The SIMPLEST Smart Blinds! (AQARA Roller Shade Driver E1)

in today's video we're going to be having  a look at Aqara's roller shade driver we're   going to be having a look at what you get in the  box running through its very simple setup process   and if you stick around till the end i'll be  sharing with you my thoughts and letting you   know if it's worthwhile upgrading your existing  drivers to one of these things check it out   what's going on guys i hope you're all doing well  before we get started full transparency as always   i was given this product for free by Aqara but  i was never paid or asked to create the video   so everything you see in the video are  all my own personal thoughts and opinions   so with that said let's get on with the video the  roller shade driver isn't a brand new product for   a cara but it is the first time that it's been  available in the uk and in the eu after you   finish automating the lights in your house or  at least you get to the point that you're happy   with because let's be honest we never really  finished playing around with our automations   but when you do get to that point the next thing  that you start to look at is automating your   curtains and blinds so we're going to have the  blind section of that covered in this video but if   you are interested in finding out about automating  your curtains then make sure you are subscribed   below because in a future video we're going to be  running through how you can automate your curtains   so the roller shade driver e1 became available in  the uk for the first time a few days ago and it   does seem to be going down well with smart home  users and Aqara fans i originally created this   video to coincide with the drivers uk launch but  the driver sold out of everywhere within a couple   of hours so i decided to hold the video back the  driver is now back in stock in the uk and you can   pick it up from amazon for just under 60 pounds  if you're not sure what this thing is essentially   it's a device that retrofits onto existing blinds  whether it be a chain or a string and it allows   you to automate them you just simply attach the  driver to your blinds and it instantly turns them   into smart blinds the drive is compatible with  a wide range of different smart home systems   and also voice assistance so once you have it  connected to your blinds you'll be able to make   use of your amazons and your googles and you'll  be able to say things like hey open the blinds   now it does look like they forgot one system  from their list oh yeah home assistant assistants   so you can add the driver directly into home  assistant and then you'll be able to control it   and make use of it in your various automations  the roller shade driver is a certified zigbee   product and it utilizes the zigbee 3.0 protocol  if you're a home assistant user you can connect   to the driver directly by making use of zha or  zigbee to mqtt now at the time of recording this   video the drive is currently not compatible with  decons but i'm imagining it will be in the future   if you're in a car or user you'll need to add  the driver to your Aqara hub in order to make   use of the full functionality and alternatively  if you're an Aqara user and a home assistant user   you can add the Aqara hub into home assistant  you can do this by making use of the homekit   controller which will allow you to access any  of your car and devices within home assistant   you can view relative bits of information such  as the battery life and also perform actions like   open and close out of all the integrations  that the driver is currently working with   the home kit controller is the only one that's  able to display the battery level at the minute   but i imagine over time zha and zigbee to mqtt  will also get this feature you can use the driver   in any of your home assistant automations and if  you're a node-red user you can also use it in that   using the Aqara home app you can write quick and  simple automations to do things like open and   close the blinds at various times of the day or  you can combine it with your other Aqara products   so you could combine it with a button and then on  a button press it could open or close the blinds   so you've got three choices of control for  the driver you can control it with your voice   you can control it with your Aqara home app or  whatever home automation system you're using   whether that be home assistant or something  else or you can make use of the two physical   buttons on the front of it so one to open  and one to close the drive is battery powered   so you can't have a full wireless setup but  if charging up your blinds isn't your thing   you can't optionally leave it plugged in to  constant power and if you're not first about   having to charge up your blinds then you'll be  happy to know that the driver features a usbc port   based on controlling your driver once  a day so opening them and closing them   a car estimate the battery life to be two months  but this is gonna vary depending on the size of   your blinds and the weight of them okay let's  have a quick look at what you get in the box   inside the box you'll find some instructions as  well as some double-sided 2m tape you'll also   obviously find the roller shade driver at the  top of the driver you'll find a removable cap   and just underneath that you'll find a gear that's  used to pull your blind string or chain on the   back of the driver you'll find the removable wall  plate which the driver just slides nicely onto   and on the bottom of the driver you'll find the  usb-c port which is used for charging and also the   reset button on the front of the driver we've got  a very simplistic two button control you've got a   button to open the blinds and a button to close  them in addition to the gear that's already on   the driver you also get three additional ones so  you should have one that fits your style of blind   chain or string you then also get some screws and  wall plugs and a usb-c to usb-a charging cable   so that's what's in the box now let's have a look  at the setter before you actually go about doing   any kind of setup there's going to be two bits  of plastic that you need to remove from the gears   cover now i think that this is a bit of a strange  design choice and i haven't seen any official   reason for why this is like this but i think it's  because you can have the blind driver in different   orientations so there's actually a couple of  different tabs that you can actually break off   breaking the tabs off is very simple and they  do just bend off but it can leave a bit of a   jagged edge which you may want to rub down the  installation process for the driver is very   simple you've got two different choices you can  make use of either the 2m tape that's provided   or you can make use of the screws and wall  plugs as i'm in the process of moving house   i