In the past I had so much trouble with them on my C7 that I boxed my Aqara sensors up and mailed them to @aaiyar. True story.
But I really liked the form factor and battery life of the Aqara contact sensors so I tried them again on my C7 maybe 9 months to a year ago. Model MCCGQ11LM.
Maybe because I'd added some Sonoff dongle repeaters the Aqara sensors stayed on my mesh very reliably. Not perfect, but very good.
Since updating to the C8 they have been even better... Go figure, but they are my most reliable Zigbee device on the C8, on which I've had a lot of Zigbee issues.
I think it’s been about a year and a half now that I moved all of my 15 aqara devices to a separate C5 with three tradfri repeaters and mesh them to my C7. Zero issues.
The main attraction of Aqara devices is their availability (Amazon) and pricing (inexpensive). I purchased two of them. I could not get them to work with my C7 hub until I replaced my older Smartthings and Centralite HA 1.2 smart plugs with Zigbee 3.0 smartplugs.
When I migrated from the C7 to the C8, the Aqara devices ceased working. I decided to replace the two Aqara devices with Tuya devices. The new ones work just fine. Thus, my inexpensive Aqara devices cost me a lot of money in the long run.
Aqara says they are coming out with devices that will be fully compatible with Zigbee 3.0. But until that is confirmed in practice, proceed with caution. There is a community driver that might work with some Aqara devices. If you do decide to try Aqara devices, please purchase ones that state they work with hubs other than the Aqara hub.
I had a ton of them on SmartThings for years (motion sensors and temp/humidity - no contact). The only way I could ever get them to stay online was to strictly limit the Zigbee repeaters they could connect to - in my case it's been a few Ikea plugs and XBees. I avoided any other type of repeater in my system.*. I've only been on Hubitat for a few months. They've been working just fine for me with the available custom drivers and using the same repeaters I used in SmartThings. I really believe it's about the repeaters and not about Hubitat.
Best,
Alec
One note - I've just realized I have a couple of the second generation plugs from Smart Things (which sold out so fast) and they don't seem to cause any trouble. The first generation (big square ones) sure did, along with any repeating Osram bulbs and a few others - I had to just keep them out of the system entirely.
That's absolutely true. There is nothing magical in ZHA or Z2M implementation in regards to the old generation Aqara sensors pairing. There are exactly the same issues reported in Home Assistant with Aqara devices. And all other home automation systems are quoting the 'classic' write-up by @veeceeoh written more than 5 years ago :
It has got to be something in the choice of Zigbee controller, but maybe the driver to a small extent?
I don’t have a C8, so I cannot speak to that, but I just couldn’t keep the Aqara devices reliably connected on any of the earlier generation hubs, no matter which driver I used. They would be fine for a while, and I’d get all cocky about how I “Cracked it”, but that wouldn’t last more than 6 months or so. I may have gotten 8 months out a few if I remember correctly, but a year or more was unheard of.
When I first decided to try using Home Assistant with some crazy workarounds to get the device states back into HE (this was before @ymerj created the wonderful Home Assistant Device Bridge), I had chosen the ConBee 2, because it came highly recommended. Using the exact same Aqara devices and the same IKEA repeaters, they have stayed joined with HA and the ConBee 2 from the start (Feb 2021). Same with troublesome IKEA devices. I later switched to Z2M from @aaiyar’s recommendation, with so many additional device settings exposed and a massive support list for the more budget friendly devices.
I’ve also found that with the ZHA integration on Home Assistant, I would still often have to keep the Aqara devices awake while trying to join them, but with Z2M I don’t need to do that.
My explanation for this is that when the problematic Aqara sensors are moved to Z2M you have a much smaller, isolated Zigbee network, without the dozens of other potentially problematic routers that you keep paired to HE.
The same effect should be achieved if you move the Aqara devices and the friendly repeaters to a dedicated C-7 or C-5 hub (instead of ZHA/Z2M).
Ummm... I have no idea how is this possible.
What Zigbee radios are you using with Z2M and ZHA? Have you used Aqara sensors with the most popular CC2531 Zigbee adapter?
The Conbee stick is a special case... I don't have experience with it.
I kept the Zigbee network very carefully controlled with only IKEA repeaters (exact same ones I’m using today). No repeating bulbs. Have always used Hue bulbs with the Hue Bridge integration. Very cautious about the channel distance at that time too. Only other repeater that I later used was an XBee, but the long term stability issues never increased or decreased with its presence in retrospect.
Me either. Just an observation.
Has always been a ConBee 2. I suppose it’s magical
I have all sorts of Aqara contact sensors, motion sensors, leak sensors, and temp/humidity sensors all over the place with zero issues on my Hubitat C-5
I will not be surprised if deCONZ has implemented on purpose the same bug (or Aqara specific non-standard 'feature'), as in the Aqara Zigbee hubs. Let's not forget, that Aqara devices have zero problems with the Aqara hubs...
At my previous work, we had a very similar case. We were changing one of the sub-device suppliers when we found that there was a bug in our software, not complying with the protocol specification of a well-known communication standard. However, this bug in our host controller was not a problem with the devices produced by the previous supplier (they also missed the strict validation of the data received). But we already had thousands of installations on field... So, the new supplier decided that they will implement the same bug in their firmware, with the only goal to convince us to purchase their device!
Interesting. I have a number of Xiaomi and Aqara branded devices working on my C-7. I didn't need to remove my Centralite-built SmartThings and Iris smart plugs (I have 10); I just added some (5) Ikea ones. I'm using ZigBee channel 23.
Once I removed Centralite smart plugs I had huge Aqara success. Solid with no issue for my contact sensor… happy with them now. I am selective with zigbee elements moving forward and replace plugs with the IKEA plugs.
I'm glad it's working for you, but I find the Ikea outlets to be pretty terrible. I've had 5 of 8 fail.
That said, the 3 Ikea ones that have not yet failed are still on my C-7 Zigbee mesh, along with 11 Centralite plugs (10 Iris, 1 SmartThings). I'm not having any issues with my Aqara/Miija devices.
I also have five Ikea outlets, and they are all fine after almost two years. They all have to be hidden behind furniture as my wife finds them "...hideously ugly..." And that's on a good day. But the Ikea plugs have been reliable for me.
These things are always interesting...the inconsistency is part of the hair-pulling results w/home automation. I have a bunch of Centralite plugs and my Aqara contacts and leak sensors and buttons are perfectly happy on my C8. I also have a couple SonOff dongle repeaters, and one Ikea plug on the C8, along w/several Sengled plugs. I have about 100 zigbee devices overall, so a lot going on and I'm surprised that everyone is playing pretty well together.
I used to have all kinds of trouble w/Aqara, to the point where I gave away my Aqara contact sensors and buttons, but these days the Aqara contact and leak sensors and buttons are an integral part of my automations. Like the contacts especially, due to the small form factor and long battery life.
Just recently I did have some Aqara contact issues after adding a Linptech mmWave sensor to my C8...shortly after adding it five Aqara contacts fell off the hub. I rejoined them and three of them fell of again two more times. So I moved the mmWave to my C7 and the Aqara contacts are happy again on the C8. Interestingly, I have four Aqara contacts and a button on the C7 and they are fine w/two Linptech mmWave sensors.
The Aqara contact sensors, can be paired with your HE hub you don't need an Aqara hub.
There's work going on right now to allow pairing of Aqara and other hubs to HE via Matter as bridges, which would then allow you to put devices on the other hubs and access them from your Hubitat hub. So that will be another option coming.
But the Ikea plugs have been reliable for me.
