Newby to Aqara here. Hi all. I’m new to Aqara but not new to electronics as i have been working in low voltage forever.
Recntly wife and I got a new sofa and love seat and the cats love it! Arggg!
Looking at using a presence sensor to detect people in or out of room. When people are out of room thinking a few vibration sensors triggering a smart plug for a few seconds activating a 90 db siren would keep cats from jumping on new furniture. I could do this with old school relays and car alarm vibration devices but looking at how far home automation has come Aqara seems by far a better way. Now to learn some similar ladder theory similar to what is used in logic controls, if, then, not, nor but in Aqara language. I’m a hands on guy who learned a long time ago to toss a charged capacitor to friends and run! Any help would be greatly appreciated and I promise not to toss you a charged cap!
@Expert hey guys, could you help?
Hello, can you offer any photos of your room?
It sounds like you’d like to keep the cats out of the room or away from the sofa? Could you put a door sensor on the living room door that in the event of the presence sensor not detecting anyone for a period of time and the door left open an alarm is sent to a hub or a notification is sent to mobile phone?
The are quite a few ways to skin the cat here ( no pun intended )
Aqara vibration sensors 2 of one spread across the seat, but very important with the automation.
you cant use just no one in the room, lorry going past or neighbours banging can trigger it.
you need something like vibration and tilt , if possible place on spring as even a slight tilt would be detected.
Me myself, I would have something that could detect pet like a g3 in the room, then if vibration detected, g3 to go to point (point you set up being the chairs) if cat detected switch on switch.
Fundamentally you can make automations that will work this way. There are some caveats though, like presence detection might pick up your cat depending on placement.
So the use of an Aqara camera’s AI pet detection may be better suited. And instead of a siren plugged into a smart plug, you could use your Aqara hub to play a custom ringtone (this is what I do with my dogs).
Either way, here’s the general flow of the automation.
Step 1 — Create a new automation
- Open Aqara Home → go to the Automation tab → tap “+” → “Add Automation.”
Step 2 — Add a trigger
Under WHEN, select:
- Device: your Vibration Sensor
- Condition: “Vibration detected”
OR
- Device: your Camera
- Condition: “Animal Detected”
This means the automation will trigger whenever the sofa is disturbed.
Step 3 — “IF” Add a condition
Tap Add condition → choose your Presence Sensor →
Select condition: “Absence”
(This ensures it only triggers when the room is empty.)
You can also optionally add a time condition, e.g.:
- Time is between 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM (so it doesn’t alarm overnight and wake you up).
Step 4 — “THEN” Add actions
Under THEN:
(If Siren plugged into Smart Outlet)
- Choose your Smart Plug → “Turn ON”.
- Tap + Add action → choose Delay → set to 5 seconds.
- Tap + Add action again → choose your Smart Plug → “Turn OFF”.
Now it will power the siren for 5 seconds, then turn it off.
OR
You can use your Aqara Hub like M3 or the Aqara camera itself to play a custom audio, no extra devices needed.
- Choose your Hub → “Play Custom Audio”.
I tinkered last night an have it working kind of but one of my large cats tells presence its a person. I going to look at a motion i have and try what Robert suggested. Im getting closer.
Thanks everyone. What a great bunch of like minded technical people!