How can we be sure that it’s not yet completely supported rather than a few of us just having incompatible setups or broken sensors?
Apparently it worked for Zahnweh, no?
Either way, I’m experiencing the issue with the sensor not being reachable in Phoscon as well and Hassio constantly showing it as closed.
Bit of a let down, I hoped after all this time since I ordered them they’d be properly supported by now, but here I am. Tried two, neither work. Still have a few more unopened in their boxes, but if the model in general is a bit too tricky to get going I’d rather keep the remaining stock sealed and easier to sell new, unopened and buy an old model if needed.
I was soooo looking forward to finally getting started with having a lot more data to play with and automate stuff around the home.
One major problem in our way is probably that we’re on old firmware for the Conbee/Raspbee.
Since I’m using a Raspbee I had to update it using my Raspberry Pi, but in the Phoscon interface it’s not possible to do so because I’m running Home Assistant OS which means no direct device access.
I could have set up ssh into my machine, but just reading about how much hassle that was annoyed me too much after I had spend hours trying to debug this stuff.
Here’s what I did instead:
Prepare a second SD card to boot your Raspberry Pi from whenever you want to upgrade the firmware of the Raspbee/Conbee (Conbee users might want to skip any of this and just use their computer’s USB port and tools)
ConBee Installation Has wonderful instructions to get a simple setup going, I’d recommend using the linked image for “Raspbian Buster Headless / Beta image without desktop based on Debian Buster.” on this page: ConBee SD-card images
Download, verify the download using the md5 hash and flash the file you downloaded without extracting it using Balena Etcher for example.
Login after letting the Raspberry Pi boot for a little while: ConBee SD-card images
Default user and pass are pi / raspbeegw
If you cannot connect you may have to set your router to forget binding the MAC address to a specific IP. DHCP, fixed IPs in routers and changes in the client can sometimes be a bit tricky. To most of ya’ll this will not apply.
You may end up with an error. I forgot the wording of the one I got, but basically if sudo GCFFlasher_internal -r returns the firmware to be the latest (or whichever you chose to flash) you SHOULD be good to go!
sudo shutdown now as we don’t need that SD card anymore for today. Label it, store it away and keep it handy. If you want to upgrade your firmware again, you’ll want this SD card handy.
Boot into Home Assistant OS again with your regular SD card. Reset your gateway (I suggest doing this if you’re not too invested already with your ZigBee setup, otherwise fiddle around to remove the old, broken entries. I wasn’t able to and I started with these sensors so I had nothing to lose and wiped it all.
Follow the instructions again that Zahnweh gave.
That SHOULD fix any problems for ya’ll, keep me updated.
Addendum / thoughts
It is both good and bad that you have to update the Raspbee/Conbee firmware in such a convoluted way.
It’s bad, because there is no documentation so far that’s approachable and without too much fussing for updating under Home Assistant OS.
It is good, because automated firmware updates cannot ruin your connected ZigBee’s link. I’ve read that updating the firmware can potentially yoink these from HA and create drama in re-linking.
Obviously this is still pretty poor, because it means once you buy new IOT devices that need an update of the *bee Firmware you’re looking at relinking all of your home’s ZigBee devices? Yikes…
Thanks to Zahnweh’s instructions I got 7 out of 10 sensors working (3 seem to not respond once paired).
A reboot of the gateway also added the proper battery status for the new sensors.
In addition to being difficult to set up the manufacturing quality seems to be lacking.
Also when looking at the PCB they seem to have switched to an almost microscopic SMT pattern now with only a single side populated (as before).
Nope, i think none of the aqara devices report proper temperature (excl. temp/humidity sensors)
I have old door sensor next to new door sensor and they seem to report same “wrong” temperature
while in room correct temperature is 22 degress
Regarding QA… I’ve ordered by mistake 4 pcs of E1 version - 1 wasnt working at all, 1 stopped to work and 2 seems to work fine next time i will order previus version which seems to work much more stable
Thanks a lot for this post. Was just able to connect my new sensors, I had to search for a new sensor in Phoscon additionally, even after pairing it in DeConz.
Hi folks, thanks for all the advice here! I was struggling with pairing my Aqara door sensor and indeed updating the Conbee II firmware helped… but not entirely.
I found out that with the new firmware the sensor pairs now both via deCONZ and even in Phoscon (when I was repeating the pairing process with and without deleting the previously paired sensor) but… it still doesn’t work!
I mean most of the times the pairing goes well, but when the sensor is detected, the pairing process on the sensor itself doesn’t seem to stop. The blue blinking light continues in the usual cycle (2 - or was it 3? - long blinks followed by 3 short ones) and the changes of state doesn’t seem to be reported correctly. Once deCONZ/Phoson shows it as paired, it gets stuck in the initial state. Either open, or closed.
I only briefly saw it changing states while fiddling with the magnet for a one second shortly after it was paired. Then the state change reporting is gone.
And while the sensor itself seems to never end the pairing mode with its blinking light… this drains the battery! I went through 3 button cells already as just a few pairing cycles seem to drop the voltage from 3V to 2.7V where the sensor itself dies.
Any ideas here? Unfortunately I don’t have the Aqara gateway to update the sensor’s firmware.
So to summarise these new Aqara “E1” are ZigBee 3.0 instead of the older ZHA 1.2 (I think) requiring updates across the stack. Seems support with the latest Beta drivers is not great, yet.
I am about to order more aqara kit. ZigBee 3 with the Aqara E1 doesn’t seem to have any end user benefits? Best to avoid them (for now)?
I’ve bought an aqara motion sensor (vibration sensor) hoping I could get notifications from my washing machine (when finished)
This thing comes with no button to pair it. I’ve tried taking battery out, updating firmware on conbee2 but I cannot see it appearing in deconz (vnc)
The new aqara plugs do work fine (with power measurement) They’re a bit more clunky then my older innr plug, but since their newer versions come without power measurement that’s what I’m stuck with for the moment
next time i will order previus version which seems to work much more stable