I've been using the original aqara hub and a bunch of zigbee devices since 2017. Have kept adding to it currently have 8 xiaomi plug switches, 5 temperature, 1 leak detection, 1 cube, 2 push buttons and 2 motion sensors. Have 3 xiaomi_miio IR transmitters (non zigbee). Recently have been adding to my setup with tasmota flashed devices (plugs, lights, wall switches etc). All working great with HASS - use LAN access to connect to the aqara hub. BTW, can this version of the hub connect in the same way as before -ie without homekit for connectivity? (by extracting the device key in a kind of hacky way)
Several temperature and door sensors. But not the hub, as I don't want another listening post. Another easy way is a zkgbee stick. The conbee supports aqara, osram, IKEA etc and no hub needed.
Have to agree with you, Aqara makes really good devices at affordable prices.. Currently using the Door, Leak, Motion sensors throughout my apartment. The signal range of these devices is overall good not losing connectivity as compared to other brands. These devices get detected much easier in HASS as compared to Smart Things.
I have 12 currently, much, much cheaper on Aliexpress even when VAT is added at sale, pretty much all vendors ship FoC takes around 10-12 days typically, can save you 30%-40% or more if you buy in bulk, although larges orders might incur import charges.
I was optimistic when I saw the title, but its inaccurate. It's the easiest way to add AQARA Zigbee devices to Home Assistant. So back to the drawing board. When will Aqara get over this walled garden garbage. Especially when all they have is mainly sensors and switches, and for good lights (smart with color), you need to use a different brand.
I just put together my Rasp Pi5 and it uses Home Assistant. My M2 hub shows up as a homekit device. If you update your firmware on the M2 then enable Matter on it. The M2 will show up as a Matter device.
I’m confused how do you add the aqara hub m2 as an integration! I don’t see any option for this? I’m happy to just use the HomeKit stuff you mentioned?
I bought M2 and paired it with HA. I just notice that I can see the "lux" value in HA for my Aqara motion sensor. I can only see the battery info and whether motion is detected but not lux. How can I see the lux info and use that in my automation in HA?
I’ve got door sensors, buttons and the cube. I know I can add the sensors direct but if I want the hub in home assistant using matter, how can we do that?
What Zigbee hub or stick you are using with HA and whats it's range? What I read direct connection from Aqara to HA is bit limited, which is sad since I have quite much Aqara devices around house.
I have aqara single switches and a m2 hub. Playing with home assistant (not that i know what im doing, but following some YT videos has me crawling....) ive yet to figure out how to get the aqara devices into HA, ZHA doesnt see any of the devices (possibly too great a distance, not sure) or the hub (possible multi-network/VLAN issue). If you have the time/desire, id appreciate a video on actually setting it up evenbetter if you can cover some scenarios including mine (multiple VLANS; HA on my home vlan, Aqara devices on iot vlan, and ubiquiti equipment on the "default" vlan). Unfortunately im just about over the VM (on unraid) of HA i have because i cant figure out how to get much of anything working the way i want it and it keeps loosing my devices (samsung tv doesnt register status changes and wont turn off via HA because of said status issue, it'll turn on, just not off. And how do i change the icon and display for my garage door? What the heck is a "yaml" i keep hearing mentioned?!?) Yeah, im that new to this stuff.
I watched this hoping I'd learn how to integrate Aqara into Home Assistant. Instead I got 10 seconds out of 15 minutes starting at 10:28 with just "they should all just connect up and work straight away." No they do not. If they did, I wouldn't be watching this video!
First thank you. You videos are a great help for getting started in HA. Using in about 3 months now. My largest issue is compatibility. Can the Aqaba m2 be added to HA if a Nortek. is already used as a controller in Zigbee ? I have read that some sensors work better on the hub (vibration sensor). My set up is on a Dell Wyler 5060. Using HA OS.
Some large caveats for the M2 is that the functionality of the M2 itself with home assistant is very limited. There only one ringtone it can output as it doesn't play well/at all with the Xiaomi integration.
How do we add the M2 hub to Home Assistant if we don't have Homekit? I am an Android user and I see the Homekit option in my Home Assistant integration menu, but I have no way of using it. I tried linking it using the "Xaiomi Gateway (Aqara)" integration but I keep getting an error.
I finally figured it out. You can use the Homekit setup that pops up in the integration menu. Just get the 8 digit code from the packaging or manual. It will look like a small QR code with two rows of 4 numbers above it. Just enter those numbers in the format the Homekit installation asks for (usually XXX-XX-XXX)
Thank you very much for so good videos and tutorials. I bought the aqara hub m2 few days ago and also my new raspberry pi. I have my aqara hub added in aqara app, in my homekit but I'm not able to add it to home assistant. Could you please give me some details how you add it to home assistant? many thanks!
