Switchbot Products
Riley Dyen
[Update, 8:45 a.m. ET, April 11: SwitchBot is offering a 15% discount code for Ars Technica readers on the Hub 2, good through May 10, 2023: MQ15HUB2 ] Here's the first thing to make me take notice, and it is, of all things, a hub. The SwitchBot Hub 2 ($70, also on Amazon) makes the most sense if you already have some SwitchBot products in your home and might want to take them beyond their default Bluetooth range with Wi-Fi connectivity. But I think it might also appeal to someone looking for an entryway to a small, controlled, and useful smart home.
For one thing, the Hub 2 isn't just a puck of plastic that does nothing but coordinate traffic for a subset of devices. I have two of those taking up space in my home, from Phillips Hue and Samsung SmartThings. They hang out within Ethernet distance of my router, eating trickle power and generating a little heat pocket on that shelf. They are quiet, mostly useless roommates who will be evicted by some future upgrade.
The Hub 2, by comparison, is something you will want to keep out and visible. It has a built-in thermometer and hygrometer, as well as a light sensor, and can display all these things on its LED screen, which brightens and dims to match the surrounding light. It has two buttons, which you use to trigger either scenes or actions on your other SwitchBot devices. And if you put it within range (15-30 meters) of any infrared devices that you'd typically control with a remote, like air conditioners or televisions, it can learn that remote and let you control that device from your phone.
By itself, a Matter-ready thermo/hygro/light meter that's also an infrared relay would make for a neat, if limited, gadget. But the Hub 2 being tied to one particular ecosystem isn't a weakness because that ecosystem is SwitchBot. If you haven't checked out SwitchBot's lineup, the Hub 2 is a great excuse to start. You can automate tilt blinds, curtain rods, door locks, and, crucially, most any kind of physical button.
With a Hub in your home, you can automate these physical objects from Google's Assistant/Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri/HomeKit, and IFTTT, while also tying the Hub 2's sensors to HVAC, fans, and other systems. If you're a Home Assistant type, you can go even further and likely use the Hub 2's buttons and sensors for whatever you can dream up.
Matter compatibility for SwitchBot's Hub 2 gives it some future-proofing, ensuring it could still be useful even if you switch assistants or lose enthusiasm for SwitchBot's other products. It's the first product I've seen touting a Matter logo that embraces the unspoken ethos: your devices, your system, your control, now and into the future.
Finally - what some of us (at least me) have been waiting for. A open API for SwitchBot. The article also gives Node-RED examples. Looks like it will not be too difficult to create a Hubitat integration.
I am intrigued by the direct bluetooth control, though. Apparently there's no hub required to use the BT interface, and it could potentially provide a local-only solution if something like @iharyadi's bluetooth-to-Zigbee device could handle the communication.
I haven't dug deep into the api but doesn't look like they have a callback option. Would like the device to report back to hubitat its state when changed instead of having to always poll for it. Hopefully they'll add something like that in the future.
I watched one of the review videos from the guy with the switchbot kettle demo. It turns out there is an IR blaster in the hub, which is kind of cool. And they expose it from the API. So, cloud interaction is still unfortunate if you have an unreliable or laggy internet connection, but it might be a cool thing to try out as an alternative to Harmony or Broadlink or whatever.
Was disappointed because there was no way of say, setting a 'volume up' button to be a press and hold. Which meant that on my TV, to flick volume between say, 50 and 10 I need to hit the button 40 times. Way too slow, especially with cloud.
Would be great if the api manages to get a decent hubitat integration as the UI sucks. It's just sat in a drawer. I will add that the 'support' was absolutely useless. Wasn't worth sending it back for the sake of 20 quid.
Yeah, I was probably ecpecting too much from a cheap bit of kit. The software is awful. Annoyingly it's (probably) easy enough to improve, but the company sounds like it's spread pretty thin. I initially contacted them over something minor and it escalalated into an absolute waste of time.
Hey all, I've played around a bit with the API and I've created a little driver to control a Bot device. Since I have only a Bot device (and no curtain or plug or ...), hence you won't find support for any other SwitchBot devices ...
