Onvis Set to Release New Thread-Enabled Devices

Onvis is a company we’ve featured a few times in the past on this website, with reviews on most of their product line, like the C3 Smart Camera, their combined Siren and contact sensor, as well as one of the best light strips on the market, the Kameleon K1. Their products so far have been a combination of WiFi devices (camera, light strip), and Bluetooth (motion, contact, siren), but now the company are taking the wise step of moving into the Thread domain, with the announcement of two forthcoming Thread-enabled devices.

The first of these two products is an update to their existing Bluetooth-based contact sensor, but with the addition of Thread. With this new connectivity protocol, the Onvis Contact Sensor CT3 (the Bluetooth model being the CT2) will not only provide much faster reaction times, more consistently but also decent battery life, with up to two years on a single CR2450 coin battery.

If you’re currently an owner of the CT2, you might also be happy to learn that the company seem to have taken on board comments regarding the size of the logo, which covered approximately one-third of the main sensor. The new model has the Onvis logo in a much more discrete size!

The second product is brand new for Onvis and is a wireless controller with five individual buttons. The Onvis HS2 features the five buttons on a rounded square surface, with the first button occupying the centre position, and the four remaining buttons sitting in each corner. Each button is labelled with small, noctilucent dots (they glow in the dark), with the central button being button ‘one’, and the subsequent corner buttons being two, three, four, and five.

Once again, this is a Thread device, and just like all of Onvis’ output so far, will be HomeKit compatible. Each button will be exposed to HomeKit with the standard single, double, and long-press options, which brings a minimum of fifteen programmable actions on the one device.

Finally, if you look at the image above, you might notice it sits on a plinth. This is actually a magnetic holder for the HS2, so you can mount it on most magnetic surfaces, whilst also allowing the button to be carried around if required.

Onvis have informed us that this is only the beginning of their forays into Thread enabled products – both new and updated, and although exact pricing has yet to be announced, we’re expecting them to be competitively priced. We’re also told that these two devices should start to appear in stores towards the end of May.

Once we know more, we’ll report back on more products as and when they surface. In the meantime, to keep up with all the latest HomeKit news and reviews, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit!