If you're thinking about setting up a Xiaomi smart home, you'll probably start by smart lighting. But there's a problem: What if you don't have your phone handy, you're not on good terms with Alexa or Google Assistant, or you just want a simpler, more hands-on solution to control your smart lights? Well, Aqara's Magic Cube can help you do just that.
More than just a remote control, Cube is a personal controller for your smart home. You can control your lights, even several at once, your robot vacuum cleaner, your air purifier, or even your air conditioner in the summer heat to make the heat more bearable.
This is all well and good, but how does it work?
Although it is called a magic cube, there is of course a scientific explanation for how it works. The six-axis gyroscope can detect six different movements:
90 degree rotation
180 degree flip
shake
rotation
double tap
slip
You can assign commands to these separately in the Mi Home app.
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The box has the familiar, clean white design of Xiaomi, and in addition to the cube, it contains a user manual in full Chinese and a tool to open the lid at the bottom of the cube. Since most Zigbee devices are battery-powered, and the reset and pairing buttons had to be somewhere, the designers decided to hide them under the bottom cover of the cube.
The first step is to go to the Mi Control Hub in the Mi Home app, and under the device tab, select Add sub-device. Then, from the list that appears, we need to select the appropriate cube (Xiaomi or Aqara). The Gateway will beep, after which you need to press and hold the pairing button on the magic cube for more than 5 seconds. The Control Hub will again indicate that the pairing was successful. Once the cube has appeared in the Mi Home app, the "magic" can begin.
For example, for a coloured Yeelight bulb, you can set it to change colour for a 90° turn and colour temperature for a 180° turn. The slide function can be assigned to change the brightness, and the rotate function can be useful for more precise adjustment of both colour, colour temperature and brightness. The double tap function can be used to toggle on/off, and still leave an option (the shake) to control a device.
The Aqara cube can also be used to catch biscuit thieves, although don't trust it with your possessions!
The possibilities are almost endless, as it can be used to control most Xiaomi smart home products, Home Assistant, OpenHAB and Domoticz, so the final use is limited only by your imagination.
And the eternal question is, is it worth it? Well, that depends on whether you need it. I've been a magic cube owner for almost half a year and I haven't used it every day, although that includes being good friends with the aforementioned voice assistants. Regardless, I think it's worth it, as it can come in handy to have one in certain situations.
