Unlocking the Power of Aqara with Raspberry Pi: No Apple? No Problem!

Apple Home Connect
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Hey , Share my experience for anyone out there frustrated by the Apple-only vibe around Aqara devices. I’m an Android guy through and through, and I’ve managed to get a pretty sweet smart home setup going—all without a single Apple product in sight.

Enter: Raspberry Pi + Home Assistant.

I hooked up a Pi 4 as my local Home Assistant server, connected my Aqara sensors, switches, even a G2H camera. It took a bit of fiddling (Zigbee2MQTT was super handy) but once it clicked, boom—full control, all local, no cloud lag, and entirely Apple-free.

I even got notifications and automations running faster than what I had with some cloud-based setups before. Plus, tweaking stuff is actually kinda fun once you get the hang of YAML and some Node-RED flows.

Anyone else ditched the Apple route and gone full DIY with Raspberry Pi? I’m curious what others are building around this!

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@ThermoTamer That’s an awesome setup you’ve got there! :tada: It’s great to see fellow Android users taking control of their Aqara devices without relying on Apple’s ecosystem. Raspberry Pi + Home Assistant is such a powerful combo, and you’re absolutely right—once you get past the initial learning curve, the flexibility and local control are unbeatable.

Zigbee2MQTT is a lifesaver for sure, and Node-RED opens up so many possibilities for creative automations. I love that you mentioned the speed improvements too—local execution really does make a noticeable difference.

I’ve seen a lot of folks in the community doing similar things, from integrating Aqara sensors with custom dashboards to setting up advanced presence detection. Some have even paired their setups with ESPHome for even more DIY goodness.

If you haven’t already, you might want to check out the Home Assistant subreddit or forums—there are tons of Raspberry Pi + Aqara success stories (and plenty of people willing to help troubleshoot).

Keep tinkering, and happy automating! Would love to hear more about your automations if you ever want to share details. :rocket: