The magic cube is Xiaomi style - this is the Xiaomi AQara Magic Cube
Magic at the touch, this is what Xiaomi's remote control hidden in the cube offers.
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Introductory
We know about Xiaomi that not only phones, but also smart homes are trying to make a lasting impression. Because of this, we will then dedicate a longer series of articles to their tools, of which, now we will be scrutinizing the Xiaomi Magic Cube. (currently available as Xiaomi AQara Magic Controller, the only difference is the inscription on the side of the cube)
If someone starts building a smart home, they are suspected of not thinking about going to control the various lights or even the TV. There’s the phone for that, there’s the Mi Home app, through which we can access all the devices. This works well until the number of devices to be controlled starts to multiply square. After a while, it no longer helps to group the smarts of the apartment and treat them that way, because there will be smart connectors, a vacuum cleaner, a table lamp, mood lighting glued to the bottom of the shelf, a bell, an alarm and an air purifier, and a small million other gadgets. The obvious mobile control at the beginning is already beginning to become strongly outdated.
Of course, there are other solutions for switching devices, such as wired or wireless wall switches - these will also be covered in a shorter article later - but these are just as useful as traditional switches, understand you have to stand up if you want to turn off the light. Not to mention that more useful functions of smart lights than adjusting the color temperature, or possibly adjusting the color of the illumination with colored burners, are no longer possible with a simple wall switch.
What is the solution? We need a remote control, and the Xiaomi gives one, but of course not the one we’re used to for our various devices, TVs, or climate. Xiaomi gives a switch called Magic Cube, which is the subject of this article.
Exterior and operation
On the Xiaomi Magic Cube set, it’s not worth writing too much about the packaging, it comes in a white box roughly the same size as the cube, with a short description written in Chinese next to it. Who…
It is disadvantageous for the article that we cannot write much about the cube either, as it is a simple 45x45x45 millimeter cube with slightly rounded edges and corners that can be purchased in white, light blue or pink. For my part, I leave pink to the Chinese, baby blue isn’t my world either, so I stayed white when shopping.
The cube is more of a damn good idea than an inimitable technical feat, as only two types of sensors are built into it. A gyroscope and an accelerometer. The former detects rotation, the latter senses displacement, and one of the two also detects when you touch the cube.
The sensors come from Xiaoch to Xiaomi anyway, the manufacturer's description highlights that their response time is extremely low, specifically 120 ms according to the nameplate. The accuracy of the gyroscope is 0,062 mg and the sensitivity of the triaxial accelerometer is 62,5 mdps. Another important data is that the cube can withstand very little voltage at rest, eating only 16 uA.
The Magic Cube uses six built-in sensors to distinguish six different movements or touches. You can rotate around its axis, scroll 90 or 180 degrees, shake, move, knock.
Commissioning
To use the cube, as usual, we will need the phone app, Mi Home, which we can download for free on phones running Android and iOS. In addition, the Mi Control Hub, or more commonly known as the Gateway, will be fully utilized. We have already written a more article about this, at the end of this writing you will find the link to it.
The Magic Cube is compatible with essentially all of our Xiaomi smart devices, only our imagination can limit what we program for the six selectable functions. We can also control our Zegbee devices through the gateway, but of course the control of Wi-Fi smart stuff is also solved.
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You can set what the cube controls in the phone app. As usual - this is not detailed, if you are interested in the topic read the other articles (you will find a link to each article at the end of this article), everything is clear from them - we can set different automatisms. Let's take a few examples of what controls the cube at me:
- Shake - turns the TV on or off
- Knock - turns the grouped burners on or off in the living room
- Push - turns LED rows used for mood light on or off
- Rotate around axis - adjusts the brightness of grouped smarts
- 90-degree scrolling - changes color for grouped burners
- 180 degree scrolling - mutes the TV
It is important to note that to control the TV, I also need another device, an infra gateway, with which I can control any widgets that cannot otherwise be integrated into the smart home system, but have an infrared remote control. These include a TV, amplifier, DVD player and air conditioning.
Of course, if you've automated your entire apartment, you can use multiple cubes, either one per room, or if you're a maximalist, you can use as many as, say, three colors in a room, so you can control 18 functions with cubes, just make sure you remember which one does what.
Summary
As you can see, Xiaomi created the almost perfect remote control. It would only be better if it had a similarly easy-to-use but wearable device, such as a comfortable armband, with which we could then even swing. So the Xiaomi Magic Cube is a beef good thing, unobtrusive, because of its small size, it feels absolutely good on the coffee table, and when you need it enough to touch, turn or shake it and it already does its thing.
The nice thing about this is that once we get to the point where we need to find some solution on our phone, the Mi Home app to control the proliferation of devices, we can get the dice very cheaply. We can even use more of this, as I wrote above, or we can put one in each room, just be careful not to mix them up!
If you are interested in the dice, you can find it here for $ 9, which is 2500 forints at the current exchange rate: Xiaomi Magic Cube
And if you want to buy it on the Hungarian website of GearBest, you can find it here under the name Aqara for 9 dollars (~ 2500 HUF): Xiaomi AQara magic cube
The articles in our Smart Home series so far:
- Xiaomi Gateway - let's start construction!
Let's shine with wisdom - Xiaomi Yeelight test with a lot of secret information!
We also tried this - Xiaomi Philips Eyecare desktop smart light
- The magic cube Xiaomi way - this is the Xiaomi Magic Cube - you are reading this article
. Sweep, vacuum and even wash the Xiaomi Roborock S50 robotic vacuum cleaner
