Aqara Presence Sensor FP1E

Hello,
Has anybody use this sensor ( Aqara Presence Sensor FP1E)??
Perhaps you can tell something about using this new sensor…

Thank you,

Henk

Did you search the forum?

Just bought it today but seems Homey Pro does not support it yet. It only loads as a generic Zigbee device. So will probably send it back until it is supported and try a different one.

That is pitty. Thanks for the info.
Henk

Does Homey regogize it with Matter?

Magic word: Aqara hub

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Aqara does not have a Matter per-device.
Only when the Aqara zigbee devices are paired with the Aqara hub are they available as Matter devices.
Matter-over-bridge they call this construction.

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In the meantime, you can ask for “hub-less” support via zigbee here:
[APP] Aqara & Xiaomi Smart Home - Simplify your life with a smarter home
and/or here:
Request a Brand | Homey

Hopefully they add the Zigbee device to homey. Otherwise it is a expensive work arround

Yeah I will probably have to buy an Aqara hub…I was hoping to avoid that for just 1 device. I have a couple other Aqara devices that said similar but loaded directly into Homey. And there is no pairing code on the sensor. There is an “install” QR code but that failed since I don’t have the Aqara hub. So much for compatibility.

Edit…$8 coupon on Amazon Canada on the Hub E1 so just bought it ($38 CAD)

ok…dumb question. I have the Hub E1 up and running and also the FP1E in Aqara and updated all the firmware. When I add a device using what you showed above it is also asking for the “device” to be in pairing mode and then is asks for the pairing code. I assume that means the FP1E needs to be in pairing mode? Whether I put it into pairing more or not, it will not connect.

Another potential problem is that my router has 2.5 and 5G on the same SSID so I had to do a lot of smoke and mirrors to get the Hub E1 connected without having to rebuild my entire Wi-Fi network. I am not clear if the FP1E needs wi-fi to actually connect to Homey.

So any help would be appreciated…thanks.

The FP1E sensor is a zigbee sensor according to the specs.
The Hub E1 connects by wifi to Homey.

You first have to pair the sensor to the hub E1.
I’m not aware of zigbee using any pairing code, pairing codes are used with Matter.

In case that’s already in place, and you want to add the sensor as a Matter device to Homey, I can only help by following instructions;
Afaik you’re not supposed to put the sensor in pairing mode, because that would result in disconnecting from the hub E1, and you’re back to square one.
About Matter-over-wifi devices (the hub E1 converts the FP1E zigbee sensor to a Matter-over-wifi sensor):

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You mean the hub E1 won’t connect to a wifi 5 or 6 network (=2.4 + 5GHz)?
Did you have to add a separate 2.4GHz SSID?
Which is always a good idea, because most iot devices work on 2.4GHz wifi, and could have troubles with connecting / stay connected with WiFi 5 or 6.

So yes…putting the FP1E in pairing mode (which I assume activates Zigbee pairing mode ) removed it from the E1 Hub and I had to add it back. But it does not seem to want to pair with using the matter code. I tried adding it with and without putting the FP1E into pairing mode. But Homey still askes to put the device into “pairing mode” so maybe it just means getting the Matter pairing code from the hub.

The Wi-Fi problem is that you can only connect the hub to a 2.4G network and I was not about to reset my router and start my whole network over again because both 2.4 and 5G use the same SSID. So I created a wi-fi hotspot on my laptop using the same name and credentials as my router (windows can restrict the hotspot to either frequency), which allowed the hub to connect as it saw the 2.4G network. And as soon as the initial connection was made I turned off the hot spot and it connected to my router.

If I can help it, I will have NO wi-fi only devices…they have historically caused me nothing but problems.

And what you circled above is interesting also as I have my Homey connected via the ethernet adapter so I may move it to wi-fi and try again. And then I may lose everything I have already set up. :grimacing:

So I might have to connect the hub back to the hotspot somehow and then try the connection.

Getting too old for all this crap. I had a fairly extensive Smartthings/WebCoRe setup in another house and now starting the whole learning process again with Homey, although the advanced flows are a lot easier to write than using WebCoRe.

Appreciate the help and ideas.

