If you add motion sensors, I'd recommend zigbee. The response time is about 3 times faster. Zigbee battery devices tend to last longer also.
Oh. Thanks for that tip. I wasn't aware and will keep that in mind.
You can pickup 10 of the Iris 3210-L2 Zwave Repeater/Zigbee Outlet devices for around $75 bucks for all of them also to help build out your mesh. The nice thing is they help strengthen both your zigbee and zwave meshes and at around $7.50 a device the price is hard to beat.
Zigbee locks also generally perform better. For almost everything else I'd go with Z-Wave.
1 Like
Wow. I'll probably be getting that!
I'm starting to get confused. I already understood that zigbee operated on 2.4 ghz, and I know that wifi also utilizes that frequency (as well as other frequencies). But Aqara says that it requires a "secured 2.4 ghz wifi network connection". Does this mean that if my 2.4 ghz wifi goes out I'll lose operability of my Aqara devices? One of the primary reasons I bought the Hubitat was to keep my automation active even if wifi goes out.
That's for the Aqara hub. So if you have Aqara sensors paired to the Aqara hub, you'll lose the capacity to use those sensors if your WiFi goes out.
There are ways to pair Aqara sensors directly to the the Hubitat (such as using these drivers). The issues are that these sensors are not bog-standard ZHA 1.2 and therefore can be unstable on Hubitat. One is best off using standard ZHA 1.2 devices (or z-wave devices) directly paired to Hubitat - as @lewis.heidrick has suggested.
Edit: want to add two things:
- Iris outlets are not compatible with Aqara zigbee sensors. Even with newer drivers (like @markus), Aqara devices will fall off the network unless ALL zigbee repeaters are Aqara compatible.
- If you don't have any smart sensors currently, just stay away from Aqara. That is my perspective as someone who has a houseful of Aqara sensors - they aren't worth it. There are better choices that follow the ZHA 1.2 standard, or are Zigbee 3.0 and fall back to ZHA 1.2 - making them Hubitat compatible. The Sonoff sensors indicated by @bertabcd1234 fall in that category.
2 Likes
I would just add, if you read the headline and through this thread, this particular set of drivers is apparently NOT being maintained. They have not been changed or improved to match changes in Hubitat's software changes.
For most of these (maybe all?) there is a NEW set of drivers that IS being maintained.
Just as a side note, this thread should probably be locked, there are few cases where any of this is relevant at this point in time. The author of these drivers has not logged in in many months now, so I doubt he will be able to answer any questions about these drivers. Instead, I would encourage everyone to post in that thread linked above.
That isn't a thing you can do, so you would indeed likely still run into problems. 
I do know at least one person who uses the Aqara hub then integrates that unofficially via HomeBridge, but besides requiring some sort of HomeKit hub, that's a bit of work. As mentioned above, I've also seen people use a dedicated Hubitat for these. I used to have them on my "main" hub, just being careful with what Zigbee repeaters I used since these devices are sensitive to that, as you seem to know. I eventually got rid of most of mine and stopped caring about my repeaters. If you aren't set on Xiaomi and don't want to do one of these workable options, your best bet might be to avoid them. Since you mentioned buttons: the SmartThings Button costs only a little more and is standard Zigbee 3.0 (Picos are my favorite button devices, but the entry cost isn't cheap). For cheap motion or temperature/humidity sensors (the latter is the only Xiaomi device I still have since it took me a while to find something else that would work), I've had good luck with Sonoff's new Zigbee line (SNZB-xx model numbers). Just my opinion.
2 Likes
All points are well taken. I will stay away from Aqara. Thank you all for your time and help.
1 Like
Any alternative for Aqara for the same price range ?
Sonoff zigbee motion and contact sensors. Konke of Sonoff zigbee temperature & humidity sensors.
3 Likes
What's the best driver to use for the Aqara motion sensor nowadays? Mine has been working fine for ages on using the driver from the 1st post but started playing up recently, possibly low battery. I've replaced the battery but now and then it doesn't report motion. I've tried markus's driver also but that throws some strange errors.
I replaced all my Aqara stuff with Sonoff due to the price, not as nice looking but for the price its nothing to be sniffed at IMO 
4 Likes
I must admit, as my Aqara/Xiaomi stuff falls off the grid, I replace it with Sonoff devices. They never drop off.
When they are all replaced there will be a bundle of these devices on eBay. 
4 Likes
I have a draw of Aqara stuff and the old Energenie light switches (along with some right random Chinese zigbee products), I dread to think how much its all cost me......
I'm the same. My wife calls it my gizmo draw.
2 Likes
At least your wife knows about the draw!
2 Likes
Well this is sods law isn't it.
Just got a notification the an Aqara motion senor in the bathroom has just dropped off the network.
Must have either heard my thoughts or is logged on to this forum.
To the draw Batman and replace it with a Sonoff. 
1 Like
It wasn't me I promise! Hopefully the replacement goes swiftly!
All done.
1 Like
I love em, no problems whatever (not the Energenie)
1 Like
