Want
to start 2018 off as a developer? Well check out DevFreeBooks! Here you
will find over 150 books, the best part about it is, the books are
FREE! You can check them out here.
Feather
is a large collection of open source icons that look stunning! Each
icon is designed on a 24x24 grid with an emphasis on simplicity,
consistency and readability. Great if you need some icons in one of your
projects!
Are
you designing an iOS, Android, or React Native app? If so, check out
Lottie!Lottie is an iOS, Android, and React Native library that renders
After Effects animations in real time, allowing apps to use animations
as easily as they use static images.
Were
you ever currious and wanted to know what powers a website? Well
WhatRuns will be useful for you! WhatRuns is a free research and
competitive intelligence tool for developers, designers and salespeople
to know the technologies used on any website.
Kite
is a heads up display (HUD) for programmers that surfaces proven
engineering knowledge in a live internet connected environment helping
developers write better code, faster. Kite is the first tool to offer a
connected way to program; it is integrated with text editors and it uses
type inference to reveal examples as programmers type without having to
leave the screen for a web browser.
Perfect
for developers starting out, Code to go helps developers learning
JavaScript find up to date, accurate and ready to use snippets of
JavaScript code for common use cases.
Over
170 responsive design blocks ready to be used in your web or mobile
apps. All blocks are based on the Bootstrap 4 Library, and they are the
building blocks for beautiful websites.
Happy New Year from the Dvlpr Stash Team ❤
We, at Dvlpr Stash
hope that you find these resources useful, and as a thank you for
everything, we’d like you give you 20% off of everything in our store.
Just use the coupon code ‘DEVELOPER2018’ during checkout. We wish you
guys a very Happy New Year and may 2018 be your best year to date!
Uber
has transformed the world. Indeed, its inconceivable to think of a
world without the convenience of the innovative ride sharing service.
Tracing its origins in a market which is constantly being deregulated,
Uber has emerged triumphant. Operating in over 58 countries and valued
roughly at US$ 66 billion, Uber has rapidly expanded to established
branches in over 581 cities in over 82 countries with the United States,
Brazil, China, Mexico and India being Uber’s most active countries.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, in 2016 the company completed a total of 2 billion rides
in one week. When you consider the fact that the first billion rides
took Uber 6 years, and the second billion was garnered in a mere 6
months, it’s not surprising to see Uber emerge as a global business
leader. This worldwide phenomenon is built on a simple idea, seductive
in its premise - the ability to hail a car with nothing but your
smartphone.
It
took the problem of hailing a taxi and gave everyone an equitable
solution while further capitalizing on the emerging market. And smart
people are asking the right question: How do I build an app like Uber for my business needs?
Humble Beginnings
It
all started in 2008, with the founders of Uber discussing the future of
tech at a conference. By 2010, Uber officially launched in San
Francisco. In 6 months, they had 6,000 users and provided roughly 20,000
rides. What was the key to their success? For one, Uber’s founders
focused on attracting both drivers and riders simultaneously.
San Francisco was the heart of the tech community in the US and was
thus the perfect sounding board for this form of technological
innovation to thrive.
In
the beginning, Uber spread their App through word of mouth, hosting and
sponsoring tech events, and giving participants of their events free
rides with their app. This form of go-to-marketing persists today -
giving 50% discounts to new riders for their first Uber ride. This
initial discount incentivized users to become long term riders, and the
rest was history. As more and more people took to social media to tell
the world about this innovative new App - the sheer brilliance of their
marketing strategy paid off.
Product Technology Cohesion: How Uber Works
What
makes Uber, Uber? For one, it’s the ubiquitous appeal, or the way in
which they streamlined their product, software and technology. It was,
at the start, fresh, innovative, and had never been seen before. So if
one were to replicate the model, they’d need to look at Uber’s branding
strategy.
To use Uber, you have to download the app, which launched first on iPhone, then extended to Android and Blackberry.
