Optimizing hub situation

Aqara Products
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Hi folks!

I’m an Apple Home, and I got a simple E1 hub for what was my first Aqara product, the T1 mini switch (adore this). Since, I have gotten an M3 hub to automate or electric fireplace by IR blast.

Do I still need both hubs? Granted the E1 is on the top floor and the M3 is in the basement, but it seems a little superfluous.

Thanks!

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It depends. You probably need only one hub and a strong Zigbee network, but without any devices with neutral (like smart plugs) between the basement and the top floor, the signal will be too weak.

The Zigbee network is automatically extended by any device with connected neutral wire. This includes lightbulbs, smart plugs, smart switches (with neutral) or relays (with neutral).

So if you have any devices with neutral between - you only need one hub. But if you don’t - you need the second hub. You can try pairing the button with the M3 and check in the app if the signal strength is ok.

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On interesting! My other devices that are prominent are (with neutral) Meross switches and plugs, but they are all wifi/HomeKit/Matter, and not, to my knowledge Zigbee, so I’m pretty sure that’s not what you mean haha.

But yeah, I guess the signal strength is the key consideration, and trying is probably the only way to find out.

Thanks so much for the reply!

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I believe Matter (over Thread) also works in a similar way, I just assumed it was Zigbee for some reason.

Matter over WiFi just uses your WiFi network so as long as you have the WiFi signal, it should work

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This button is old, I doubt it does Matter, but worth a look!

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It does not matter whether the button is new or old, or using Zigbee or WiFi. If it’s connected to the M3, then it works like this:

  1. It communicates with the M3 however it likes (for example, it uses Zigbee with Aqara extensions)
  2. The M3 exposes the devices using selected ecosystem integration

So if you have the M3 and use Matter integration, then the M3 hub “translates” everything to Matter. It doesn’t matter how the devices communicate with the M3, because the M3 will follow the Matter protocol anyway.

The whole point of the hub is that you don’t directly connect to the devices, the hub does, and processes status updates and tracks if the devices are online. It isn’t a proxy, it’s a controller basically.

I have connected the M3 to HomeKit via Matter integration and can confirm that my T1 mini switches are visible as if they were Matter buttons.

Only devices marked with “Matter over Thread” can directly connect to any Thread ecosystem (like SmartThings and HomeKit), but those devices do not require an Aqara hub.

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