Hello everyone, there is no thread to talk about Apple Homekit so I started one.
I almost completed my Apple Homekit connected home that I wanted to do since a while (pending parents approval haha).
This is the post to thank you people who shared their previous experience here as a reference for me.
My house is about 4000sqft and for the Homekit Accessories I have about 30 Terncy Wall switches in the house, 25+ Philips Hue Lightings...and multiple Terncy Door Sensors, 3 Yeelight bedside lamps, 4 Apple HomePods, 1 LG B9 OLED TV.

For HomeKit to work, you need a spare iPad to leave at home, a HomePod or a Apple TV as the brain of your smart home. If you don’t have a Home Hub, app controls will still work, but automations would not work.
If you are renovating, please get a neutral line for all your wall switches.


For me, the most important criteria for RELIABILITY in a connected Home are
1. Solid 5Ghz wifi connection throughout the House - my house is currently using Ubiquiti Network
2. Zigbee 3.0 connection for connected devices - my house is 4000sqft, Zigbee3.0 allows each accessory to act as a repeater for the signals of the your Accessory, it is a more robust system designed for a connected Home.

A lot people would prefer something “wifi” and not a hub because of additional cost and wifi just sound simpler and easier.
However, I would not recommend “Smart" switches / multiple devices that connect to wifi because it would just congest your home network and... imagine you change your wifi password and you have to reset 30 devices..
Also the smart light bulbs or switches that connect via wifi is usually on the 2.4Ghz network, which is prone to interference.
I have an LG washing machine and 2 Xiaomi Air purifier connected to Wifi currently and for their purpose to send me notifications, I think it’s adequate.

For my connected smart home, smart switches is the most integral part because using I’m not rich enough to use smart lighting everywhere… I was looking for wall switches that support Homekit in May last year and there are initially four companies - Lutron, Aqara by Xiaomi, Lifesmart, and Terncy.
Lutron: This is the best and most established brand in the US. Only US switches available. Wanted to get this but ... out of my dad's budget.

Lifesmart: This brand had gave me bad impression because they falsely promised their user that their Hub will be Homekit Compatible "soon", but then after Homekit is approved and then they force their users to buy the new hub. Also my friend bought the old Wall Switches with Live wire from them and it looks REALLY good, but it spoilt after 3 months. And then they release a new one and ask my friend to buy It. (Friend in China). Your mileage might vary.

Aqara: Wanted to get this because of how cheap and affordable it is. The Xiaomi Devices are connected via Zigbee 3.0 too. However, it has one serious flaw that stopped me from considering this. The Xiaomi Aqara Hub is connected to your network via 2.4Ghz wifi and the 2.4Ghz wifi in my area is practically unusable because of how congested it is. Also, most of the Zigbee accessories does not support range extending… If you are living in a small place/rent with no interference and want to get start into the Homekit ecosystem , Aqara is a steal, but don't expect it to work reliably in a large or congested area. Xiaomi Aqara is REGION LOCKED. Getting from Taobao and getting from Malaysia will require you to get two different servers. Also, DONT get the Aqara N100 door lock. Check the long term reviews online before purchasing….
Xiaomi make good products like the Yeelight Bedside lamp (cheap, affordable, Homekit enabled) would TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS if you want to test how the Apple Home app works.

Terncy: This is the one I got finally. Terncy Hub can immediately connect via an ethernet cable and was verified with Homekit. All the accessories are connected via Zigbee 3.0 and wall switches can act as signal repeater. (Only the neutral version) I saw this from the Apple Store in China and I bought one hub and one switch to test. The set up was initially bumpy because I bought it from an unofficial seller that sent me a hub with an older version but the customer service is excellent and resolved my issue promptly with an update. I bought one and asked my contractor to set up the box and test…. Just to test its range and reliability. It worked quite well.


I then…. Ordered 30 of them and pray that it works. It worked…. Because if it doesn’t and I spent 5k for this, my dad would kill me. Works GREAT, responds INSTANTANEOUSLY and VERY reliable for the past six months. Two of the switches are wired to my Autogate, where I can use phone/AppleWatch… to control. No more bringing remote control out of the house. And never failed me once. Automations like the one you see above are possible. Also, the door contact sensors are so damn reliable…… I have so many good things to talk about them. Range and control is great with the Apple Home app(you can see the video above.) -also partially depending on your wifi.

With the wall switches and Homekit… I made the outside lamps to turn on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise. You can have smart two way or three way.. or many way switches. I have a switch near the main door that will turn off everything at home .. with a click of a button. And another one near the stairs to turn off everything downstairs/upstairs depending on the keypresses. Also I programmed one of my room switches to turn on the stair lights… and the hallway light (2 way switches can be achieved wirelessly and reprogrammed in the Home App). Or have the switches do different things at different time… like morning when you click this button, it turn on the fan only.. after sunset, it will turn on the fan and the lights.

