All About Xiaomi's Mi Smart Home App

Note : All features, descriptions and screen captured for this write-ups are accurate at the time of writing, but are subject to changes due to the high pace of App changes and new devices being added, some features may no longer work, or some newly added.

About the App





Mi Smart Home app is your home intelligent hardware management platform. You can interact your Smart Phone with all the Xiaomi smart hardware and achieve inter-operability between them, and experience the convenience of intelligent life.

Mi Smart home Apps currently can manage the following Mi Ecosystem products : Air purifier Gen 1 & 2, Water Purifier, MiWiFi routers, Master Remote controller, MiTV, alll versions of MiBoxes,  Mi Smart Home Kits, Yi IP Cam, Yeelight LED Bulb, Smart Plug, Power Strip Panel, Internet Radio, Midea Air Conditioner, Aux Air conditioner, Junxing Air Conditioner and Philips Eyecare Lamp.

All the devices and settings are currently store on Mi Clouds, where you can easily backup and retrieve. Simply sign-in to the Mi Cloud with your Mi Account on a mobile phones, and all the saved configurations and settings are all retrieved on the new Smart Phones. 

Major Features Overview

a) Smart Links

The App is able to add new Mi Ecosystems intelligent devices in a simple manner for themselves
 


b) Device Control


The APP control all smart home appliances, and can be accessed from anywhere, as long as you have Internet access.
 


c) Share your family

You can share access to some of these device to family and friends and enjoy the convenience of a warm intelligent life together.

 


d) Intelligent Scene


You can go through simple setup to configure various easy and fun intelligent scenarios with other Mi ecosystems products.




New Features

1) Selecting your Hosting regions

In the past, Xiaomi only provide their Cloud hostings in China and users of the Mi Smart Home App outside China regularly facing "time-out" or "connection problems" whenever they are registering for new devices under the App. This is mostly due to the great China Firewall or DNS settings in local ISPs.

Starting from 2016, Xiaomi had added 3 more cloud locations for some of their major markets outside China, these locations are Singapore, Taiwan and India. You can now decide where to host your Smart Home App, where all your settings and configurations will be back up ONLY* to the cloud location that you had selected.

To choose the Mi Cloud location, you must logout first, then select the location, and log in again.

* Please note, your settings will only be saved on the cloud servers that you had selected, i.e if you initially select your location as Chinese Mainland, if you later log in and select Singapore, your settings will not be available as they are never saved on Singapore servers.

Note : At the time of this writing, not all regions support all devices released from Xiaomi, if you are buying products only available in China market, you'll probably still need to select Chinese mainland as the region. But due to the unpredictable China firewall, sometimes you may not be able to register and save your configuration & settings on Mi Cloud during the initial setup.

What is the minimum Android and iOS version supported for this app?

At the time of this write-up the minimum version of the major two mobile OS supported are as follow:
      Android - 4.0 and above
      iOS - 7.0 and above

But with the increasing addition of new Smart devices under Xiaomi's Mi Ecosystem product series, the Apps are continuously being updated by Xiaomi, whether they will withdraw support for certain older OS


Where to get and install the Mi Smart Home App?

You can access the latest version of the App at the official App site - http://home.mi.com/index.html, which is only available in Chinese interface, or download them by scanning the QR code below.


You can also get them from the respective official app stores.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xiaomi.smarthome

https://itunes.apple.com/EN/app/xiao-mi-zhi-neng-jia-ting/id957323480?mt=8




** Please make sure you are downloading ONLY the official Apps and not from third party sources.


Further info

You can also visit their official Forum site for latest discussion and releases for Mi Smart Home App, but this site is only available in Chinese

http://bbs.xiaomi.cn/f-363

Continue Reading

Xiaomi Roidmi: A FM modulator and ‘Smart’ & ‘Secure’ Car Charger

Xiaomi ROIDMI is a car charger but with the addition of Bluetooth and FM transmision function.

Xiaomi Roidmi as a Secure Charger

Although there is a variety and quality of car charger, nowadays. But if we go back to those years when most of the car chargers were of low cost, quite rudimentary and had very low amperage. Thus, they would experience the eternal burden and sometimes were unworkable. The most dangerous aspect of them was that the changing amperes in the car which could even produce a short circuit in the phone or the charger.

