As you may know I’m increasingly becoming a fan of Zigbee where possible (as against WiFi) because with the latter, signal quality varies depending on availability of WiFi access points. I manage, but as I’ve fitted more and more Zigbee smart sockets and Zigbee lights around the house – by magic this means I have “routers” for Zigbee sensor devices all over, as all mains-powered Zigbee devices are also Zigee radio routers.
I have LOTS of Aqara sensors which are part of my home control system – just do a search for Aqara in the blog. When the TVOC sensor (bottom) arrived I was not at all surprised to find it works for Zigbee2MQTT – and hence by using Zigbee2MQTT nodes in my home control setup I can usually integrate devices into the home control Node-Red dashboard.
This week I acquired the Aqara pet feeder model ZNCWWSQ01LM and today we’ve been setting it up in preparation for a few days away.
In this case, the Zigbee2MQTT interface, while working with the pet feeder does not seem able to create a stable feeding schedule.
I loaded up the Aqara APP – then I remembered the feeder needs an Aqara Zigbee HUB – I thought I had one but it seems not – however I DO have the combined Aquara hub/camera so I paired up the feeder with that via the Aqara Home APP – this way the device is also Alexa and Google Home compatible.
As you can see on the image – left – I’ve successfully added both the camera and the pet feeder and from there, it is simply a matter of adding in schedules for the week of feeding.
Standard portions are 8gm, some folk must have very small cats – so for our three I’ve now set up 4 daily schedules of several portions each time.
You can apparently record a voice and have it play back “Tibbles – dinner’s ready” or similar. Personally I’m just happy to have the device feed our three cats four times a day when we take a short break.
Cats of course usually will not binge – dogs would – so a controlled, scheduled feeding system is more important for dogs but I’ve spread food delivery throughout the day anyway.
Anyway, within minutes of opening the box I had the feeder ready to go. The metal bowl is of course easily removed for cleaning (as are all the major parts).
While I’m here, a quick shout for the Aqara TVOC sensor VOCKQJK11LM (received at the same time) which offers temperature, humidity and Air Quality outputs – this sensor works with Zigbee2MQTT or if you prefer, an Aqara hub and their Aqara Home APP.
