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Disappointed with Aqara - Zigbee hub, but no 3rd party? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

Buyer Beware! Aqara hubs use the Zigbee protocol, but lock out 3rd party devices!

A few months ago, I bought an Aqara hub and went deep into their ecosystem. I saw their hub and sensors had good reviews, plus they were using the Zigbee open protocol, so I figured I'd stick with their stuff. I had no reason to try other devices until recently.

I picked up a tilt sensor for my garage door from a 3rd party. I made sure it was also using the Zigbee protocol, so I assumed it would be compatable. Unfortunately, when I tried connecting it to the hub, I was wrong and it wouldn't connect. Turns out, Aqara uses the Zigbee protocol, but locks out 3rd party devices. [source]

If anyone has a workaround to integrate a 3rd party device with an Aqara Hub (IIRC, I have the M3?), I'd love to hear about it. But until then - I'm looking for a refund. I would have never picked up their hub if I had known about their shennanigans; and consequently, I wouldn't have picked up so many of their sensors.

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[–] 4 points 7 months ago (6 children)

@ropatrick @CocaineShrimp This is indeed the whole point of the Thread/Matter ecosystem: to get us out of these ridiculous single-vendor-lock-in hub systems.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    But a Zigbee coordinator with Z2M/ZHA already lets you do that. I have 126 Zigbee devices from many different vendors connected to one

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (4 children)

    @spitfire Right. The difference is that if the thing has the thread logo on it, it passed a certification that ensured that this was the case, and that's also true for Matter devices. For Zigbee it's entirely voluntary, so caveat emptor.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (3 children)

    Also there are a lot more Zigbee devices on the market, usually stable and cheaper. I know it’s going to be a lot easier for „regular ” consumers to get something easily though. But the matter over WiFi vs. Thread is very confusing to a lot of people

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    @spitfire Any suggestions? :)

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