[Official] Home Automation Thread

deodorant

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Saw some earlier (as in few years ago) posts in the thread that aqara no neutral switches are unreliable and can burn out? Is that still the case in 2022?

I am considering to starter kit my current place (no neutral wires) with H1 switches and a G3 camera hub (since I need camera in living room for helper… I mean security), and controlled either by google home or apple homepod (my whole family uses iPhones so maybe stick to apple?).

Any particular pitfalls to look out for for newbie journey?
 

lance88

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Yes. Mine had an issue recently. My Google Home app suddenly is not linked to Aqara in the app.

Although I have linked Aqara app to Google Home app successfully and it’s reflected in myaccount.google, Google Home app shows Aqara is not linked.

As such, I can’t use the routine function in Google Home but I can control my smart devices individually from both Aqara and Google Home app.

I can’t find a solution to this yet. It happens to Mi Home app, Broadlink app and Roborock app.

Anyone faced the same issues and managed to solve it? I tried unlink and relink, reinstall both app and reinstalling, and starting to a new home to link Aqara.. all didn’t work.
I did nothing. After several days, all back to normal. I use the other region
 

TanKianW

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Hi all,

Recently I just moved into my new house and plan to set it up mainly as an Aqara Zigbee ecosystem smart home. I am quite new to the aqara ecosystem (I used to be on zwave side of things and was running Fibaro hub w Homebridge and Habridge via raspberry pi to enable Alexa and homekit integration). Was attracted to Aqara because of the native Homekit support but never expected the difficulty in trying to set it up with Alexa as voice control.

I bought a Homey hub prior to moving in and in the end also bought an international M2 hub for my A100 door lock. Now I am setting up my D1 switches to connect to M2 hub but it seems that native Aqara Alexa support is only available in US server and D1 switches are actually not supported for that region.

My end goal is to have a straight forward smart home working with Alexa voice control as my wife and I are already very used to using voice control for its ease of use. How should I go about doing this?

A few idea I am having now is,
1.) Set up home assistant and move all the switches into that (Con: Some of the integration is subscription based and will have monthly charges)
2.) Set up in Homey and move all the Aqara devices over (Con: Some of the devices such as A100 lock are not supported via Homey plugin)
3.) Ditch Alexa and move to Google Home ecosystem (Con: I have about 5 mixture of echo dot and echo show brought over from old house, seems very wasted to be ditching them and rebuying google home just for this)

Hopefully the guru's here are able to point me in the right direction.

TLDR; I want to set up Aqara D1 switches to use with Alexa and I have M2 Hub, Homey and also the knowledge of setting up Home Assistant. What is the easiest method?

I will go with (1).

XUZizo5.jpg
 

lvlaTr1X

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my Aqara account is set up with "Other" as the region, and have no issues with the switches showing up in Alexa.

Can share how you link your Aqara account with Alexa? Using the Aqara skill in alexa skills?
 

lvlaTr1X

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Hmm, just curious, what is the integration in Home Assistant that is subscription based ? I have been using Aqara with HA for a while, doesn't have any subscription tied to it

I think I should have clarified that the easy approach to integrate Alexa with HA will be using HA cloud which comes with monthly subscription fee.
 

Shadowlite

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I think I should have clarified that the easy approach to integrate Alexa with HA will be using HA cloud which comes with monthly subscription fee.
Ahh, yea. That's the easiest method, although you can save cost via the manual method.

same as bro @TanKianW , I would recommend Home Assistant. Cause like that wouldn't need to be bothered about which server to use and more flexibility with the devices you can use.
 

wacko

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For those who have gone the HA route, do you give up voice control, or is there a viable solution?
 

TanKianW

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For those who have gone the HA route, do you give up voice control, or is there a viable solution?

I am using both Google Home and HA.

Like some said, the easiest way is subscribed to HA's Nabu Casa cloud services which connects with Google Home.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/google_assistant/

You can set it up manually too with instruction provided on the link above. That is if......you know how to setup a hostname and SSL certificate which allows your HA to be accessed (securely) externally.

I have covered it here:
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...tant-ha-for-new-users.6751695/#post-141707385
 

lvlaTr1X

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I think I should have clarified that the easy approach to integrate Alexa with HA will be using HA cloud which comes with monthly subscription fee.
Very weird.. I managed to only see one single 2 gang switch in my Alexa devices after trying for a couple of time
 

Shadowlite

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For those who have gone the HA route, do you give up voice control, or is there a viable solution?
I just subscribe to HA's Nabu Casa, mainly for the ease and also as a small token to support the team behind Home Assistant, which I hope would help with the development of new features and support
 

lvlaTr1X

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Ok, quick update.

Installed Home Assistant on my raspberry pi and realized that it won't work for my usage because I have already set up all my switches on the Aqara M2 Hub. For me to connect the M2 hub to HASS require modification to the software and because the device is already updated to the latest firmware, the flashing workaround won't work as well. So HASS route is not going to work unless I want to invest in Zigbee dongle and connect my Aqara switches directly to HASS but M2 Hub will become a white elephant then.

I tried Homey to connect my switch but it seems that the 3rd party plugin for Aqara doesn't support my version of Aqara D1 switches.

