Aqara M3: What went wrong?

Aqara's Hub M3 is powerful but misleading. With all the features it boasts, they seem to fall short of expectations set by Aqara. The IR Blaster worked but not as expect, 3rd party support was disappointingly limited, and the increased stability from the "Ark Technology" did not work for me no matter how I tried. Despite the defects, this devices is matter enabled and does help unify all Aqara's devices under a single protocol. Hopefully over time this smart home hub will live up to its promises.
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[@hi-ccowboy7983]

This channel has quickly become one of my favorites. I feel like I’m just hanging out with my really smart friend. It’s really not easy to make a 17 minute video that’s paced so well that it’s this easy to watch.

[@technithusiast]

Wow thanks! Im glad the vid is that chill and im just a stoke you're finding value in the content. Hope i can keep delivering these chilly bangers.

[@DennisSchmitz]

8:00 hold on, wait... No automations when there's no internet? HUGE FAIL.

[@PatrickBulteel]

And worse, in 14:00 it STILL doesn't work without internet even if everything is ON the M3.

[@technithusiast]

It was disappointing to see. It’s hard to say if this was a bug on their side that can be fixed with an update or if I had a defective product, or if I was doing something wrong. I really would like to the features to work because it would make their product what we expect smart home tech to be.

[@ColbyPerry]

I imagine if you blackhole the host(s) its attempting to get to, you'll KO it too.

[@gavin1215]

Thank you KZbin algorithm for showing me a new page to subscribe to

[@technithusiast]

Welcome aboard!!

[@videolan]

Too many reviewers seem to think it has great potential ........ once the bugs are ironed out and more features actually work reliably. You are not alone!!

[@technithusiast]

That was definitely interesting to see how unified the opinions were among the creators. This device has high potential… if it can deliver. Hopefully this can be fixed with a firmware update

[@richchapman5011]

Really enjoy your channel and the way you script them. Most of the other reviews say that these issues are down to matter and not the fact that Aqara has pushed something to the market that isn’t ready. Makes me doubt a company when they do this and expect everyone to be happy.

[@technithusiast]

I think Matter is only a small part of the problem. Other platforms are using it without these issues. These problems are due to poorly set expectations and not enough attention to user experience. But to be fair, I got an early release device so I could have issues unique to my device 🤷🏾‍♂️ I just wanted to be transparent just in case others encountered the same issue.

[@zemismartofficial]

Nice video,dear. Would you like to review Zemismart matter devices?

[@ColbyPerry]

Does the M3 integrate into Home Assistant? That's something I'm curious about (I haven't used any Aqara devices before, and don't have a zigbee, matter, controller today).

[@technithusiast]

Short answer: yes kzbin.infodNOJExKUsAc?feature=share

[@siameseboy1980]

​@@technithusiastcan the M3 connect to HA via matter? Is there an option on M3 called "exposed to matter" available like the M2 hub...

[@technithusiast]

@@siameseboy1980 I don’t see why not. I didn’t try as I’m still wary of Matter and the features it supports

[@beardpwn282]

Pair your Normal TV remote, and enable CEC.....

[@Nosjamesmenzer]

How well does it work with home assistant and is it easy to integrate in to home assistant

[@technithusiast]

The moment i setup the hub it showed up in home assistant under the HomeKit integration. I imagine it would work very similar to how existing hubs work in home assistant, but i haven't explicitly tried though

[@technithusiast]

I remember seeing the hub showing up under the homekit integration. All i did was setup the hub and thats it. I imagine it would behave very similar to the existing hubs.

[@grahamshaw5531]

I have the Aqara M2 hub that as just updated to matter, All device show up in the HS Matter app. Not tried any automations with no internet yet.

[@technithusiast]

If you're satisfied with your existing hub, then there's no need to get the M3. Me personally, I don't find Matter groundbreaking enough to part with money over it.

[@jamesthedove]

Automations on the M2 hub are run in the cloud.

[@technithusiast]

All the the hubs run them on the cloud as far as I could tell, which is why the M3 holds a lot of promise but it didn’t work. Idk if it was due to human error, faulty device , faulty code or misleading marketing. I will update the description of this video if they fix it with a firmware update

[@michaelstanton4717]

When I attached my M3 hub to my Asus RT-AX88U , ( which is not POE ) , with a cat-6 ethernet cable , and , powered up the M3 , i chose the wired connection during the wizard ... Ha !!! the Aqara app kept telling me to attach an ethernet cable to proceed ... the only way i could continue with the wizard was to choose wifi connection ... wow ... i wasn't trying to power the M3 with POE ethernet , i just wanted it to get it's ip from the router DHCP ( wired ) , rather than wifi ... the rest of the wizard worked , and , the setup finalized ... I have no idea why the M3 did not allow an ethernet connection just because it wasn't POE ... very disappointed with the lack of functionality at this early stage ... When i listened to Craig Tech Talks , i though this was the grail ... i used the power cable in the M3 box for it's power supply ... forgot to mention that ...

