Honeywell/Mijia Smoke Alarm Next for HomeKit compatibility?
Last week, Aqara issued an update to their app that allowed some Mijia (Xiaomi) sensors to be added to the Aqara hub, and therefore be exposed to HomeKit, which was great news for people who had these devices and didn’t want to buy brand new equivalent Aqara devices. Alongside this there was a firmware update to the hub which changed a few things, but ultimately didn’t fix the issues faced by some users in the EU, however we have heard there’s another update due tomorrow that may finally fix the issue.
That all aside, On the Aqara community forum of their website, one user mentioned the updates allowing Mijia sensors to be added an wondered if they planned to add support for smoke and gas alarms, specifically the Honeywell/Mijia Smoke Alarm. Aqara have confirmed that they will indeed support this device as well as the companion device used for detecting gas.
We have one of these devices, and although Aqara haven’t actually said that it would be HomeKit compatible after going through the hub, considering the price of this smoke alarm being around a quarter of the price of two recently announced HomeKit compatible smoke alarms from Eve and Netatmo, this really would put some lifesaving smart devices into the hands of many more people, especially those on a budget.
Thanks to mszfcz for pointing us to this story.
Nice to see my topic on the Aqara forum already found its way to this blog. Looking forward to a review of the Smoke detector in HomeKit over here once the firmware/software update is out 🙂
Hi Niels, yes I would have mentioned your name in the article, but privacy was my concern, hence the reason I didn’t.
How accessible is buying the hardware in taiwan?
I’m in shanghai, so obviously no issues except for getting the export versions of stuff eg cameras.
Hi
getting the Xiaomi stuff is getting easier, as they have two stores in Taipei, and one in Taichung, but the range is a lot more limited than mainland China still. It’s getting better though. If you’re referring to HomeKit stuff in general, then it’s even more limited, but I tend to buy most of my stuff from the USA and have it shipped.
I have ordered the Aqara Hub with some Aqara sensors, since I am building my own home alarm (HomeKit only) I’m really in to getting smoke detector for HomeKit.
Is it official that the Mijia Honeywell smoke detector can be used only using the Aqara Hub? And does it really appear in the HomeKit app? I’ve search for videos or pictures to confirm this, but I haven’t found anything.
Hi, the Mijia smoke detector and the Gas detector both work in the Mi Home app and need a hub to work, which can either be the older Mijia Hub. Or the newer Aqara Hub. Only the Aqara Hub will allow these two detectors to be exposed to HomeKit. I have both the Gas and Smoke detectors and can conform they are exposed to HomeKit as sensors.
Thanks for the quick reply.
That is great news to me. I will place an order for the smoke detectors as soon as I have set up the Aqara Hub.
Thinking about selling the Eve Weather and put one Aqara temperature sensor outside on my porch instead. Do you have one outside?
Ive only got the one Aqara temperature sensor, but it’s indoors. Currently there’s a bug that can cause a disconnection between the hub and HomeKit if the temperature goes below zero on the temperature sensor. I don’t experience this as I have it indoors and it never gets that cold where I live, but it’s something to bear in mind if you want to avoid the headache of disconnections.
Also, can the smoke detector be used as alarm? If a motion is detected it can trigger the smoke alarm to sound?
As regards the smoke detector, it can’t be used in tandem with other devices to play a sound, so it will only be activated by smoke (or gas for the gas detector), however, it can be used the other way around, so that if the gas/smoke alarm goes off, it can trigger the alarm sound in the hub, and you can, also get push notifications to your phone. If you have any of the Mi Cameras, some can specifically recognise the smoke or gas alarm signature sound and also be used to notify you.
Thanks!
It sounds like a great device. Since I will be using the hub in my basement, I won’t be able to hear the alarm if I’m upstairs.
If one detector detects smoke/gas, will the other detectors go off as well? Like the IR regular smoke detectors.