However, they also offer a Terncy app and the Terncy app is not polished and I would not recommend using it as your daily driver until they push an update - If you want to use with an android device, using the app is the only option, unless you get google home/Alexa - Terncy supports them too. You can connect a device to both google home and apple HomeKit. That’s the only complain I have for this product. The customer service told me that an update is scheduled in this year end…. And I’m crossing my fingers for a design overhaul.


Lighting
Philips Hue is the way to go. It’s the only way to go if reliability and speed is important to you.
It is expensive, but it is so damn reliable. It’s the best. Nothing else even comes close because everyone else is using Wifi or Bluetooth.
I recommend only use Smart Lightings at area where you use most…. Like Living room and Dining room For other cases, use smart switch to cut down the cost.
If you want a bedside lamp that is connected via wifi, go ahead and get a Yeelight Bedside lamp because that is a reasonable choice. Or you are renting an apartment and just want a simple Homekit downlight, you can get from yeelight and it will work reasonably well.
Hue…. Works wirelessly via Zigbee 3.0 and also responds INSTANTANEOUSLY.
You can see in one of my automation… when the Tv is on… the backlight (Hue light strip) turns on and the Hue downlight (dims to 10% brightness), when the Tv is off… then it turns off the backlight and increase the brightness of the downlight again (100%)… the best part.. the automation will only turn on the lights when it is after sunset.

The conclusion I can make is… if you can afford it, go for Philips Hue. You won’t regret it. They have a wide range of lighting solution - you can always get from amazon if not available in Malaysia.
The app is well done and polished too….
The only downside of Hue… is the price.
The ones I got is ceiling downlight, Philips Hue E27 bulbs and also Hue Lightstrip.

Also if you want to choose Smart lighting for ceiling lights…. Consider getting the Terncy Wall Switch because if you have smart lighting, you need a constant power supply so you can control them with your phone. Using the wall switch, you can turn on the relay function and enable constant power supply for your smart lights… How I use in my bedroom is the first button would give a warm light scene, the second button would give a cool daylight scene and double pressing would give a relax scene with dimmed lights.

The LG B9 OLED TV is also excellent! It supports both Homekit/Airplay and I can use my iPhone as a remote control for the TV to adjust volume etc. They are on discount on Senheng if anyone interested....

This is my conclusion for Homekit. I had a Yale YMI70 for my digital door lock - for access into and out the home without key, but that one is not Homekit enabled. But I just bought a Homekit-endabled one from Terncy... as they had gave me very good impression in the past few months. Looking forward to update my review here.

Looking to get Homekit-Secure-Video cameras soon!

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: May 29 2021, 03:23 AM

Reserved

Thanks for sharing.

Your network design is pretty close to what I’m exploring for my use case. I intend to deploy Zigbee-based devices as much as possible since they’ve the best HomeKit support among competing wireless technologies (apart from WiFi). WiFi is easy to setup but has its own maintenance and configuration issues as you noted. Incidentally I’m also using Ubiquiti with a dedicated WiFi VLAN for the IoT devices, so that everything is isolated from the main Wi-Fi users.

There is actually a Smart Home topic under the Properties board but they are a bit newbie agnostic as most of the people who hang out there have been doing this for ages and HomeKit is not one of the recommended system (due to the lack of good options locally).

I have not heard of Terncy before this. Will need to research on them more. Hue is just too expensive for me, despite the good HomeKit track record. I’ve also tried IKEA Tradfri (with the Tradfri Hub - not sold in Malaysia). It can be made to work but System stability is an issue for many people, though I have not encountered it myself since I only have one Tradfri LED driver for testing. Assigning static IP address to the Tradfri hub is one of the essential steps for stability.

HomeKit version is also important. Either stick with iOS 12.x or else upgrade to 13.4.x and above. iOS 13.0 - 13.3 had bad incompatibilities with earlier iOS version and/or other bugs. I think the AppleTV is the best option as a HomeKit hub since it is locally available and always on.

Currently Aqara/Xiaomi is the brand I plan to use for my home renovation (unless I decide to switch to Terncy, haha). With the latest Mi Version 3 Hub (USB powered version), it is pretty stable and HomeKit automations are quite responsive. The only drawback is that you must connect to the CN server for it to recognize the various Mi-branded devices. Controlling the devices using the Mi-app has some lag due to the need to access the CN server. There is supposed to be a way to implement local LAN control but I haven’t explored this yet. My goal is actually to not use the app for normal control but to use physical devices (e.g., smart switch) and HomeKit automations, so the Mi-app response time may not be very important in the long run.

