Aqara FP1 and P1 motion sensors

Aqara P1 motion sensors have been released. Who wants to try these out and tell us if they work well with Hubitat or not? :sweat_smile:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QKVMMTB

EDIT
Thanks to @kkossev for developing drivers for the Aqara P1 and FP1 sensors

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Initial reports are the Aqara P1 contact sensors don't play nice with non-aqara zigbee 3.0 coordinators. Kind of like the Aqara E1 motion/contact sensors.

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I’m looking forward to testing them. Aqara sensors have long battery life, and now with two 2450s in parallel, these may last forever.

I have nothing but great experiences with these devices.

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Needed the excuse. Ordered. It’ll be here Sunday

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Are the batteries in the P1 replaceable?

Let us know how it pans out. Do you have any Ikea repeaters?

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Yup.

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If they just weren't so unattractive...their look is not my cup o' tea.

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Taste is subjective. I generally like Xiaomi sensors because they're small and unobtrusive. Also, they come with very flexible mounting options ....

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I do, but my intended location is close to the hub. I'll test if you want. My confidence level that I'll get this joined to HA via my ConBee 2 is relatively high. Does sound like I may need to update its firmware. I have that controller on an extension cable, away from sources of potential interference (i.e. USB 3.0 ports). Trying to pair with the controller connected via a USB 3.0 port, or too close to one is a mistake that others have made when attempting to join Xiaomi devices.

Having said that, my confidence that Hubitat will join to and/or stay connected to this sensor is substantially lower based on my experience with joining other Xiaomi devices directly to HE. There's other ways I can likely join it too. I have a Mijia Multimode hub that I can likely join it to, and it can communicate via HA and/or HE using a number of different methods. I also have an older Aqara HomeKit hub which might also work. Not certain about that one. It's been boxed up for a while, so I'll need to get it out and see if I can get it's firmware up to date if needed. However, that would be a HomeKit to HE automation only. I've never been able to get that particular hub integrated directly to HE.

Anyway, there are choices, but if you're thinking this might be a new era of love between Xiaomi devices and Hubitat, I would keep your expectations low. There is no easier and reliable way to get Xiaomi device into Hubitat than to simply setup HA, get any one of the numerous Xiaomi compatible Zigbee controllers, and install Home Assistant Device Bridge. Do that, and you'll stop concerning yourself with which Xioami device you can reliably use with Hubitat, and you'll instead shift your focus to which Zigbee device do you want to use, because they'll all be reliable. If one Zigbee controller doesn't cover it for a certain device (based either on manufacturer or device driver capabilities), you can simply use the other one.

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And thank goodness for that, still not sure why my wife has been willing to live w/me all these years... :wink:

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There's a second reliable way to do it. Use zigbee2mqtt and MakerAPI to export devices to Hubitat as virtual devices. I've been using that setup for over two years now, with no complaints. Amazingly, even when a zigbee router has gone down (or been accidentally unplugged), orphaning the devices associated with it, my mesh has recovered spontaneously within a week (excluding the defunct router). Pretty amazing!

I like zigbee2mqtt because it is easier to install than HA on bare-metal Linux.

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I had a feeling you would reply with that. I know it’s been good for a lot of people, but I do want to respectfully disagree that it’s as easy. If you’re technically savvy or just want to play, sure why not?

But if you’re scared of that type of bridged setup or HA being complicated, then I’d recommend HA device bridge first. It’s around 6 simple steps to getting that setup with devices paired and appearing/responding in Hubitat. You really don’t need to know much about HA at all apart from how to reboot it and join Zigbee devices to the ZHA integration.

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It depends. For example, I don't want to dedicate an SBC to HA, so I run it in Supervised mode. Honestly, it took a ton of effort to get HA Supervised working. It was much easier to get z2m installed.

However, I would agree that apart from installation, HA is a much easier way to bring devices into Hubitat.

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Well maybe if you’re not just going to buy a Pi or use VirtualBox on an old computer, then things can get complicated. But for those two aforementioned methods, it couldn’t be easier today to get HA going.

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We all love punishment. None of us have ever said, "just go for another device that you don't have to worry about doing all these work arounds in order to keep them working".

Instead we just keep throwing more money at it, a new hub, some new repeaters and more devices. :slight_smile:

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I think the incredible thing about HE is how easily it integrates with just about anything. Most of my motion and contact sensor driven automation uses devices not directly paired to HE. Yet it all works without any issues. I don’t know any other automation platform with that kind of flexibility!

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I regret that Hubitat is unable to officially support the Aqara/Xiaomi sensors because their zigbee protocol is a bit different from the standard while it appears to be no problem via HA. The sensors work great with the ikea repeaters but I feel limited to add other zigbee devices that could impact my mesh. I'm already using Home Assistant Device Bridge for other devices, it works perfectly but I'm asking myself why I'm not fully migrating to HA yet. I think that stubbornness to not officially integrate Aqara/Xiaomi into HE will force me in the end to prefer HA over HE.

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It’s really the controller, not the hub or Hubitat staff’s ability to write good code.

To each their own. I need to make clear that I’m not suggesting one is superior to the other. In concert they are brilliant. If I were to fully use HA, I think I’d go mad trying to duplicate the automations I’ve built quite easily on HE. It’s having the two working together that has made home automation easier and more enjoyable. One platform is not carrying the weight of the other. They are better together.

Each has their unique strengths. For example, the level of backup I get from Hubitat is far better than what HA can do. I’ve not had success in restoring everything to HA, but Hubitat backup/restore works perfectly.

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I updated my older Aqara HomeKit hub and the app shows the FP1 and the P1. Since Aqara doesn't have as many devices they need to support as Hubitat does, it's a lot easier for them to add support details right into the app.

Interestingly, when you tap on the FP1, it prepares to join it to the hub. But when you tap on the P1, it says it cannot be joined to this hub and shows a list of one of the required hubs. This is a little surprising, since although this is a Zigbee 1.2 hub, a Zigbee 3.0 device can normally fall back to the early spec to join it. Must be something specific in the firmware capabilities that preclude joining to this hub. The FP1 is likely Zigbee 3.0 and the T1 is for sure. It says it can join the T1 to this hub. :man_shrugging:

My Mijia Multimode Gateway that is Zigbee 3.0 doesn't list the P1 or the FP1, but it's also behind in firmware and keeps failing to update. Not sure why but I might have put a firmware lock on it when I was experimenting with it and Home Assistant last year. Can't remember. I'll have to reconnect it to HA and see if I can resolve that. I'll see what happens when I get the sensor. Might only join to the ConBee 2, or it might not join to anything I own, in which case it will go straight back to the seller.

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