Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1, Requires AQARA HUB, Smart Blind Motor with Schedule and Voice Control, Rechargeable with Long Battery Life, Compatible with HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT

Product Information

Instead of flying around the room while playing Wii Sports Tennis, the Roller Shade Driver prefers a more muted persence, hanging in an unspectacular manner on the wall as you move your roller blind up and down. What is an especially nice touch: Thanks to the integrated battery, you don't have to lay yet another unsightly cable around the home.

Zigbee 3.0 Protocol: Enjoy the benefits of the fastest, most stable, and energy-efficient smart home technology. Better stability and compatibility (more standardized protocol), longer support, and more features. The Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1 is a retrofit roller shade controller that does not require a complicated installation and can work with your existing Roller Shade by operating the beaded cord. It does not require dedicated wiring and can run both wirelessly from the built-in battery or being plugged into a power supply via the provided USB Type-C cable. The Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1 is a retrofit roller shade controller that does not require a complicated installation and can work with your existing Roller Shade by operating the beaded cord. It does not require dedicated wiring and can run both wirelessly from the built-in re-chargeable battery or being plugged into a power supply via the provided USB Type-C cable. Bundled with an M2 Hub, this enables remote control from outside the home and full voice control activation with Alexa, Google and Apple Home. In addition, thanks to the latest releases from Aqara, the M2 hub now supports Matter, the latest smart home standard.In 2020, this was realised when I tested out and reviewed the Soma Smart Shades 2 (read the review HERE or watch the video HERE). I’ve been using the Soma product for over a year now, and generally, I’ve been very happy with it. I’ve really had no issues, except for a few minor, but insurmountable, details that I’d come to accept; One was that it wasn’t officially HomeKit compatible, and therefore the separate Soma Connect hub was needed. I’ve got no issues with using hubs, but to have one for the sole purpose of controlling one device, and it being a requirement to expose it to HomeKit – even uncertified – was a bit of an ‘ask’. Add to this the fact that the Soma blinds use Bluetooth to either connect directly to your iPhone or the hub, meant that quite often there would be an initial ‘no response’. This wasn’t as noticeable until I eventually started using a HomePod Mini, where I’d use Siri to open or close the blinds, whereupon I’d be greeted with the following response – “The Soma blinds failed to respond”. A second request would be successful, but it began to be all too predictable and a little tiresome. This is the fault of Bluetooth more than Soma, so even if they had official HomeKit support, I dare say the same issue would exist. Adapters for Different Types of Beaded Cords: The majority of roller shades with beaded cords are supported due to a variety of included adapters. I can’t speak for anyone else, but since I live in a home with roller blinds in each bedroom, it had been a goal of mine to at least get some of these blinds automated. With the cost of custom automated blinds being out of my reach, ‘Retrofit’ options (meaning a solution that adds smart functionality to existing blinds) seemed to be the easiest option. invert_cover: Inverts the cover position, false: open=100,close=0, true: open=0,close=100 (default false). The value must be trueor false

Standby Time: Two months (based on controlling a roller shade of 1.8m x 1.8m up and down once a day) It should be noted – and has been in online forums – that the E1’s design is actually in use with other existing products by a few different manufacturers, so if you think it looks familiar, you’ve probably seen it before. Still, none of the other versions of this product uses Zigbee, with some electing for Bluetooth, whilst others, WiFi. Not only that, but none are HomeKit compatible, at least not officially, so that’s another thing to take into account.At the bottom of the case, the reset button is conveniently placed next to a 5V USB-C port. Aqara installing a USB-C instead of MicroUSB port gives me some assurance of the quality of the device and the company’s willingness to follow and adapt newer standards. The Aqara E1 Roller Shade Driver is compatible with ZHA and ZigBee2MQTT. Your coordinator must have the following minimum firmware version, for this device to operate correctly: The cover of the rolling plate has these plastic teeth that you need to brake off. These are not removed by default because some users might be installing the E1 in a horizontal position, so they would need to remove different two teeth. Setting Curtain Limits Automation Support (via Aqara Home and Apple HomeKit): The switch can run automation, switch between smart scenes and change its functions depending on the time of the day or other conditions. Both Aqara Home ( iOS/ Android) and Apple HomeKit are supported.