[@technithusiast]

smh. Sorry for the train wreck of disappointment. Perhaps it will get better over time and OTA updates? 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@alexbpaslake9352]

Hi just wanted to say that I don’t know what time it is but you but seems like you don’t sleep u must been on some Heavy editing right now it’s 00,50 am by me and I’m up waiting on your new post lol ( creepy nah? )

[@technithusiast]

lol, im trying to do better and sleep more but between work and responsibilities, the night is all i have 😓

[@alexbpaslake9352]

Nice love your content like the way you put your videos together ! Keep working ! It might be your full time job soon!

[@TheBurnsiela]

"The Cartel" - definitely stealing this 🌝

[@technithusiast]

haha go ahead 😁

[@digitaldistro]

I enjoy your videos... But you are not far! Alot of their stuff requires internet. I just replaced their FP2 for the MTR-1 from Apollo as the FP2 keeps trying to go to the internet.

[@technithusiast]

Yup, I assumed that these devices simply needed the network to communicate with each other but that was a lie :(

[@ericgonzalez9503]

Good for HomeKit bad for home assistant some of the future like the aqara mini switch will not function correct on home assistant. Is not the hub for me. Return the hub I have no used for me sticking with the sonoff zigbee dongle and apple hub for the time been. I want to get away from Samsung smart things and I told this was the one. “Nope”

[@technithusiast]

This has been one of Aqara’s most divisive hardware I’ve personally seen. I’m seeing some folks praise it which makes me curious how if they tested it or if my device is broken or I’m doing something wrong. ( no shade on other creators)

[@ericgonzalez9503]

@@technithusiast The hub is weak on Zigbee. I want this hub to used aqara leak sensor combine with EcoNet bulldog shutoff valve. Hub is place in my network rack at my office using PoE to power up and network connection, sensors leak is next door wish is my laundry room and bathroom both sensor said poor signal, the furnace room sensor will go offline. Switching from the hub to my Sonoff Zigbee Dongle the every sensor (Total of 6) signal and network is stronger. Zigbee created a network on his own and aqara hub don’t see it does that. I having try automation with out the internet.

[@sendo427]

I'm so disappointed in this hub,it's a major let down.my M3 will not stay connected to my aqara matter motion sensor or the door sensor yesterday they both disconnected 6 times and today they disconnected 2 times until I finally gave up and paired them back to my smartthings station until they fix it I guess because both were going out at the same time. And then not being able to connect other matter device's besides the three companies their supporting.

[@technithusiast]

Very sorry to hear. I’ve heard the pushed an update recently to help with stability. Idk if that helps you.

[@gerryf7015]

Lots of nice design ideas - not executed. Another company launching a product and maybe developing/delivering it later. Also strange that Aqara are only supporting certain matter brands and devices. Matter is supposed to be an open standard by device type!! All these big Matter player seem to want to maintain some level of control and have a proprietary solution. For me, back to Zigbee and HA. No cloud.

[@technithusiast]

Lolol. Yeah I agree it’s a bit sus that they support Matter but they only allow specific brands. I suspect that they want these other brand’s devices to play nice in their app as opposed to simply using their hub as a a way to bridge them to HomeKit.

[@garyhenderson9303]

This seems to be an early access product. Too much focus on what happens when the Internet goes offline, who cares, not sure if I ever lost the Internet. They have doubled the price of the unit compared to the M2 without it being twice as good. Lots of marketing how good things will be if you have two units and one fails. This was the Smart home product for 2024 I was most excited about and all videos I have seen makes me think it like the Echo Show HUB recently released which also did not deliver on my expectations.

[@technithusiast]

Something I found the smart-home community really cares about is security and longevity which often translate into equipment that does not require the internet to operate. I think this device has a lot of promise of it can deliver. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into the echo hub 😒

[@garyhenderson9303]

@@technithusiast One thing no one is talking about is the WiFi standard this supports its only WiFi 5. The recent camera had WiFi 6 which they made clear on their page. This HUB I could only find reference in the .pdf User Manual which states its a 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac which translates to WiFi 5. I want to use Matter over thread plus Zigbee for my smart home, but my whole network is going to WiFi 7 this summer, this is disappointing that a new HUB is two generations behind in its Protocol support.

[@markbooth3066]

It must be lovely to live somewhere where the Internet isn't up and down like the Assyrian Empire. Plus, it's not just about whether it works when the internet goes down, it's about whether it works when it's deliberately denied internet access, to prevent it unnecessarily phoning home. With so much stuff connected, the privacy of home automation systems is a big concern to many people. I don't want two dozen third parties having access to information about when I'm at home, so if any of those systems are compromised, that information can be sold to burglars. I don't want companies to be able to bait-n-switch me, pushing out firmware updates that lock me out of devices I've bought, or charge me a monthly access fee. I don't want strangers watching my front doorbell footage, or analysing my patterns of usage to determine how to better market to me in the future. I don't want my privacy invaded, and the only way to ensure that is to run everything locally, and deny internet access to every IoT device.

[@five1219]

Well said @@markbooth3066

[@alexbpaslake9352]

I’m the first to comment on your vid 🤘

[@technithusiast]

Legend!