Hi,
So I just bought the Aqara W100 Climate Sensor, one of the first Matter-over-Thread climate sensors.
However, I am unable to connect it to my thread network.
This is what I do:
I choose “Add matter device” in Home Assistant, and add it as a new device;
I scan the Matter QR code.
After confirming, it tries to add the device. It says “Configuring” for a short while and then it says something like “Adding device not possible”;
When I try to re-add the device, it gets stuck at “connecting”;
When I press the reset button, and try to re-add, it goes back to “configuring”, followed by the same error message. The next tries always get stuck with “connecting” untill I reset my W100 again;
The Aqare app is able to detect my device (over bluetooth), but can not add it to a matter server, since the Aqara app can only do this when you have an Aqara Matter server;
This is my setup:
Home Assistant 2025.5.1
Home Assistant SkyConnect as the only OT border router;
OpenThread Border Router 2.13.0;
Matter Server 7.0.0;
I have several Eve Energy plugs set up through Matter over Thread and they work fine;
I don’t have any other Thread border router, and I don’t have Zigbee (which the climate sensor also supports);
I was able to scan the QR code in HA and it added. I was also able to create a “share” QR code and then add it to Apple HomeKit although I was never able to add it to the Aqara app which MAKES you add an Aqara Thread router first and I don’t use one. I use a SMLIGHT SLZB-07 as my main border router which has about half a dozen devices on it and a few Eve Energy plugs as repeaters.
I read there are two resets you can do on a W100. One is to hold down the reset until the radio bars blink, the other is to press the reset button 10 times.
Weird thing is I’m seeing is the humidity/temp updates are VERY infrequent when the readings are stable. Like once every few days. The sensor is inside a safe so the readings shouldn’t change much but the manual says it will report every hour if nothing changes…that is not what I’m seeing….although it’s probably not wrong as far as readings go. I know I’m getting signal through the safe because if I take the sensor out so it reads room conditions and then put it back in and close it I can see the readings drop in HA as expected….but then it stabilizes to the conditions in the safe and goes quiet.
Is there some undocumented feature that keeps the sensor quiet if there is nothing to report? Even if it’s for days?
I see exactly the same thing. Nothing gets updated as long as the temperature/humidity remain within a certain treshold (I think it is 0.5 degrees Celcius). Also: when the humidity gets updated (that changes more often here), the temperature does not get updated at the same time. I think it would make sense to update that in the same operation.
Well if there’s nothing to update that’s ok. My other sensor (from a different company will not buy from anymore and just using to as a comparison) in the same safe sitting right next to the Aqara sensor is always reporting micro fluctuations within 1%……but reporting these fluctuations and creating noise isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s more of a ‘yeah I’m still working” type of indicator - that would actually be a good function…a heartbeat like zwave has.
The reason I’m concerned is the FAQ page says the Aqara sensor should report once an hour, which it clearly does NOT. It’s fine if not reporting for days if there’s nothing to report is working as intended, but it’s not what the documentation says it should be doing
Check if the signal bars are blinking and how many:
if there are blinking, the device is awaiting to be paired
if only 2 bars are blinking, your device is in Zigbee mode in which case, it seems to fail 100% being paired with HA or HK. Initiate a pairing with the Aqara App and the very first step will confirm it’s in Zigbee and offer to change to thread. Even if I scan the correct tag (There are TWO QR codes on its back, inside. One Aqara specific for their app, the other matter. in Zigbee, you must scan the aqara.
if 4 bars, it’s in thread mode. This work instantly for me. Scan the matter code (same as on the little notice)
The device came in thread per default, continuously failed. I reseted it by clicking 10 times the reset button on the back. Switched to Zigbee, reset again, switched to thread, work instantly into Homeassistant, from which I’ll expose what I can to homekit.
