Switchbot Hub

Hi all! I'm thinking of getting a Switchbot to warm up my coffee machine, but I'm confused as to whether this requires buying the Switchbot Hub. Can it be controlled with HE instead?

Thank you

1 Like

Switchbot "the bot" works with bluetooth.. In order to get it to work with hubitat you do need the hub.. That provides the Switchbot (Bluetooth) to cloud to hubitat connection.

I have setup this exact thing with our coffee maker to turn it on and off using hubitat automations, google hubs, etc.

I also have their curtain and door lock products.

There is a great thread and driver support with all things switchbot here: SwitchBot gets an open API!

4 Likes

Not available on Amazon yet, but can be found on eBay :

The Zigbee version is controlled directly with HE.

1 Like

There's a couple of ways to do this. One of them is not fully cooked yet.

  1. There's a cloud integration so HE can integrate with the SwitchBot hubs.

  2. Switchbot Hub 2 has (or will have) Matter support. But Hubitat doesn't have Matter support ready, so this is a future possibility.

  3. Home Assistant can integrate with Switchbot devices locally via Bluetooth and they can use and ESP32 with Bluetooth as a proxy to extend range. You can use HADB to integrate their sensors back to HE, or for bot devices you can also use the HE>HA integration to control them with Hubitat Virtual Switches and HA automations.

  4. There's an ESP32 Bluetooth integration that allows their sensors and bots to integrate via MQTT. I use this one with HA and then use HADB for the sensors, and the HE>HA integration to control my SwitchBot bot via a Hubitat Virtual Switch and HA automation. However, since it's MQTT, there's no reason this method wouldn't work with an HE or any other MQTT integration.

Now, I'm not actually suggesting you setup HA and MQTT just for a single SwitchBot bot. I've made my opinion known many times about how valuable I think it is to have HA and HE integrated, so you decide if you think it's worth it or not to have their many additional local and cloud integrations available to your HE hub. For me, I already had Z2M setup on HA, therefor it was just a matter of configuring the Arduino sketch for the first time so I could program ESP32 D1 minis for this. I prefer this method because D1 minis with Bluetooth and WiFi are inexpensive and self-contained, allowing me to put them anywhere within WiFI range to communicate with SwitchBot devices, without a concern over Bluetooth range.

2 Likes

I will add a much simpler suggestion though. Get a new coffee maker with a timer. Same cost or cheaper. Far easier to implement. Or maybe a Zigbee plug-in outlet if your current coffee maker would allow that to work.

If you can wait (usually about 2 weeks) AliExpress has the Tuya Zigbee Fingerbot Plus for $17.54 with free shipping.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mN0QbT8)

You will need the toolkit to adapt it to various devices.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0N1mP0

I bought one so I can push my wife’s buttons remotely. :grin:

3 Likes

Hub 2 does have Matter (beta).

My attempts to get the Hub 2 connected to SmartThings (beta) using matter has not been successful yet.

Yep. Although I imagine you'd get a better pot of coffee if it didn't stand overnight.

I personally can tell the difference between the quality and roast of beans, but cannot tell the difference between coffee I ground fresh in the morning, versus coffee I ground the night before and let it sit in the hopper until the timer started brewing.

Nor can I tell the difference between a timed pour over and a drip coffee maker. Water temp, pre-wetting the filter, wetting the beans and the effect is has on bitterness is a mystery to me. I guess my pallet is too unrefined to detect those subtle differences. The only filtered coffee method I have definitely detected a difference in is an AeroPress.

I'm using a Bialetti for my morning caffeine, and a coffee maker for decaf.

A classic. We have an induction stove top now, so ours went to our daughter.

1 Like

Years ago I was at a guy’s house who was a coffee aficionado. This guy was telling me he could tell what month the beans were harvested, the country where they were grown, and if the man who harvested them bathed that day. He went on and on and on. Even had a million dollar coffee machine. Some people are really into their cofffee.

Some people are just really into themselves. :rofl:

1 Like