Which sensors? Aqara or better a different manufacturer…?

Hardware
1

Hi Guys,

I’m new to this forum and I hope you’ll be able to support me a little bit with my beginner question😀. Many thanks upfront!!

To my situation, up to now I use the mihome
App. I have a few aqara door sensors, motion sensors and a aquara gateway. Recently I bought some yeelight bulbs and ran into trouble installing them since the aqara things work only on china server while the other run only on local europe severs. This brought me to Home Assistant which I already installed on a Synology Station.

While trying to add the gateway and bulbs I learned that the aqare hub generally is not supported and the yeelight bulb is not integrateable anymore since a firmware update. To solve the hub issue, I plan to buy a Conbee 2 USB Stick. So I’ll be able to use the sensors at least. No hope to use these bulbs…

Looking into the future - and this is my question - i’m concerned which component I should go for when extending the smart home (more sensors basically). Could it also happen that not only the bulbs are eliminated from use but also the sensors? Which sensors (manufacturer) would you recommend, if you would buy them now? I mean the aqara are cheap and work fine with the mihome app, but who knows… is it (technically) possible that these and other sensors might be affected by a firmware update similar like the bulbs and cannot be used with HA anymore?

So thanks for your advice/recommendations.

Regards.

2

When it comes to Aqara, you could easily integrate them using a Zigbee Dongle without the Aqara hub in Home Assistant. Something like the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB plus. Works with either ZHA or Zigbee2mqtt. Zigbee2mqtt has quite good Aqara support recognizing most Aqara products instantly. I think with ZHA it’s probably the same.

You would need to create all automations and actions in HA, as they would not be connected to the Aqara hub anymore. But for sensors you may want to use them mainly in automations inside HA anyway.

My experiance with them at least has been quite good.

Oh and welcome! :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Hi and thank you very much for Your answer.

Don’t you see any risk that Xiaomi might eliminate the Accessibility of the Sensors Like they did it with the Yeelight bulbs? Link This is the concern I have. I’m not sure if my concerns are justified.

Regards!!

4

If you are using a non Aqara hub then, Xiaomi/Aqara have no control/connection to your devices to be able to update their firmware. They are controlled locally.

2 Likes
5

Perfekt, thanks!