I sent an email to Aqara support, their response is that D1 switches is not supported in Alexa.

Now I am basically stuck with Aqara and Homekit without any way of using Alexa as my voice control. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
 

TanKianW

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Ok, quick update.

Installed Home Assistant on my raspberry pi and realized that it won't work for my usage because I have already set up all my switches on the Aqara M2 Hub. For me to connect the M2 hub to HASS require modification to the software and because the device is already updated to the latest firmware, the flashing workaround won't work as well. So HASS route is not going to work unless I want to invest in Zigbee dongle and connect my Aqara switches directly to HASS but M2 Hub will become a white elephant then.

I tried Homey to connect my switch but it seems that the 3rd party plugin for Aqara doesn't support my version of Aqara D1 switches.

I sent an email to Aqara support, their response is that D1 switches is not supported in Alexa.

Now I am basically stuck with Aqara and Homekit without any way of using Alexa as my voice control. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

Try connecting your Aqara to HA via Homekit Integration.
 

lvlaTr1X

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Try connecting your Aqara to HA via Homekit Integration.

Thanks for the advice!

Played around and managed to link the M2 hub to HA via Homekit controller.. Now I am trying to toy around if I am able to route HASS to Homey and connect Alexa via that route. The non cloud set up for Alexa in HA is quite complicated and hopefully Homey integration with HA works for me.
 

TanKianW

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Hello. Recently, an idea got to me.. Can I use a NFC tag to start a routine with Google Assistant? An example I wanted to explore is to place a nfc tag on my wireless charger that is connected to a smart plug, when I place my phone of the wireless charger, it reads the nfc tag and turn on the smart plug, thus starts charging my phone.

Been googling around and seems like there isn't a quick and easy way to do this on a android phone but can be done with iPhone shortcuts. Problem is my SO and I are using android and we uses Google home. Any idea would or lessons would be appreciated!

Just in case you still intend to use NFC, I recommend to give HA a try and buy some cheap sticker-like NFCs to set up your custom automation. It is pretty easy.

 

TanKianW

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I'm using tuya system, and have a need where I like to use a door sensor to alert me if I forgot to close my service yard window. Does the zigbee door sensor have such function?
Usual case will be the window will be left open until bedtime, and at times I forgot to close it when I go to bed.

Sensors like these will work like a charm. Can configure to send you app notification too. Less than $7 a pair. Even though I am using HA, it should work on Tuya app too.

phyqwJ9.jpg

bvNOwPC.jpg
 

airzound

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managed to find a workaround by using IFTTT to control googlehome and smart Life! works like a charm now.
hi, can you share how you got this work?

I'm using Alexa and Moes Wifi/IR/RF blaster (paired with Smart Life app). I have 3 RF ceiling fans at home (2xAeroair and 1xFanztec).

I'm able to set up the fan speed and the fan light with the Smart Life app using the RF Remote > DIY route.
Usually after i set up in Smart Life app, there will be a notification saying that I can use Alexa to control that device. However, for this RF fan, no such notification came up.

TIA!
 

airzound

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Smatrul, Moes, zenismart, etc
excellent. I came from Livolo, followed by Aqara btw,

No. Regardless of whether i am on neutral or not. If you are on non-neutral, make sure you use the capacitor provided with the switch.

The only time it will flicker is you did not install correctly, did not use the capacitor provided or the wrong capacitor used.
Hi , i purchased the Moes non-neutral switch (i got no neutral wires pulled for the house). I have got a combination of 2-gang and 3-gang smart switches (for entire house ceiling lights and RF fan), and just normal non-smart switch (for oven and hood, and storeroom ceiling light)

My electrician just did the installation of the switches and i noticed that when the non-smart switch is turned on/off, occasionally there will be flickering of the lights.

any idea what might went wrong? electrician was saying cannot have normal and smart switch in the same household. but he is not that experience in smart switches as he said he only installed once/twice. on top of it, he was pretty skeptical that smart switches will definitely not work without neutral wire pulled but the moes switch surprised him.

item bought:
https://shopee.sg/product/372240703/11109159298
 

batniss

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Hi , i purchased the Moes non-neutral switch (i got no neutral wires pulled for the house). I have got a combination of 2-gang and 3-gang smart switches (for entire house ceiling lights and RF fan), and just normal non-smart switch (for oven and hood, and storeroom ceiling light)

My electrician just did the installation of the switches and i noticed that when the non-smart switch is turned on/off, occasionally there will be flickering of the lights.

any idea what might went wrong? electrician was saying cannot have normal and smart switch in the same household. but he is not that experience in smart switches as he said he only installed once/twice. on top of it, he was pretty skeptical that smart switches will definitely not work without neutral wire pulled but the moes switch surprised him.

item bought:
https://shopee.sg/product/372240703/11109159298
Capacitors required. Is it installed properly?

And no, one can have mix of smart and non smart switches.
 

airzound

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Capacitors required. Is it installed properly?

And no, one can have mix of smart and non smart switches.
Moes non-netural switch advertised that no capacitors required.

I'd assumed should be just following the instructions to connect the wires based on photo given.
Assuming the installation based on below image is correct, so I open up each switch 1 by 1 to check if it’s installed properly?
moes.jpg
 
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