Uber’s
co-founders, Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick, relied heavily on 6 key
technologies based on iOS and Android geolocation. What really sold it
though, was its clear core value - the ability to map and track all
available taxis in your given area. All other interactions are based on
this core value - and its what sets Uber (and will set your app) apart from the crowd. To build an App like Uber, you’ll need to have:
1. Registering/Log-in features:
Uber allows you to register with your first name, last name, phone
number and preferred language. Once you’ve signed up, they’ll send you
an SMS to verify your number, which will then allow you to set your
payment preferences. Trip fares are charged after every ride through
this cashless system.
2. Booking features:
This allows drivers the option to accept or deny incoming ride requests
and get information on the current location and destination of the
customer.
3. The ability to Identify a Device’s location: Uber, via CoreLocation framework
(for iOS platforms) obtains the geographic location and orientation of a
device to schedule location and delivery. Understanding iOS and Android
geolocation features is crucial for this step, because that’s what your
App is running on.
4. Point to Point Directions: The Uber App provides directions to both the driver and the user. Developers of the Uber App use MapKit for iOS and Google Maps Android API
for Android to calculate the route and make directions available. They
further implemented Google Maps for iPhone and Android, but cleverly
adapted technology from other mapping companies to solve any logistical
issues that might come up.
5. Push Notifications and SMS: You get up to 3 notifications instantly from Uber when you book a ride.
A notification telling you when the driver accepts your request
One when the driver is close to your location
One in the off chance your ride has been cancelled
You
further get the full update on your driver’s status, down to the
vehicle make and license number, and an ETA on the taxi’s time of
arrival.
6. Price Calculator: Uber
offers a cashless payment system, paying drivers automatically after
every ride, processed through the user’s credit card. Uber takes 25% of
the driver’s fare, making for easy profit. They paired with Braintree, a
world leader in the mobile payment industry, but other good options
avaible are Stripe, or Paypal, via Card.io.
Here are few more much sought after features for the user’s side of the App:
The ability to see the driver’s profile and status:
Your customers will feel safer being able to see your driver’s
verification, and it’s makes good security sense to ensure you know
who’s using your App for profit.
The ability to receive alerts: Receive immediate notifications about the status of your ride and any cancellations.
The ability to see the route from Their Phones (An In built Navigation system): This
is intrinsically linked to your geolocation features, you want to be
able to direct your taxis to the quickest, most available routes.
Price calculation: Calculating a price on demand and implementing a cashless payment system.
A “spilt fare” option: Uber introduced this option wit great success. It allows friends to spilt the price of the ride.
Requesting previous drivers: It’s a little like having your favourite taxi man on speed dial, and is a good way of ensuring repeat customers.
Waitlist instead of surge pricing: Avoid
the media hassle of employing surge pricing by employing a wait list
feature, so your users can be added to a waiting list rather than be
charged more than they should, and to keep them from refreshing the App
during peak hours, reducing the resources required by your backend
infrastructure.
Another
key to Uber’s success, that should be noted by potential developers of
similar Apps, is the way in which Uber operates. They tap into more than
one market which equates to more riders, more drivers, and more
business for the company. Uber has mastered the art of localization -
the ability to beat out pre-existing markets and competitors, which
further retains their customer base by improving their own business
strategy.
They’ve
taken local context and circumstances into consideration. For example,
they partnered with Paypal in November 2013 to provide as many people in
Germany don’t use credit cards, and switched to services based on SMS
messages in Asia as there are more people but fewer smart phones per
capita. This helps them cater to various markets and and optimize
profits.
The Uber marketing strategy isn’t static - it’s dynamic. Expansion
was necessary, and the business model reaps profits from saturating the
taxi market with their customers and drivers, driving their exponential
growth. What aspiring App developers can take from this is that you
need to design your App for flexibility.
Design
your App in a way that’s going to let it take a hit and roll with
punches. Having a system in place that allows you to build and integrate
changes effectively within the App and allows team members to
communicate effectively is of paramount importance.
What
made Uber so successful was its ability to reshape how we think about
technology and its operation. Indeed it made the market a better, more
efficient place through the innovative on-demand service.