My guess would be, you have to do this with the mobile Aqara app, with which you should be able to manage the hub E1 and its attached FP1E sensor.
It should provide for the Matter code as well.

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That’s not what it says, Michael.
When Homey is connected to ethernet, you should hand pick a wifi SSID for your sensor; Homey can’t possibly know which wifi SSID should be used because it’s totally unaware of your wifi SSID’s.

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No, no you shouldn’t have to. Often you can edit the SSID for the 2.4GHz band, or you can add an additional 2.4GHz SSID.
Some systems, like Google wifi, don’t have this flexibility.
When you share a link or the brand+type of your wifi router, I can check what’s possible.

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:rofl: totally get the feeling, Michael.
And, from what I’ve experienced and read: Matter is the most complicated and incomprehensible protocol imho. What a mess it is.
I love zigbee even more.

Yes, I get the matter pairing code from the Aqara app and then paste it into Homey when asked.

Yes I had to do that when I added the Hub E1. Which is what caused me to create the 2.4G hotspot on my windows laptop. But adding the FP1E, to Aqara, it is paired using Zigbee with a long press on the button to put it in pairing mode.

My router does not afford me that luxury. It has something called “Smart Steering” which configures the 2.4 and 5G with the same name. If I turn it off, then it creates xxx_2.4G and xxx_5G and then I lose the connections of all the normal wi-fi devices including my laptop and then have to dig out all the cables to direct connect to the router so I can manage it…a big pain.

I manage software development for a living and have also managed network infrastructure projects. They were never as complicated as this :expressionless:
I have a couple more ideas for tomorrow…bed time. Zigbee and Z-Wave…woot woot.

Well it is now connected :grin:

I forced my network to 2.4G and then I also realized I had connected the ethernet adapter for the Homey backwards so I fixed that. (should not have made any difference for connecting the FP1E but who knows)

Not sure which of these did it. Before doing all this I tried the connection again this morning and it did actually get 1 step further to say it was “connecting” …and then failed.

Then after making my network changes, I tried to add it again only to be told it was already added. And then the FP1E showed up in Homey.

And only to find that via Homey, it only really does motion on/off. Hopefully at some point they will expose more capabilities via matter.

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Nice to hear.
Most probably the motion event just stays On as long as it detects presence.
So, like when you’re napping on the couch, and an uninvited individual steps into the room, most probably there will be no motion event from the sensor, in Homey that is.
Does the mobile Aqara app show motion and presence/occupancy as separate events?

This overview says “occupancy”, but probably it should be “motion”?:

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Here’s a Matter 1.3 overview, not shure if that changes anything concerning the differences between motion and occupancy

Watched lots of YouTube and everyone seems to say that the word Motion is synonymous with Presence when dealing with a Presence device. But I have not had time to test any flows with it yet.

There are only 2 WHENs and 1 AND available for the FP1E. It does not show up in the Aqara app yet in Homey and neither does the FP2

I am assuming they mean Presence but will test tomorrow.

I had hoped that Matter would expose all the capability of the sensor but alas not. So at the moment Matter compatibility seems to be limited to visibility in another hub with minimal capability. Vendors https://community.homey.app/t/aqara-presence-sensor-fp1e/115847/16still looking to maintain ways to force you into their own ecosystem.

Some presence sensors respond way to slow to act as a real motion sensor.
But yes, they act like a motion sensor which keeps reporting motion as long as it detects (non-)moving persons.

Motion sensor often uses IR to detect body heat, presence sensors use micro wave technology, which can reach through glass or brick walls.
To me they’re very different sensors.
I use DYI presence sensors, which respond to motion very quick.
And true, the motion event stays active as long as someone is in reach.
I don’t need separate motion sensors.

That’s simply because Matter devices don’t need an app, Michael. They’ll never end up as app device, not until someone writes a specific driver for a custom functionality for a Matter device.

Homey only supports the Occupancy part of the Matter specification, and maps it to “motion alarm” because there is no other official capability for it.

The Matter Occupancy Cluster has some other parts (like thresholds and delays), but Homey doesn’t implement them (and I don’t know if the Aqara even supports them).

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Another article discussing the current limitations of Matter. Still has a long way to go. I think I will stick to devices that have apps in Homey.