Like many, I was excited by the Aqara FP2, and hoped it could be easily added to Hubitat. I understood that as it was Wi-Fi and Hubitat only had Z-Wave and Zigbee this wasn’t possible. However, the C-8 now has Wi-Fi, so why isn’t there a direct way to add it to Hubitat? Is it because Aqara isn’t providing the necessary information to Hubitat or Hubitat just didn’t think it was important enough to write the required code or something else?
You got it!
If the information was available it would work via Ethernet as well.
That’s a drag. I read things it can work with Home Assistant. Are they doing something like going through Apple? Could Hubitat do the same if we have an Apple TV or Pod?
To add to what @mike.maxwell said, it would not matter if Hubitat had wifi or not, it would simply require tcp/ip which is by nature available through the ethernet port to talk to the LAN. Wifi is simply la connection like ethernet As long as a wifi device has connectivity to a wifi AP it will talk to the lan regardless of how other devices on the network connect to the LAN. So in the end it doesn't matter that Hubitat has wifi (hubitat is not a wifi AP) it matters that the 2 devices can coherently talk on the same LAN. (Which @mike.maxwell pointed at) Just clarifying that Hubitat having wifi doesn't have anything to do with it
Note: This is an over simplified way to describe it.
If I understand it (and I likely don't) they are making the FP2 available via a HomeKit specific protocol of sorts... but I could be wrong... The comments re the availability of a LAN / Wi-Fi connection are certainly true, plus there would still be a need to support the device regardless of the connection type being available.
still would be using lan to talk to hubitat and either wifi or thread (which uses ipv6) to talk to the homekit hub... which then would use tcp/ip to talk to hubitat
I could be wrong, but I believe it uses Wi-Fi to talk to HA... using the HomeKit device thing-a-bob....
wifi still lan using tcp/ip to talk to HA's ethernet (or wifi)
I guess my point was more it is a direct connection to HA, no third-party hub required, but yes, the protocol is the essentially the same (LAN / Wi-Fi)
Thanks all. The tech talk left me a bit lost, but the bottom line seems to be there is no real way to use it with Hubitat.
BTW, I see there is now a battery operated version (FP3?). Does anyone know if that would be any better for Hubitat (which I would hope so as it says it is Zigbee) or have any experience with it?
at that point HA is acting as an ap router
True, I'm just likening HA to what HE could hopefully offer (with a good dose of ignorance... )
Without having looked at it.... I was happy to see a USB powered sensor in the FP2... I would say that unless you need a battery powered sensor, or there are other features of the newer sensor, then I would take the USB powered option as a bonus.... personally...
While I'm not familiar with Aqara, even remotely - Is it possible to reverse engineer the protocol: Reverse Engineering Network Protocols - Jack Hacks
I've done some of this type of work in the past for my "real life" job - Or is this communication encrypted (SSL?), which just adds another layer of effort spoofing certs and MITM DNS attacks.
I get that HE staff doesn't want to support some RE protocol hack, given the target company can easily change and break things (I'm looking at you MyQ), but I was just curious if anyone has even looked at how complex the actual protocol on the wire is?
Is this possible for some community driver to fill the gap here, or is this still all fairly unknown? - I'm assuming this is the route HA took, and looking at their code could certainly be a starting point
Aqara FP2 communication protocol for their integration to SmartThings is made public :
including the selfSignedRootByAqaraLife.crt
Thanks!
Lua is new to me, but it's good to know a working/open example exists, if folks are willing to put in the effort to do a port - Much easier than RE TCP packets.
That all said, and reading your attached links, it appears the easiest answer is just wait for Aqara to add Matter support. - Apparently that's in progress (apparently very slowly, somewhat like YoLink), but that definitely seems like the path of least resistance.
Thanks for the added context and info, as I'm not a regular in the Aqara realms.
Actually, Aqara FP2 integration to Hubitat via Matter is possible even now, although using some workarounds (Aqara's 'Signal Synchronization') :
Unfortunately, this way of connecting is still cloud-dependent.
Ahh... Hence this thread. - I guess the real question is why did Aqara decide to provide the driver/code to integrate with ST, but not even publish an API/spec to allow HE to integrate? - I'm guessing that's all about market share.. I am curious what HA is doing..
And adding Matter support that's cloud dependent, just feels like an oxymoron to me.
But what do I know..
I experienced a full 24-hour Internet outage a month ago — probably the first time in the last 20 years for such a long time period.
All my Hubitat automations continued to work flawlessly throughout the outage (no Alexa announcements, of course..). Apple Home automations were working as well.
The same couldn’t be said for Aqara and SmartThings hubs, where some (not all) of the automations failed during the downtime.
In Aqara's defense, their Matter implementation for bridged Zigbee devices is indeed fully local. The only exception is the new and experimental ‘Signal Synchronizations’ feature, which still relies on cloud processing. Hopefully, this functionality will be handled locally in the future as well.
When it comes to Home Assistant, the integration is achieved using a reverse-engineered 'Apple HomeKit Controller' protocol. This approach is likely not an option for Hubitat due to potential legal restrictions/risks.