So, I’ve been at SwitchBot for almost a year now, and I was met today with a wonderful cake (sorry, already eaten), and an employee service pin (swag!). As we were all located around my desk, I was thinking back on when I first came into the office. I’ll never forget the first day I arrived. I’d just sat down at my desk when Judy the receptionist came over with a pile of things and then…
WHAM!
She looks at me, smiles gently, and says…
“Welcome to SwitchBot! If you need anything just let me know.”
Now in front of me, sat a pile of the company’s products I would spend the next year getting to know. I started browsing through to see what I’d be getting my hands on over induction… SwitchBot Bot, Curtain, Remote, Solar Panel, I was neck deep in smart home products and too curious for my own good.
And what’s more, Hub Mini is not only just a hub for your Bluetooth smart home devices but it can also be used to mimic remote controls that you might have lying around at home thanks to its ability to learn and copy infrared signals, which means you can get rid of all those hideous annoying remotes and consolidate everything into one place.
Upon arriving home that evening, I looked in my bag of goodies, and there it was, SwitchBot Curtain. This wasn’t necessarily the product that made me want to join the company, but it was definitely the one that intrigued me the most and so I decided it was the first one to deal with.
Now I must state, that I use SwitchBot Curtain on two different sets of windows in my living room, so managed to snag 4 devices in total (shoutout to the team in HR, sorry!) and began setting them up, which wasn’t too hard, to be honest, but my curtains are a little on the high side, so I need to use a footstool to climb up (disclaimer: do so at your own will).
“Hello, oh, ‘allo Matt! How can I help ya?” He says, he sounds like he’s midway through dinner but I don’t care, I’ve got 4 SwitchBot Curtains that need sorting and a pizza on the way.
Ben goes on to explain, that once Hub Mini is installed as a part of your smart home ecosystem, you can link multiple devices together, which helps make automation scenarios way more interesting.
So there I am, all setup, raring to go, and it’s time to say hello to automated curtains! But… Then I realized, fudge… I’ve got more than one pair here. How’s this going to work? Do I open the app every time and press them one by one… Do I have to automate them? Schedules? Yup, safe to say, at this point, I was in way over my head. But luckily for me, I’d made friends with Ben who sits behind me in the office, and I remember him saying he’d been at the company for quite a while, so he must know a lot, right? I swiftly pick up the phone, find Ben’s number, and press call…
“Hello, oh, ‘allo Matt! How can I help ya?” He says, he sounds like he’s midway through dinner but I don’t care, I’ve got 4 SwitchBot Curtains that need sorting and a pizza on the way.
So, long story short, there is a way to pair all of your SwitchBot Curtain devices together. How? All you need is one SwitchBot Hub Mini.
Ben goes on to explain, that once Hub Mini is installed as a part of your smart home ecosystem, you can link multiple devices together, which helps make automation scenarios way more interesting. So maybe you’re wondering how exactly you do that, well look no further, you’ve come to the right place.
Set up a Scene.
Grab a Hub Mini, set it up, and open the SwitchBot app, click the “Scene” button located at the bottom of your app menu and enter, then tap the “+” sign in the upper right corner to enter.
Add conditions and commands.
When selecting a trigger, choose “manual execution” and tell SwitchBot Curtain to open in dual-mode. Add both groups of devices.
Name it, test it.
Click add name, and test your scenario to make sure everything works properly.
Give yourself a voice.
You can also now control your devices using voice commands thanks to Hub Mini by using third-party services such as Alexa, which definitely makes life a lot easier, and pretty intuitive too.
Yup, it was that easy. And what’s more, Hub Mini is not only just a hub for your Bluetooth smart home devices but it can also be used to mimic remote controls that you might have lying around at home thanks to its ability to learn and copy infrared signals, which means you can get rid of all those hideous annoying remotes and consolidate everything into one place.
So, thanks Ben, without that bit of help one year ago to this day I would’ve never learned any of this. Here’s to you, my first year at SwitchBot, Hub Mini, and hopefully many more years of smart home fun to come. I blow out the candles on my anniversary cake, everybody claps, and proceeds to tuck in, then suddenly, Ben walks over to me, and whispers in my ear.
“You still owe me for ruining my dinner a year ago.”
Thanks, Ben, thanks.
Does SwitchBot Hub Mini sound like your cup of tea? Enjoy 10% off for making it to the end of this blog and use code THANKSBEN10 to save.
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