just a fyi (and you may already know this), but you could have combined all those button automations into one automation by giving the short press/long press/double press its own trigger id in the trigger section and then in the action section you do a "choose" action and pick what function you want each trigger id to do. hope that makes sense. I'm going to have to steal that vibration sensor idea with the sink. that is a great idea!
i have a door sensor on my man cave door to turn on the "set the stage" scene. my man cave is a wizard themed pub so i use lots of lights (flame effects, colours, fairy lights etc) and even talking pumpkins. i also have a practical scene where all the lights are turned right up to 100% and bright white so i can do crafts or see to play my guitar better. talking of my guitar, another door sensor on the guitar hook and headstock turns my amp on and off depending on if my guitar is on the wall or not. this allows me to use it like an acoustic guitar but still be electric. then another aqara button on the door allows me to press the exit button to turn off the man cave lights and the moving portrait. checking the time of day allows me to turn on the outside light for long enough to lock up and turn on the kitchen light afterwards too so i can see my way back into the house.
Cheers for some great ideas and for contributing to the HA hive-mind! I'll have to see about the Wife Acceptance Factor when our sink light turns on ;-) I might have to combine it with a kitchen presence (not motion) sensor, so it turns off as soon as she leaves the kitchen. After all the door sensors, my top Aqara sensors are the lux ones, as these contribute to many automations involving home lighting. An example is controlling the brightness of a ceiling light, based on the ambient outdoor light level. I have two Aqara lux sensors mounted on windows facing outside, and in Home Assistant a third virtual sensor is defined to report the average of these. I also use Aqara buttons and cubes to trigger automations from desks and nightstands. But more useful are the Tasmotized Martin-Jerry wall switches, which trigger automations for garage doors and the gate opener using long presses. The wall switch in the utility room has a long press automation that ensures the gate and garage doors are closed, the garage and other lights are off, and then has Alexa report the security status of the home, based on all the Aqara door sensors. It's also nice to turn off all the kitchen/living room/corridor lights with a long press of the bedroom wall switch. Good luck with the channel - subscribed!
Thanks for another thought provoking video Ben! I'm always looking for inspiration for new automations to play around with and I haven't gotten around to making one for my Dreame robot vac. I've been planning to set up an Aqara mini to activate a clean/ mop cycle for both the kitchen & dining areas. In addition, I'm in the process of installing some Inovelli switches in each of the main rooms and will likely expand this automation in order to clean those areas, based on a custom button press. You and I share the same logic for button presses. I use an Aqara Opple four button switch to control the garage doors, door locks, curtains and ceiling fan. A single press activates 'close' while I double press activates 'open'. This is kind of a fail-safe in case a button is bumped by accident. Lastly, I'm not sure if you have smart locks in your home, but one automation that I use is for my garage lighting. Once the door from my garage into the laundry room is locked, it turns off the garage lights. Simple but effective for something that's often forgotten. Looking forward to seeing what you share next!
Thank you Scott for the kind words and support! Love the use cases. I’m a big fan of putting Aqara mini buttons in different places, I didn’t talk about all of them in this video. I do the same thing with our garage! Ours is an exterior only entry though but if the door is closed, the lights are off.
Cool video, I have 2 of the 3 sensors the vibration sensor and the water leak one. I use the vibration sensor on the box window in the master bathroom to detect if the window is broken. This would mean someone tried entering the house that way and triggers the alarm.
@@FutureSmartHome Just thought to add to your vibration sensor idea instead of checking to see if the sun has set you could have a light sensor to check if the light level is below a set level and only turn the light on if that conduction is met. I know if it's really cloudy outside it would be nice to have the light turn on in the kitchen. Or if you don't want to have to buy or make a light/LUX sensor you could use a integration like AccuWeather and have HA check for Cloud cover percentage to see if the light should be turned on or not.
Neat tricks using the different sensors to do actions around the house! Are you using MQTT? Additionally, what smart switches do you have? I'm looking to implement some switches around the house to then leverage things like buttons or sensors to trigger the light to go on or off but for Zigbee there isn't a lot of choice and I'd rather use local then wi-fi based. Cheers!
