I need to get a aqara gateway because i want to buy some of the xiaomi smart switches, can someone tell me which hub works with home assistant and google home (at the same time).
And a link to buy (or atleast a model number) if possible, because it is really hard to tell which one is which.
Apparently there are 3 hubs now?
Thanks
Gershy13
Hello, I do not have an Aqara Hub, but a deConz module on a Raspberry Pi, which is also available as a USB stick (Conbee). In Home Assistant in NodeRED there is an addon called “Nora” and “Nora” is also available for the Google Assistant. Is a very interesting thing !!! NodeRED is a very vivid and simple thing for setting up automations.
Here are two screenshots:
Google Assistant
Home Assistant / NodeRED
I have an Aqara gateway (round one), but then I bought a conbee and installed deconz.
I have not looked back, honestly I would recommend the same.
Same here - I bought the Aqara gateway, and then when I bought an Aqara Cube it could not tell which face was up. Conbee/deConz can do this. It also shows how your ZigBee devices are connected which is handy. The only thing I use the gateway for now is to play doorbell sounds.
Not to mention you can get all your Hue/Trafdri/Aqara devices on the same mesh network instead of having them content against each other on separate ones.
Alright, so seems like general consensus is to not get an aqara hub. My only question is that my home assistant install still isnt perfectly stable (running in docker on unraid) and i dont want to rely on home assistant until i can get it working properly.
Will the conbee work natively with google home? Or any other alternatives that works natively with google home and can control yeelight?
The general approach on this forum I guess is to use HASS as the bridge.
What’s not stable about it? Perhaps there are some things you can do quite easily.
Because im running it in a docker container, it doesnt update properly all the time, and its connection to google home is sometimes flaky…
So ive been told that the Mijia gateway works with home assistant, but not google home. But the Aqara gateway works with google home, but not home assistant.
Does anyone know of a way to get the aqara gateway working with home assistant somehow? It is compatible with the Mi Home app.
I bought a used Aqaba Hub with Homekit support. It is quite useless because it only integrates with HA through Homekit Control integration. Which only offers you control over the light and some sensors, a lot are not supported.
Then I replaced 3 different Zigbee hubs (IKEA, Aqara and Trust Z1) with zigbee2mqtt integration. And that works quite stable. I have more then 50 devices (lights of different brands, outlets, smoke sensors, motion detection, door/window sensors, temperature sensors) now connected which also integrate smoothly with Google Home.
Connecting new devices can sometimes be a hassle depending on the brand, but there is a very active user group who can help and it is continuously further developed. And I needed to upgrade my Zigbee stick once when the number of devices reached 40
Did you ever try the aqara hub with the lightswitch? That’s all I really plan to use…
No I did not. I do not have an Aqara switch. I currently use IKEA tradfri switches and remotes.
I did notice that the IKEA lights are better (more features and instant response) then other brands when you use zigbee2mqtt. But I assume that Philips Hue lights are comparable.
Yup my recommendation would also be either zigbee2mqtt or conbeeII/deCONZ. I had three hubs for each brand one and man the amount of times they fail (or break after a HA update) was unimaginable. Sure I use deCONZ and it sometimes has problems when using the hassio addon (though this problem is a lot less prominent when running the deCONZ software on a separate vm/computer). But man this is so much better than any solution I had before. My xiaomi hub is only a speaker now and honestly, spend 15 euro’s more for a conbee and you will not regret it (or go cheap and get zigbee2mqtt, I don’t have experience with that one though I imagine the experience will be the same give or take).
I second that, the investment in either custom zigbee hub is worth it.
I HAD the Aqara hub working in HA with temperature sensors and some power socket switches but getting the read/write key and Aqara platform is configured… not worth it.
Lastly my HASS runs inside a docker and it’s perfectly stable as it runs my zigbee hub.
What hardware are you running, maybe it’s overloaded?
Here is the problem ive currently run into… when i try to restart my machine this is what i get.
2019-11-27 18:09:50 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Unable to set up dependencies of plex. Setup failed for dependencies: http
2019-11-27 18:09:50 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Error doing job: Task exception was never retrieved
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/discovery/__init__.py", line 179, in new_service_found
data=info,
File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/data_entry_flow.py", line 66, in async_init
flow = await self._async_create_flow(handler, context=context, data=data)
File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/config_entries.py", line 638, in _async_create_flow
await async_process_deps_reqs(self.hass, self._hass_config, integration)
File "/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/setup.py", line 288, in async_process_deps_reqs
raise HomeAssistantError("Could not set up all dependencies.")
homeassistant.exceptions.HomeAssistantError: Could not set up all dependencies.
Looks like you have Plex integration which is falling, possible due to a http library. There is a recent github issue adding this dependency. Just guessing
I think this thread has me sold on the deCONZ idea… haven’t even got HA or any sensors yet.
What are people’s thoughts on the Raspberry Pi shield option vs the USB dongle? (RaspBee vs. Conbee ii which is $5 more)
Hello and welcome to the forum. I have the RaspBee module on my Pi and I think it runs very stable and the range is also sufficient (for my apartment). Definitely a thumbs up from me. The USB module has the advantage that it can be used more flexibly and it does not block any GPIO pins from the Pi. Everyone has to decide for themselves. No matter, the DeConz system is a super thing and the integration and system stability is very very good !!! Recently I had problems with my RaspBee module, the exact cause is unknown to me, but I could find the solution to the problem here. That would probably not have happened with a USB module …
That is my opinion only !!!
Have a lot of fun with Home Assistant
The USB dongle has a superior range, also the dongle can be extended with an extension cord which could even more improve it’s range (and is also recommended). This way you are not dependent on the exact location of your pi/server/nuc and you could simply extend it to put it in different location.
Great points, thank you both!