I’ve only got one of each detector (gas and smoke) so I’m not sure if they also get triggered, but it would make sense if they did, as it can do this with the hub alarm. However, having all alarms go off could lead to a problem tracking down which of the smoke alarms is being triggered by smoke or gas, as opposed to being triggered via another alarm.
Hi, I read this on a website about the Smoke/gas detectors: “Be careful, just like the Xiaomi Mijia Honeywell smoke detector, this detector is not CE and FCC certified. It is reserved for the Chinese domestic market. It is possible to buy and use it outside China only if it complements a certified sensor that already equips your home. Attention, this sensor detects only the presence of methane in the air. It does not work with other gases (propane, butane ..)”
Do you know what it mean? Especially the part about “complements a certified sensor…”
Hi, the certification of many items from China don’t usually conform to the same standards of other countries mostly due to them being for the domestic markets only, where they’ve passed that country’s own certification. It would probably be the same scenario with regards to western products in China, where they haven’t been tested for Chinese standard tests (although I’m sure they’d pass). The part about complementing certified sensors simply means that if you have any type of home insurance, you would be required to have a smoke or gas sensor that is certified for that country, so you shouldn’t rely just on the uncertified device, or would probably invalidate any insurance claim. The Xiaomi devices would only be seen as extra backup.
Thanks a lot for clarifying this for me!
Maybe I will hold on and wait for CE certified smoke alarm. I really don’t want to have double setting of detectors on my ceiling.
Thanks again!
The Netatmo and Eve smoke detectors should be certified for the EU. I’m assuming you’re in Europe.
I live in Sweden, so yes.
I will check with my insurance company first. I got a feeling that the smoke detector will be double in price when It comes to Europe, but exactly the same detector.
It sure is a bargain to get it for 30 dollars on GearBest.
Ah ok. As long as you have a certified regular ‘dumb’ Smoke sensor, the Xiaomi ones can act as a backup, for personal notifications and automations. I’ve been to Sweden many times – mostly Malmö, but also Gothenburg, Lund and Stockholm.
I live in the northern parts, half meter of snow outside. 🙂
I posted a question to a reseller about if they communicate with each other in case of detection, I will get back to you when I get an answer.
I the meantime I will order some water sensors.
Ok. I really don’t like snow! Nice to look at, but that’s all. You’ll find the water sensors very handy. I’ve got four of them. Do let me know what they say regarding the smoke alarm, as I’d be interested to know for certain.
I got a very quick reply, they answer simply “yes, it is”. I’m sure they mean “yes, it will”. I asked if the the one upstairs will alert when fire is detected on another floor.
That’s great news since I actually need 3-4 of these.
I’m gone a lot in the summer and the flood sensor feels like a great way to get riding some paranoia. 🙂 I ordered 3 of them.
Could you share your version of the Hub software and the smoke alarm?
I got an aqara hub and all the original aqara sensors are shown in homekit, however both the mija smart plug and and the smoke detector are not visible in the homekit section.
I’m currently running 1.5.0 firmware for the Aqara hub, which is required if you want to add the smoke or gas detectors, as well as the smart plugs. I’m running the latest version of the Mi Home app as well, which is v4.12.0. If you are running 1.5.0 and they still don’t appear in HomeKit, try deleting them and re-adding them with the following method;
1. click on the tile for your Aqara hub on the home screen
2. a page with three tabs will then appear at the top – Gateway | Auto | Device
3. select ‘Device’ then click on the ‘+’ symbol at the bottom of this page to add a child device
4. from there, you will see a table of products that you can add to the Aqara Hub, including ‘Other devices’
5. Select your device and follow the on-screen instructions
I get what you are saying.
Perhaps if you could change the sound to a siren or whatever when detection is detected and something else when smoke is detected.
Then the push notifications needs to be able to separate the alarms. If a sensor triggers the smoke alarm speaker then it will say “motion detected in hallway”. Or it could say that “alarm going off because of motion detected”, something like that.