Thanks for watching! Smart switches are Lutron. Check out a video on how I do that here czcams.com/video/bch7e_Zexn8/video.html I am using MQTT for our weather station, but the buttons and sensors are mostly zigbee and local!
CZcams just sent me you way, nice video. I have one question. Buttons, I have one automation per button with several triggers and "Choose action" for the corresponding result. That way everything is in one automation. Are there a reason why one would split them up like you do?
That is definitely the cleaner way to do it! I built these automations when I first started before I knew a lot of more advanced stuff in HA and thought about addressing it in the video but cut that part.
Be aware that the Aqara vibration sensors will no longer connect to the M2 hub if you do the 4.1.1 firmware upgrade to the hub. In Australia, the vibration sensor is no longer in their products list.
Isn't your first automation faulty? As you are checking if the light is already on you wouldn't restart the timer as the second condition is probably false as the light is still on. If I misunderstood anything feel free to let me know 🙂 Thanks!
Thanks for putting out these videos. I connect my Wireless Mini Button via an aqara M2 hub and that to home assistant via Matter, unfortunately when I go into automations, the only Trigger I get is "Aqara Wireless Mini Switch Battery battery level changes" did you have to do something first to get the other options? Also, I love that vibration sensor and have in my mailbox so when its opened, i have my camera take a snapshot with the camera that covers it and Notify me with the image. Super cool and already caught someone peaking in our mailbox
Hey thanks for watching! That’s a crazy cool use case. I’m not entirely sure on the wireless mini switch trigger. But consider building an automation and looking it up from within the automation.
@@FutureSmartHome thanks, unfortunately that is the only option when i build an automation for that. I will try to delete and reimport tonight to see if it was something odd.
@@FutureSmartHome Hope to see you tinker with the Aqara Presence sensor FP2 mmWave at a super low price and hoping to do automations like your sink one with it but for a few things in the kitchen, especially adding some pantry lighting.
Are you connecting Aqara directly to HA via a dongle? How reliable is it? I head Aqara didn’t fully follow the zigbee protocol so I’ve been reluctant to try them
I find the Aqara vibration sensor to be highly unreliable even if I set the sensitivity to it's most sensitive setting. I was extremely disappointed with it. To get it register I'd have to slam my fist on surface pretty hard. That little knock on the sink, like you did, wouldn't be noticed.
I too purchased vibration sensor for dryer and not once did it detect while in operation. side note, I now use a temperature sensor to let me know when dryer is in use.
You know I had aqara mccgq11lm contact sensor (not featured in your video) but it was extremely finicky on zigbee2mqtt and most of the time just stopped working (was stuck on either open or close). I had to go back to add it on my aqara m1 which I didn't want to do. Made me stay away from aqara sensors for home assistant. I'm guessing these sensors don't have that problem? Btw, I subscribed. Great channel.
Thanks for the sub! These sensors have been pretty good to me, no real disconnect issues. Other viewers have commented that the vibration sensor isn’t the most sensitive but I’ve found this use case works well.
Hi Ben , firstly great video on Aqara! Can you advise me ive had HA for about 6 months and did some research on how to include aqara in my set up and i decided to go down the sonoff bridge route which i flashed with tasmota . anyway to cut a long story short i struggled to add sensors onto he hub and sought help and ended up on fiver where a very helpful guy ( at a cost££) helped me set up a water sensor and a button and a couple of other things. they were not easy to do and took quite a bit of time and effort but work fine . i noticed on your video that your setup for aqara sensors and drop down menu looked so much easier and like any normal sensor . May i ask how you added your bridge to HA and what you are using . Thanks in advance
Hey! Thank you for watching. I use a Home Assistant Sky Connect dongle that then uses ZHA (zigbee home automation) to listen for zigbee devices. Then I paired with that dongle/radio.
