Bosch Smoke detectors - I am smart.... apparently!

Any of you who regularly read my blog will know I moved from the USA to the UK last year, and I've bought a mid 19th century granite house in deepest darkest Cornwall. I am now busy dragging it from the 1980's, and partly 1930's, into the early 21st century.

One of the things I had in the USA was the First Alert OneLink Carbon Monoxide detector. This suited my perfectly for that application. It was down in the basement, and connect to power, but has a built in battery and so will run for a few days without power. There is a version with a speaker as well, but didn't really need that down there.

Moving to the UK meant a whole new set of smoke alarms though. As Europe and the USA do not share common standards, unfortunately.

This meant I was looking at Eve, Netatmo or, interestingly, Bosch.

Initially I looked at Eve and Netatmo, as I wanted a hub less solution.

The Eve Smoke I discounted because it uses BLE, and some of my smoke detectors are quite some distance from a HomeKit hub, such as in my attic. Apparently they are looking at a Thread version. This would've been superb... although, I must admit, most Thread routers are powered and so, in the event of a fire, you have to ask if you would have mains power. If not, how is the Smoke Detector going to communicate with your home hub when it's using a mesh powered by that mains power?

The Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm looks interesting. It does not have changeable batteries, but the included batteries are guaranteed for 10 years. Still, that calls into question recycling of the device. Also, it uses WiFi. I just don't think WiFi is a suitable communication medium for Smoke Detectors. It's just more devices on your WiFi, and its requirements are very low bandwidth. It does, though, get over the distance issue of BLE.

I've been curious about Bosch for a while, once I saw them announce HomeKit compatibility a few years ago, via their Controller. They have a few devices that integrate, including a Smoke Detector as well as the Bosch TwinGuard, which does more than just Smoke Detecting.... and thus the name. It also does air quality monitoring.

It is the most expensive option, though, as you have to buy that controller too.... breaking one of my basic tenets, but the smoke alarms run on a Zigbee mesh, which means that the signals can get to the hard to reach places.... something very important in a Granite house.

I must admit I was deeply suspicious when I opened the box, and saw "I Am Smart". Strikes me that anything that has to tell you it is smart is probably not that, well.... smart! 

Still, setting up the Controller was extremely easy and it connected in with HomeKit flawlessly.

It is Ethernet connected directly to my main Eero router which also connects to my ISP modem. All of these are on a battery backup UPS so that they will run, for a while, without power.

On its own, though, obviously the Controller really does nothing except provide that Zigbee to Homekit integration, over TCP/IP.

Installation of Bosch Controller

If there is one thing I like about the work Bosch has done, it is the step by step installation, showing/telling you exactly what to do. The Controller is a good example of this....even starting with bubbles and a slightly small nuclear family. 

Initially it takes you through the steps of cabling up the controller, and then scanning a QR code on the base.

Whilst it looks lovely and neat on the diagrams....in real life it is not so brilliant. Whilst I get that you want the power cord and network cable to go seperate ways, it really isn't so brilliant. But they do have a section of the bottom of the bridge that you can take out and route the cables that way.

It will them, probably update the software which can, and does, take a while. 

When it comes back, you can continue with the setup which includes selecting the country you are in and a system password for logging into the controller.

Then onto location of the controller in the house, and the geo-location. Again, I like that installation gives you the reason why it is asking for geo-location, what the benefit is to you as the consumer and what the issue will be if you decide to not set that up. This is superb for privacy.

Now it is a warning, how to mount it and a Congratulations! So you can have a beer, champers, or whatever floats your boat...

.....except you now have to add it to HomeKit. This is by going into Settings, or "More" in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and then Partners. Interesting that there is a separation between "Smart Home Cloud" and HomeKit. It's the first time I've really seen the difference called out like that.

At this point, it needs to access your home data, and then it provides the HomeKit code... rather a shame it just gives it as a string. Surely there must be a better way to do the integration than this?

Now we go through the normal HomeKit Setup by deciding the room and the name of the device.

Now you can have that beer/champers/etc!

Installation of Twinguard

Just like the Controller, Installation of the Twinguard is very easy. Basically you get a mounting plate, with some screws and wall plugs. You attach the mounting plate to the wall, or ceiling. Then you follow the instructions in the Bosch App. Disappointingly, it will appear in the room where the controller is and with its original name, not the name you give it in the app. This is such a simple thing to do, but most vendors just do not set up things properly, in my opinion.

The app now starts to test the signal strength. I must admit, I did have an issue here, and so I stood right next to the controller, and I still got a signal strength issue. I then rebooted the controller, and the issue went away.

You now get told to mount the Twinguard

Then the app tests the functionality of the Twinguard to make sure it is working correctly.

Once the app has decided teh Twinguard is OK, you now configure it. Unfortunately, these are not HomeKit rooms, but rooms inside the Bosch Smart Controller.

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You now get to set the sensitivity of the device and the air quality profile. I like this as you want less sensitivity in certain places. e.g., I have a coal fired Aga in my kitchen, so sensitivity needs to be low otherwise it will constantly be going off.

What you end up with in Homekit are the following:

• Air quality sensor
• Humidity Sensor
• Temperature sensor
• Smoke Detector

What's it like in Operation?

I've actually found it to be very reliable and superb in operation. I have them dotted around my house:

• Kitchen
• Hall
• Landing
• Attic
• Garage (Even though it says you shouldn't)

There has been no issue with connectivity.

I set the Kitchen and Garage to be low sensitivity. Even so, I have set off the kitchen a couple of times as the Aga can get very smokey when I light it. It's not a problem though. It starts to slwly beep at first, and you just have to push the centre to tell it to keep quiet.

Still, it gives me the confidence it is working.

You can also stop the alarm inside the app, or within HomeKit.... but the pushing of the centre is easier.

As for being Smart? Well, you can set up automations in the Bosch Smart Controller. They do have direct integrations with things like Hue. However, I'm going to do that inside HomeKit.

I'm thinking of flashing lights Red when the detector goes off and doesn't get reset for 2 minutes.... to give me time when I light the Aga.