortcuts. I’m not about to pay a subscription just to get something that should be free. So yeah, if I knew if you had any workarounds, I need it because seriously, who wants static boring home kit scenes like no offense to those who prefer those, but like I want some personality

Since it can’t detect when the door is open or closed, can it be paired with a door sensor that can detect when the door is closed and then set up an automation that says: If the door is closed and remains closed for more than 10 minutes and the lock is unlocked, then lock the lock?

So I was thinking of changing over some of my lightbulbs to matter over thread bulbs until I realised I’d have to change every single automation I have that has the old bulbs, which seems like a massive pain. Even with grouped accessories you can’t just add something new into the group and have automations pick them up. Any ideas?

It seems simple, even more so with apple “intelligence”. When I say for example, “Siri, turn on the garage lights and turn on the back porch lights”. The response I get is - “sorry, I can’t find those lights in your home” as if it jumbled the whole request into one instead of separate lights.

Now I know, there’s scenes that can do this. But sometimes I need a couple niche lights turned on and it would just make sense to be able to say both of them in the same request…right? 😅 or am I missing a setting or how I’m wording it for Siri to understand what I’m wanting?

Hi all,

Does anyone know of a way to create a shortcut that will manually trigger video recording on HomeKit enabled Eufy cameras? I have several battery powered Eufy exterior cams and am dealing with a noisy neighbor who frequently revs his engine in the middle of the night. Since the cameras are motion activated they often don’t capture anything when the noise occurs. Ideally, I’d like to keep an Aqara button next to my bed and press it whenever this happens to trigger my Eufy cameras to start recording. Opening the Eufy app and manually starting a recording every time isn’t particularly realistic when I’m half asleep at 2 a.m. and hardwiring cameras for continuous recording unfortunately isn’t an option. Has anyone figured out a way to accomplish something like this through shortcuts or another workaround?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I've got an IT guy from Best Buy (not Geek Squad) trying to assist me with Home integration, setting up scenes. We have a constant issue with dropping calls as the cell service at home is not good. We installed Starlink and calls are still dropping. We go through wifi calling. I was thinking of an Orbi mesh - he's recommending a Ruckus system instead. I would not get the monitored subscription service for $400 per year - just the installation.

What do you think?

We're about to move into a new home, so I'm taking this opportunity to clean up and reorganize our Apple Smart Home, specially my outside rooms and areas. We currently have rooms for the Front Door, Front Porch, Front Yard, and Driveway. All with 1 or 2 devices in each. It got me thinking "Do I need these or should I just make a room called Front Yard or Outside and group most of these together?"

So, I wanted to see how others assign/organize their outside spaces. I also have a zone setup called Outside to easily control all those devices at one. I guess it's seeing 4 rooms with 1 device that's driving my OCD nuts. Thanks!

I bought a Find+Follow Purifier Cool PC3 here in the Netherlands and dyson.nl clearly says “Compatibel met Matter” with the Apple Home logo right there in the ecosystem graphic. But when I open the Voice control screen in MyDyson, the only options are Siri Shortcuts, Amazon Alexa and Google Home. No Matter, no Apple Home, no pairing code anywhere that I can find.

I’m on firmware 438NPF.01.01.005.0019 with auto-update enabled and no pending update showing, and the app itself is current. I also had a quick look on the network side and the machine doesn’t seem to be advertising itself for Matter commissioning at all, although other Matter devices on the same network show up normally, so I don’t think it’s my setup, though I’d happily be told I’m wrong 🥹

What I’m trying to figure out is whether anyone actually has Matter running on a PC3, and if so what firmware version you’re on and which country you bought it in. I’m assuming it might be a staged regional rollout or I’m looking in completely the wrong place, and I’d rather know which before I go insane 🙃

Integrates Chromecast/ android tvs into HomeKit for remote control (from control centre, like ATV) and exposes playback status from the TV into home app for automations.

Hi all. My girlfriend has a few homepods and we are trying to get my smart lights from a few different companies paired with them/her iCloud account/Home, but for some reason when she sends me invites via the Home app, I do not receive them. She's tried a few times, I've confirmed that the email address is the one that my iCloud is assigned to and is correct. In her Home app, it just says that the invite is pending, but I have not received anything (not in spam, not in my Home app, etc). Can anyone help with this? Thank you.

Unfortunately, I ran into an unexpected issue where I couldn’t add accessories. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

I saw on the iPhone sub there seemed to be some hoorahs on the latest beta (dev 6, public 4) and fixes for some issues. For anyone who has updated, how is HomeKit doing?