Cube T1 Pro, Requires AQARA ZIGBEE 3.0 HUB, 6 Sides to Control Different Scenes and Diverse Actions to Control Smart Home Devices, Supports Homekit, Alexa and IFTTT

I love this product! I have been using this for last four months. While I couldn’t use its full functionality since I connected it through HomeAssistant and I had to purchase the Aqara hub separately, this little gadget is so impressive that I still had to give it 5 stars. Every time guests see it for the first time, they are just so amazed. However, if you’re new to home automation, it might not be the easiest to set up. It took me some time to figure things out and I am new to HomeAssistant. Speed to turn on and off: 4/5 Battery Life: 5/5 Accuracy: 3/5 Ease of Installation: 2/5 Once everything is set up, the combination of its price, functionality, and the “wow” factor it brings to guests makes it a solid 5/5. Highly recommend it for smart home enthusiasts!

This unique control device allows you to send a variety of control signals to a Zigbee hub with a unique interface. You could use a remote with buttons, or you could (for example) get this cube, turn it to side 3, and rotate it. The cube has several different events it can send, and you can configure its software to respond to those signals as you like. You can shake or "throw" the cube (don't actually throw it; that's what it calls an action where you hold it, move it through the air, and suddenly stop). You can flip it to one of its 6 sides, and it'll report which side it was flipped from and to. Once it knows it's on a specific side, you can rotate it left or right, slide it, or tap it. Any of these actions can be configured to do something - flipping it to side 1 and rotating it could act as a control to dim/brighten the lights, for example. It does require a Zigbee network - no, it doesn't need an Aqara brand Zigbee hub specifically; I'm using it with a Sonoff Zigbee hub. Once paired, it can send signals to whatever control software you configure to respond to it. I'm using it with Home Assistant, and it works fine. The caveat is that all the actions having to do with flipping the cube to a side and doing something will only work on a hard, level, flat surface. It can only sense what side it's on if you firmly "click" it against a surface - not hard, but firmly enough that you can hear it make contact. I thought it wasn't working or there were signal problems until I realized this. The shaking and throwing actions don't depend on a surface and work anywhere, but all the side-related actions need you to flip it firmly on a solid surface so its accelerometers get clear input. Remember that this uses the Zigbee protocol to communicate - not wi-fi, not Bluetooth (ok, I think the config app might use Bluetooth, but only to configure it, and you don't need the app). You will need to pair the cube with some kind of Zigbee hub to receive its signals. If you aren't using Zigbee, this won't work for you. But if you are, this cube is a unique if somewhat finicky way to control your devices.

Great gadget. Using it with Alexa to fire off routines. Easy to setup. App is easy to use. Not all of the functionality is available unless you are deep into the Aqara ecosystem. I am not so I can only use half of the functionality. Requires a Aqara hub. Reasonably priced for all of the things it can do.

The description of this as HomeKit-compatible is misleading. If your goal is to use it to control non-Aqara devices through HomeKit, you will be disappointed. It only works when you turn the face of the cube to a specific number—shown as a tiny cluster of hard-to-see gray dots on the corner of each face. Good luck using it as a light switch in dim room. Most of the gesture commands only work in certain limited circumstances. Most simply do not work at all.

For some reason, action mode is not available with Alexa. For me, that's OK, as I think I prefer scene mode anyway. I had to disable and re-enable the Aqara skill in Alexa before it recognized the Cube. Although the —nearly microscopic—documentation says that shaking is available in scene mode, it does not show up in Alexa. I got this primarily because I can't speak to Alexa when wearing my CPAP mask. This is also handy for executing an Alexa command without interrupting music playing on Alexa. Because it is usually dark when I'm trying to sleep, I added glue dots to five sides so that I can identify each side by touch. Take care not to slide the Cube across a surface if you don't want to repeat a routine. I only got the Cube because the buttons (Mini Switches) don't integrate with Alexa. I would prefer to use the buttons.

I really got this cube just as a toy to play around with. I am using Home Assistant using ZHA and a SkyConnect for the zigbee connection and it worked great for a while, picking up the shake, rotate (per size), and tap. The only thing I had a problem with is that the tap required quite a bit of force to register, which made it not so fun. No one wants to slam the product down on a face (twice) to initiate a command and it is really hard to make it happen in your hand/lap. But I mostly only use it for a shake to turn on a porch light. I purchased the Cube T1 Pro 8 months ago but the last few months it has lost connection to my zigbee stick and I constantly have to pull the battery to reset it (which is no small feat, the cover is not easy to pop off... which is normally a good thing). The "Link" button will work no problem (event appears in HA), but any shake/tap/rotate/motion to initiate a trigger will do nothing until I pull the battery to reset it. I am not sure if it is just a defect in this device itself or if it is an overall issue of longevity with the device but this is my experience. My kid absolutely loves using it and I wish it would work all the time instead of needing me to fix it every few days.

First, do not buy. I know it looks cool, the idea is there, but oh my... the execution is bad. The main problem is that this device cannot reliably trigger any events. No amount of fiddling will get orientation to consistently pick up, shaking and taping are slightly more reliable, and rotation is just unusable. I had to rely on the double tap to get the face to update to the correct side and disregard all the other events because they just never trigger. It's claimed by many that you have to do all these things in a specific way for them to work, trust me, it's hopeless either way. The cool factor quickly vanishes when you have to retry the same sequence 3-4 times in a row before an act of god (seemly from his pity of my hopeless repeated attempts) makes it spit out one accurate reading. I'm really not sure how they messed this up so badly. Detecting acceleration and rotation is more-or-less a solved problem. I can download a free bubble-level app on my phone that would be thousands of times more reliable than the orientation data coming out of this cube. Finally, the support in Home Assistant is awful. You have to listen to the raw events after enabling a secret mode on the device. It's poorly documented, masochistic, processes that I'd rather not re-live.

I purchased the cube on a whim and have been playing with it. I set it to turn on/off my smart monitor and my alarm system. FYI - according to the box, an Aqara M3 Hub is needed to operate it. I already had the M3.