Do i make the move?

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1

Good day all,
Im seeing if the c8 is worth my time to look into.

I tried the c7 a while ago, but most of my devices were at the time not compatible.

I have moved most of my ecosystems over to aqara now as they seam to be the most stable system.

90% or my routines are run through alexa, and the ones i cant run throughout alexa are via aqara.

From my reading so far, im still unsure if the c8 will suit my needs.

I would like to be able to set up more complex routines, but if the majority of my devices are not compatible, im not sure if its worth trying.

Aqara hubs
M1
E1
Wall switches
With and with out neutral
Motion sensors
P1
Fp2 (wifi)
Sensors
T1 temperature sensors
T1 door / window

Ring cameras (wifi)
Ring door bell (wifi)

Flick lr hub (wifi)
Flic hub mini
Flic buttons
Flic twist

Broadlink rm4 pro (wifi)
Tado (wifi)
Ewelink 4 chanel controller (wifi)
Lamp ux pro bulbs (wifi)
Calex smart plugs (wifi)
Lumary lights (wifi)
Tcp smart inline switches and plugs (wifi)

Have users been able to successfully integrate any / all of these items?

If not, has anyone been able to arrainge a work around?
Im really interested in the c8 if it means im able to integrate my devices and set up some more complex tasks.

2

You will not see any difference between your old C-7 hub and a new C-8 in regards to Aqara devices compatibility.

If you try to pair an Aqara Zigbee device to C-7, and then pair it back to Aqara hub - does it pair as a new device, or it is recognised as a rejoining existing device and all your automations on the Aqara hub continue to work ?

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3

Not a clue.
I got rid of the c7 the other year as most of what i had then wouldbt work.

Looks like its back to the drawing board for me then.

4

The problem with Aqara is their devices are designed to work with their hub, but they don’t play very nicely with zigbee coordinators made by others.

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5

Same with xiaomi... Best to avoid both. I binned all mine a while ago. I have some moes stuff that seems to be rock solid.

6

I believe Xiaomi owns the Aqara brand.

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7

Is it possibly to lonk the sensors through the m2 hub?

8

No. It is possible to link Aqara sensors to Hubitat through Home Assistant or zigbee2mqtt.

I have ~55 Aqara sensors that I have been using stably with Hubitat for 3+ years. I was initially using zigbee2mqtt and Node-RED to bring them into Hubitat. Since late last year, I’ve been using Home Assistant to bring them into Hubitat.

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9

My have to pick your brains when it cones to it.

10

I have no advice to offer vis-a-vis setting up Home Assistant because there are many options of platform and z-radio hardware. Personally, I use a Home Assistant Yellow which has a built-in zigbee radio.

You can integrate sensors and other devices paired to Home Assistant with Hubitat using the Hubitat app "Home Assistant Device Bridge", a major contribution from @ymerj, @tomw, @ogiewon, and others. Here's the link:

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11

@aaiyar - Curious, what is the particular reason Aqara works in HA but not Hubitat?

12

You can get them to work in Hubitat just as well if all your zigbee routers are Aqara compatible.

But I have many zigbee devices on Hubitat that are not Aqara compatible. So I built out my Aqara network using z2m in HA.

13

New to this, and have some questions:

  1. When you say Zigbee router, this means any Zigbee device that acts as a repeater?
  2. How do you know if the device is compatible with Aqara or not?
14

It's very simple - Home Assistant (ZHA, ZIgbee2MQTT) has probably 100 times more community developers/contributors if compared to Hubitat or SmartThings or Homey, etc..

Most of the Aqara Zigbee devices do not follow the standards. So the support in HA and all other platforms is done by reverse-engineering the Aqara specific protocol. Probably for legal reasons this can not be done officially by the companies that stay behind other commercial home automation systems.

Just recently, I see attempts that Aqara Zigbee devices are officially supported by Aqara in some of the other platforms (ST, Homey), but the official Aqara (LUMI) developments speed is very slow to say at least...

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15

Correct.

In general - ZHA 1.2 devices are not. Zigbee 3.0 devices should be. But with that said, I am very selective about the repeaters I have on my Aqara network. I use:

  1. Two Sonoff Dongle-P flashed to be a router
  2. Six TuYa mini-USB zigbee repeaters
  3. Four @iharyadi's environmental sensors
  4. Four Innr zigbee plugs

Had this setup from 2020. The only time devices have dropped offline is when they're out of battery, or there's an extended power interruption that takes the repeaters offline.

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16

Thank you @aaiyar and @kkossev.

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