opted for the 2m tape and i've had this stuck  on the wall now for a few weeks and it's super   secure and not budging anywhere you'll need to  find the tension point in your blind string or   chain and the simplest way of doing this is to  just put the driver on it and press the buttons   if you get it in the right spot pressing the  button should make the blinds open and close   once you find that point you can attach the wall  plate to it and then just freely slide the driver   onto the plate once you've got that in position  you can move on to the device pairing which   is just an absolute breeze especially when you  compare it to some of the drivers on the market   for example take the xemi smart driver which was  actually the one i was using prior to getting   this one functionally it works perfectly and as  expected but in order to actually get it into that   functional working state it is a bit of an ordeal  both the setup process and the instructions for   that driver are very poor but it's not all doom  and gloom and it does actually have a couple of   benefits over the Aqara driver and we'll be coming  back to that a little later on the pairing process   for the Aqara driver is super simple you'll just  need to link it to your existing Aqara hub and   once you've linked it there you'll just need to  set the upper and lower limits for the blinds the   Aqara app holds your hand and guides you through  setting those limits and once those limits are   set you can just open and close the blinds freely  if you don't own a car or hub but you want to add   it to your existing zigbee network like with home  assistant then you can do that instead of pairing   it with the Aqara hub you'll instead pair it with  your gateway solution so zha or zigbee to mqtt   once that's paired you'll have full control over  opening and closing your blinds and you'll also be   able to view the battery information of the device  and as i mentioned at the beginning of the video   if you are in a car a user so you do make use  of the Aqara app and the Aqara hub and you're   also a home assistant user then you can actually  link the two together using the homekit controller   so you can control your Aqara devices with home  assistant to wrap this up then let's have a quick   look at some of the things that i like and we'll  also directly contrast this with that semi smart   driver that i spoke about earlier first of all i  really like the size of the driver it's smaller   than the semi smart one and i actually prefer  the top that's got the rounded edge as opposed   to the rectangle with rounded corners the Aqara  driver is actually also much quieter than the zemi   smart driver for me personally this isn't an issue  because i have it on the landing so i never hear   it anyway if that's a factor for you if you have  it in your bedroom or something like that then   that's one thing to take note of something that  i noticed which i probably wouldn't have without   putting both drivers side by side is that the  Aqara driver is a bit more grey than it is white   so in comparison the Aqara looks a bit off-white  compared to the zemi smart one which is white   the next thing that i really like about the  Aqara driver is the fact that it utilizes usbc   the xemi smart driver utilized its own proprietary  dc connector which was actually very annoying the   thing that makes it annoying is the inconvenience  of having to go and find this particular cable   so these devices don't need to be charged up  for several months so during those several month   period the wife would have done some tidying  up and hidden the cable so you then got to   spend time going to have to find this cable  just to charge up your blinds another thing   that i really like about the Aqara driver is the  fact that the reset button is in fact a button   and it's not a pinhole button so what are the  benefits that i said the zemi smart driver had   the first one is the fact that it utilizes three  buttons instead of two so you've got the open and   close button and you've also got the stop button  this can be useful if you're not making use of the   app and you're just manually controlling it with  the buttons and you want it to set at a stop point   the next one is the fact that it comes with a  remote now this one's not going to be for everyone   some people care about having a remote some people  don't i personally don't care about having the   remote because you've got the inputs but it's an  optional thing there if you want it the xemi smart   driver also has two different modes of speed in  comparison to the Aqara's one the xemi smart mode   are fast or slow and this affects how quickly  or slowly the curtains or blinds open and shut   and the last one for the zemi smart driver is the  fact that the wall plates got little adjusters on   so the little adjustment notches allow you to  change the tension of your blind's chain or string   without actually having to take the plate off the  wall this can be useful when you're actually doing   the installation as you have to just get it in  more of a general area than rather than getting   it perfect and there we go that's been a very  quick look at the Aqara roller shade driver e1   so would i recommend getting this driver if  you currently don't have a driver and you're   looking to start automating new curtains and  blinds then i would definitely recommend it   if you've got an existing blind driver and it's  working well and it's reliable then i can't really   see any reason why you'd want to swap unless  you're really unhappy with your particular one   at the end of the day it's a blind driver  with its primary function being to open   and close curtains and blinds if i could make one  suggestion for an improvement for the Aqara driver   it'd be to include a solar panel some competitive  products that are a similar price offer one of   these so it'd just be nice to have if you're  currently automating your curtains and blinds   then let me know in the comments below what tech  you're using also let me know what you think of   the Aqara driver are you planning on getting one  if you've enjoyed this video don't forget to drop   me a like and if you're not already hit that  subscribe button and ding dong the notification   bell you'll then be alerted to any future  video that i do as always a massive thank you   to these awesome dudes these awesome dudes are my  patreons if you're interested in helping support   my channel and becoming one of these awesome  dudes then there'll be a link to my patreon in   the description below thank you for watching  and I'll catch you in the next one. Cheers!

Channel: Mark Watt Tech

Views: 16,111

Keywords: MarkWattTech, HomeAssistant, Hassio, Home Assistant, Smart Tech, Smart Home, Mark Watt, Automations, Home Asistant, aqara, smart blinds

Id: Jbc3ARre--o

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 15 2021