If you're a hardcore Xiaomi fan, you probably get a lot of Chinese parcels in the post. Well, in that case, it doesn't hurt to have a good bell to ring. Most of the bells you can buy in the shops are battery operated, which can run out of battery power after a while, or have problems with the quality of the assembly, which can lead to them breaking after six months. Xiaomi offers a smart solution to this (in both senses).
Linptech has come up with battery-less bells with a dynamo in recent years. Recently, they have teamed up with Xiaomi to create the Xiaomi Linptech wireless doorbell. There are two versions, one is the "plain" one and the other is the WiFi one that works with the Mi Home app.
The box contains the pushbutton, the receiver unit, the backplate for mounting, two screws and the corresponding dowels. In addition, there is a fluorescent sticker in Chinese and a description in Chinese.
Commissioning
After connecting to the power source, add your new device in the Mi Home app. It is important to turn on Bluetooth before doing this, as this is how the receiver communicates with your device before connecting to WiFi. Select Self-Powered Doorbell, enter your network details and wait for it to connect to the router. You can then customise the settings and the setup is done.
You can add up to 9 more buttons. I haven't tried it, but it can probably be operated by any 433Mhz bell button. You can adjust the volume and set button-specific tunes. The two buttons on the receiver also let you adjust volume and change tunes (unless you have already assigned a tune to the button in the app). Pressing and holding either button for 10 seconds will put the unit into button pairing mode, holding it for longer than that will reset it to factory settings. This can come in handy if you want to connect to another WiFi network.
And indeed, almost immediately after pressing the button, the melody of your choice from the 36 tunes is played. The description says it works outdoors at a distance of 50 metres, although I don't think anyone would plan to install the receiver outdoors.
While the smart feature is exemplified by a rice cooker (as soon as the food is ready, the doorbell will alert you with a pre-set beep), the Mi Home app actually has a much more useful feature: you get a notification when the doorbell rings, which you can use to automate your cooking.
Another useful feature is that you can extend the alarm function of the Xiaomi Gateway to your doorbell, as the list includes a 6-second alarm tone.
Important information
- The bell comes with a US mains plug, so you will need a good quality converter
- We cannot replace the 36 pre-installed voices with our own
- Cannot be used with Home Assistant (nor OpenHab or Domoticzcal)
- If your phone is set to Hungarian, the Mi Home plugin will greet you in Chinese
Experiences
Well, as I just started it up, I can only give you a brief first impressions of how it works. Setup wasn't the easiest, but eventually I managed to overcome the initial difficulties. After that, it was stable. The distance between the transmitter and the receiver is about 10 meters and they are separated by two walls. I have not tested it at a greater distance, but it is likely to perform around the values given in the description, outdoors.
Since there is no significant difference in price between the two variants, and you have a need for notifications, or you could use it for automation, you should go for the WiFi version.