That’s great Thankyou and can you tell me will i still keep my sonoff bridges as they are working ok with existing sensors and connect the skyconnect as well for new zigbee sensors …
So I’ve heard that from a few others. I think you need a lot of movement. Would be better if they called it a “movement” sensor. I think that’s why it works so well on my sink hose, it’s a good amount of movement. My zigbee radio is just Home Assistant Sky Connect
It seems you have a bug in the light-triggered-by-vibration automation. Setting it to Repeat doesn't help since the condition is true only on the first run. After that the light is already on. Any retrigger of the vibration should not actually increase the timeout. Doesn't the light turn off after 10min even if you keep janking your hose?
This is the most original use for the Vibration Sensor I have ever seen. I will be using this. Keep up the good work.🙂
Thank you!! It was fun when I figured it out the first time.
The production quality of these videos are great, I hope you hit your stride in the almighty algorithm!
Thank you! 🙏
Very good idea with the vibration sensor and the sink. 👍 Thanks for that.
Thanks for watching!
Great use of Buckaroo Banzai outro music. 10/10
just a fyi (and you may already know this), but you could have combined all those button automations into one automation by giving the short press/long press/double press its own trigger id in the trigger section and then in the action section you do a "choose" action and pick what function you want each trigger id to do. hope that makes sense. I'm going to have to steal that vibration sensor idea with the sink. that is a great idea!
Totally! Thanks for pointing this out. I thought breaking them up might be a bit more helpful for beginners.
Sink sensor is very clever. Love it.
Thank you!
i have a door sensor on my man cave door to turn on the "set the stage" scene. my man cave is a wizard themed pub so i use lots of lights (flame effects, colours, fairy lights etc) and even talking pumpkins. i also have a practical scene where all the lights are turned right up to 100% and bright white so i can do crafts or see to play my guitar better. talking of my guitar, another door sensor on the guitar hook and headstock turns my amp on and off depending on if my guitar is on the wall or not. this allows me to use it like an acoustic guitar but still be electric. then another aqara button on the door allows me to press the exit button to turn off the man cave lights and the moving portrait. checking the time of day allows me to turn on the outside light for long enough to lock up and turn on the kitchen light afterwards too so i can see my way back into the house.
Sounds epic!
I subbed man. I really like how you do your video. Hopefully you've got more like this.
Thanks for the sub!
Nice Videos, love to see more in the future. Just one question . On which device are u running Home Assistant? Thx
Cheers for some great ideas and for contributing to the HA hive-mind! I'll have to see about the Wife Acceptance Factor when our sink light turns on ;-) I might have to combine it with a kitchen presence (not motion) sensor, so it turns off as soon as she leaves the kitchen.
After all the door sensors, my top Aqara sensors are the lux ones, as these contribute to many automations involving home lighting. An example is controlling the brightness of a ceiling light, based on the ambient outdoor light level. I have two Aqara lux sensors mounted on windows facing outside, and in Home Assistant a third virtual sensor is defined to report the average of these.
I also use Aqara buttons and cubes to trigger automations from desks and nightstands. But more useful are the Tasmotized Martin-Jerry wall switches, which trigger automations for garage doors and the gate opener using long presses. The wall switch in the utility room has a long press automation that ensures the gate and garage doors are closed, the garage and other lights are off, and then has Alexa report the security status of the home, based on all the Aqara door sensors. It's also nice to turn off all the kitchen/living room/corridor lights with a long press of the bedroom wall switch.
Good luck with the channel - subscribed!
Epic! Love all of those use cases. I think wife acceptance factor will be high, it is here!
Thanks for another thought provoking video Ben! I'm always looking for inspiration for new automations to play around with and I haven't gotten around to making one for my Dreame robot vac. I've been planning to set up an Aqara mini to activate a clean/ mop cycle for both the kitchen & dining areas. In addition, I'm in the process of installing some Inovelli switches in each of the main rooms and will likely expand this automation in order to clean those areas, based on a custom button press. You and I share the same logic for button presses. I use an Aqara Opple four button switch to control the garage doors, door locks, curtains and ceiling fan. A single press activates 'close' while I double press activates 'open'. This is kind of a fail-safe in case a button is bumped by accident.