What Technology is Uber Built on?
The
tech side of the App is written largely in JavaScript which is also
used to calculate supply and predict demand. With the real time dispatch
systems being built on Node.js and Redis. Java, as well as Objective-C
is used for the iPhone and Android apps. Twilio is the force behind Uber’s text messages, and push notifications are implemented through Apple Push Notifications Service on the iOS platform and Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) for the Android App.
How much does Uber make?
Actually,
it’s a lot less than you think. The $66 billion valuation, after the
25% commission (which rounds out to about $0.19 per ride) mostly goes
towards credit card processing, interest, tax, compensation for
employees, customer support, marketing, and various anti-fraud efforts.
How much does it take to build Uber?
Uber’s
not just one App, it’s two - one for the rider and one for the driver.
The cost of developing an App like Uber is dependent on a number of
factors
the cost of building an MVP
product development and acquisition
getting the economics of marketing sorted
the constant cost of building on and improving your App’s analytic capabilities
When
you make an App like Uber, you’ll invest a fair bit into design
services, backend and web development, project management, not to
mention Android and iOS native app development. The total man hours
round out to around 5000 hours for similar on demand taxi Apps, which
puts the cost of developing such an App to around $50,000 (assuming that
your team works for $50 dollars an hour). However, since hourly rates
roughly range from $20 to $150, median costs could be higher or lower.
Conclusion
To
wrap up, Ubers success was due to several factors, including a clear
business model and interaction based features, and not the other way
around combined with a marketing strategy focusing on attracting users.
The
question on everyone’s mind of course is how can you reduce the overall
risk of failure by making sure that your idea and product are viable
when you’re developing an App?
One way is to use a Mobile App development partner (such as Octodev)
that has worked on many such Apps and understands the processes
involved. An advance of using such a partner is they’ve worked on many
such App development projects and have the practical experience in
product development to avoid the pitfalls and make the most of your
vision.
Octodev App Development Process
Another
important part of ensuring that your App development project is swiftly
and smoothly executed is having a clear road map and regular
communication during the project. There are many approaches to achieve
this and we, at Octodev, use a consultative approach to App development.
We draw from our successful App implementations. Get in touch with us now if you want an accurate cost for your own Uber like App idea.
This article was originally published on the Octodev Blog.
I’m
leading a VR development studio, but the truth is I’ve been navigating a
series of epic career learning curves that have taken me far outside of
my comfort zone, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mainstreet, Mall or Modem
On my quest to
start sharing more about our process and lessons learned on the virtual
frontier, I thought I’d start with a bit of background on how I arrived
here in the first place.
I
studied and practiced architecture, but I’ve been fascinated with
virtual technologies as far back as I can remember. In fact, my
architectural thesis project in grad school (image above) focused on how
VR and digital technologies would someday revolutionize
architecture — specifically retail architecture. This was 17 years ago,
when VR was very expensive, and largely inaccessible, but the brilliant
pioneers at work innovating in this field were demonstrating the massive
potential. It was only a matter of time before VR would find a way to
mainstream.
Like
so many other physical manifestations, from music to books and beyond, I
believe buildings are subject to a similar digital transcendence. It’s
already happening in a pretty big way, and this is just the beginning of
a major architectural transformation that might take another decade or
two to fully surface, but I digress… I’m saving this interest for a
future pivot, and almost certainly another epic learning curve to go
with it.
I tried using Everquest to visualize architecture.
I
had a level 47 Dark Elf Shadow Knight in Everquest, but spent most of
my time wandering around, exploring the environments. What I really
wanted to do was import my own architectural models to explore them
inside the game.
If
they could have such elaborate dungeons and forts to explore in
Everquest, with people from all around the world working together in the
game virtually, why couldn’t the same technology also be used to
visualize a new construction project, with the architect, building
owner, and construction team exploring or collaborating on the design
together?
This
quest to visualize architecture in a real-time world became a ‘first
principle’ in my career path that I’ve been chasing ever since.
