Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a little success story and hopefully spark some cool ideas.
So I’ve been playing around with a bunch of Aqara sensors (motion, door/window, temp/humidity…) and at first I was just using them for basic stuff like turning on lights when I walk into a room. But man, once I started diving deeper into scenes and automations in HomeKit (and a bit of Node-RED magic via Homebridge), it really started feeling like a properly smart home.
For example—my bathroom fan now only kicks in when both motion is detected AND the humidity jumps above a certain threshold. Lights adjust based on time of day and whether it’s cloudy or sunny (I use a virtual light sensor via WeatherKit). Even got my cat’s litter box area setting off a notification if it hasn’t been used in 24h, using a combo of motion + a contact sensor hacked to detect lid movement.
Point is: these sensors are tiny but crazy powerful if you get creative. Highly recommend grouping sensors logically in HomeKit and naming them something intuitive (like “Hallway Motion” instead of “Motion Sensor 7”)—makes automation so much easier later on.
Would love to know what clever uses y’all have discovered. Anyone gone completely overboard (like me) with multi-condition automations? Or any weird combos that turned out surprisingly useful?
Throw your setups below—let’s geek out.