Naran MIB-PNB1A-01PC MicroBot Piush, 3.7 V, Platinum White, 36 g

I'd seen this device when it was on kickstarter, and thought I'd wait to see if it ever emerged. Was quite glad to see it was a success so ordered.I only have a single switch I want to control as part of the wider home automation and this device does exactly what I want, in that it pushes a switch.The issue comes with controlling the device. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), and have successfully got many other devices controlled directly from a Raspberry Pi. However this device has some sort of unique pairing, so almost impossible to integrate.I don't want to control from the iPhone app as that would negate the point of it.They now offer a Porta hub, so you can control the device, however that is pretty expensive and really no need for a single switch.They also offer a Raspberry Pi image so you can run the Porta OS on your own pi. This is Alpha quality if anything. It's pretty buggy, but does work, eventually. A lot of trial and error as their documentation on this is non-existent. The image is also a black box, you have no way to get into their OS, not something I typically trust. It also means I have a Pi, with wifi and BT sitting there doing pretty much nothing all day long.Their Porta OS/Device has a huge amount of integration, i.e. HUE, IFTTT..etc however I have no need for this. I want to integrate the Push into my eco system. I really think they have missed a trick here.That said, the end goal I have achieved. Instead ofPi > PushI have to go this wayPi > Porta cloud > Porta webhook > Porta OS/Pi > PushI've also noticed that their web api/webhooks often just error out. They clearly need to do work on their infrastructure.The push itself I would give a 5*, its a solid piece of kit. However scoring a 2* due to the way you need to interact with the kit.Hopefully this improves.

The Microbot Push: Nobody else seems to be doing anything like this so it deserves a star or two for that. The hardware is actually pretty good. I found the Android app for the Push is buggy but works with annoyances.It's quite well thought out, length, depth and type of press are all adjustable. But what do you use it for? Light switches? Not really, you would typically need one to turn on and one to turn off. There are much better ways to automate your lights. Turn on PC, seems a waste/hassle to me, most PC's will have something in the BIOS to select what to do when power is restored. Set this to 'power on' and use a smart plug, cheaper and easier. Coffee machines? dishwashers? Maybe.For me I wanted to activate a garage door. It does work but the Bluetooth range is very poor. I'd need to be standing just outside or inside the garage to activate it so basically it is all but useless unless you have the Prota S hub. Maybe if you had a very high wall switch it could save you getting a step ladder out?The Prota S hub: I used the review by S.B. headed 'Painful setup, once working good' to assist with setup (Thanks S.B.) I have the following comments on his guide to help othersPoint 1 - I used an old Blackberry chargerPoint 4 - I used Windows 10 April 2018 update. My SSID was different but easily recognisable. I'd say the wired connection is required, first time I went through without and something went wrong. I reset and went through again with a wired connection too and it worked as described by S.B.Point 6 - I used a recent version of Chrome and had no rendering issues. The Prota will not connect to a 5g wireless network.Point 8 - I had to do these reboots manually by removing the power.Once I had it connected to my wireless I found the Android app to work okay. Got it linked with IFTTT fairly easily and Alexa was easy from there.It does work however the range is very poor. The Prota needs to be close to the wireless access point and the Push needs to be VERY close to the Prota. My router is on the garage side of the house. I've put the Prota in the garage with the Push. I certainly couldn't use another Push on the other side of the house and I doubt the Prota would reliably connect on the other side of the house from the router either.If you can work within the limitations and have the patience to set it up then it does work. Worth a go but keep all the packing in case you need to return it.

First the good points- It seems to do the job it was intended to do which was to push a button at timed intervals. In this case a button on my heating boiler which intermittently goes into "do nothing" mode and needs a reset (hence the button push). I had to superglue something small onto the button presser because my button was small and recessed but that works fine.- The low distance blue tooth connection to the app works OK. It is only intended for very short distances for set up purposes.- the stickiness of the supplied pads seems reasonably good. My device hasn't fallen off yet after doing several days of button pushes and having taken off the device quite a few times for various reasons. Having said that though my boiler buttons are not highly resistant to pushes like a light switch for example.Neutral points- you can press the device to initiate a button press manually but this does not imitate any special settings that you have done for the timed pushes such as "press and hold in for 3 seconds". So you can't use it to test that your timed push works in the correct way.- the app is not very forgiving. When I renamed the button in the app that seemed to cause an issue and i had to start the whole set up process from scratch. You need to read the instructions to resolve this issue, you find the info in the app.Bad points - The power inlet for recharging the device is on the side that you stick to things. So you have to unstick the device to re-charge it. why ? why ? why ?