I
met my amazing and tremendously patient wife, Kandy, in grad school,
and after studying architecture together in Europe and graduating, we
practiced architecture for some time before starting our own firm, Crescendo Design, focused on eco-friendly, sustainable design principles.
Then
one day in 2006, I read an article in Wired about Second Life — a
massively multi-player world where users could create their own content.
Within an hour, I was creating a virtual replica of a design we had on
the boards at the time. I had to use the in-world ‘prims’ to build it,
but I managed.
I
was working in a public sandbox at the time, and when I had the design
mostly finished, I invited the client in to explore it. They had 2 young
kids, who were getting a huge kick out of this watching over their
parent’s shoulders as they walked through what could soon be their new
home.
The Naked Lady, the Sheriff Bunny, and Epic Learning Curve #1.
We
walked in the front door, when suddenly a naked woman showed up and
started blocking the doorways. I reported her to the ‘Linden’
management, and a little white bunny with a big gold sheriff’s badge
showed up and kicked her out. “Anything else I can help with?” Poof..
the bunny vanished and we continued our tour. That’s when I realized I
needed my own virtual island (and what an odd place Second Life was).
But then something amazing happened that literally changed my career path, again.
I
left one of my houses in that public sandbox overnight. When I woke up
in the morning and logged in, someone had duplicated the house to create
an entire neighborhood — and they were still there working on it.
Architectural Collaboration on Virtual Steroids
I
walked my avatar, Keystone Bouchard, into one of the houses and found a
group of people speaking a foreign language (I think it was Dutch?)
designing the kitchen. They had the entire house decorated beautifully.
One
of the other houses had been modified by a guy from Germany who thought
the house needed a bigger living room. He was still working on it when I
arrived, and while he wasn’t trained in architecture, he talked very
intelligently about his design thinking and how he resolved the new roof
lines.
I
was completely blown away. This was architectural collaboration on
virtual steroids, and opened the door to another of the ‘first
principle’ vision quests I’m still chasing. Multi-player architectural
collaboration in a real-time virtual world is powerful stuff.
Steve Nelson, Jon Brouchoud, and Carl Bass delivering Keynote at Autodesk University 2006
One
day Steve Nelson’s avatar, Kiwini Oe, visited my Architecture Island in
Second Life and offered me a dream job designing virtual content at his
agency, Clear Ink, in Berkeley, California. Kandy and I decided to
relocate there from Wisconsin, where I enjoyed the opportunity to build
virtual projects for Autodesk, the U.S. House of Representatives, Sun
Microsystems and lots of other virtual installations. I consider that
time to be one of the most exciting in my career, and it opened my eyes
to the potential for enterprise applications for virtual worlds.
Wikitecture
I
started holding architectural collaboration experiments on Architecture
Island. We called it ‘Wikitecture.’ My good friend, Ryan Schultz, from
architecture school suggested we organize the design process into a
branching ‘tree’ to help us collaborate more effectively.
Studio
Wikitecture was born, and we went on to develop the ‘Wiki Tree’ and one
of our projects won the Founder’s Award and third place overall from
over 500 entries worldwide in an international architecture competition
to design a health clinic in Nyany, Nepal.
These
were exciting times, but we were constantly faced with the challenge
that we weren’t Second Life’s target audience. This was a
consumer-oriented platform, and Linden Lab was resolutely and
justifiably focused on growing their virtual land sales and in-world
economy, not building niche-market tools to help architects collaborate.
I don’t blame them — more than 10 years after it launched, it still has
a larger in-world economy of transactions of real money than some small
countries.
We
witnessed something truly extraordinary there — something I haven’t
seen or felt since. Suffice it to say, almost everything I’ve done in
the years since have been toward my ultimate goal of someday, some way,
somehow, instigating the conditions that gave rise to such incredible
possibilities. We were onto something big.
Before I kick-start this article, please allow me to wish
“ A Very Very Very… Happy New Year 2018” To all you lovely readers and my well wishers.
It
has been an amazing journey so far being a part of this mobile app
revolution since 2006, I feel blessed to see both pre & post
smartphone evolution era and having experienced the change myself being
the developer, leader and now a father of my own mobility startup. So
thought to analyze the trend setters which kind of will rule this new
year.
So
here is my Top three technology trends you all should look out for in
your endeavors in this new year 2018, which as always, will offer you
loads of new opportunities to rock this world. Being a part of this
mobile app ecosystem I feel immense pride while writing this piece of
article for all you visionaries and future mobile apprenuer.
1. Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality:
Wiki Defines AR as :
Augmented reality (AR)
is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment
whose elements are “augmented” by computer-generated or extracted
real-world sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, haptics or GPS
data.
As per Wiki VR is :
Virtual reality (VR)
is a computer technology that uses virtual reality headsets or
multi-projected environments, sometimes in combination with physical
environments or props, to generate realistic images, sounds and other
sensations that simulate a user’s physical presence in a virtual or
imaginary environment.
Mobile
AR could become the primary driver of a $108 billion VR/AR market by
2021 (underperform $94 billion, outperform $122 billion) with AR taking
the lion’s share of $83 billion and VR $25 billion.
In
2017 a lot has happened in this AR where Google & Apple invested
heavily to harness the true potential of it. Apple has launched ARKit & Google has come up with ARCore, for developer to innovate and create some meaningful mobile solutions for the smartphone users.
As AR
helps in adding a digital layer over virtual information to give a more
realistic and unambiguous outlook. AR intertwined apps will gradually
empower retail, life science, manufacturing, and many other domains
through a wide range AR apps being developed to cater these sectors.
I Feel :
AR
will take a huge leap forward to further revolutionize the ever
progressing gaming industry and will stretch beyond it to empower the
digital marketing world where gamification will be employed to attract
& acquire new consumer for brands . All marketers need to adopt this
tool to target their customers beyond conventional physical marketing.
With most of the marketers seeing augmented reality as a way to provide a
compelling user experience, we will soon be seeing a plethora of
creative AR apps alluring consumers to buy their customized offerings
Virtual
Reality technologies will be more focused on the game and events sphere
as it is already doing so in 2017 and will go beyond to add more
evolved app usage experience to offer an elevated dose of entertainment
for the gaming user.
I find:
With
iPhone X, Apple is trying to change the face of AR by making it a
common use case for masses. Also A whole bunch of top tech players think
this technology which is also called a mixed reality or immersive
environments — is all set to create a truly digital-physical blended
environment for the people who are majorly consuming digital world
through their mobile power house
With Gartner predicting 26 bn
connected devices by 2020 which ranges from LEDs, Toys, Sports
equipment, medical equipment, to controllable power sockets.We will be
privileged to witness the world where everything will connected with
these small devices thereby bringing information right where you are
standing. Also these information will be tapped right were it is being
generated to empower the data centre using Edge Computing tech.
The
smart objects will be interacting with our smartphone/tablets which
will eventually function like our TV remort displaying and analyzing
data, interfacing with social networks to monitor “things” that can
tweet or post, paying for subscription services, ordering replacement
consumables and updating object firmware.
Big Tech Gaints Are Already Bullish On IoT Connected World:
Microsoft
is powering their popular IIS(Intelligent Systems Service) by
integrating IoT capabilities to their enterprise service offerings.
Some of the known communication technology powering IoT concept is RFID, WIFI, EnOcean, RiotOS etc….
Google
is working on two of its ambitious project called Nest & Brillo
which is circled around usage of IoT to fuel your home automation needs.
Brillo is an IoT OS which enables Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and
other Android stuffs.
Established companies such as Microsoft, with its Intelligent Systems Service,
and enterprise software vendors likes SAP, with its Internet of Things
Solutions, are also adding Internet of Things capabilities to their
offerings.
Amazon
launched ‘Amazon Echo’ a amazing tech which works on your voice command
to answer your queries, play songs and control smart devices within
certain range.
