Jumping into smart home stuff was honestly overwhelming at first, but hey, one year in with Aqara and I’ve learned a lot — mostly the hard way. Just wanted to drop some real talk for anyone thinking about (or already neck deep in) setting up their home with Aqara gear.
So I started with the basics — door sensors, motion sensors, temp & humidity sensors. Paired them with the M2 hub. Everything played nice at first… until my Wi-Fi dropped during a firmware update and half my automations went ghost mode. Learned then: always hardwire your hub if you can.
Biggest mistake tho? Over-automating. I thought I was being slick with like 20 automations for one room. It was chaos. Lights were turning on at random, scenes would trigger if a butterfly sneezed outside. Took a step back and simplified — now, my lights follow a solid day/night schedule and only the essentials (like humidifier control) are automated.
Also, placement matters way more than I expected. My motion sensor was missing half the room because it was angled weird. Once I adjusted it, detection worked way better.
Pro-tip from a year in: give your setup some time to settle. Test automations for at least a few days before trusting them. And always label your devices in the app — trust me, “sensor 1” and “sensor 9” will drive you nuts later.
Anyway, if you’re just starting out or been at it for a while, what’s the one thing you wish you knew earlier with Aqara? Let’s swap war stories.