Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected

I have also installed Ikea Outlets/repeaters in my house for these. I am getting an Xbee to map out my Zigbee network so I am wondering if I still need to have the Ikea repeaters in place as Xbee can also be used as a repeater and I have read is better at it than Ikea repeaters.

An XBee is a great tool for analyzing your network. I do not have one, but might get one some day. Fortunately, my Zigbee network is quite stable. (I wish I could say that about my Z-wave network.) Since the XBee devices are modular rather than a self contained device, you will probably still need some type of self-contained repeaters.

I do not have Tradfri devices, so I cannot confirm this, but I have heard that the devices work better as repeaters if nothing else is plugged into them. If you use them to charge your cell phone, for example, the repeater function is lessened. I guess it may have something to do with all the electronics crammed into such as small space.

Can you elaborate on this as I didn't understand what you mean.

Most of the devices we use for home automation are self-contained. For example a motion sensor has a sensor module, a radio module, and a power module such as a battery. Everything comes together in a neat package.

The XBee devices I have seen are simply a Zigbee radio module that has to be connected to other modules to make a functioning system. Some XBee modules come with an antenna, others require connecting an antenna to an SMA jack. There may be an XBee self contained device, but I have not seen one.

Anyone wondering about how many devices Ikea repeaters can route, look at this.

Looks like this is more than anyone else has reported before. I am replacing them with Xbee3s though for better signal strength.

Here is the comparison
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I'm venturing back into Xiaomi-Aqara-on-Hubitat land again. Why! Why am I doing this again? :sweat_smile:

I'm going to assume everybody's interested. Rant to follow.

So, IMHO the Aqara devices are still some of the most attractive, affordable, well-built and (in the case of the wall switches) easy to retrofit products for UK households. Sadly I am now entering at least year four of actually getting them working well enough. I've tried them on a few platforms including their native hubs, but there are such compromises on all fronts I'm back here with Hubitat again.

About a year ago the Aqara M2 hub became available in the UK with HomeKit support and I thought my dreams had come true. Ethernet! HomeKit! Homebridge! Hubitat!

The dream is dead.

First, HomeKit automations are a disaster. I have an always-on Apple TV, on ethernet as the "Home Hub" controller. Some days automations just don't work. I've tried iPads as backups, an extra Apple TV, still the best I get is about 85% reliable. This means I can't do two or three-way lighting control. Fail.

Why not automate through the M2 hub? Well, because I didn't really want to sign up and have it hooked up to an Aqara account all the time, but I had to succumb and it runs those automations locally, so that's great. But in the last few firmware updates I've had it will occasionally stop responding and show a blue flashing LED. The local automations continue to run... for a while, and then they stop too. Fail.

In all this time, the two Hubitat hubs have worked perfectly. And I mean flawlessly. One is dedicated to my AlertMe / Iris V1 gear, the other for general accessories.

So why not Hubitat in the first place? I tried, but two things happened. First, on my accessories mesh Aqara battery and Aqara wired (no neutral) devices would fight. Battery devices would stay on the mesh just fine, but as soon as a single wired wall switch was added they would become unreliable and drop, every single time. But the nail in the coffin were the Aurora AOne dimmers. These work great, come with an excellent FAF rating (Family Appreciation Factor) and work as repeaters which everything loves... except for the Xiaomi buttons, which once again become unreliable and eventually drop. :man_facepalming:

The solution this time? A third Hubitat hub and a complete removal of the M2 and wired switches, all to be replaced by wireless wall buttons and probably something like the Samotech SM308-S. My nervousness here is that there is no backup solution should there be a mesh failure, as the switches can only be operated remotely - unless I wire them for switched use with traditional facias...

That'll do. I feel better for the rant and Hubitat #3 is already up and running with test buttons. Sometimes it's just necessary to rant.

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At least you know what you are getting into.

These devices are just a pain. The best results I have heard is pairing them with an xiaomi hub that can be connected to Hubitat. I don't know all of the details behind this in terms of what hub etc but that was the most reliable.

