I’ve bought a Zigbee sensor with the intention of connecting it via my Hub M2.
The app that goes with the sensor needs me to pair a Zigbee hub with it first - however, it wants me to the that hub into pairing mode. I’m not aware of the M2 being able to do this and when I tell the app it is, it doesn’t find the Hub, no matter what I do.
Is there a trick to pairing up non-Aqara Zigbee products with the M2?
There is no direct trick to this. While you can physically put the M2 into pairing mode (by quickly pressing the button on the hub three times), it will simply ignore pairing requests from non-Aqara sensors (such as Tuya, Sonoff, or IKEA). Unfortunately, you also cannot connect Matter sensors to the M2.
Well that sucks.
I’m beginning to wonder just how useful my M2 is actually going to be.
Hi @dartiss it’s useful for Aqara zigbee devices - as long as you stay with it in the Aqara universe, it’s a good solution!
It’s definitely frustrating! You’ll find similar restrictions with hubs from Philips Hue or IKEA, as they all want you to buy their specific sensors.
The M2 is fantastic if you stick to Aqara’s own ecosystem (their sensors are genuinely great and cheap) or if you want to use its IR blaster for your AC/TV.
But if your ultimate goal is to mix and match Zigbee brands like Tuya, IKEA, and Sonoff without restrictions, hub-based systems will always limit you. You might want to look into a universal Zigbee USB dongle (like a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 stick) paired with a system like Home Assistant + Zigbee2MQTT.
A popular plug-and-play alternative is a hub called Homey (specifically the Homey Pro). It has antennas for basically everything (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter/Thread, 433MHz) and uses an app system to integrate devices from almost any brand—including mixing Aqara, Tuya, and IKEA without issues. The catch is that it’s quite expensive (around $400).
