Xiaomi Gateway vs Directly Connecting Devices to Hub

I've been wondering whether if you connect your xiaomi devices via the Xiaomi gateway and then connect the gateway to Hubitat, do you still see the devices individually or just the Gateway on its own?
Wondering about pros and cons of the one approach over the other?
thanks

I don't believe you can connect the Xiaomi gateway to Hubitat. Both are coordinators and you can't have two coordinators on the same Zigbee network.

This is only possible by using the Xiaomi Aqara HomeKit Gateway, and then expose Hubitat to HomeKit by installing the Homebridge MakerAPI plugin. You then use HomeKit automations to sync Xiaomi devices to virtual switches in Hubitat.

Hubitat doesn't "see" the devices though. It only knows that the virtual switch is on or off. However, it works and really well in fact. I have all my Xiaomi contact sensors on my Aqara HomeKit Gateway now, and I sync them to virtual switches and use those in my rules in place of the contact sensor directly paired to Hubitat. It's just as fast and completely reliable.

Ok sounds interesting except that I dont use Apple Homekit atm. Presume as devices are seen as virtual devices, you dont get additional meta data such as battery levels?

You can only see battery levels of HomeKit devices in HomeKit. Some Xiaomi devices report battery state in HomeKit, some do not. I have both Aqara and Mijia contact sensors, but neither type report their battery levels in the Aqara Home app or HomeKit. Xiaomi buttons do show their level. My Xiaomi temp/humidity sensor also shows battery level, but it’s paired to Hubitat and exposed to HomeKit via Homebridge. So I’m not sure if that would still be the case if it were paired with the Aqara gateway. It might be getting the values thanks to @veeceeoh β€˜s driver.

Well there is the MiConnector app by fison67, it connects the MI hub to hubitat and requires a Raspberry Pi to run the mi-connector in a container. I never did get it fully working and not sure if the app author is still actively developing it.

Thanks for the comments. Think I'll just push on with connecting directly to hubitat. Been having a couple of drop outs with the xiaomi sensors so just need something that will repeat the zigbee signal. Ordered a xiaomi outlet but doesnt look like there is a device driver for it. Stupid question :slight_smile: but I'm assuming that you need to actually connect repeaters to the hub in order for them to be able to repeat. I mean I don't have a use for the repeater socket other than as a repeater so.

My Xiaomi sensors work perfect with the $10 ikea tradfri outlet, though I'm thinking of adding some zigbee devices to my network that may act as repeaters and may not work with Xiaomi sensors. Sounds like it might cause headaches if the xiaomi sensors decide to route through them. So, my thought so far has been to buy a second hubitat and link it to the first, that way xiaomi (and anything compatible with it) stay on one mesh while everything else is on the other.

Waiting to find out if new hardware will be needed for Z-Wave S2 before doing that though. Also, I wouldn't mess with homekit, it's overrated crap IMO, although in its defense I'm VERY biased against walled gardens. Some walled gardens (i.e. Hue) have enough redeeming qualities to be worth investing into it, but homekit just doesn't.

It could be nice if Aqara sensors and gateway could work with Alexa across hubitat platform

Through HomeKit automations, they can. When a Xiaomi sensor triggers, I have a HomeKit automation turn on a virtual switch which shows up in the Alexa app as a motion sensor.

Came across something interesting regarding this today ... GitHub - sergey-brutsky/mi-home: Π‘# API for Xiaomi Mi Home devices. This is a C# API that someone has written that allows you to access the xiaomi gateway connected devices. You can get information about the devices (e.g. if its a switch ... is the switch open or closed etc). I was thinking maybe this could be used to relay events from a Xiaomi Gateway to Hubitat or WebCore. It would mean that the Xiaomi devices could be connected to the proper Gateway and therefore be more stable.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.