Xiaomi Smart Home

AlphaJohn

AlphaJohn

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I tend to normally avoid Xiaomi esp with their inclination to serve adds on the phones, but saw an interesting video that made them an option again: That is using a Zigbee USB bridge directly in Home assistant:


Locally I can get one from https://pclinkshop.com/products/dresden-elektronik-conbee-ii-the-universal-zigbee-usb-gateway

Then again, looking at that lead time you can just as well order it from Amazon yourself.... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PZ7ZHG5

Bangood Security Kit also have a nice price to start with https://www.banggood.com/EU-Plug-Xi...s=detail-left-hotproducts__4&cur_warehouse=CN
 
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AlphaJohn said:
I tend to normally avoid Xiaomi esp with their inclination to serve adds on the phones, but saw an interesting video that made them an option again: That is using a Zigbee USB bridge directly in Home assistant:


Locally I can get one from https://pclinkshop.com/products/dresden-elektronik-conbee-ii-the-universal-zigbee-usb-gateway

Then again, looking at that lead time you can just as well order it from Amazon yourself.... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PZ7ZHG5

Bangood Security Kit also have a nice price to start with https://www.banggood.com/EU-Plug-Xi...s=detail-left-hotproducts__4&cur_warehouse=CN
Click to expand...
Pclinkshop have many ads that look like imported items, but only when you order. Not sure yet if one can trust them.

Rather go for the sonoff bridge then add which ever sensors you want from either Xiaomi or sonoff etc.
 
Tinuva said:
Pclinkshop have many ads that look like imported items, but only when you order. Not sure yet if one can trust them.

Rather go for the sonoff bridge then add which ever sensors you want from either Xiaomi or sonoff etc.
Click to expand...

Never used Zigbee so total noob question:

Is adding items just as easy as seen in vid above? Sad to admit, that is what draw my attention to it.

Edit: Never mind, YouTube answered that one.
 
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I have the Xiaomi gateways and a bunch of Xiaomi sensors.

The sensors work great. Batteries last 2 years. They're tiny and disappear into my house. I even have a Temp/Humidity sensor in my freezer and I've hacked 4 door sensors -- one to show if my outside gate is open/closed, two into outdoor PIR "beams" and one into a rain meter.

The gateways I've blocked off from accessing the internet and I've modified one to work from 12v. I'm also lucky enough that mine were the older generation that could still enable local LAN mode (newer ones stop you from doing this unless you open them up and do some light soldering).

Only pain is that recently I have some Wifi issues and the one gateway takes much longer to reconnect to the Wifi (if at all). So I bought the Sonoff Zigbee hub and plan on flashing Tasmota onto it when I have time.

EDIT: I've also bought from PCLinkShop previously, they were fine and worked.
 
ebendl said:
I have the Xiaomi gateways and a bunch of Xiaomi sensors.

The sensors work great. Batteries last 2 years. They're tiny and disappear into my house. I even have a Temp/Humidity sensor in my freezer and I've hacked 4 door sensors -- one to show if my outside gate is open/closed, two into outdoor PIR "beams" and one into a rain meter.

The gateways I've blocked off from accessing the internet and I've modified one to work from 12v. I'm also lucky enough that mine were the older generation that could still enable local LAN mode (newer ones stop you from doing this unless you open them up and do some light soldering).

Only pain is that recently I have some Wifi issues and the one gateway takes much longer to reconnect to the Wifi (if at all). So I bought the Sonoff Zigbee hub and plan on flashing Tasmota onto it when I have time.

EDIT: I've also bought from PCLinkShop previously, they were fine and worked.
Click to expand...
Also bought the sonoff zigbee bridge :)

Got tasmota on it, was a semi mission.
Bigger mission was to flash the zigbee chip after tasmota was on. The web upload part just didn't work, ended up using the linux "sx" command eventually which worked. However I see people posted fixes in a commit to fix this part and other issues, so a newer release after 8.4.0 should be much better.

Still seeing wierd stuff with the Xiaomi Aqara sensors on it, so will for now leave the Xiaomi gateway in, until I get all issues sorted.
 
Tinuva said:
Also bought the sonoff zigbee bridge :)

Got tasmota on it, was a semi mission.
Bigger mission was to flash the zigbee chip after tasmota was on. The web upload part just didn't work, ended up using the linux "sx" command eventually which worked. However I see people posted fixes in a commit to fix this part and other issues, so a newer release after 8.4.0 should be much better.

