Yeelight Plan to Increase Range of Bluetooth Mesh Lighting Products
Yeelight, the Chinese lighting company responsible for some of the more interesting HomeKit-enabled lighting products in the last couple of years (the Mi Desk Lamp Pro and the Staria Bedside Lamp Pro being two good examples), are still working to bring their Bluetooth Mesh lighting range to a wider audience, and with the discovery of some more products in the pipeline, there may well be a good choice on offer soon.
Currently, Yeelight has four Bluetooth Mesh lighting products currently available, although only officially on sale in China. These are the E27 and E14 bulbs, along with a downlight and a spotlight. All of these are designed to work with Apple HomeKit once they are connected to the company’s Bluetooth Mesh gateway. The only issue is that this gateway is still not currently available.
The Mi Smart Gateway also has a built-in Bluetooth Mesh gateway, which can already be used with these bulbs, but as far as we’re aware, they don’t currently get exposed to HomeKit when fed through this gateway, despite the fact the gateway is also HomeKit compatible (if you’re aware that they do, please let us know!).
Regardless of this, it would appear that Yeelight are expanding their range with five new products; a Mesh Downlight II, a Mesh Downlight II Pro and a Mesh Spotlight II, as well as new models for their E27 and E14 bulbs, the latter of which sport a new look, not dissimilar to offerings by iHaper and LifeSmart.
What the second or Pro versions of existing lights improve upon, we’re unsure, but it would seem that Yeelight is putting a lot of effort into the push for Bluetooth Mesh products. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before the Mesh hub is finally released, so consumers can see what benefits this newer technology can bring to the table.
Thanks to Sebastian B for the tip-off.
I have 3 of the Yeelight E27 BLE Mesh lightbulbs linked together via the Mi Smart Gateway and the Xiaomi Home app. I have also connected them to the Yeelight app. When I first installed them about a month ago, the lightbulbs were not exposed to either Google Home or Apple HomeKit – but recently they appeared in Google Home via the Yeelight app. Not sure if this was due to an update to the Yeelight app?
Thanks for confirming that they are not currently exposed via the Mi Smart Gateway. Hopefully the Yeelight Mesh hub isn’t too far away from being released.
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After the recent update to the Mi Home app, the BLE Mesh spotlight response time has improved significantly.
I’m using the Mi hub 3 as the gateway. Unfortunately they are still not exposed to HomeKit.
Which Bluetooth mesh lights are you using – the Yeelight or Mijia ones?
They’re Yeelight Mesh Smart LED Spotlight Ball Lights model YLSD04YL
I believe these Yeelight bulbs are exposed to HomeKit via the Yeelight Bluetooth mesh hub, so it would be just a case of getting them certified to work with HomeKit via the Mi Smart Gateway, although who is responsible for that, I’m not sure. The Yeelight hub is only available in China, but they’re bringing out an international version soon I’m told.