I build my smart home using sonoff devices. Really like zbminil2/r2, nspanel and other stuff. So i was stuck with ewelink. My main target was to make fully local home. But unfortunately in sonoff/ewelink family there is no zigbee curtain motors and led strip controllers, only wifi versions, so i decides to use it anyway. But solution was found - iHost! “A Local Private Server For Your House”, says sonoff website. A LOCAL!! AWESOME. Bought one. Install ewelink-smart-home addon, and yes, i can sync my wifi devices with iHost!
Is it great? No! It turned out not ALL ewelink devices support local mode, despites iHost can sync and control them. They still work via cloud and still require internet connection! The biggest scam in my life.
i already mounted ewelink curtain kit (kits!) with wifi motor. and motors from different vendors is not compatible with reductor and curtain rails. so i have to umount everything and install new with new motor.
zigbee devices binded in iHost will not appear in ewelink account, so i cant integrate em into voice assistants. If i cant say to speaker “close the damn curtains” - what the point?
In the configuration section there is now a place where you can see all the ZigBee devices that are compatible! Here I have a bunch of ZigBee Tuya devices all on the iHost. I use it in conjunction with Alexa and Google and Smartthings all by Matter!
How much DIY do you like? You can get an ESP 32 C6 and use the Arduino core Zigbee library to connect it the iHost. Then you can do what you like and control motors etc.