Note that I’ve only tested the Mi-HomeKit automation (created in the Home app, not in the Mi-app) using the Aqara branded Motion sensor, other sensors such as the Mi light sensor are visible in HomeKit (not sure about the latest Aqara D1 wall switch, but not all Mi-branded devices are visible in HomeKit yet), but cannot be used as triggers. Other HomeKit apps (e.g. Eve) may provide more support but I haven’t spent time developing automations yet. The Aqara motion sensor is used to trigger the Tradfri driver on/off, so HomeKit does support some level of cross-brand compatibility.

In terms of technology, my first preference is Zigbee. I’ve tried BLE (Yeelight BLE Mesh spotlights) but they’re not very responsive (2-5 sec response time) compared to Zigbee which responds within 1-2 seconds normally. However, in iOS 13.4, switching devices on/off from the Home App is now quite slow. I don’t know why that is happening (Maybe it is due to the iPhone being in a separate VLAN from my AppleTV hub which is in the IoT VLAN), though automation response time are unaffected and is still responsive.

This post has been edited by tcwan: Apr 18 2020, 08:56 AM

From my quick googling, this is what I managed to find out about Terncy Smart Switches.

Pros:
- All switches have 4 buttons (Option for up to 4-gang)
- Depending on the number of actual gang for the switch, the buttons which are not associated with a physical circuit will be used as a wireless programmable switch (for automation)
- Multiple colors, aesthetically more organic looking (this is subjective, but it looks nicer than the Aqara D1 switches, which is only available in White)

Cons:
- The only device which I find interesting from Terncy is the smart switch. I’m not really interested in the others. In that sense, Xiaomi has more devices I am interested in.
- Power loading: it is rated at 600 W (no-neutral), or else 2000 W (with neutral). I think this is supposed to be total load. This is not actually stated in their website. Aqara D1 Power loading is supposed to be 800W per gang (with neutral).

Unknown:
- I don’t think any of the current smart wall switches in the market are safe for powering fans, due to the start-up power-factor. I haven’t looked into Zigbee smart plugs (since they’re not UK standard) Or Switching modules (need special installation), so currently I’m just planning on using normal mechanical switches for fans and A/C.

My auto gate was using those push button switch. Those 1 gang or 2 gang compatible or not?

Tradfri is also a great option AND they work on Zigbee 3.0!! The reason I didn't get is not available in Malaysia. Did you get them from Singapore? I believe there are limited choices here in Malaysia. Yes. Homekit provides cross-brand compatibility and it does it really well....

Aqara is really good for what it does. Due to it being region locked and... my house is 4000sqft so I think the 2.4Ghz connection wouldn't cut it. I had visited a friend house with Aqara set up and pressing anything requires 1-2s of waiting time.. which I find it unacceptable haha I had a couple Yeelight bedside lamp and a study lamp and for what they do, they are excellent.
The thing I like about both Philips Hue and Terncy is they are VERY reliable and VERY responsive. I think it matters a lot when working with a smart home and you want to click something and see it responds instantly. Terncy supports Sign in with apple too.. and from the customer service I think they plan to put an option to stop all network traffic back to china (manual update) in a future update. The only downside is their app.

If you can read Chinese, their brand is called Xiaoyan in China and they are just starting to expand globally using the name Terncy. They are doing relatively well in China.
https://www.apple.com.cn/shop/product/HMKF2CH/A
https://s.taobao.com/search?q=小燕+开关...ab=mall&ie=utf8

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: Apr 18 2020, 12:48 PM

I think if you can draw or post your schematics here I can help you see.... If yours support you can instead get a switch module from them... don't have to replace your current switch, just add an additional module behind the switch.

BOTH the neutral and non neutral has a max per gang load of 2000W and total load of 2200W according to their official spec page in Taobao. (I think they updated it)
I had been using my switches with ceiling fans (10 of them) for the past six months.. and they are performing quite well. Being said my fans are all D/C. For Aircon definitely not.

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: Apr 18 2020, 12:57 PM

I got my Tradfri hub from Japan actually, but since it’s the same item globally it really doesn’t matter where you get it from (though I guess you do need to go to an IKEA store to get it). The thing I don’t like is that their iOS app is not available from the MY store but it’ll work just fine once you download it.

Thanks for the info. You are right, the responsiveness of the system is important for a Smart Home. It is probably more responsive because it is Ethernet connected unlike the Mi hub (Ethernet also allows the use of PoE to power it with a PoE to Ethernet+USB adapter). I like the fact that they support Sign in with Apple. It shows that they’re serious about playing in the Apple ecosystem.

Ok. I really don’t know how to interpret Chinese specs, although the words used are similar but one different word means something else totally (single line vs. zero line, for example).

