Hey folks, just wanted to drop in and share my journey pairing the Aqara Hub M2 with Home Assistant — spoiler alert: it was smoother than I expected and now my apartment basically runs itself.
A little about me: I’m more of a smart home hobbyist than a hardcore dev, so if I can get this setup running, pretty sure most of you can too. I mainly got the M2 for its IR blaster and Zigbee support, and my goal was to have everything — lights, sensors, AC, even my clunky old TV — controllable on one dashboard (Home Assistant, obviously).
Setup was surprisingly non-painful. The M2 shows up in Home Assistant via the Aqara Homebridge plugin (worked pretty well), but I eventually switched to using Zigbee2MQTT to get more flexibility. Best decision ever. Once I got my Zigbee network stable, all my Aqara devices were way more responsive and customizable.
Coolest thing I did? Automated my AC using the M2’s IR with temp sensors and some presence logic. It turns on when I enter the living room and keeps the temp comfy between 24–26°C. Even my cat knows exactly where to nap now.
Also, quick shoutout to the community here — tons of useful threads helped me debug the initial Zigbee pairing hiccups. If anyone’s thinking about bringing M2 into their Home Assistant world, just do it. Feel free to ask if you’re stuck or need tips!
Anyone else here running M2 with HA? Would love to swap automation ideas.