I Feel:
IoT & IoT Based Apps:
Is
here to stay and will be playing a very crucial rule in helping you
navigate this world with more ease & comfort, making your commuting
safe, your communication smart, your shopping productive, your learning
more engaging and much more.. to make your living effective and
efficient. In fact, IoT is slowly becoming part of every aspect of our
lives. Not only will IoT apps augment our comfort, but they will also
extend us more control to simplify routine work life and personal tasks.
Most
of IoT powered devices are already relying on mobile devices to
syndicate data, especially in case of consumer IoT. With the surge in
overall uses of Internet of Things , I feel more mobile apps will be
developed for management of these smart devices.
A
blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all
cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks
(the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in
chronological order, it allows market participants to keep track of
digital currency transactions without central recordkeeping. Each node
(a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain,
which is downloaded automatically.
9
in 10 government firms are planning to invest in blockchain for
financial transaction management, asset management, contract management
and regulatory compliance purposes.
Another research by Infosys says:
One-third of banks are expected to adopt commercial blockchain in 2018.
So
it is quite clear that secured transactions based mobility solution
will rule the fin-tech & other industry where security lies at the
core. App developers will have a crucial role to play where they will be
expected to develop more innovative app solutions to cater the need for
secure & connected world. Your mobile phones are generating lots of
confidential informations which needs to be secured from the third
party breaches. So techies gear up and pull up your socks as, I feel
Blockchain-based security mechanism are expected to be developed on
mobile apps in the coming years and will needed in all kinds of
industries ranging from fin-tech, eCommerce, Insurance tech etc….
Blockchain
powered cryptos like bitcoin, ripple, Ethereum is already a rage in the
technology & investment world. It has fascinated the imagination of
many tech innovators leading them to adopt blockchain tech to develop
wallets & currencies and most of them are being developed on mobile
devices & computer systems, thereby offerings lots of opportunities
for techies to adopt it as futuristic career options.
Using
the blockchain tech entrepreneurs will be developing a solutions mostly
over mobile to validate transactions securely, manage contracts
smartly, store digital currencies(like bitcoins ,XRP etc), manage
voting, secure hassle free shopping, powering banking transactions and
many more innovative solutions which will be targeted towards making
consumers life more resourceful and productive eventually.
There are many more trends which will be disrupting the mobility world like
Artificial Intelligence :
Where Machine learning , Deep Learning all will play a crucial role in
fueling intelligence to the machines to help them make smart decisions
without human interventions. Mobile chatbots is one of the prime example
of one such use case of AI. Apps like Siri, Google Now are already
harnessing AI technology and will be inspiring many more voice based and
Images based AI innovations to be made by mobile appreneurs. Mobile
data will be tapped giving it more intelligent forms by app developers
to make our life smarter with time.
Mobile computing/Cloud computing :Based
mobility solutions will be in high demand specially for big enterprises
where business decisions are made based on intelligent data analytics .
All these will be stored over the cloud and mobile will play a major
role in harnessing the power of those data to serve consumer in real
time.
Some of My Other Relevant Tech Article Which Can be Useful:
Having
seen the world of mobility, changing from feature phone to a smartphone
era I feel amazed how it has transformed the life of humans. Now we can
communicate in split seconds, transact in no time, buy what we need
with one touch, get entertained when & where we want, shower our
love to our closed ones without being physically present and do many
more things which one can imagine just over this tiny powerful device.
So
as a developer and as a tech visionary you have, the greater
responsibility to make sure that you are creating tools which
complements user needs and impacts them deeply. It’s your duty to
entertain them, educate them, and to make them feel safe & secure on
the go.
Ending
by, extending my sincere gratitude to all you awesome readers for
showering all your love & constantly inspiring me to write more
& learn more eventually.
I’ve
been building my smart home over the last few years and was in the
market to add sensors everywhere in an effort to improve the automations
that I was able to achieve.
