Aqara drives your shades, so they don't drive you spare
Sick of quarreling with your window blinds? Join the club. However, help is at hand via the new Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1.
The Chinese company behind the HomeKit-compatible Aqara Camera Hub G2H (among a barrage of other smart home devices), has launched the shade controller that can be easily fitted to existing beaded cables.
That means, just like the Soma Shades 2 retrofit option, you won’t need to replace your existing shades with a dedicated smart blinds like those on offer from the likes of Lutron and Somfy.
New hub: Aqara Camera Hub G3 review
Once fitted, shade-seekers will be able to control the roller via voice commands and also set routines to automatically adjust the blinds at certain times of the day. That’s handy if you’d like to wake up to the sunshine rather than your alarm clock, or you want to be tucked up in bed by 10pm on a school night.
The companion app and remote switches can also control the blinds manually. The driver operates on the Zigbee 3.0 protocol and, as well as HomeKit, there’s also support for the Google Home and Amazon Alexa smart home systems.
You can’t connect to a non-Aqara Zigbee smart home hub though, you will need to sync it up with one of the brand’s collection of hubs.
The good news on that front though is the Aqara system is great and always getting better – check out our full Aqara smart home review to learn more.
Once paired with a Aqara Hub, you’ll also be able use additional Aqara smart sensors to create automations.
The roller shade driver offers 2-month battery life per charge, but can also receive a constant power supply via the USB-C port. The company says it’ll work with plastic and metal beads between 3-6 millimetres, which makes it compatible with the majority of existing shades.
Aqara says you’ll be able to install it in just five minutes… I actually have been testing the Roller Shade Driver E1 for the past couple of weeks – it took me about 10 minutes, but I’m a DIY idiot.
Until this summer it was quite a chore getting ahold of Aqara products outside of China and the US, but they launched on the Apple Store UK in July and now seems to be beefing up its Amazon UK offering.
The Aqara Roller Share Driver E1 is on sale now Amazon UK for £59.99, while it’ll hit the French site in the week too.
You can get a 15% discount with the code RSDE1PR1 if you order before the end of Friday September 24.
There’s no word yet on a US launch, we’ll keep you posted on that front.