The sound of the HomePod alarm

On several occasions we have commented that the Aqara bridge can make the alarm functions connected. It is not as robust and reliable an alarm as those of life-long security companies, but it can be a first barrier to cacos. In this entry we’ll see how to get the sound of the alarm by the HomePod so it sounds a lot stronger.

It is clear that if the thief itself is a little skilled and just come in takes the light away (the differentials are usually next to the entrance door) because there will be no more sound or Internet connection worth it But what do you want me to say, There’s nothing so valuable in my house. I have to get so tangled up.

Still, simply with some sensors or with the Aqara bridge and sensors, we can get you to do the alarm functions connected, so we can set up the alarm when we leave the house and, in the event that a condition such as a door or window is met, that the motion sensor detects something, etc., the alarm will start to sound like a demon other than that we will receive a notification on the mobile.

If you are listeners of the podcast, we have already discussed this issue and how to activate the alarm on the bridge of Aqara in episode 13 of the Compatible Domotics podcast.

The problem: Aqara’s M2 bridge only carries internal speaker

Activating the alarm with the Aqara M1 and M1S bridge is a very simple task which works very well as they carry a small built-in speaker who, while not going to make a sound of 100 decibels, can act as a deterrent to the cacos. However, Now that I have the bridge M2 of Aqara I have realized that the speaker that has the M2 is of laughter, it’s not even external, so you can hear the alarm if you’re too close to the cache and you almost stick your ear to it… which I don’t think they do the cacos and, if they do, instead of getting scared they’re gonna unscrew.

Peeero has a solution for the sound of the alarm if we have this bridge: use the HomePod (both the classic and the mini) as the alarm speaker.

The solution: Remove the sound from the alarm by the HomePod

Actually We can use this method as long as we have some sensor that can be a trigger. You don’t have to be the bridge of Aqara. If we have the Philips Hue motion sensor that costs about 30 €, Eve is something more expensive but you’re supposed to be able to detect pets or door / window sensors Eve and Onvis respectively, we can make the HomePod emits an alarm

and in case they detect something… but We could also make the alarm sound if, for example, a flood sensor detects that we are getting the pipe out of the sink or have spent filling the pool (not my case, I just have bathrobes and are not too big), put on the blue home lights and sound for the HomePod the song ‘Singin ‘in the rain’!

Well, I’m in trouble, we can make it sound like any sensor we have compatible with HomeKit and show up on the House app.

The configuration is very simple, we simply have to enter the Home app, go to automations to create a new and in the condition we put ‘When a sensor detects something’. Here we will see directly the available sensors, in my case the smoke detector, the motion detectors, the open door and the flood ones come out.

By clicking on the one we want, for example on the door, it will give us the option to choose if we want the alarm to sound when the door opens or when the door closes… obviously when the door opens, the other I don’t see the meaning, but… we can also set here the ‘When’ in case we want to activate it only at night for example and the condition of the People, in case we want it to be activated only when there is no one at home.

By giving to Next we will get all our devices out to choose what we want to happen when the previous action happens, and here we select the HomePod… so we can tell you ‘Play Audio’ and move on to a screen to choose the Sound.

Obviously. We’re not gonna put JoseLuis Perales when someone comes home at night no matter how sad their songs are., but the HomePod does not give us the option of choosing sounds or alarms, just Apple Music music… pesero, there are some albums in Apple Music sounds, so we just have to look for one of these albums, I usually use one that is called Al

arms: Sound Effects You can search it directly in the window that opens to you to choose music as it allows you to choose from our library or search Apple Music. I have one that is called Alarm, Car that is the typical sound of these alarms… there is also the tweet that made the alarms a few years ago when you deactivated it from the command… and I swear I want to put it somewhere, but I still haven’t found where!

These sounds are very stressful and last a few seconds, so Remember to select the option of Repeat so that it does not stop and that of the Custom Volume so you can put it as high as you always want with the permission of your neighbors and their tolerance to the heart attack, of course. We can also tell you to turn off the X minutes as we do in any other automation.

Eye with location!

The good thing about this automation is that You don’t have to set it up and disarm it like a conventional alarm or like we do with the Aqara bridge, simply adjust the conditions correctly. If we tell him to sound at night when there’s no one at home, it means it’s gonna sound if the door opens at night and none of the devices of the people we have added to the House app are in the vicinity of our house. I, for example, have my wife’s iPhone, my eldest son’s iPhone and my other children’s tablets. But what if we’re going to eat outside and the little iPads are home? The alarm doesn’t sound

What if I remove these iPads from the condition and tell you to just keep in mind that my iPhone and my wife’s are out of the house? Well, if one of my little kids has stayed with the grandparents, a kangaroo, or I’ve just come down to throw the trash and the kid has just stayed that minute and a half… as soon as he opens the door, he’s gonna start to sound like a demon.

Please note that the ‘be at home’ the Home app does not take him to rajatabla, for the Home app means you’re inside the area that usually is about 200m round… so If we go down to the park from under the house, surely the app will consider that we’re still at home., you can’t add a condition like being connected to the Wifi. So, as soon as we all get home and enter the geographical area that Casa considers to be at home, the alarm will deactivate… or should, because this doesn’t always work fine, if you go by car for example and you enter the garage without cover, it’s easy that you don’t notice and

As soon as you open the door, your house becomes a fair of sounds and lights.

It must also be borne in mind that We can activate the notification directly on the sensor, not for the particular automation, so we can tell the door sensor for example to notify us if the door opens and we are not at home… in this way we will know that the alarm is ringing because the door has opened even if we do not receive a direct notification of Let’s all go!!

Next week I will tell you how to do it with the Aqara which gives us some more flexibility to link several sensors (for example open door and motion sensor) and allows us to arm and disarm the alarm in a classic way, even giving us a few seconds of courtesy to leave the house before activating the alarm.