Home automation hubs and help

Niko123456 on 27/01/2021 - 11:38

Hi all

I have some Xiaomi devices and sensors, but the automations that are possible are pretty dull. Woohoo I can turn a light on when a door opens.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi doesn't play well with others.. you can't use Mi Home as a service in Home Assistant, SmartThings, or IFTTT.

What this means is that I can't string together my devices.. for example, when the door is closed and the temperature is above XX%, turn on the air conditioner… because my Sensibo and Mi Home can't talk to each other.

I have seen some chatter that people use 3rd party hubs like Samsung SmartThings.. this means you can purchase sensors from Xiaomi or Ikea and it all goes through the Samsung hub. Is this a viable solution?

Or have I just invested in the wrong hub? Perhaps I could move to an Ikea service for a similar level of value?

Home & Garden

Comments

  • JimmyF on 27/01/2021 - 11:58
    +1

    you can't use Mi Home as a service in Home Assistant, SmartThings, or IFTTT.

    You can add some Xiaomi devices to HA, not sure about sensors etc as I don't have them.

    ST looks like it works with Xiaomi sensors etc?

    https://community.smartthings.com/t/mi-connector-xiaomi-and-…

    Unfortunately, Xiaomi doesn't play well with others

    I have a few Xiaomi devices, and honestly this… They don't like to play well with others, so while cheap, and play nice in their own app/eco system, they are nasty in the big picture of home automation and not worth the hassle in my books.

    I have a Xiaomi air filter in my HA, that works well, but for the rest of your device needs, go with more known and friendly products.

    Yes its a bit of a cost to replace now, but if you have a smartthings hub, then get the devices that work well with that and sell the Xiaomi stuff.

    You'll be thankful down the track!

    I have seen some chatter that people use 3rd party hubs like Samsung SmartThings.. this means you can purchase sensors from Xiaomi or Ikea and it all goes through the Samsung hub. Is this a viable solution?

    Yes this is correct, you pair the zigbee devices to the hub etc, but they can still be a bit iffy.

    Smartthings is like HA, it brings all the vendors together so you can do rules against them all.

    ie if ikea motion sensors sees movement, then turn on phillips hue lights, yeelights etc.

    Or in your case if the ikea door sensors is closed, and the xiaomi door sensor is closed, turn on the AC using Sensibo.

    • silo on 27/01/2021 - 12:15

      I have a tonne of Xiaomi products in my home assistant instance - including about 10 Xiaomi (aqara) sensors. They work perfectly fine on automations and were super easy to set up too. My favourite automation is: when the sun is up and motion is detected downstairs and it's not going to be a blazingly hot day, open the blinds.

      • JimmyF on 27/01/2021 - 15:41

        Well I didn't say they didn't work, I just said they don't play with others and I don't have any sensors as I've read lots of bad things on them not working 100% of the time, so got something else instead :)

        What type of sensors do you have? ie are they zigbee/wifi/zwave? What are you using as your 'hub' if not wifi?

        • silo on 27/01/2021 - 16:53

          All Zigbee - I have the door/window sensors, motion, temperature, and button switches. They're all connected via the Xiaomi Gateway V2… though I'm about to get a zigbee2mqtt stick as I don't get enough coverage across my home from the one device.

          • JimmyF on 27/01/2021 - 20:11

            @silo: Ahhh you're using the Xiaomi gateway. Fair enough. You might need to add a mains power repeater into the mix to extend the coverage.

      • Niko123456 on 27/01/2021 - 16:11

        Yes, it seems Aqara works out of the box with Home Assistant, but there is no option for Mi Home.

        • silo on 27/01/2021 - 16:50

          What's the model number of your Xiaomi sensors? I thought the Xiaomi version of the motion sensor was RTCGQ01LM?

          Here's the supported list on Home Assistant via the Xiaomi Aqara Integration - https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/binary_sensor.xia…

          • Niko123456 on 28/01/2021 - 09:16
            +1

            @silo: Well, weirdly.. I booted up Home Assistant again and… this time it did a HomeKit discovery on the hub and lamp I have, so they just worked out of the box. So ignore everything I said about Mi Home not working.

            Using the token extractor (that was easy!) I was able to get my other things added.

            Adding Sensibo was trivial too..

            So, I guess now I feel like I can continue to use the Xiaomi produts.

    • Niko123456 on 27/01/2021 - 16:10

      That was an interesting link..

      I could get the mi-connector docker and db running, and create a SmartApp in the GroovyIDE.. but it looks like
      a) Xiaomi has tightened up the security to get token access for their devices and retrieving them is a hassle I can't be bothered with
      b) Samsung doesn't currently support self-published smartapps in SmartThings

      I will try and find a second hand Smartthings Hub to play around with and then I can consider finding a budget to replace some stuff with Ikea or other Zigbee.

  • geek001 on 27/01/2021 - 12:03

    I use Home Assistant at home running on an old laptop, it ties all my devices together, Xiaomi, Broadlink, Sonoff, Tuya into one interface. I will admit I did a ton of work, reading and testing to get it there though. I was even able to reuse some of my old 433Mhz sensors using a Sonoff RF bridge.

  • aarick on 27/01/2021 - 12:10

    NVM - delete -

  • Pete99 on 27/01/2021 - 12:12

    Also https://github.com/danielwelch/hassio-zigbee2mqtt if you want to get rid of the Xiaomi hub

    • Niko123456 on 27/01/2021 - 16:13

      That's interesting. I don't currently have a Raspberry Pi and I'm not sure I can be bothered learning how to use USB with docker or a VM. But I DO have a NUC and I wouldn't mind replacing that with a new computer at some point.

      Perhaps I should buy a dongle.. how much did you pay for yours?

      • randombrick on 27/01/2021 - 16:36

        Sonoff sell a dongle pre-loaded with the required firmware. https://www.itead.cc/cc2531-usb-dongle.html

        USD 3.99 + shipping

        Or there are ones on Aliexpress that come with an antenna if you have coverage issues.

        • Niko123456 on 27/01/2021 - 16:52

          Dumb question… But do you wire that into a raspberry pi or just plug it in? How come it doesn't have a cover?

          • randombrick on 28/01/2021 - 16:37

            @Niko123456: Yes, plug it in via USB

            Cover - that's a downside. I think you may find aliexpress versions with a cover.

            An alternative is something like the Conbee

      • Pete99 on 27/01/2021 - 17:42

        I pass a two port USB card through to a docker and just use a zigbee USB dongle.

  • timmypete on 28/01/2021 - 08:19

    If you've got a Raspberry Pi it might be worth coding something yourself.

    Miio-cli needs a token (see JimmyF's comment above) but can control or output JSON data for heaps of their devices (from memory this is the tool most HA magic draws on). I don't have a Xiaomi hub, but have used it to pull temp data from devices and control a vacuum.

    Similarly, Sensibo has a good API that can query data and control devices.

    Tying them together with a Pi is fairly simple. I've written a script which pulls temp data from Xiaomi/Sensibo/Netatmo devices on my network and logs them centrally. Presuming the other sensor data is accessible, it wouldn't be hard to make this more active and run every say five minutes via cron.

    I also run a script every 5m which checks if the TV is on, Logitech Harmony set to theatre mode, and PC idle for >10m. If all tests are true, it issues a verbal warning, and after a further 30 seconds of inactivity turns off everything (moving mouse or keyboard aborts).

    While a little more effort initially than HA or others, it's highly customisable in the future.

  • lgacb08 on 30/01/2021 - 14:16

    yeah, like other said you need a pi or some computer to run HA as the master behind all these ecosystem but it'll be another step to set up.

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