For direct integration with hubitat I recommend the following,

  • change your zigbee channel (I use 20)
  • inventory any devices that are zigbee repeaters and remove them if possible (not all work with xiaomi). If you can replace them with Ikea repeaters. They work the best.
  • be patient

I've been running them for a few years now and have scripts monitoring them all as they all report in every hour so I know as soon as they start acting up.

For the most part they are well, but every now and then (about twice a year now) they have a tantrum and a hub reboot and wait for them to connect fixes it.

I have slowly been replacing them though with zooz sensors. So much more reliable in my setup.

I've never had a problem with them since dumping smartthings

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FWIW I hsve dumped my IKEA repeaters as I was still getting devices drop off. I also hear they are quite a weak repeater RF wise.
I now have 3 Tuya 3.0 ZB in their place so we'll see what happens.
They got good praise here for being compatible and much stronger RF.

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Thanks, I've got an '11LM button, a '12LM button and an '07LM double wall button attached to Hubitat #3 using an IKEA E1746 - those four devices are the only things on the mesh and they're all working right now. I connected a "sanity check" '11LM button to my normal accessories mesh... it's already dropped and unresponsive. So at least I'm not going crazy.

The accessories mesh is already on channel 20 and the AlertMe kit is on channel 25, so my Aqara-specific one I've set to channel 23. Too much wifi noise down on the lower channels.

Got a link? What are these Tuya 3.0 ZBs of which you speak?

I have a drawer with spare E1746s because they're so cheap and convenient. Routing table is exactly this exciting right now:

Parent child parameters
EzspGetParentChildParametersResponse [childCount=1, parentEui64=0000000000000000, parentNodeId=65535]

Child Data
child:[12LM, 18FE, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]

Neighbor Table Entry
[Main Repeater, C608], LQI:255, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1

Route Table Entry
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [07LM, 8760] via [Main Repeater, C608]
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused

Don't know where my '11LM is on there, but it's still connected and working. Going to add on the sanity check one now too, may as well get this party started.

They are also much quicker on Hubitat than on the native M2 hub. Not as fast as the AlertMe / Iris V1 or IKEA buttons, they take a fraction longer to wake and transmit, but still mighty swift. And I can live with that because I don't think I have ever changed a battery in one of these.

I've also connected them up with no special driver, just the system "Device" driver, because I was very curious as to whether they need special response codes to keep them happy and connected, or make them report in. It would appear that they do not. Fresh out of the box the '07LM reports in about every 50 minutes with what I'm guessing is battery data.

Naturally if this is the case I'll roll my own @birdslikewires drivers, because I'm like that. With so many driver alternates out there I just wanted to know if they do need special driver treatment, or if they just need a very particular mesh environment. Right now it's looking like the latter.

Here's the Ali Smart Zigbee Signal Amplifier Tuya Automation Modules Timer - AliExpress
Link in the forum Recommendations for sensors? - #79 by Krishna

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First driver supporting the WXKG11LM is up on GitHub now. It has received pretty much no testing; in fact, less than 60 seconds ago I saw it properly parse the FF01 attrId for the first time, which is the approximately-every-50-minute report the device sends in.

I'm starting out doing these differently to other folk; the code is heavily based on all my other button drivers and I'll tailor them specifically to each device (so there'll be another driver for the WXKG12LM). I might change my mind, but I like doing this because I end up with exactly what I want - such as a momentary press of the reset button actually registering as a fifth button press. :slight_smile:

I'll do a post and push to the package manager once I'm convinced it's working right, but this was a nice little jigsaw puzzle for this evening now I know I'm not just tail-chasing them falling off the mesh.

Turns out a quintuple-press of the button actually triggers the same behaviour as one short tap of the reset button, so I was uncharacteristically accurate on this occasion. :smiley:

There's only a few options that are worth pursuing. I've got plenty of rock solid performance behind that opinion.

