Thank you. Do I need an iPhone/iPad to configure it or would Android + HomeAssistant be enough?
There are other folks who have posted here that have Android devices, and from what I can tell in reading those, it’ll be fine. You use the Aqara Android App to setup wifi, the zones, and such on the FP2, then restart the FP2 and let HA’s HomeKit Controller discover it. It’s actually one fewer steps since the Android app doesn’t add it to Apple Home, so you don’t have to remove it to rediscover it.
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Same issue here! Any luck in getting HA to see the FP2?
Hi,
Is there a possibility for a local FP2 integration including zone definition or is Aqara FP2 configuration completely proprietary?
Cant you set a subnet mask (255.255.252.0) ???
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If you do local only, you will get a single presence sensor and the light level sensor. That’s it. The zones have to be setup in the app. Once you set them up in the app, HomeKit will see each zone as a separate sensor, so the things you need the internet connection for is when you setup the zones, need to update the firmware, or do fixes from the app (like resetting the presence for a zone).
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I see. Thanks for the confirmation.
So just to be sure, after we spend time on the initial setup (and are happy with the setup), we can then proceed to block the FP2 from internet completely (and delete the app from the phone, even), correct?
Or do we still need some internet, somehow, for FP2 to function properly?
It works fine with out the internet, once set up
I’d recommend not deleting the app. If nothing else you need it for firmware updates, and I’m not sure what will happen if you delete the app and then reinstall it later (although I would hope the Aqara cloud system would have all your configs there so when you login with the app again it would have everything).
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Three out of my four FP2 units were working fine, but after having some guests over yesterday, something seems to have gone wrong with one unit. Currently, all four zones show as “present,” except for the “All zones” zone, which says “absent.” I’ve tried using the “reset to absence” button multiple times, but it didn’t fix the issue. I also tried turning the device off and on, but no luck. My FP2 has the latest firmware. Has anyone else had this problem?
Edit. I went into zones settings for each zone. And changed the type back to another then back again. That fixed it. In case others have this issue
I can confirm this works. I frequently will download the app, quickly login, and check for updates or tweak the zones if the cats nudged the sensor cable, moving the sensor. Once the reason I downloaded is done, I quickly delete it. Don’t like a bunch of proprietary apps on my phone, one of the myriad of reasons why I use Home Assistant.
I’m about to ask a “problem child” sort of question, sorry in advance. I use FHEM under linux, I don’t have homekit (or any apple devices). homebridge doesn’t seem to be the answer. I really don’t want to give Aqara my home address and a link to a device that maps my home. Am I out of luck? is there any truly local api? a way to register the device on wifi without the aqara app? homekitis NOT better, they need your life story as well. sorry again to be difficult, but ALL the other aqara products are great (an anonymous), just not this one
You can use it in local only mode, but you have to have the app on some mobile device to get it on your wifi. At that point you can decline to create an Aqara account. The device will then function as one large zone and a light sensor. You can connect it to HA using the Homebridge component without having to register anything with Apple or anyone else. I have no idea why you think that is the case. You’ll never be able to update the firmware or add multiple zones (or interface areas or entries/exits), but it will be completely local.
I can’t imagine you would need to hand over your address to register an Aqara account anyway… or you could use a fake address if I’m wrong about that being required. Also, the FP2 doesn’t map your house, merely giving a bunch of blocks to create on your screen to represent the zones you want to create.
(for reference I don’t actually have an FP2 yet, it’s on the wish list though)
I hear you, but that fight for privacy was lost 10 years ago or so. Aqara does make some weird and sketchy calls when you wireshark their devices, but they do work locally so you can block all internet access and sandbox the devices on sperate Vlans and it still works (so that’s good) unlike other smart home devices…*cough cough
The presence sensor is great because it provides zones, and it works off radio waves pinging around the room, so it’s more private than if someone has a phone in the room (3D mapping, Audio/Video) of your house. Anyways, my point is, you can firewall these devices off the internet and separate them on a different vlan to alleviate any privacy concerns and they still work with home assistant through the Homekit integration.
If you are so inclined I bet someone could make a new and improved local integration for Aqara devices, but by the sound of it they are releasing another hub soon and keep on changing things which is super annoying.
I understood that this is what the sensor is doing. Pinging radio waves. What every mm-wave-sensor is doing.
As I understood the technology is to interpret the back coming response in a 2D way (which is the tech advantage) and interpreting this by the way of installation direction in a 3D way by software.
And pinging or not pinging radio waves doesn’t make a device more private. A device is private, if it’s not calling “home”(-server).
Yes - I suppose there are 2 facets of the term “privacy” here. One being whether the sensor collect any user-identifiable mac address off any phone or smart watch or smart tag… The other one being whether the sensor send any information (mac address or time stamped presence status or otherwise) in anyway back to its mothership that is outside of LAN.
So for Aqara FP2, the 1st concern is gone. But the 2nd one, not so much.
I am also interested in any sensor that has similar feature set, but does not send any information outside of my residence.
Easy fix, block outgoing traffic from that device in your router. I do this for my CCTV cameras already, just in case.
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Yes, that was my point. It’s almost impossible to find devices that don’t phone home in some way now a days so you have to isolate them with vlans and keep them separated.
I have my HA on subnet 1 and all my WiFi IoT devices on subnet 2. The FP2 is the first Apple/HomeKit device on my network. All my other 46 IoT devices worked with no problems communicating to HA. Once I enabled Multicast DNS (mDNS) and IGMP Snooping on both networks HA could find my FP2 sensor.