You can't have it in homekit first and then add it to home assistant. You need to reset the device, add it to home assistant using the homekit controller integration and then push it back to homekit (if you want) using the homekit integration. See here: www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit_controller (3rd paragraph)
Anyone having trouble with the M2 hub? The first time HA found it without any trouble (Homekit integration added really easy as in the video) and all my my Aqara devises was working in HA. Due to some other issues I deleted the Homekit integration and now, no matter what I do, HA don't find the Homekit automatic and manual don't work. No ignored and no hidden integrations/notifications.
I’m on the fence with investing heavily into the Aqara products. If integrating the hub with HomeAssistant, do the sensors and hub require internet after the initial setup? I.e. after I configure everything and confirmed it’s working, can I block it’s access to the cloud and it still be functional?
I have the Aqara Hub the one before the M1S and it is set up with HomeKit, But never shows up in my home assistant? Could it be because its a old hub? Also really enjoy your videos. Ver helpful
Hi I've been using Aqara sensors (without a hub) within Home assistant for over a year now. I find they are easy to connect but sometimes drop out and I need to reconnect them. I think they are some of the best looking sensors available and have great battery life. I have yet to find a good use for the cube. However since Aqara have launched in the EU their devices are roughly double the price of what I paid for them when I bought them directly from China.
@@EverythingSmartHome hi yes I have about 25 Aqara devices ( and another 25 Phillips Hue zigbee devices). I use a couple of IKEA repeaters to extend the network range. My zigbee co-ordinator for the Aqara devices is a Combee II stick. I have been careful to avoid clashes with my WiFi channels. Wall to wall Ubiquiti UniFi.
May I ask - for the sensors and products you bought from China, after adding them into Home assistant - are you able to use Alexa and Google home to control them? Thanks
I've been using Aqara devices for more than 4 years (20ish door sensors, some sired switches and wireless switches) with the 1st gen hub. This is BY FAR the easiest and most stable zigbee network I had. I now use ZHA on home assistant to open up to some other brands but I keep my Aqara devices linked with the Aqara hub since it's rock solid. When some friends asked me what they shoud get to start with home automation, my answer is always the same: Go with Aqara, play with it and fi you want to go further, get home assistant and integrate your Aqara network in it.
Hi great informative video however I am confused about one thing, I currently use 2 Aqara hubs and one G2 camera with about 50 devices in HomeKit I watched your video on Home assistant Green and am thinking of jumping in but can you explain do I continue to use the Aqara hubs or connectall the devices straight into home assistant.
I am currently running Home Assistant with a number of Z-Wave devices, using an Aeotec dongle. Can I also run the Aqara M2 Hub or E1 Hub at the same time, and then add a number of Aqara Zigbee devices? Will all devices still work in harmony together? Which hub do you suggest would be the best to use? Will all the Zigbee devices work correctly with Homkit?
I am literally new to Home Assistant. I had my home with Amazon Echo and have 1 Lutron switch, 2 Aqara switches and 1 Aqara motion sensonr, I also have the M2 Aqara hub. I installed HA in a raspberry pi 4. I found Lutron and Philips hue in HA but for some reason I cant find the Aqara hub. I also have installed in the pi Skyconnect and Zooz 800 Z-Wave. Can the M2 hub be added to HA? If so, How?
Hi Have some smart home stuff looking to setup my 1st HA on a mini PC. Sonoff zigbee dongle So I am looking at the aqara products and I can't find ANY aqara devices in the supported list for zigbeMQTT but some are listed have they been removed? but majority on the Zigbee Device Compatibility Repository. After two years what's your experience been with them and HA with zigbee dongle please?
I'm trying the M1S gen 2. Got it working in Home Assistant quite easily but the fact that Aqara is largely a closed eco-system means I am going to return it (unless I can figure out if somehow Matter devices will be more compatible?). Shame, it's a cool little device with the LED ring and loud speaker.
So just got home assistant and I have HomeKit. So I already have an Aqara m2 setup with some sensors, how would I add an existing hub to home assistant without removing it from HomeKit? I’ve got the hue integration setup so I have the devices in HomeKit and home assistant and I just unticked the devices in the HomeKit integration so I haven’t got 2 of everything! How would I get similar setup and functionality using an existing Aqara m2 hub? I’m a total HA newbie so please bear with me!
Guys, I got this werid problem with Hub M2. I had created an automation: If below temperature below 24 C from 8pm to 11pm, then automatically turn on Air Conditioner. Then I deteled it without turning it off. Thought it was not gonna run anymore, but every night it automatically turn on my AC regardless of room's temperature. I have tried to reset the hub by pressing it for 10s or factory reset by pressing 10 times rapidly, but the automation still there. Then I tried to create a similar automation that I have created, and turn it off. However, it does not solve the problem. Anyone have similar issue, and find a solution?
I have had Aqara Hub synced in homekit previously and it worked fine. I have now moved over to HA and can't seem to get my Aqara Hub to be seen in HA (doesn't show up in the Intergrations/Add-Ons either)....does the fact that I still have the Hub showing in Homekit an issue? Would i need to delete the Hub out of Homekit first?.....if yes, will this mean I will need to sync all my sensors, switches bulbs etc etc again? I just want to be sure before I go ahead and delete the Hub out of Homekit. Thanks for the great videos - you're probably the sole reason why Ive moved over to HA :)
Why does the Aqara M2 Hub not communicate with any non Aqara Zigbee 3.0 device? I bought a Raspberry Pi 4B with SSD for use with Home Assistant, but I still cannot connect to IKEA bulbs or my SonOff sensors.
Hi, i think its the wrong place to ask. but i duno know any other ways. i added my aqara hub into home assistant via the xiaomi miio integration. but only a couple of my switches appeared 4 out of 11. the worst thing is that only 1 out of the 4 switches are functional. the rest are not
After watching this video i purchased some aqara sensors and the M2 hub. I can see the sensors on my ipad but there is no way i can get anything in to home assistant. It isn't anywhere as easy as you show. Very disappointing. I'm giving the hub to someone i don't like and trying some zigbee dongles.
Hi! For the Aqara smart wall switches, are you able to set up 2 way lights in Home Assistant (without using a second wireless switch - that is, just using all Aqara smart wall switches) without needing an Aqara hub? Thanks!
Using aqara door and motion sensors with a classic cc2531 usb stick and zigbee2mqtt (and HA, of course). The "look" of the door sensors doesn't matter to me, since I embedded them in the jamb, behind the deadbolt pocket, to use as "door locked" sensors (magnet in the deadbolt). The motion sensors are a recent acquisition, I do like how small and neat they are.
@@EverythingSmartHome The only tricky bit is getting the magnet into the deadbolt. I drilled a shallow hole in the end, and epoxied a small disk magnet in place
The motion sensor is great as it also has a light and temperature sensor that reports on motion, but battery always reports 100% for meon Z2M and the same stick
@@AhmadYusuf85 yeah I see that battery issue for the door sensor, as well. The actual voltage is exposed as an attribute, too, so I've been tracking that, instead.
I have some aqara buttons around the house and they perform well, i'm looking for a camera to stream video on my home assistant Lovelace and on my phone as a pop up alert in case the door sensors activate, can I stream the video of the g2 or g3 cameras from aqara in order to do that?
I’m not seeing my M2 hub showing in Home Assistant. I’m new to the latter and I see HomeKit ‘discovered’. When I’ve configured that it adds all my devices to HomeKit but no sign of the M2 Hub or any of the sensors attached to it. Yours seems to show the M2 as a separate device to configure in Home Assistant. What am I doing wrong?
You need to add it to Home Assistant first before adding it to HomeKit. You'll need to reset it by pressing and holding the button on the front for 10 seconds till it says network reset. You'll have to set it up in the Aqara app again but you won't need to repair any devices. Once done hopefully it should show up as discovered in HA
@@EverythingSmartHome - Hi. I’ve tried what you said and the first part works fine - I’ve reset the M2, it’s appeared in Home Assistant under HomeKit and added successfully. When I then go in to add it to Aqara app it’s asking if the yellow light is flashing on the front (which it now isn’t as it’s configured and paired via Home Assistant). If I skip that it goes to a HomeKit pairing page and won’t let me bypass that without scanning HomeKit QR code. It then tells me it’s already added (via Home Assistant). I cannot uncheck the HomeKit option trying to add it to my House in Aqara app that I can see. If do it the other way - reset hub. It shows up in Home Assistant but before configuring there I scan hub in via Aqara app and then bind the hub to Aqara app before going back in to Home Assistant to configure there, I get an error message: Config flow could not be loaded (“message”: Invalid flow specified Can you guide me more please on how I do this? I’d be very grateful.
Zigbee is a wireless protocol, what you are calling wireless is actually battery powered. This is very confusing and a lot of folks pointed this out already. Please stop doing that, people will think that you can run Zigbee over a wire
I think he's referring to you saying that one switch is 'wired' and the other is 'wireless,' potentially implying that it's WiFi based, not ZigBee? Not sure, it is a pretty tough comment to understand. I thought your video was pretty clear tho 👍
@@EverythingSmartHome Saying that a Zigbee switch is wired or wireless makes no sense, at least to me, since they are both communicating wirelessly with the hub. The "wireless" switch is actually battery powered, whereas the wired switch is wired to your mains power. Does it make more sense ?
Hi, I have a couple of Aqara devices, mainly the E1 Blind driver, motion sensor and wireless mini switch. I have them connected to Home Assistant via Homekit Connector. However the Lux value from the sensors are not available and the Mini switch doesn't seem to work as a button etc.. If I get the M2 hub, do you know if this will fix this problem and provide more entity information than the homekit connector. I do have the Aqara E1 Smart hub also, I just can't seem to find a solution for connecting it to Home Assistant. Thanks!
Trying to find a bridge/hub which is compatible with any Zigbee device. Looks like M2 could only work with Aquara sensors for Home Assistant. That is not what I was looking for. I am tired to have tons of hubs jsut to serve a few devices per hub. Would you recommend such hub if it is even exist?
Do the scenes still work when your network is down? The 2018 Xiaomi hub that I have works great for as long internet is available. If not, then even a simple button to enable a light does not work anymore. Hope you can help if the new one have the scenes running locally.
Which LED strips were you using with the Cube? I want to get into Smart Home tech, possibly with Aqara, but I've not been able to find anything about what lighting is compatible with it.
I'm considering an Aqara M2 hub to serve as a bridge between zigbee devices (smart bulbs, sensors, etc) and Google Home - currently using the Nest Hub v2 as main home controller. I believe any child devices of the m2 hub will appear in Google Home once Aqara is connected; but will control (voice, automation, etc) of these devices be available in Google Home? Appreciate any advise on the matter, thank you.
Absolutely senless. 70% of mobile users worldwide are using Android (official statistics) vs 25% for iOS users. So unless you are one of those 25% you cannot integrate this hub to your Home Assistant. You can however connect the sensors via 3rd party Zigbee hub.
No, thats not how it works. I'm an Android user and you don't need any iOS devices to connect this to Home Assistant. Home Assistant acts as the Homekit controller
Nice advertisement video. But unlike the title says, you didn't actually show how to add them to HA. Especially in a way they don't require access to or report back to the mother ship. I Still really like your channel and content though, thanks.
Come on man, if you know me then I say what I want to say and no one else influences that. I never said in the title I was going to show you how to add it to home assistant (but to be honest if you struggle to follow how I did it then perhaps this isn't the platform for you since it literally shows itself automatically) - I didn't. Also I've said several times in the comments that it's possible to block it from internet and it works perfectly. So not really sure what mothership you mean.
Have you tried the wireless mini switch? It has 3 modes, single press, double press and press and hold. Only the battery status shows up in home assistant unfortunately 😞
my full message was actually going to be.. Great video as always , i've had pretty much the same set in use for a couple of weeks now via my zigbee stick. and they work fine. i've got them into node red as for most of the buttons only the battery comes up as an entity in home assistant.. if anyone's trying to do the same.. look me up in ESH's node red channel in discord..
Unfortunately not all parameters/sensors are transfered via the "HomeKit-Controller" e.g. the motion detector does not send the brightness, at least in my case. Beside that my 30 sensors are working fine. One motion detector is connected by a ConBee II via "Zigbee Home Automation ". There I also get the brighness. Has someone a solution to get the brightness also in "HomeKit-Controller"?
I have home assistant, alexa, ikea blinds, shellys and now Aqara. Would you suggest doing as many automations as possible through Home Assistant, or use the product's app for automations? (eg, ikea to open blind at a certain time, or home assistant)
Hi there! They don't exactly "all work great" with third party zigbee hubs, actually. I had dozens of sensors and switches in my home and they are the most nightmarish device of all. The Aqara sensors refuse to connect to any router device (except perhaps IKEA -- still unclear on this) and keep connecting directly to the coordinator, leading to very poor LQI and constant drops out of the network. I have had this problem with all battery-powered Aqara sensors on both my Conbee II stick and my new Sonoff Z3 Dongle. I tried everything to fix it. No luck. In the end, I am afraid I will have to get an Aqara hub and run it as a parallel zigbee network. Would this work or would it interfere with my Sonoff Zigbee network?
I’m just getting started with this automation. I have a network of google nest mini and hubs around my house and most of my lightbulbs are wifi (not zigbee) running through Smart Life and linked to Google Home. Additionally I have a Wiser Thermostat with individual wireless TRVs linked to Google Home too. I want the Aqara door and window sensors and like the idea of the wireless switches to set up automations for guests to turn on lights. Is there a way to do this with my current setup or would I be looking at changing to zigbee bulbs or IFTTT? Hope that makes sense.
You would need the Aqara Hub since all the Aqara devices are ZigBee, but if you have that then yes it should be possible. I'm not really a good person to ask about Google home though, and I'd avoid IFTTT wherever possible
@@EverythingSmartHome Thanks so much for your reply. Yeah I’ve already bought the M2 hub, a door sensor and 3 switches thinking they’d all work fine. Lol. So rather than replace 16 bulbs I could get 3 wall switches and over time replace my wifi plugs with zigbee plugs for lamps. By the way great video. Really helpful.
So if I have Hue I’m still screwed. I’d like to dump their hub and use something better. If I could add the Hue devices to It I’d jump. I have too many hubs already to add another. Shoot. Nice product.
Have a look into a ZigBee stick or bridge that connects to home assistant directly (assuming you are a home assistant user!) Then you should be able to rid yourself of all your hubs!
Hello and thanks for your always very fine videos, you were the one that kicked me into installing HA. I have a little issue, I have just bought a Sonoff USB 3.0 and flashed it, works perfectly then I added a few Aqara sensors , temp, door and the are good to, can see all the entities, BUT now I installed a Single Switch Module T1 (With Neutral) and the only entity I see is the identify. I guess I should be able to turn it on/off right ? Have you tried that ?
@@EverythingSmartHome Hello again, unfortunatly it did not solve the problem and I cant seem to find anyone who have solved it. Can you recommend another that works with ZHA ? Have a nice weekend.
I would assume that you can set that up in the hub's settings, but that would be nice to have confirmation on. If not, you should be able to set up a DHCP reservation for the hub's MAC address in your router (assuming your router supports it).
@@PoisonWaffle3 I would prefer not to depend on the router. Connect the Aqara M1 hub directly with the HA (Raspbery Pi), both connected to an UPS and let the zigbees do their job. Next step for me is to see if I can add a redundant 4G usb stick to the Raspberry Pi.
Already have quite some Aqara stuff running and still need to add more to Home Assistant this winter which is now sitting in a box waiting. Have had some practical fun with the cubes and the motion detector as well as door sensor work great.
Thank you for the video and review. My biggest concerns are security and privacy. Are you able to firewall or block the hub from calling home? Do you have to have the app on your smart phone?
Not sure about firewalling if you use the hub, but I don't think they should phone home if you connect them directly to HA with a USB ZigBee adapter. If you're really concerned, you can always add firewall rules to the device you're running HA on.
Hi, great video and very informative. Question... I am looking at possibly buying the hub along with some Aqara sensors but I don't think we can get the smart plugs in the UK yet, so can I get other zigbee smart plugs and use them with the aqara hub or no? Thanks
@@EverythingSmartHome Ah that's pants. So I can't use any other zigbee products with the aqara hub? If I wanted to utilise other zigbee products would I have to go through like IFTTT?
looks really interesting especially like the alarm and ir functionality in the hub however as i run a very hybrid system no non aquara funmctionality is a dealbreaker for me personally. are you going to keep using the m2 or stick to your sonoff bridge, or both? weirldy i think aquara is the one brand i dont have but they seem to be the best option for zigbee currently
Yeah it is! I won't keep using the hub since I already have a large ZigBee network so I have connected them there, but as a beginner smart home platform, the hub is really impressive!
@@EverythingSmartHome oh definitely i use harmony and broadlink around the house too so handy to have it all in one place. the wall switches look smart too, so many look quite cheap and plastic
Great tip for beginners 👍🏻 Zigbee is usually one of the most difficult things to get up and running reliably. I prefer the hue motion sensor, the SmartThings door sensor and the IKEA blinds, so unfortunately I need to use a universal hub. Luckily it works great once it is set up.
@@EverythingSmartHome seriously, I can't believe you didn't recommend a different hub when you went out of your way to say if you want to use other devices you can't but all the aqara devices work with other hubs. Seems like a terrible idea to use any walled garden hub. So what is the right one?