The Xiaomi Roidmi offers an amperage of 3.1 A. The amperage is divided into two ports, one with 2.1A and other with 1A. The first port can be used to charge a phone and other can provide support to a dash cam or any other low ampere device like a USB fan. In addition to this, the two ports are also illuminated with a blue LED.

Xiaomi has included several security measures in its charging. These measures includes an anti-short circuit system, protection against rises in temperature. It also has a system to detect the type of device and ensuring the best performance for that device.

Xiaomi Roidmi as a Bluetooth FM Transmitter

Apart from the main function of the device: charging gadgets, Roidmi also have some additional features.

The Roidmihas two wireless connections, a Bluetooth 4.0 connection and a FM transmitter. It enables it’s users to play music from their phones on the car's FM tuner. This is something that may not be necessary because many new cars nowadays have an auxiliary connection or a Bluetooth system. But for those who are deprived from this technology in their cars, which we believe majority of the cars out there, for them Xiaomi Roidmi will be really useful.

Using it on an iPhone
You can connect Roidmi to your phone using the Mi Smart Home app, you can scan the QR code below and install the App on your iPhone.

If you have an iPhone you must connect to Bluetooth Roidmi with the default frequency of 96.4MHz, which is pre-set when shipped out from the factory.

However, if the default 96.4Mhz crashes with an existing FM station frequency in your area, it will cause interference between the ROidmi and the FM stations' broadcast. What you can do is to borrow an Android phone and install the Roidmi app (see QR code below), and manually search for a frequency on your car's FM that 's not currently occupied by any FM station, then use the Android Roidmi app to set the broadcasting frequency to the unoccupied range.

Thereafter, your music streamed from your iPhone will sync with the Roidmi through bluetooth, and Roidmi will broadcast the music with the newly set FM frequency.

Using it on An Android Phone

As far as the radio is concerned, android smartphone is more likely to be used. Because you can use the intuitive Roidmi Driver Android app (see QR code above) to set the frequency at which it will issue the Xiaomi Roidmi thus avoid interference with other radio stations.

Supported Car models

Note: Before buying Xiaomi Roidmi, we must inform you that unfortunately it is not compatible with all cars. The seller offers the following list of unsupported cars:

PEUGEOT 301 / PEUGEOT 2008, DS 3 SKODA Fabia / Rapid Spaceback, TOYOTA Vois, Changan Mazda 2, Dongfeng Honda XR-V, Renault Captur, Honda Odyssey / City / Vezel / Crider / Shuttle, CITROEN Elysee.  No NISSAN, SUBARU or KIA for all models.

Installation steps

The following are translated from the original Chinese Manual coming with the Roidmi.

Main Specs

Installing unit

1. Remove the cover of the cigarette lighter (if any) in the car, and make sure there is no waste inside of the cigarette lighter.

2. Insert Roidmi to the cigarette lighter. When flashing, pair the Roidmi device via Bluetooth. When there is a steady light, pairing is successful and the device is connected via Bleutooth.

Setting Up using Roidmi App recommendations (for Android Apps only)

1. To install the player and Bluetooth connection, please read the installation guide in the Roidmi App;

2. The default frequency is 96.4MHz

3. After a successful pairing Roidmi with a smartphone, you can set the FM radio frequency via phone, or use an automatic search of FM frequency for broadcasting music files stored on your phone

4. We recommend an FM frequency in accordance with the recommendations of the App to maintain the highest sound quality;

5. If your smartphone does not find Roidmi, make sure that Bluetooth is enabled on your phone, and cigarette lighter has a power supply; if the device do not pair for a long time, try to connect to the new device via Smartphone or restart Roidmi.

Continue Reading

Xiaomi Air Purifiers - Gen 1 and Gen 2 comparisons

Mi air purifier 2 is launched on November 24, 2015, it can be considered as the upgrade generation of the earlier Generation 1. Compared to the Gen 1 model, the biggest change was undoubtedly in its volume on a smaller foot-print, but also less space occupied. Mi air purifier Gen 2 is targeted mainly for small apartment users which can provide for purification area of 23-48 m².

Xiaomi has made the Air Purifier 2 lighter as well as smaller. As compared to the 735x260 mm laterally size Air Purifier 1, the Air Purifier 2 measures simply 520×240 mm.