Still seeing wierd stuff with the Xiaomi Aqara sensors on it, so will for now leave the Xiaomi gateway in, until I get all issues sorted.
Click to expand...

Mmm good that I speak to you first. Will give it a bit to get issues sorted out first. What kinda weird stuff?
 
Initially the aqara temp sensors just looks like the values went to the wrong entity/device in HA.
However I see now, that leaving 3 of them on it for a while, the values start to appear to look correct now
Maybe my stuff was confused during the initial phase adding a few things.

I do have 2 coordinators, and I could pair the coordinator through a coordinator, I had to move it close to the bridge, pair it directly to the bridge, then move it out further away and let itself find its way through the other coordinator to the bridge. So that pairing was somewhat an issue.

Pairing still take a few attempts to get done, but it looks like, once paired, things get stable fast.

My main problem was, the Sonoff basics, refuse to pair with the xiaomi gateway, so I must move everything over to the sonoff tasmota one.

I will monitor my bathroom sensor, which always lost connection for 90% of the day, to the xiaomi gateway, will see if its more stable on the sonoff network.
 
Ah ok cool. I was thinking of getting a Zigbee Basic or 2 to use as extenders, so would be interesting to know how it works.

Currently have 2 Xiaomi plugs I use as extenders, so hopefully I can pair those to the Sonoff as well.

Can you change the Zigbee channel on which everything runs?
 
ebendl said:
Ah ok cool. I was thinking of getting a Zigbee Basic or 2 to use as extenders, so would be interesting to know how it works.

Currently have 2 Xiaomi plugs I use as extenders, so hopefully I can pair those to the Sonoff as well.

Can you change the Zigbee channel on which everything runs?
Click to expand...
I suspect it might be possible via a command line you enter on the console in Tasmota, but haven't looked.
 
ebendl said:
Ah ok cool. I was thinking of getting a Zigbee Basic or 2 to use as extenders, so would be interesting to know how it works.

Currently have 2 Xiaomi plugs I use as extenders, so hopefully I can pair those to the Sonoff as well.

Can you change the Zigbee channel on which everything runs?
Click to expand...
ok so after a while, the xiaomi temp sensors stabilized and their readings look correct now. It looks like their readings are completely out just after pairing, but giving them an hour or so and they look correct.

As for the extending part, I am able to pair the basic as an extender to the bridge, but I cant pair a basic to another basic, so I cant make a chain like shown in the sonoff image. I guess thats a bug too that will need to be fixed, but for now, using a temp sensor through a single basic extender to the bridge works great actually and solves the issue I had where my 1 sensor kept dropping off.

Very happy that I can initiate the pairing from HomeAsisstant unlike the Xiaomi bridge I can only do from the Xiaomi home app.
 
You can actually initiate pairing in Home Assistant with the Aqara bridge by calling the service:


Screenshot 2020-09-05 at 22.48.19.png

The hub then says the same chinese words that happen when you usually start pairing in the app, as well as the same confirmation codes.

But the devices only appear after you restart HA.

So can you very specifically select which extender you which you wish to pair against? I thought it was "auto arranging"?
 
ebendl said:
You can actually initiate pairing in Home Assistant with the Aqara bridge by calling the service:


View attachment 906452

The hub then says the same chinese words that happen when you usually start pairing in the app, as well as the same confirmation codes.

But the devices only appear after you restart HA.

So can you very specifically select which extender you which you wish to pair against? I thought it was "auto arranging"?
Click to expand...

Ok no with ZHA and tasmota no reboot needed after pairing and there is buttons in the integration to initiate the pairing, none of this manual service calling.

I am also disappointed it doesn't automatically route via closest extender/router. But there is a pair button on the bridge and also a pair button on the extender named, pair via this device and then if successful after about 3 to 4 attempts the new device and entities show up. The only time you get to name the device is at pairing time.
Entities you can rename anytime after.
 
Are the aqara devices compatible with the sonoff zigbee hub?
 
bar1 said:
Are the aqara devices compatible with the sonoff zigbee hub?
Click to expand...

I know they are, but I'm not sure if you need to flash Tasmota or other firmware on it first.

Basically I understand that a lot of these devices can talk to one-another, but only if you put open-source, non-vendor firmware on it.
 
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