I am interested in adding the Aqara presence sensor FP1e and FP2 to automate some Z Wave GE Enbrighten switches which are controlled with my Hubitat C-8 hub with the latest 2.3.9.193 platform.
I have also ordered the Aqara M3 Hub. My question is should I use the Aqara app and M3 hub to setup the sensors or can they operate without the Aqara hub and let my C-8 Hubitat hub control the sensors. The FP1e is Zigbee and the FP2 is WiFi.
The Aqara FP2 is a WiFi device. Thus, the Aqara M3 hub really does not offer any assistance in adding this particular device to Hubitat. Unfortunately, Aqara has not yet added Matter support to the FP2.
There are some other threads that detail the use of the FP2 with Hubitat. There are currently 3 ways that I am aware of.
Using a Home Assitant instance on your network, you can add the FP2 to HA using the HA HomeKit Device integration. Once added to HA, you can then use the Home Assistant Device Bridge (HADB) integration on your HE hub to add the FP2 devices to HE. This is 100% local. This is exactly what I do and it works extremely well and reliably.
You can add the FP2 to your Apple Home (assuming you’re an iOS user with an Apple TV or Apple HomePod) and use a combination of Hubitat virtual devices and Apple Home Automations to mirror the FP2 status to Hubitat. This is 100% local.
Aqara recently added support for SmartThings to the FP2. There has been some recent development that allows the FP2 status to me mirrored over to Hubitat. I believe this does require a ST hub, and this relies on the ST cloud.
There may be other solutions, similar to #2 above, using Amazon Alexa or Google Home as well.
Hope this helps for the FP2 usage case.
As for the FP1 Zigbee device - you may be able to simply pair it directly to your Hubitat hub. Search the community for threads discussing this specific device, as it might require a community developed driver. Hubitat has a been recently adding support for Aqara Zigbee devices, so you might be in luck using a built-in driver as well. Since I only use the FP2, I have no experience with the FP1.
The Aqara FP1/FP1e are much easier to pair to an Aqara hub BUT only the FP1E join to Hubitat through matter.
Testing one this way now through an Aqara camera G3 hub and it appears to be very stable.
Also the only way to update the FP1 firmware is if the device is paired to the Aqara hub.
Don't know why but the FP1 devices pair much easier to The Aqara hub than to Hubitat hub.
I have added a few FP1's to the Aqara to update their firmware then removed them and rejoined to a Hubitat hub via zigbee to test if they are any better.
Left one FP1E on the Aqara hub and joined via matter to Hubitat to test the differance.
On downside connecting via Matter can only use the Hubitat Generic Component Motion Sensor DH and it doesn't have any setting to say if it is offline or areas.
You can not use the Hubitat Generic Matter Motion sensor device handler or the community FP1 device handler.
They do not work if joined through matter.
My other 15 FP1 devices are paired directly to my Hubitat hubs via zigbee and they were difficult to pair and afew fell off a couple of times until they paired correctly.
But nice to have areas and offline notification using the community device handler.
If they fall off again though I will likely pair them through the Aqara hub and matter.
If any FP1E's fall off again though I will likely pair them through the Aqara hub and matter.
So far I would recommend pairing FP1E's (FP1 do not pair through matter) through the Aqara hub and matter unless you really need areas and offline notification.
It is way easier.
My FP2 devices due to no matter support yet is joined through Aqara to Alexa by creating a virtual device and then back to Hubitat. They have been fine but cloud based, I will likely move them over to Home Assistant have a hub sitting here just haven't got around it.
I have an FP1 paired to an Aqara E1 hub but as far as I can tell its not exposed to matter and therefore cant be added to Hubitat. I'm using the Matter Advance Driver to bridge devices from Aqara. How are you bringing the FP1 in?
I don't have an Aqara E1 hub so not sure about the matter compatibily of it but just doing a search says to power cycle the hub and update the Aqara E1 hub to the latest firmware.
Pair the FP1E device to the Aqara E1 hub.
Then Open Aqara App -> E1 Hub -> Configuration -> Bind to Matter -> Copy QR Code Value
Then go to the Hubitat hub add devices and add matter and paste that code.
It will pair the the Aqara E1 hub (if Matter compatible) to Hubitat and the FP1E will show up automatically as a child device.
Once paired in the Hubitat hub devices page the Aqara hub will show up and will have an arrow to the left of it click on that arrow and the child devices (FP1E) will drop down.
I think a key point would be that the aqara hub would have to be set to mainland China region in order to pair with the FP1 as that is the only market they were officially sold in. I set my M3 and FP1Es up as the US region, my FP1s don't pair with it. I may go back and start over with China mainland if it's confirmed that the FP1 is indeed exposed over matter since I have 3 of them currently sitting in a box.
I have both FP1 and FP1E (as far as I can tell they are exactly the same) my location similar to mainland China (Canada) and they have all so far paired to my Aqara G3 hub the same.
First try no issues at all.
After pairing the FP1 or FP1E devices to the Aqara G3 hub first thing I did was update the firmware and they all used the same firmware.
Haven't gone through and finished pairing and updating all my original 10-12 FP1's I ordered from China (not FP1E) to the Aqara G3 hub but just did another one right now to test it and it paired fine first try one floor up and opposite side of the house from the G3 hub.
Went from firmware 0.0.0_0054
to 0.0.0_0058 - changed background learning time from 6 seconds to 30 seconds
(It does take awhile to update the firmware though.)
Perhaps the M3 Hub is different then, it doesn't even show the FP1 as a compatible device when it's set to the US region
Aqara FP1 and Aqara FP1E are two different devices.
The last time I tried, the old FP1 was not exposed via Aqara Matter hubs (E1, M3) to other hubs, Hubitat included. I don't know if anything has changed lately, will try again in the next days when I have a chance.
Matter Advanced Bridge - Aqara table lists which Aqara Zigbee devices were found to work via the community Matter Bridge and which did not work. It should be the same when using the Hubitat built-in 'Generic Matter Bridge' driver.
The old Aqara FP1 works OK when paired directly to Hubitat via Zigbee. Two community drivers are available for installation from HPM—one is named 'Aqara Human Presence Sensor FP1', and the other is named 'Aqara P1 Motion Sensor', which I wrote. The community forum thread dedicated to the last one is here. Note, that directly pairing the old FP1 to HE Zigbee network is not easy, but once paired, it stays connected and I have never had dropping issues.
The new Aqara FP1E is most straightforward to use via Aqara Matter Bridge hubs. It can be also paired directly to HE via Zigbee, but again, pairing is not very easy.
In the Aqara app select FP1E when adding a FP1 and it will join as a FP1
still waiting on my FP1 to finish updating the firmware.
Only testing a FP1E with Aqara matter to Hubitat at the moment.
Once this FP1 finishes updating firmware will test it out.
Well I'll be damned, you are correct, it did add to the M3, thanks. However I'm not seeing it in hubitat via matter. Let me know if you figure have better success please.
Sorry took about 30-60 minutes to update some of my FP1 firmware.
But I was wrong
I stand corrected.
The FP1 and FP1E are different and use different firmware.
latest firmware
FP1 = 0.0.0_0058
FP1E = 0.0.0_0028
The old FP1's do not connect through the Aqara hub using matter to Hubitat only zigbee.
Connected a few old FP1's to the Aqara hub and finally found another FP1E (they all look a like) to confirm Hubitat is only seeing the FP1E's via the Aqara hub and matter.
Since the old FP1 is very similar to the newer FP1E and we are joining through the Aqara hub via matter.
Is it possible to add support for the old FP1 by just adding the old FP1 device id in Hubitat Matter support?
or is it dependant on the Aqara firmware?
Download the Hubitat app
