Yeelight / Mijia, a great alternative to Hue

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Yeelight / Mijia, a great alternative to Hue

macuser

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Topic # 232033 26-Mar-2018 16:17

Before we begin - I was incredibly excited 2 years ago by LimitlessLED's products, but quickly realised after spending $200 or so on them and the accessories that they were incredibly disappointing, so have been looking for something that is a lot easier,

I recently purchased a couple Mijia Bedside Lamps from Gearb3st, $200~ incl DHL delivery for two (took 3 days from China)

These have really impressed me, not only because of their quality of warm white (High CRI) and great a large amount of RGB hues available, as well as a pretty well put together echo system (incl fully featured iOS and Android app and full Alexa and Google Home compatiblity).

They also integrate very well into Alexa (eg. Install Yeelight/Mi Home skill on Alexa and you're good), where I have created different scenes and can activate them (Alexa, turn on candles).

They are slightly slower to respond to commands than Hue, but that's being picky.

These Mijia Bedside Lamps seem to be one of the very few 90%+ CRI LED smart bulb available - high CRI basically means that the light itself emits a higher colour spectrum than low CRI bulbs, meaning that colours appear vibrant and more natural - and are easier on the eyes.

My next purchase is going to be a Yeelight Smart LED ceiling light - this is a hardwired light fitting replacement, and offers 90+ CRI, full Alexa integration, and enough output for a 15m square room, this is going to go into my office.

This will be a gateway drug to the much larger 650mm-in-circumference Yeelight JIAOYUE 650 ceiling light, which would be suitable for my lounge.

Unfortunately it seems that there are no high CRI e27 or bayonet bulbs available :(

tieke

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Reply # 1983615 26-Mar-2018 16:30

I'm a big fan of xiaomi gear in general, and have Yeelight fittings throughout the house - four or five of the standard Smart LED Ceiling Light and also one of the "starlight" Yeelight JIAOYUE 480 LED Ceiling Lights in my son's room. All can be controlled with either their native Echo/Google Home plugin (although I know you need to use their Singapore rather than Chinese server for this, which makes it harder to then use their wall-plugs as well), or can be locally controlled via Home Assistant.

Most of our major lights are thus now voice controlled, or come on automatically when someone enters the room, opens the front door etc. (Using the cheap Xiaomi sensors).

macuser

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Reply # 1983622 26-Mar-2018 16:35

How do you find the ceiling lights or the 480? Do they provide a nice quality of light?

Is the starlight basically just small transparent spots on the normal cloudy housing?

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tieke

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Reply # 1983826 26-Mar-2018 21:18

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macuser:

Is the starlight basically just small transparent spots on the normal cloudy housing?

Essentially, yes. They are star-shaped, but pretty much unnoticeable at high brightness. I did a quick video to give you an idea, but really had to lower the brightness for it to become apparent on camera.

The light is brighter than my standard ones, and is quite large in diameter - I stuck my hand up toward it in the video to give you an idea. I didn't need RGB lighting, and didn't like the donut-style Philips one, so went with this one as it was on special. The non-star one was $20 more, so star it was, as it was for a kid's room anyway. I would probably go for the non-star one usually, but not if the price difference was more than $10.

Definitely a good light. I have it set to a medium-brightness yellow-glow by default, but there's definitely quite a range, and at minimum moon-glow level it works well as a night-light.

networkn

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Reply # 1984438 27-Mar-2018 17:33

Do you use an adapter for NZ Power sockets or did you find one that had our type @tieke

tieke

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Reply # 1984461 27-Mar-2018 19:03

networkn:

Do you use an adapter for NZ Power sockets or did you find one that had our type @tieke

I just use the standard Xiaomi ones, such as this one. Good Xiaomi build quality and standard Chinese socket, ie. NZ-style three-pins out the back to plug into our sockets, and in the front either NZ-style three-pin plugs fit, or US-style two-pin plugs. (Not NZ-style two-pins as it needs a ground pin to open the three-pin cover. I had a couple of NZ-style two-pin plugs on electric blankets, so just replaced those with three-pin ones.)

You do need a central hub (currently $50)for all their wireless stuff to communicate with each other though -I can't directly link to the current sales due to the filtering on the forum, but the starter kit is currently $113 and includes the central hub as well as a wifi socket, door sensor, movement sensor and wireless button (you can set it to control any of the others).

tieke

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Reply # 1984462 27-Mar-2018 19:10

Looking again at the site I'm not sure if you definitely need the hub just for a single socket, but I know that's how Home Assistant or OpenHAB connects through to everything (I have an instance of HomeAssistant running on a Raspberry Pi, so my Limitless LEDs/Xiaomi stuff/infrared transmitters etc can all be controlled locally from one place).

SepticSceptic

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Reply # 1999952 20-Apr-2018 18:00

tieke:

I just use the standard Xiaomi ones, such as this one. Good Xiaomi build quality and standard Chinese socket, ie. NZ-style three-pins out the back to plug into our sockets, and in the front either NZ-style three-pin plugs fit, or US-style two-pin plugs. (Not NZ-style two-pins as it needs a ground pin to open the three-pin cover. I had a couple of NZ-style two-pin plugs on electric blankets, so just replaced those with three-pin ones.)

You do need a central hub (currently $50)for all their wireless stuff to communicate with each other though -I can't directly link to the current sales due to the filtering on the forum, but the starter kit is currently $113 and includes the central hub as well as a wifi socket, door sensor, movement sensor and wireless button (you can set it to control any of the others).

Had a look on Gaerbest, and I cant find a reference to their hub or starter kit. Is the Broadlink RM Mini Universal Wifi/IR Controller the hub you are referring to ?

Cheers

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