Long Awaited Aqara M2 Hub Surfaces on JD.com
What seems to be have been a device that would never see the light of day, it would appear that the Aqara M2 Hub may finally be coming to the masses or at least Chinese ones. The M2 has seemingly surfaced on popular Chinese online store JD.com, selling for RMB399 (roughly equal to US$57/UK£44). The device has dual antennas (not a dual-band wifi antenna), and supports, ZigBee 3.0 and Wifi, as well as having an ethernet connection via the included RJ45 port at the back of the device. Before you get too excited, however, there doesn’t seem at first glance to be any info as to whether this is able to be ordered now or whether it’s a pre-order, even though it has the ‘add to shopping cart’ and ‘buy now’ buttons. Still, it’s a good sign that the hub is getting closer to a full release.
When we first discovered evidence of this product, it was shown to have support for Bluetooth as well, and whilst the specs mention Bluetooth 5.0, the official page doesn’t mention Bluetooth connectivity as one of the options at the start of the page for the Aqara M2, so it could be a future option for connection to Bluetooth devices by Mi/Mijia, which may also be the new Bluetooth mesh, although we’ve yet to see this play out.
According to the new listing, it also includes an IR transmitter, which would usually be used to control non-smart devices that utilise an IR remote control, so it would be interesting to see this additional functionality, although it’s nothing new, and will undoubtedly not be supported by HomeKit. That won’t be a limitation of the M2 via the Aqara Home app, however, with a claimed total of up to 64 IR devices being supported in total.
Finally, whilst this is HomeKit compatible, it will probably be the case that devices currently exposed to HomeKit via the Aqara hub, will be ready for HomeKit via the M2, as some have already found to be the case with the hub within the Aqara G2H camera that was recently released.
Credit to Reddit user p_abl for the find.
will this also support RF remote controls for ceiling fans?
Hi, if it works in the same way as the IR controller by Mijia (Xiaomi), then you would simply have to train it to mimic the functions of the remote. the Mijia IR controller had different preset product types that it can control with button layouts that match the relevant remote, so I’m hoping this will also be a feature of the M2. I can’t confirm until I get one on for review, but i feel confident that the IR functionality will be like this.
But I don’t think it will be able to control RF controlled devices.
do you know of any device that can do RF and supports homekit directly? most ceiling fans are on RF these days
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So this will supersede the current one? I was looking into getting one, but maybe I should hold off?
I would say that while the M2 may be considered a step up from the current Aqara hub, I think it’s intended as an alternative, more than a replacement. Aqara have also released (in China) the M1S, which looks identical to the first Aqara hub, but has a few improvements, so I’d say the M1S is the one to supersede the current hub. The M2 doesn’t come with a night light, which is why I tend to view it as a different option as opposed to a replacement.
So I guess that means there’s a greater chance of it not leaving China? The thing that I was excited about with it was the Ethernet port.
There will definitely be an international rollout, but it remains to be seen if Aqara will stop this from ending up on places like AliExpress etc, as they’ve been trying to discourage people from buying devices outside of the region they’re intended for.
From the Chinese manual it says it support Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz， Zigbee3.0 IEEE 802.15.4，BLE 5.0 , so maybe not full BT 5.0 and just Low Energy part. And it only supports 2.4GHz and the manual specially says that your phone must connect to 2.4 GHz router by disable 5 GHz band in order to connect to this hub. Strange ?!
Also from the picture I can see 1 USB port (2.0 or 3.0 ??) , 1 Micro B USB port for power and 1 RJ45 port (not sure if this 100Mbps or Gigabit).
Thanks. I imagine they refer to the 5GHz router part being disabled if you haven’t split your dual-band wifi into two separate networks. I’m going to guess that they’ll only go for UB 2.0, but for the RJ45 port, I also assume that if it’s not using a lot of bandwidth, then it’s probably 100mbps only.
Hi I’m planning to build my home based on m2. So please can you help me with some advices.
If I manage to get one from China will it work in other countries?
Will these control yeelight ceiling lights. And will they be available in HomeKit.
Do you know if Aqara bulbs can be controlled as a group from HomeKit.
I read that Aqara is planning to release bulbs with hue color support, any news from those.
In Aqara app they have spotlight and meshlight do you know if these are made by aqara, or are they yeelight Bluetooth mesh lights? Can you confirm that these will work with m2!
Thanks I’m advance!