The one I like the best personally is HA with a ConBee2. Everything pairs easily and stays. IKEA TrΓ₯dfri outlets and repeaters work fine with it too. Home Assistant Device Bridge is simple to setup and very effective to bring the devices back into HE.

A variation on the above is to use the Mijia Multimode Gateway 3 with AlexxIT's integration. This gives you all the Mijia and Aqara devices, and you can also use BLE and Bluetooth Mesh devices if you want them.

You can also use Zigbee2MQTT with Node Red, but that's a steeper climb than the first two options, if your goal is to just connect Aqara and Mijia devices to Hubitat Elevation.

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Thanks, @SmartHomePrimer. My appetite for diving into HA is pretty low right now, but then I have been ill, so perhaps that's stunting my curiosity. I have one of those Mijia gateways somewhere and more Raspberry Pis than is healthy, so I guess it's just a matter of time.

In HE news, I'm happy to report that my simple mesh of 1x Hubitat Hub, 1x IKEA E1746 Repeater, 2x WXKG11LM buttons, 1x WXKG12LM button and 4x WXKG07LM wall switches is holding up very nicely indeed.

I've already replaced one wired switch entirely with a Samotech SM308 on my accessories mesh and a WXKG07LM screwed to the wall, looking indistinguishable from how it was before. I love Hub Mesh.

If you're in the market, watch out; Samotech do the SM308 (normal single channel switch module) but also the SM308-S (no-neutral single channel switch module) and they're sold in different categories of the website. I have need of some no-neutral control so will report on my findings somewhere; the SM308 is an excellent repeater and stunningly reliable, but I'm assuming the no-neutral version won't act as a router... but that is just an assumption, because the Aurora AOne dimmers are great repeaters and work without a neutral.

Anyway, back on topic, I've now managed to bash out drivers for those three Xiaomi devices. The WXKG07LM was surprisingly straightforward and the WXKG12LM was quite fun because of its silly accelerometer function. I also implemented level setting using timing of the hold-release messages, so the button can be used as a basic dimmer controller in combination with something like the Mirror app. :laughing:

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I have a few of the Samotech SM314 no-neutral dimmers. I bought one to try & liked them so much that I bought more. They work as repeaters and are also successfully repeating Aqara Opple 4 & 6 way buttons.

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I don't believe it, I genuinely have one sat right next to me and never realised it was a no-neutral model. I'd only ever wired it as a test using neutral on the common connector. :man_facepalming:

I love the the SM308 modules, I retrofitted one into the kitchen extractor because there's never a time we don't want those lights on when the room is occupied. They're now my yardstick of how well things are working because the PIR is an AlertMe model on Hub #1 while the SM308 is on Hub #2.

Well, a year later and I don't think they've ever failed to work.

I kept this post on topic by including the side of the WXKG12LM on the left of that picture. :wink:

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This new setup appears to be working very well. All of the Xiaomi battery devices are staying connected and working happily together, enough that I've removed them all from the M2 hub now and added them to Hubitat #3. The M2 only has the two remaining wired wall switches (because I haven't sourced a promising two-channel no-neutral module yet) which are being controlled from the buttons on Hubitat via Homebridge, plus one WSDCGQ11LM temperature and humidity sensor.

Speaking of which, I moved the other one of those WSDCGQ11LM devices onto Hubitat too, then rolled another driver for them. Took forever this afternoon for some reason, there was one stupid parsing problem that I just kept staring at! Anyway, looks decent now.

This one has the cute feature of "enabling" the reset button to be used as a standard pushable button (because you just never know, might be handy for someone) and inspired by @markus's driver it also reports absolute humidity, calculated from the reported relative humidity and the latest temperature reading.

Once I'm happy these readings are being processed correctly I may add them up to the package manager.

image

Feeling happier. Freezing my sensors so you don't have to. :wink:

The driver and the official app compare very well and within the design tolerance, so I think I have it right. The one on the official app went in a while afterwards, so it'll still be settling a tad.

I'll have a go, trying this out now