I
previously had a couple of Philips Hue Motion sensors, and Elgato Eve
Door & Window sensors, but at £35 a piece, adding these to all rooms
and door would get very expensive. I was introduced to the Xiaomi
ecosystem and decided to give it a try. Interestingly this is the first
time that I’ve opted to buy some non native devices and rely on
Homebridge for the integration. Prior to this, I’ve used HomeBridge as a
way to integrate tech that I already owned.
Purchase
I
got all of my kit from a site called Lightinthebox.com. This was the
only site that I found that shipped to the UK and had a wide range
stocked. I initially opted for:
One
thing to note is that the website quoted 5–8 days for shipping — this
was actually more like 19, but for the price I can’t really complain.
Setup
The
setup was fairly trivial. I did however need to upgrade my version of
node running on my RPi3 to work with the plugin. As to not waste
countless hours in node dependency hell, I’d recommend a fresh install
of everything. I took a copy of my config.json file, made a note of
installed plugins and completely wiped my SD card.
Follow these steps to get going (this assumes you’re on an iPhone, running iOS 11 or later)
Download the MiHome app and setup the gateway and configure your accessories. It doesn’t really matter what rooms the devices are placed in.
Open the MiHome app, tap on the gateway, then tap on the 3 dots in the top right corner.
Select about and then repeatedly (and quickly) tap on the blank space until three additional menu options in Chinese appear.
Tap
the second option. This allows you to turn on local access mode. A
password should appear. Make a note as you’ll need that soon.
Tap
back and select the 3rd option. Make a note of the MAC address of the
gateway. There’s a couple listed, one of the router that the gateway is
connected to and one for the gateway itself. If it’s unclear which is
which, try both. (If you run homebridge with the -D flag, you’ll get
debug info which will let you know if you’ve connected to the gateway
correctly).
Install the homebridge-mi-aqara plugin and input the MAC and password from the steps above into your config.json file.
Restart HomeBridge and your accessories should now appear.
Usage
The
first thing to note is how tiny the door sensors are. Here’s an image
with the Elgato Eve as a comparison. Due to the size of the Eve device
and the trim around my doors, I’ve had to be creative with how I mount
it.
Xiaomi (left) vs Elgato Eve (right) door sensors
The
second thing to note is how quickly these sensors update within
HomeKit — unscientifically I’d say this is instant. Even with the latest
firmware the Elgato sensors still have a slight delay if that haven’t
been triggered for a period of time. This still makes them unsuitable
for certain automations, where you need a light to turn on immediately
for example.
Xiaomi door sensors in HomeKit
The
door sensors show up as regular sensors, along with three other
accessories from the gateway; a light sensor, multi colour light and a
switch. The light actually makes a pretty decent nightlight, especially
as you don’t need to physically connect it to a router.
I’ve
got a couple of automations setup where I use a door sensor in
combination with a motion sensor to detect if somebody is entering or
leaving a room. To do this I have a motion sensor on each side of the
door and then use the motion as a conditional rule. For example, I want
to turn on a table lamp in my daughters room when the door opens, but
only between 5am and 8am. This assumes that I’m going in to her room
when she is awake and that I want the light to come on with a soft glow.
It also assumes that if I’m already in the room and leave during that
window that I don’t want to like to come on (if for example she actually
isn’t awake, or she settles back to sleep). To do this, I have a motion
sensor on the landing and in her room (via a D Link Omna camera) with a
rule stating that the lamp should only come on when there is motion
detected on the landing. If there is motion on the landing then I must
be outside of the room, therefore entering. If there’s motion in the
room, then I’m leaving so the rule doesn’t trigger again.
To
get the extra option I used the Elgato Eve app. Firstly setup the basic
automation rules in the Apple Home app, and then add the condition
using Eve.
So
far, I’m really impressed with the Xiaomi system and would certainly
consider adding more devices (although you can only add 30 per gateway)
to my setup.
Hardik Gandhi is Master of Computer science,blogger,developer,SEO provider,Motivator and writes a Gujarati and Programming books and Advicer of career and all type of guidance.