The foot print area is also 15% smaller.

It houses a solitary electric motor, twin booster fans (which detoxifies at an effective variety of up to 39.6m²), The design of the Mi Air Purifier 2 was inspired by aircraft engines and comes with an anti-formaldehyde enhanced filter that's replaceable. It also filters 99.99% of PM 2.5 particles and up to 92% of formaldehyde (a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is used in building materials and to produce many household products).

Xiaomi says the more compact design is made possible by a new single-motor, dual-fan design, which has enabled it to shrink its dimensions by up to 40 percent over its predecessor. However, its smaller size means that Air Purifier 2 has had to take a slight performance hit compared to the predecessor's dual-motor design. Its Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), or the amount of air it cleans per minute, is now 330m³/h in standard mode, compared to the 406m³/h for the larger model.

Still, this can go up to 388m³/h in Turbo mode and Xiaomi says it can filter the air in a 23m² room in only 10 minutes.

In addition to the smaller foot-print compared to Gen-1, some optimization was also done to the motor, dual-fan blower motor design in Gen-1 is now reduced to single fan motor in Gen-2, this also allowed energy saving of 58% compared to Gen-2.

The above chart shows the different recommended room areas for different CADR value, so that air can be purified efficiently by the air purifier.

Although smaller in size, and the motor going through some optimization and changes, but its purifying effect does not seem to lowered, the one-hour PM2.5 purification can reach 97.7%.

In the purification capacity, CADR is now 330 m³ per hour for standard mode, and in the turbo mode CADR is 388 m³ per hour, clean up area from 27.2 - 46.6 m² (292 - 500 ft²), it takes 10 minutes to complete a purification process once for a 23 m² (250 ft²) room.The firm additionally urges that the Air Purifier 2 is substantially more power efficient – 58 percent even more power efficient.

The company states that the newly improved device is now 11 percent quieter than in the first generation AP, and also makes merely 30db of noise when switched over to sleep mode.

The indicator LED is placed at 7.5cm from the ground, just to low enough to avoid the light interference when reading on the sofa or resting in bed.  The light sensor can be adjusted according to the indoor light LED brightness, the indicator can also be completely off.

Mi air purifier 2 is an intelligent air purifier with a WiFi connection to the phone, you can use Mi Smart Home App for live view of indoor air quality changes at home and will base on bedroom area to adjust according to the most appropriate mode of operation. It is smart enough to learn the user's habits, such as automatically adjusted to sleep mode before you go to sleep, and  to automatically shut down when they go out.

New Addition - Control of new smart phone temperature, humidity sensor

Mi Air Purifier 2 had added the high quality Japan SHINYEI sensor, which provide real-time detection of indoor air PM2.5 content. The Air Purifier will change according to the data for air quality, and automatically switches to the optimum decontamination mode. In addition, AP2 also adds temperature, humidity sensors, which will provide mobile phone view on indoor air quality, temperature and humidity changes at a glance, helping you to always grasp the comfort of the indoor environment.

Coming to the mechanism, the Air Purifier 2 packs a quality Tri-filters: Pre-filter, HEPA filter and an Activated Carbon filter that comes with a filtering capability of whooping 99.7% of PM 2.5

Comparing the official specifications

Dimensions : First Generation is taller, second generation is smaller in size, the filter is common use for both generations.

Purification efficiency: First generation has better purification performance than 2nd generation, and with larger decontamination area as well.

Smart Module: Both generation 1 & 2 have WiFi module and air quality sensors, 2nd generation has added multi temperature and humidity sensors.

Power: First generation has maximum power consumption of 75W, 2nd generation has maximum power consumption of 31W.

Package Contents: Both generations has the same content, while the packaging size of 1st generation is much bigger, due to the taller size of the Air Purifieritself.

Purifier functions: Both generations have automatic mode, sleep mode, the switching mode switching, WiFi indicator, air quality indicator, particulate matter sensor, the difference is first generation has light sensor and Turbo mode, and the second generation has the Favorite mode.

Smart phone remote control functions: Both generations can be accessed through Smart phones for remote control functions, the second generation has a new temperature and humidity testing and comfort assessment functions.

Continue Reading