YoLink Smart Hub - What it Does and How to Connect it (2023)

hi and welcome to my channel my name is philip this video is a part of a series about yo link line of smart home sensors and i'll be showing you how i use them yo link is a relatively new brand in a smart home world and it utilizes a very different communication protocol lora which is very different from the traditional wi-fi zigbee z-wave and other more established brands at the same time it provides better range and it uses less power and since a lot of you have not heard of yolink and i've had great experiences with them i decided to make a series to share my experience this particular video is about the yo-link hub which is the heart of the yo-link system the hub is what makes the whole ecosystem work so i'll go over of what it does and how to connect it the easiest way so the yo-link hub serves the purpose of the main connection to the internet for all your yo-link sensors once the hub is connected to the internet itself all other sensors are mostly scan and use after that the range of the u-link system on one hub is a quarter of a mile in open air and from what i gather it is better at penetrating walls and even metal compared to the other wireless smart systems in case if you need to add more sensors or if you need to expand the range of your system all you have to do is just add additional hubs which makes the system pretty much limitless and this is the main reason why i'm sticking with it i've been told that in the factory one hub was tested and it supported 300 sensors at the same time to connect the hub first you need to download a yo-link app to your phone from either google or apple store download install and register for an account it is free now let's get the hub out of the box and look at the qr code in the back of it and here's the qr code when you launch the app for the first time you will be given a quick visual tour so don't skip it because it shows the key features of the app and will make your user experience better in the long run after you're done with the intro look for the dash symbol in the brackets in the top right corner of the main screen click it and open the qr scanner and place the qr code on the hub under the phone's camera the hub is recognized and bound to your yo-link account and now the fun begins to get the hub connected to the internet you have couple of possible methods so let's dig in on them and go over what works best as i have mentioned the yo-link hub is the only device that will have connection to the internet in return the hub communicates to all of its connected sensors using the long-range wireless rf signal and that is the laura that we were talking about earlier this is the reason why yo link sensors are portable and battery powered and with long expected battery life simply because they live in their own low power consumption ecosystem additional bonus of lora is extra security since yo link devices are not on the wi-fi and not even on the internet individually it adds another level of security to your smart home now let's move on to installation you want to place the hub in the most centralized location of the area that it will serve so keep in mind possible further implementations which can take you outdoors to the front yard or backyard like it did with me the hub comes with a power cable and an ethernet cable the power cable gets plugged in no matter what connection type you will choose so make sure that you have an outlet next to the place where you plan to keep it the ethernet cable usage will vary based on your setup so let's go over your options first thing you need to know is what frequency is the wi-fi that you are trying to use because it will affect the recommended setup connecting the power cable gives the green light on the hub and now we can move to the internet if you're using a pure 2.4 gigahertz network you can start by enabling location services for your link app in your phone settings then open the ulink app and click on the hub you are trying to connect click the wi-fi logo at the top right and go through the prompts to connect to your wi-fi using your network credentials you will also see a blue led now lit up next to the green power light once the connection is complete the app tells you so and you are done if something didn't work right in this scenario you can still connect it using any of the following methods if your network is a 5 gigahertz strictly then you must use a hardwired connection which means that you have to use a cable currently ulink works only on the 2.4 band but since it generates its own network wi-fi is not really needed for this smart setup hardwiring is actually the most reliable connection since it has less possible points of failure to do it you have to plug in the hub using the supplied ethernet cable into any open internet port on your router or a wi-fi expansion node i am using the google wi-fi setup in my apps [Music] as soon as the connection is established you will be greeted with a blue internet light try to find a place where you can connect the hub and leave it there permanently now if you have a dual 2.4 and 5 gigahertz wi-fi which is really the most common standard nowadays plus you don't want to permanently hard wire for whatever reason maybe you don't have enough ports or the location is not really good and it's not centralized for your purpose in this situation i recommend establishing internet connection using the hardwired method at first so this eliminates any conflict between the bands during the registration process so once you hardwire the connection and it's complete you unplug the cable and connect using the app's wifi as i went over in the first step so since the hub already knows the network information from its hardwired connection now it automatically connects to the 2.4 so it connects to the proper band this will allow you to place the hub in the location of your choice with minimal wires protruding from it so these were the three methods of installing the yolink hub choose the one that works best for your application and you are ready to start adding various sensors alarms sirens and a lot of other smart home implementation to your house check out my smart home playlist where i'll be uploading videos about how i am using your link setup and i already have several devices that i'm using and i have a few that i'm still waiting to play with i hope you enjoyed this video and will give it a like don't forget to subscribe to the channel or the playlist to be notified of the new uploads it's been fun thank you for watching i'll see you on the flip side you

Channel: Outlaw CRS

Views: 36,204

Keywords: smart home, alexa, google assistant, sensor, thermostat, alarm, siren, wifi, Smart controller, zigbee, Z-wave

Id: 0ymfWBiUYTM

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021