My home setup - 21 Aqara devices

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Hello Aqara community,

First of all I’m a Home Assistant user with Matter over thread given by Sonoff usb key and OTBR and with Zigbee using a Skyconnect usb key over Zigbee2Mqtt. I don’t use any Aqara hub.

I use 21 Aqara devices:

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  • 3 Aqara H1 double rocker Zigbee. Easy integration with HA and Z2M. Very powerfull.
  • 1 Aqara T1 with neutral Zigbee with power measurement. Integration with HA and Z2M has suffered for power mesaurement issue for a long time. Now it seems working fine
  • 1 Aqara H1 Zigbee mono rocker. Just works fine,
  • 5 movements sensor Aqara P1 Zigbee. Very esay to install and configure. Light sensor is not accurate but helps anyway,
  • 10 Aqara T1 Zigbee on each window and door. There are the best in class sensor: the smallest and works just fine.
  • 1 Aqara H2 EU. It use to deconnect often but for now 1 year it is stable. I guess HA or my thread network was not so stable.

I’m very happy with the 21 Aqara device and I so excited to test to the FP300 which seems so promising.

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I was wondering how reliable those sticks to control your devices over Zigbee, can you give some pros / cons and maybe provide some feedback on the current one you use. I have Aqara hub, Philips Hue hub and now mini PC with Home Assistant and I’d love to get rid of at least that Hue hub that controls my lights over Zigbee, but not sure if there won’t be any issues or limitations.

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At first idea, I wanted to use the Skyconnect as multi-protocole because it is supposed to do it.

But after struggling for weeks with developers, it was (2023) not stable and has been deprecated.

The solution is to have one USB stick per protocole.
This is now very stable:

  1. skyconnect is used for Zigbee only and is very stable. I have a big network with many routers for the signal is propagated well and all is really fine,
  2. Sonoff zbdongle is used for the Thread protocol only. After many firmware update (maybe 3 in two years) it is now stable. If was not the case in 2023 and I had to reboot thread devices let say every 3 months. Very annoying. But now it is very stable. I have to update some communication channels to avoid wifi and zigbee conflicts.

Both protocol are leaving together in perfect harmony and I will be able to switch at a slow rate new equipement from Zigbee to Thread. That is what I intend to do.

As you, I hate hubs, and for this HA with Z2M and Matter over Thread will limit the need of hubs.

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Are you using OTBR HA addon or you host it separately?

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Thanks a lot, so you basically had to buy two different sticks to make it work and now you need to change the channels from time to time? That doesn’t sound like very convenient, but yeah, I know how it works with HA sometime.
Is Skyconnect directly connected to you hub or you had to use the extender to avoid interference?
And I share your love to hubs, would love to get rid of them and have only one core device.
Do you use some mini PC or raspberry or the original HA hub?

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I use the HA addon.

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No only the first time. Once stable, there is nothing more to change.

Is Skyconnect directly connected to you hub or you had to use the extender to avoid interference?

I have a long USB cable.

Do you use some mini PC or raspberry or the original HA hub?
I use the HA green box now. I had a RPI4 but I switch to HA green. There is only 2 USB on HA green so my box is full.

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he he i am the opposite my skyconnect is my matter and my conbee 2 is my zigbee

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SMB here.