Lastly, I'm not sure if you have smart locks in your home, but one automation that I use is for my garage lighting. Once the door from my garage into the laundry room is locked, it turns off the garage lights. Simple but effective for something that's often forgotten. Looking forward to seeing what you share next!
Thank you Scott for the kind words and support! Love the use cases. I’m a big fan of putting Aqara mini buttons in different places, I didn’t talk about all of them in this video. I do the same thing with our garage! Ours is an exterior only entry though but if the door is closed, the lights are off.
Just found your channel... Great vids! Nice way of explaining stuff
I watch your stuff all the time!! Thank you! Latest tempest review was great. 🙌
@@FutureSmartHome thanks!! 🙏
Cool video, I have 2 of the 3 sensors the vibration sensor and the water leak one. I use the vibration sensor on the box window in the master bathroom to detect if the window is broken. This would mean someone tried entering the house that way and triggers the alarm.
Smart!
@@FutureSmartHome Just thought to add to your vibration sensor idea instead of checking to see if the sun has set you could have a light sensor to check if the light level is below a set level and only turn the light on if that conduction is met. I know if it's really cloudy outside it would be nice to have the light turn on in the kitchen. Or if you don't want to have to buy or make a light/LUX sensor you could use a integration like AccuWeather and have HA check for Cloud cover percentage to see if the light should be turned on or not.
@Tiger52524949 I actually have an outdoor sensor. I should update!!!
Use trigger ID for the button actions instead of having 3 separates automations.
For sure, I split them up for simplicity in explanation. I think I said that during the video but trigger IDs are great!
Neat tricks using the different sensors to do actions around the house! Are you using MQTT? Additionally, what smart switches do you have? I'm looking to implement some switches around the house to then leverage things like buttons or sensors to trigger the light to go on or off but for Zigbee there isn't a lot of choice and I'd rather use local then wi-fi based. Cheers!
Thanks for watching! Smart switches are Lutron. Check out a video on how I do that here czcams.com/video/bch7e_Zexn8/video.html I am using MQTT for our weather station, but the buttons and sensors are mostly zigbee and local!
CZcams just sent me you way, nice video. I have one question.
Buttons, I have one automation per button with several triggers and "Choose action" for the corresponding result. That way everything is in one automation. Are there a reason why one would split them up like you do?
That is definitely the cleaner way to do it! I built these automations when I first started before I knew a lot of more advanced stuff in HA and thought about addressing it in the video but cut that part.
Be aware that the Aqara vibration sensors will no longer connect to the M2 hub if you do the 4.1.1 firmware upgrade to the hub. In Australia, the vibration sensor is no longer in their products list.
Did not know this, thanks for the heads up!
Isn't your first automation faulty?
As you are checking if the light is already on you wouldn't restart the timer as the second condition is probably false as the light is still on.
If I misunderstood anything feel free to let me know 🙂
Thanks!
You are right! 🤦♂️ remove the light check and the restart will work. Thanks for pointing that out.
In interested in starting HomeKit any starter videos you could point me to??
I just did a video on how I use HomeKit and Home Assistant. Take a look! czcams.com/video/EYbXotmxnMU/video.htmlsi=8wWyibY80YRNbdCy
Thanks for putting out these videos. I connect my Wireless Mini Button via an aqara M2 hub and that to home assistant via Matter, unfortunately when I go into automations, the only Trigger
I get is "Aqara Wireless Mini Switch Battery battery level changes" did you have to do something first to get the other options? Also, I love that vibration sensor and have in my mailbox so when its opened, i have my camera take a snapshot with the camera that covers it and Notify me with the image. Super cool and already caught someone peaking in our mailbox
Hey thanks for watching! That’s a crazy cool use case.
I’m not entirely sure on the wireless mini switch trigger. But consider building an automation and looking it up from within the automation.
@@FutureSmartHome thanks, unfortunately that is the only option when i build an automation for that. I will try to delete and reimport tonight to see if it was something odd.
@@FutureSmartHome Hope to see you tinker with the Aqara Presence sensor FP2 mmWave at a super low price and hoping to do automations like your sink one with it but for a few things in the kitchen, especially adding some pantry lighting.
