Millimetre Wave Sensors and Current Zigbee Best Practice

I've just bought a couple of the new Aqara FP1 millimetre wave presence detection sensors. I think this technology is a game-changer for presence detection as it's much more reliable than traditional PIR.

What is the current best practice to include (Aqara) zigbee devices into Indigo? Should I buy an Aqara hub or a generic zigbee controller. I also have 50 or so Philips Hue bulbs/sensors so perhaps the generic route is the way to go? I find the MQTT approach pretty confusing and am hoping for a more straightforward implementation, if possible!

I have 3 of these working in Indigo, at present I use the Hubitat Hub and the Hubitat plugin as a driver has now been written but before that I was using Zigbee2MQTT on a Pi and importing via MQTT Shims.
They really are excellent, they cost more than a PIR sensor but are worth it.

Hi Clive, sorry for not getting back sooner, I've been travelling.

That's great news. I took a look at the Hubitat hub but I'm not sure how it integrates with Indigo. I'd be willing to give it a go if it helps integrate things better.

Can you outline your setup for it briefly so I can assess if it would work for me?

If you just want to get a couple of Aqara FP1's working then a Hubitat Hub is a bit of overkill, I did originally have it working with zigbee2mqtt on a Raspberry Pi (no reason why you could not install it on the Indigo Mac) and you will need a MQTT broker, I use Mosquitto but I expect @FlyingDiver's MQTT Broker plugin will be just as good but not tried it, and then use his MQTT Shims plugin.

Thanks Clive. With Matter just around the corner I did wonder if buying the Hubitat would make sense. I looked at MQTT once in the distant past but got a bit scared off. I find with some of these things that it's impossible to know where to start with all the different components! Perhaps I should look again. Then again maybe the Hubitat would a worthwhile purchase in terms of hours of work saved!

Don’t believe Matter will cure the problem, it is late (again) and no date except late 2022, when we will see how little will work cross platform but don’t expect your cameras, doorbells or robot vacuum cleaners to work until v2 (or v3) is released.

If you think Matter will control an Aqara FP1 presence sensor locally then it will not happen, you will still need to add it to the Aqara server in China.

Zigbee2MQTT and a MQTT broker allows local control and is not as scary as you might think.

Hubitat was at the time a way for me to import Zigbee (and Tasmota mains plugs) devices into Indigo due to Jon’s Hubitat plugin but for just 2 or 3 devices I would not fork out £135.00, I have now over 50 Zigbee devices which compared with Z-Wave prices has been paid for my Hubitat.

So for me Matter does not matter.

Interesting to hear your thoughts around Matter. I have around 40 Hue bulbs also so if I bought the Hubitat I think there would be some further value. I'm going to look a bit deeper into both Hubitat and MQTT, I think. Time to bite the bullet.

I have around 40 Hue bulbs also so if I bought the Hubitat I think there would be some further value.

As. long as you have the Hue bulbs on the Hue hub you should be fine but if staying with Indigo stay with the Hue plugin.

Not sure what your last post means? So, it wouldnt be the case that I'd transfer the Hue bulbs to the Hubitat?

If you are staying with Indigo and just using Hubitat as a Zigbee hub then stick with the Indigo Hue plugin, if you are moving to Hubitat then don't expect the flexibility of the Indigo plugin and if you just want to control the Hue Bulbs individually then any other zigbee devices are going to get confused as you turn the bulbs on and off as they are zigbee repeaters.

Thanks for the clarification Clive. That makes sense.