If it is max per-gang of 2000W, and max load of 2200W, it means that total amperage is 10A, divided among the 4 circuits. That seems to be better than the Aqara specs (800W max per gang), but all that is by reading their specsheets so I really don’t know how much to trust it.

However, the Shopee link you referred to only lists 1 or 2-gang switches. Is there any Shopee/Lazada retailer who carries the 3 or 4-gang switches?

I looked at DC fans, they’re a better choice in terms of power factor loading, but currently it’s really expensive. I guess that is why you don’t really face a problem attaching fans to the smart switches.

I am not very familiar with electrical circuits.. but I gave the customer service agent with the info from my contractor before I purchase and they told me it will work with ceiling fans and my other lights. And well, thankfully it worked.
Eh.. the official Shopee shop do carry the 3-gang and 4-gang switches.. I just bought two for a friend a week ago.. Anyway I asked the seller and the seller say it should be updated and available in the next few days because there is a mistake in the descriptions and pending Shopee approval

Thanks for sharing. This is good thread

I'm still quite new and learning all these and still figuring out how to set up a VLAN without breaking the internet..during this WFH period haha

Thanks! Hopefully more people can share their experience too.

Bro the seller just informed me... I think its available at Shopee now.
https://shopee.com.my/Terncy-Wall-Switch-wi...3185.4221749863

Tq for sharing very good information.
Just get to know about tradfie

Did u put terncy switch on the Philips hue? I’m thinking just normal switch coz hue should stay permanently on right?

Also what’s the reason to get neutral in the socket? Lights normally use without neutral right. I’m thinking Aqara at first but now that I saw this I shall consider terncy for now.

I’ve bought HomePod, aqara n100, hue, Logitech circle2 wired, Ismartgate, now hunting smart switch and thinking those curtain or blind. U got any idea on these?

The brilliant part about the Terncy Switches is you can enable permanent power via the app on the gangs you connect the Philips Hue. (Terncy is the only brand I know that does this) Then after that the buttons will appear to programmable in Apple Homekit. Then you can set what each button does.. like in my bedroom the video you can see one button press it will change cool light, another button it will change warm light. Long press to relax. Double press to on the fan as well.
The BEST part about this Terncy Switch is next time if you want change to non Hue lights, you can turn off the settings and make it like a normal smart connected switch again.

Theres another category called Friends Of Hue that I initially plan to buy, but with these you either have to permanently attach the hue to power source or have a battery.... in your switch.
That's why I was thrilled when I found out Terncy has this option.
https://www2.meethue.com/en-gb/friends-of-hue/switches

Terncy has blinds and curtains too... I think they are very well reviewed in china.. you should talk to the seller before purchasing though.
Ikea Tradfri also has just released their smart blinds... but only available in Europe and US currently

[EDIT] Keep in mind to ask the seller about warranty and installation before purchasing curtains or blinds. these things are very fragile and you really want them to ship properly ..

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: Apr 19 2020, 02:07 AM

The neutral switches respond very fast compared to the non neutral one... if you use the non neutral one it would not be like the effect in my video. It wouldn't be slow la and my original one is a live wire one and I think it's okay, but there is like a 0.2s delay
Also I think only the neutral version of the switches act as signal repeater.... which increase the signal strength etc
The non-neutral one doesn't have this signal repeater property.

Also, among ALL the non-neutral connected switches, I personally think Xiaoyan and LUTRON are the better options ... from my knowledge, this is because the switch has to be powered continuously to provide feedback and wireless transmission without leaking electricity to the load like your lighting etc. Lifesmart has a previous version that is trash and fail after a couple months and they discontinued it . Aqara non-neutral ones has multiple reviews about notresponding and producing a static electric sound in Taobao. But I had never experienced Aqara stuffs personally so your mileage might vary.
I have one Xiaoyan non neutral one powering the laundry room and its working fine till now. Lutron has been praised everywhere and my cousin is currently using it in the US.... they even have a smart fan switch that works with AC fans.


Getting a neutral wire installed is the safest and I believe even if you decide to get Aqara the neutral version will also work more responsively compared to the non-neutral one

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: Apr 19 2020, 02:16 AM

Haha no problem
Tradfri is really good too.. AND CHEAP.
I almost forgotten about this because I never really found a way to buy these in Malaysia

hopefully ikea will bring this into Malaysia soon.
Ikea tradfri bulbs can be added to the hue bridge too if anyone wants to use tradfri and hue
but the tradfri bulbs will not be exposed with Homekit if connected to hue bridge
and you need Homebridge to make them usable in Homekit

This post has been edited by kokhoong0624: Apr 19 2020, 12:21 AM