I’m interested in starting to roll out this presence sensor that has so many reviews on how well it works.
I’m not seeing a SIMPLE Aqara binding to do this as yet?
Would buying the Aqara Hub make it simpler to expose Aqara devices to OH?
Best, Jay
No, that would probably not help at all, because, as you correctly said, there is no binding for it. Unless - you might be lucky with its HomeKit support, where you could then use the new HomeKit binding for integrating it. Probably you would miss out on features there, since HomeKit integrations are often limited in what they offer compared to more “native” integrations.
Do you have a Zigbee network already, or will this be your first device?
I have ordered one of these devices as well, but unfortunately it’s delayed until February. Meanwhile I have been tracking the pull request that adds support for the device to deCONZ: Add DDF for Aqara FP300 Presence Multi Sensor by SwoopX · Pull Request #8425 · dresden-elektronik/deconz-rest-plugin · GitHub, and it was just merged today.
I’m using deCONZ and the openHAB binding works really well. If I were to start from scratch today, I might instead have chosen zigbee2mqtt. I’m sure it also supports the device, they are quite fast to add new devices.
Your best bet will probably be to get a Thread Border Router (if you don’t have one already) and use Matter. If you don’t have one already (a lot of smart speakers have them built in) the linked to Aqara hub can do that job.
Sorry, I missed an important point: It also supports Thread. So if you plan on building a Thread network, this could also be a nice way of integrating it through Matter.
Oh, the Aqara Hub supports Matter? Cool, then my initial reply was quite wrong. I didn’t look into these Hubs really, but it seems there are plenty of options actually then:
- FP300/Zigbee mode ↔ Aqara Hub/Matter ↔ Matter binding
- FP300/Zigbee mode ↔ Aqara Hub/HomeKit ↔ HomeKit binding
- FP300/Zigbee mode ↔ deCONZ/zigbee2mqtt ↔ deCONZ/MQTT binding
- FP300/Thread mode ↔ TBR ↔ Matter binding
If I went this route, then just installing the Matter binding to talk to the Aqara hub would expose all the devices/items?
I have an Ikea Hub that has Matter but I haven’t integrated anything around Matter with it. I’d prefer to get the Aqara Hub based on the number of FP300’s I plan to get.
EDIT - I do have 2 older HUE hubs using Zigbee but I don’t think that is a solution. I also have the Echo that has Zigbee and Matter in it but the Amazon integration for SmartDevices is still broken on the latest 5.1 release, many tickets open on this.
Best, Jay
Not necessarily. Google doesn’t. But the OH binding does act as a bridge so you can expose all your OH devices to the matter fabric as a way to get them into those ecosystems (e.g. instead of getting to your OH devices from Google needing to go through the openHAB cloud the Google devices can communicate with OH directly on your LAN.
You only need the hub to enroll the device into the Matter fabric. Once enrolled, OH will communicate with the mesh directly without going through the hub for everything as I understand it. But you need to enroll the device using the hub’s phone app (Ikea, Aqara, etc).
I’m certainly not an expert, but my understanding is any limit on the number of thread devices should be the same no matter what hub you are using. So if that’s your concern the vendor of the hub may matter less than whether you have enough repeaters (mains powered devices) to keep the mesh connected (similar to zigbee and zwave).
In short, I don’t think the number of devices would necessarily be the deciding factor as to which hub you go with.
You don’t need any Amazon integration for Matter devices. Once you use the Alexa App to add the Matter device and expose it to OH, you never need to use Amazon/Alexa again for them. I have the Echo with the Thread border router and I’ve connected an Aqara sensor and another sensor using Thread and they work great in OH. No Amazon integration required.
One thing you do need to be aware of is that Matter support is very good in OH, but there can be a few hiccups when a new device is added. Dan is very quick at debugging issues if needed.
How are you exposing Matter devices from Amazon to OH? The OH Matter binding does that by default?
I got Matter running and connected to my Ikea Matter Hub and it then it added the devices from the Ikea Hub to OH.
Best, Jay
Yep, this is how it works for me. I have an old Aqara M2 hub and as soon as a device is added to the hub, that device becomes available in OH. In the matter binding terminology, the hub is added as a matter node and becomes a bridge for all of its devices (any device connected to that hub is added to OH as a matter endpoint).
This is a little different than some of the other matter systems where the you add the device to a Matter Controller’s matter network (fabric) and then the Controller will give you the option to also connect the device in OH’s matter fabric as it’s own node. In that situation, you don’t even need the first controller anymore after the device is connected in OH’s matter fabric, that connection is direct.
I’ve got one of these FP300s in hand, but haven’t installed it yet. I can’t decide if I want to just add it with Z2M or make the leap to Matter (using my Nest Hub v2 for Thread).
Please keep us posted, very interested in the sensitivity of a presence in a room and how OH interacts with that item.
Best, Jay
through the Alexa App. You first add the Matter thread device in the Alexa App which connects it to your network through the Thread border router in the Amazon Echo. Then you can share in the Alexa App to other Matter controllers including OH. You’ll get a code. You then go to OH, add a Matter device, put in the code, and click scan. The Matter device will show up in the Inbox. Once you add it, you can leave it or remove it from the Alexa App. The OH Matter controller will talk directly to the Amazon Echo through to the Thread border router and to your Thread device.