Further, Sonoff Zigbee devices do not do well far from the hub. I personally haven’t found a repeater that helps those particular devices. To expand on that, a repeater that helps Aqara devices, didn’t help the Sonoff Zigbee devices. But close to the hub, the Sonoff Zigbee devices have been very stable.
Aqara are hit and miss joined directly to HE as mentioned. Some stay paired better than others. All have issues directly paired at some point unless really close to the hub. That seems to help them stay stable, but add one incompatible repeater and all bets are off.
Add an Aqara device to their own hub or a ConBee2 on Home Assistant and they are solid. You can bring Aqara devices joined to HA back into Hubitat Elevation with this driver/app
That’s good. If you’re speaking from 3 years or more experience, then your experience is highly unusual. You are hearing advice from a couple of old salts on the subject. We’ve got the battle wounds that go along with it.
AFAICT, it’s possible to have a good experience with xiaomi zigbee devices that aren’t fully compliant with the ZHA 1.2 or Zigbee 3.0 profiles, but only if one specifically plans one’s entire zigbee mesh around these devices, which will behave with a very limited subset of Zigbee repeating devices in use.
Personally I haven’t found it necessary or worth the effort to use xiaomi devices.
I've used a few of the sonoff sensors. They are inexpensive and certainly look it, but they do seem to work and the good thing about it is at the price they are basically disposable. I have not noticed the range issues others mention.
The magic number for serious drop off issues to begin is between 50-60 aqara/mijia sleepy/end devices.
Edit: Wanted to add that this is coordinator independent. I’ve also observed this using a cc2652rb stick as a coordinator with zigbee2mqtt. The only advantage of the latter is that I get signal strength values for each of the ~15 routers in that network. When any router’s signal drops below a threshold, I restart the router. That’s sufficient to keep mijia/aqara devices online.
I'm using several Sonoff ZBMINI devices to control my outdoor lighting... one of which is in my detached backyard garage. I have 8 to 10 Iris/Centralite smart plugs (repeaters) scattered around my home, including one in the detached garage. I've had no issues with that device or the others.
I'm a relative novice and can't claim this is normal, but my experience has been positive using these mains-powered ZBMINI devices. I've read mixed reviews on Sonoff battery operated sensors but haven't bought any just yet. I'm planning to get a couple SNZB-04 contact sensors to experiment with.
Another very satisfied Aqara customer. I am using the door, temperature, light and vibration sensors. I don't have any repeaters in my setup. The light sensor was a real pain to setup - practically had to be on top of the hub! Other than that they are all working perfectly.
I wish I could say the same thing. I just obtained a Aqara vibration sensor and a water leak sensor. They will work for an hour or so and then disconnect from the mesh. I never have an issue with any other Zigbee, Z-wave or Luton Connect devices. Right now it is close to a Centralite 4200-C Zigbee outlet which I presume is acting as a repeater. I have heard that the 3000 series Centralite outlets do not work with Aqara devices, but I do not know about the 4200-C.
The tilt/vibration sensor must be within 20 feet of the hub and if it’s not, you must have a compatible repeater between. If any non-compatible repeaters are on the network, any bulbs (except Sengled) then all bets are off.
The leak sensors shouldn’t be a problem. Since they are, make sure the aforementioned is adhered to.
I was afraid that was the case. I guess I will just chalk up my Aqara experiment as a fail. Since my Centralite outlets are working well (including power reporting), I do not want to replace them. Other than the Aqara devices, my Zigbee Hue HL, Zigbee HA, Z-Wave and Lutron Clear Connect setups are fully reliable. It would be more expensive replacing my Centralite outlets than the Aqara sensors are worth.
Since the Smartthings multipurpose sensors have been discontinued, I have been looking for a reliable vibration sensor. I do have one Aeotec Z-Wave Multipurpose sensor that includes vibration, but at $60 each, they are too expensive if I only need the vibration sensor capability. The Hubitat devices pages lists the Vision shock sensors as compatible, but I have not been able to find them in stock.
That's shame @rwclements228 My vibration sensor sits inside my old battery operated doorbell and works fine. I guess it must be down to my fairly simple setup - 1 hub, 21 Zigbee devices and no repeaters. Also the vibration sensor is in the same room as the hub.
My home has two floors plus a basement, so there is no way I can keep all the vibration sensors within 20 ft of the hub without using repeaters. In some instances, I would need to cover 50-60 ft with some of that distance being through walls, floors, etc.
Unfortunately, compact sensor devices such as the Aqara devices do not have sufficient space for a proper Zigbee antenna. A Zigbee device with a good antenna can usually connect to the hub at a distance of 50-60 ft or so though normal drywall construction and up to a few hundred feet through open air.
For me, it is not worth risking the integrity of my Zigbee mesh to salvage a couple of inexpensive Aqara sensors. I will keep them on the chance that future upgrades to my devices will allow them to be used.
My experience is with the Xiaomi Aqara Leak Sensor. Amazon.com
I had read comments/reviews where people said it would work if it communicated thru your (non Aqara) hub, but if it had to get routed thru a repeater, it would unpair/fail to communicate. However, the leak sensors we've deployed have been seen both talking directly to our ST hub and thru some Peanut Plugs as repeaters, and they've been 100% stable. I've not tested them with HE yet but my point is that they do talk to non Aqara hubs/repeaters and can be stable. I've not tested the other Aqara sensor types.
Pros:
Relatively inexpensive.
Uses 2032 3V coin cell battery, inexpensive and easy to replace.
The pairing button is accessible thru the case. No taking it apart to pair or force a check in.
The sensor terminals on the bottom are also screws and you can install a remote sensor if you wanted.
Small(-ish) sensor.
Cons:
On one of my ST hubs, I had to place the sensor within 12 inches of the hub to pair it. Any further and it just would not pair (single long flash after starting pairing will indicate error). On another ST hub it paired at a "normal" distance.
Does not do temperature measurements. This didn't really affect me but its something to note.
The check in period is NOT adjustable at the device level and is hardcoded to between 50 and 60 minutes. During the check in it reports battery level and your hub will know the the device is still online. For a leak sensor this seems like a really long time. I'm guessing its because it has a (relatively) small battery. As most hub logic is to warn of an offline sensor after double the checkin period (in this case, 2 hours), ultimately this limited its use for us, as a lot of water damage could occur within that time frame. My opinion is batteries are cheap, water damage is expensive. YMMV.
From what I gleened reading thru the custom Aqara device handlers for both HE and ST, the device just doesn't support as many of the features of similar zigbee leak sensors.
Overall I felt that there are other leak sensors on the market in both Zigbee and Zwave forms that are more flexible and are similar in cost. We ended up not deploying them widely but I could see where they still have a place. They DID pair with ST and they DID communicate as expected with some of the caveats mentioned above.