Anyways, it does work significantly faster than using IFTTT (which I did before)
hubitat/Drivers/api-bot at toffehoff/hubitat (github.com)
When testing the curtains, I did come across a few bumps in the road. I have my curtains grouped to open from the middle. When I would open/close, it would only work from the main curtain, and not the secondary one (in the app you would create a primary and a secondary). That's fine, I can just use the main one to control them, but both of them wouldn't always go when I did it. Sometimes the main one would go alone, sometimes the secondary one would go alone, but most of the time both went together. I'm not sure if this may be a disconnect between the curtain and my hub that caused this as i do have my curtains a distance away from my hub, but it did happen a couple times.
Yes. Unfortunately, the Switchbot API currently only supports cloud communication.
What additional hardware is required?
A Switchbot Hub or Switchbot Hub 2 will be needed to activate cloud communication.
Known Limitations
There is a limit of 10,000 API calls per day. This includes commands triggered from Control4 and also polling. Going over this limit will mean the cloud will stop responding to requests. Please refer to our Installation and Usage guide for recommendations on polling times.
Where can I buy Switchbot products from?
Switchbot can be purchased from the official website and also a number of other retailers internationally. Please see link.
I currently have two such switches, one to control an HDMI switch I use to share a monitor between my Mac and my work PC. And another I use to power on a headless Mac mini that lives under my desk. I currently control them with my iPhone, but would like to do so via my Mac.
The Homebridge SwitchBot plugin allows you to access your SwitchBot Device(s) from HomeKit. Homebridge. - GitHub - OpenWonderLabs/homebridge-switchbot: The Homebridge SwitchBot plugin allows you to...
In the summer of 2022, I moved across the United States from Connecticut to California. I landed in a small, two-bedroom rental house. The house itself was built by the owner as a pandemic-era project. Since it is brand new construction and I am his first tenant, he is (understandably) pretty protective of the house when it comes to modifications, care, and cleanliness.
Thankfully, there are companies focusing on retrofitting smart products into existing homes. Among these, SwitchBot helps renters like me make a smart home that can be temporarily installed and then easily uninstalled and repurposed at some point later. I gave the products a shot on a whim and have been very pleased with the results.
SwitchBot came on the scene with the SwitchBot Bot, a small mechanical arm that can physically press a button on an existing device. The Bot connects wirelessly to a hub, allowing you to issue the command from anywhere in or out of your home.
The first is the SwitchBot Blind Tilt. This smart tool connects to the rod that you turn to tilt your blinds. It turns it for you and supports all the other SwitchBot smarts. This would enable me to open or close the blinds with a voice command or have them automatically open/close based on the temperature in the house, the time of day, or many other variables.
SwitchBot has been in business since 2016 with a focus on products that make the existing items in your home smart. They have been busy releasing a series of new products this spring, and today they introduced the SwitchBot Universal Remote.
The SwitchBot Universal Remote makes it easy to control a wide range of devices that are controlled through infrared (IR) signals, including numerous brands of TVs, air conditioners, lights, fans, DVD players, and projectors. SwitchBot plans to keep the remote working with the latest smart home gear by updating its library of up to 83,934 remote control models every six months.
The SwitchBot Universal Remote also leverages Bluetooth to seamlessly control other SwitchBot products including, but not limited to, the SwitchBot Bot, Plug Mini, Curtain, and Ceiling Light. In addition, the SwitchBot Universal Remote also leverages Bluetooth to control streaming media players including the Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
The SwitchBot Universal Remote includes a 2.4-inch LCD screen, touch wheel dial, large buttons, and a compact size that easily fits into your hand. It incorporates a 2000mAh battery that allows the remote to operate up to 150 days on a single charge. The remote also supports the ability to define scenes so multiple devices can be controlled with a single button press
In addition to supporting control of all the above devices, when used with a Matter-compatible SwitchBot hub, such as the SwitchBot Hub 2, the Universal Remote can control Matter compatible smart home devices in a home. This capability allows the SwitchBot Universal Remote to become a full smart home control point.
Matter-compatible smart home devices, as well as SwitchBot devices that are controlled through Bluetooth, can all be controlled without an active internet connection to the home. This assures that your Universal Remote will continue to operate as a smart home controller even during an internet outage.
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