MiHome – A good choice?

In my quest for a simplified automated home without multiple hubs or locked into a walled garden, I was saddened looking for a light switch or plug socket (Not adapter) that was compatible with the Amazon Echo Plus without the need for a second hub.

I found some suggestions on some dodgy Chinese websites (Wish) which I have purchased one, but I’ll review that when I’ve had chance to install it.

So I only found a handful of companies that were doing light switches and plug sockets, one which is called LightwaveRF and the other MiHome. LightwaveRF are very expensive but their switches definitely look the part and since this is just a pet project I found a sale on in Sainsbury for the MiHome gateway and 2 plugs adapters for £30 it was a bargain!

Got the hub installed it, It was a bit of a faff getting it to see the internet and registered and the app itself is really simple, not sure if it’s good or not at this point! I plugged one of the adapters in no more than 5 metres from the router and it didn’t pair, tried allsorts didn’t work. Put it in a different plug socket closer to the router and this time it paired…When reading the reviews and guides there is a suggestion it doesn’t like certain sockets and certain locations, especially if next to existing paired adapters. Which is a bit of a twat especially if you’ve gone through the effort of doing your entire house, I’m assuming they are suggesting you turn everything off in your house whilst you pair a new device…MMM NO!

Paired it to my Alexa and Echo Plus quite easily, it added nicely into the Alexa Smart home app and quite easy on the MiHome app itself…Here’s where the problems come. So it’s all in my apps and I’m quite impressed with myself so far, A few voice commands and it works, it’s turning my TV on and off…Get a bit cocky and show the other half…it’s now not working. Nothing is working voice and either app. So restart the gateway…It’s working again. Unfortunately this is a common occurrence and it constantly needs restarting and the latency sometimes is more than 30 seconds. Really poor and really unstable, Not sure if I’ll be investing in anymore of the MiHome kit.

Does anyone have any experiences on the LightwaveRF kit ?