Mini R4M are visible, that’s not a problem, but when you want to synchronize them, nothing happens
I have no minir4m visible. My smart home shows “no data”. What do i do? I’m on v1.4.0
Hi,
Why do ZIGBEE devices connected to ihost not appear in the APP?
Probably because iHost and zigbee run locally and the application uses the cloud to control devices… two separate ecosystems.
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iHost does not transfer any local device data to the cloud, which means that the eWeLink app cannot receive any data from iHost.
As you can see, ihost aims to be locally compatible with a large number of other brands and categories of products, so this also means that the app cannot guarantee functional compatibility with these other brands of products that are not “eWeLink support”.
The above 2 reasons why you cannot use ihost on the eWeLink app. It cannot be used with the eWeLink app, it is a standalone device for local use.
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But there are certain simple iHost functions can not be operated from dashboard or created via a virtual device and are needed to be possible from a small screen, so a little extra connection between iHost and eWeLink app is needed even if all devices can’t appear. For example:
- turn on Zigbee pairing. Running up and down stairs to pair radiator TRV is a pain in the neck. Where better than the app to allow Zigbee pairing to be turned on.
- battery monitoring. Having to log in on a large screen to view battery status is a bit daft. I’ve created a node red flow to alert me to low batteries but I’m not sure I trust it. Even just a simple toggle in the app to say one or more battery is low would be sufficient.
- reboot iHost. I had a Zigbee network crash that was cured by a simple reboot. It would have been much easier if I’d been able to do this without needing access to the hub.
As you can see even if development control is not needed some simple communication between EWeLink App and iHost is needed. - push notifications of alarm state. If the alarm goes off on the iHost it is useful to know. Right now it requires a node red Telegram, Whatsall or pushover integration
Presumably there is a built in MQTT broker (normal port for MQTT was taken when I tried installing the Mosquito MQTT broker), as brokers can connect to brokers you could have a central broker on your servers that could receive simple messages such as alarm toggle, battery toggle, pairing toggle and reboot toggle.
iHost was not designed to work with the eWeLink app, originally it needed to be bundled and added to the eWeLink app because of the OTA service.
In version 1.12, we have updated iHost so that it can OTA the firmware without binding an eWeLink account. In the next version, we will remove the eWeLink account binding setting - which means that after the next version, iHost will have no relationship with the eWeLink app - and there will be no entry for new users to add iHost to the eWeLink app
Then there are a certain number of things that need to be able to be done from a phone and not changing rooms and turning on a PC
- Zigbee Pairing
- battery level checking
- rebooting
Push notifications could be done with the node Red docker and WhatsApp/telegram/pushover integrations (although it’d be more complicated than an app solution). Another possibility is homebridge: my home assistant uses the homebridge it has to synchronise the alarm with Apple HomeKit. If Home Assistant can do it then I suspect you can too. Of course that only solves the problem for iOS users. Maybe there is a way in android too but I don’t have a phone to see.
Number 2 could be added to the cast dashboards, but that leaves 1 and 3 that need some sort of small screen control.
I just discovered one more thing that really needs to be sorted on small devices. I have a room on AirBnB that they just disconnected a paired device. Not only did I have to run down two flights of stairs and turn in a computer to repair the device but I later discovered it disappeared from the dashboard, so I had to go back to my computer and turn it on again. The dashboards are really useful but there needs to be a way to add missing devices: maybe a generic “all” dashboard that just puts every device on it and we could later add it back to the correct dashboard, or the dashboard could remember device ID and repopulate devices that reappear?
When will ihost support OTA updates of Zigbee devices?