@chrisgbeer that’s a good approach. And you are sure you are automating off of the “Device” not a state or something.
On my list!
Are you connecting Aqara directly to HA via a dongle? How reliable is it? I head Aqara didn’t fully follow the zigbee protocol so I’ve been reluctant to try them
Yes Through sky connect dongle. I’d say it’s very reliable
I find the Aqara vibration sensor to be highly unreliable even if I set the sensitivity to it's most sensitive setting. I was extremely disappointed with it. To get it register I'd have to slam my fist on surface pretty hard. That little knock on the sink, like you did, wouldn't be noticed.
I have found it to be very reliable attached to the hose, but you make a fair point.
I have the same opinion about it. I tried to use it on my dryer and it never detects anything.
I too purchased vibration sensor for dryer and not once did it detect while in operation. side note, I now use a temperature sensor to let me know when dryer is in use.
@@nwdsc that’s a great idea!
Alternatively put that sensor behind the kickboard Immediately under the sink and then just....kick the kickboard to activate the sensor.
Cool!! BUT, with the button, how do you determine if the faeage door is open or not?? Is there a separate se sor in your garage? TX.
I have a Meross garage door opener. It includes a magnetic sensor that can tell whether the door is open or closed!
@FutureSmartHome Hmm tx. I have a 25 year old opener. Maybe I'll try a magnetic sensor too then.
@carlw so do I! Look up Meross opener.
@FutureSmartHome Will do, thanks 👍
You know I had aqara mccgq11lm contact sensor (not featured in your video) but it was extremely finicky on zigbee2mqtt and most of the time just stopped working (was stuck on either open or close). I had to go back to add it on my aqara m1 which I didn't want to do. Made me stay away from aqara sensors for home assistant. I'm guessing these sensors don't have that problem? Btw, I subscribed. Great channel.
Thanks for the sub! These sensors have been pretty good to me, no real disconnect issues. Other viewers have commented that the vibration sensor isn’t the most sensitive but I’ve found this use case works well.
Did you pull these into HA via thr aqara hub with homekit or matter integration?
Zigbee via Sky Connect dongle
So you don't need the Aqara hub then? I've hesitated buying this brand because I didn't want ANOTHER hub. I do have the Skyconnect.
I do not have the Aqara hub!
Hi Ben , firstly great video on Aqara! Can you advise me ive had HA for about 6 months and did some research on how to include aqara in my set up and i decided to go down the sonoff bridge route which i flashed with tasmota . anyway to cut a long story short i struggled to add sensors onto he hub and sought help and ended up on fiver where a very helpful guy ( at a cost££) helped me set up a water sensor and a button and a couple of other things. they were not easy to do and took quite a bit of time and effort but work fine . i noticed on your video that your setup for aqara sensors and drop down menu looked so much easier and like any normal sensor . May i ask how you added your bridge to HA and what you are using . Thanks in advance
Hey! Thank you for watching. I use a Home Assistant Sky Connect dongle that then uses ZHA (zigbee home automation) to listen for zigbee devices. Then I paired with that dongle/radio.
That’s great Thankyou and can you tell me will i still keep my sonoff bridges as they are working ok with existing sensors and connect the skyconnect as well for new zigbee sensors …
I believe you can keep them!
Thankyou so much for your help Ben , keep the videos coming ….
Do you use an Aqara hub? I have a vibration sensor and it's able to connect to HA, it's just not that great. Tried to use it for my dryer, want great
So I’ve heard that from a few others. I think you need a lot of movement. Would be better if they called it a “movement” sensor. I think that’s why it works so well on my sink hose, it’s a good amount of movement.
My zigbee radio is just Home Assistant Sky Connect
It seems you have a bug in the light-triggered-by-vibration automation. Setting it to Repeat doesn't help since the condition is true only on the first run. After that the light is already on. Any retrigger of the vibration should not actually increase the timeout. Doesn't the light turn off after 10min even if you keep janking your hose?
Someone else pointed this out as well 🤦♂️thank you!!