Best practice for external hubs

Questions & Help
1

Hey,
New Homey Pro user here. I’m just looking for advice/information when it comes to external hubs.
For example. I have an Aqara M3 hub. I can see that i can connect my Aqara devices to the Homey Pro hub directly or i can add the Aqara M3 hub to Homey via Matter and the devices are shared with my Homey that way.

Is there a best practice of sorts for this kind of thing? I don’t want to make things needlessly complicated for myself.

Thank you.

2

Well, when you aim at using many Aqara devices, I’d keep the hub at hand.
Matter appears not to be very stable for some users. Can’t say if it’s a generic issue.
On the other hand, not all Aqara zigbee devices are supported by the Aqara/Xiaomi apps.

As posted here the other day:
Most Aqara devices work via zigbee.
That requires the Aqara or Xiaomi Mi app. But do first take a look in the app store to check which devices are supported as zigbee devices: Aqara App for Homey | Homey
and
Xiaomi Mi Home App for Homey | Homey

Using an Aqara hub with Matter support, Aqara-supported devices become available as Matter devices, for which you don’t need a Homey app.
See also:

Other devices like the FP2 presence sensor and doorbell work via Wifi again, and then the [APP][Pro] HomeKit Controller for Homey (NL) app comes into play

You might also find this useful:

Source

3

Thanks Peter appreciate the answer. It sounds like depending on use case a mish mash for what works for the individual is the best route.
For currently I think it makes sense to have my devices on the Aqara M3 hub and have the devices shared via matter for Homey to trigger any flows i have setup.
Thank you again.

4

You’re welcome!

5

I am thinking about to buy M3 hub – As connecting devices directly to HOMEY brings lot of troubles:

  • issues with zigbee network and random auto ON/OFF triggers caused by IKEA sensors remotes
  • missing functionality for FW upgrade
  • missing full features setup

If share over matter will work, then it is better solution - as MAIN advantage of HOMEY is its great advanced flow UI

6

Hi Milos,

Just FYI:
This user is not positive about Aqara-over-Matter + Homey combination

1 Like
7

I hope it is not yet :slight_smile:

But have some doubt, when something do not work, it seems it won’t work even with “effort” from Athom

8

At this moment, both Philips HUE and Aqara M2 are working over Matter… Keep looking the next days

9

For me - Ikea Dirigera share to Homey via Matter still not working – Tested also Dirigera over Matter to HA - and it works without issues.

So seems like issue on Homey side