NEW Aqara M3 : The Ultimate Smart Home Hub?

it's finally here the allnew aara Hub M3 many of us have been waiting for this it's aar's first multi-protocol Hub WiFi zigg infrared Bluetooth thread and for the first time you can add thirdparty matter devices to your aara Hub well sort of could this be the ultimate smart home hub to eliminate all smart home hubs well you'll just have to watch to find out we got a to cover let's go yo what's up guys my name is Shane and this channel is all about building an easy apple Home Smart home with new videos and live streams published every week right here as of today a car's new Hub M3 is officially available to purchase as you could probably tell I did receive one early so that I could test it out and you know share it with you here on the channel uh this was sent to me free of charge um just full disclosure there if you're a regular viewer of this channel you probably know that I've been a big fan of aara Smart Home Products for a long time and while this video is not sponsored by aara they have sponsored my channel before again just try to be upfront about all that regardless you're going to get my honest thoughts on this as always I don't hold back as you will probably soon see now our car sells lots of Smart Home Products most of which are zigg based products and require one of their mini zigby hubs to connect to your smart home this aara M3 is aar's first multiprotocol Hub so in addition to zigg it also supports thread infrared Wi-Fi and Bluetooth aara is calling this quote the premier all-in-one Hub with multi-protocol support and matter Bridge functionality I'm going to go ahead and tell you there is a big asteris beside this statement we'll come back to this uh hearing in just a minute aara is also calling the M3 an edge Hub a new generation of aara hubs with a focus on local control and automations the M3 is upgrade friendly and supports migrating zigg devices from older accar hubs to this new one if you don't know what all that means bear with me I am going to explain it all in this video this Hub is also equipped with a loud 95 D speaker that you can use in your automations as well as 8 GB of local storage for device logs and automations again focusing on that local control and processing there there are no cameras or microphones built in and it supports end to-end encryption of transmitted and stored data now again there's a lot to cover I will have chapters available down below if you want to skip around to any specific part let's take a moment to thank today's sponsor Tren micro you got to protect yourself online and I have been using the Tren micro premium Security Suite to do that on all of my devices for years now this adds extra protection against malware viruses ransomware and other threats you can use it on up to 10 devices including Macs PCS iPhones iPads you name it it also includes a VPN that turns any public hotspot into a secure Wi-Fi connection as well as other tools like Identity Theft Protection parental controls and even 24/7 emergency assistance check out the link in the description below and use code Shane 10 for 10% off your purchase of the premium Security Suite big thanks to Tren micro for protecting all of my family's devices and for sponsoring today's video all right let's see what's in the box here we go the highly anticipated aara M3 Hub it's made of thick plastic with a matte black finish on the top a car logo and led status indicator as well on the side we can see a homekit code as well as an aara QR code there's also a single tactile button flip it over and we can see the speaker grill that goes around the whole bottom it features a loud 95 D speaker like I said you can also see all the protocols listed here including zigby thread and Bluetooth in the middle we have a spot for ethernet as well as USBC for power we also get our user guide a USB type c to type a charging cable there is no power brick so you will have to supply your own we have mounting hardware and a mounting br bracket in case you want to mount this to a wall or even the ceiling if so you'll just screw the mounting plate into the wall and Slide the M3 Hub on it like so here is everything you get in the Box this Hub supports multiple connection methods as well as connection protocols so you can connect it via RJ45 connection plus power supply RJ45 connection with power over Ethernet or Wi-Fi plus the power supply it does support both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi if you do choose to connect it over Wi-Fi I'd say if you can hardwire this do so I'll connect mine via Ethernet cord and power supply you can see the Hub starts flashing upon opening the acar app I can see that my device is automatically detected tap on it and then scan that accara code on the side you'll then be asked to give the accara app access to your home network once you you do this your Hub should now be paired successfully to the app you can change the name location and add a device card which shows up in the Home tab of the acar app then we can begin the Journey of iot how exciting you have two options here connect your Hub and any child devices to a matter supported ecosystem or connect your Hub to home kit I imagine for many people maybe who you know don't dabble in Smart Home Tech and stuff like that every day like me might find this a little bit confusing may not know what to do here so we'll discuss this a little bit more here in a minute for now I'll go with matter and connect it that way I'll tap on the matter pairing code which will put it in pairing mode I can then add the Hub to my Apple home app you could do this with whatever smart home ecosystem you use be it Apple home Alexa smart things Google home Etc to be honest probably should have just waited for this part I might would recommend doing so especially if you have other aara hubs or child accessories that you want to migrate over to this new Hub which is what I want to do so going back to the AAR app we can see that I do have a firmware update available I'll go ahead and do that first once that's done it's time to migrate all of my child accessories from my other aara Hub to this new one now before the M3 Hub this is not something that you could do with any of the aara hubs so I'm very glad to see this option available I'll go to the hub settings and at the bottom you can see hub migration there's a lot to read over here just make sure you know what you're doing you know take your time read through it and everything you can see I have only one Hub right now in my setup that's the m1s Hub that's the Hub that I currently have all my child accessories paired to I get a prompt asking if I'm sure I want to do this we can see three things here that will happen current data will be cleared from the new Hub the new Hub will then receive data from the old Hub and the old hub will be restored to a factory setting tap replace to start the process surprisingly only took a few seconds for this to happen I expected it to take much longer for some reason if I go back and look at the child devices I can see all of my accessories now paired to the new Hub I did notice that some of them while they were paired successfully to the new Hub did seem to be unresponsive I did find pretty easy way to fix this um I just found the device or sensor that was unresponsive and then kind of add it like it's a new accessory so hold the button for a few seconds and then read the device in the acar app again like it's a new device the app will recognize the device as the one that's not responding and will kind of just fill it in its place so that was nice if you do have this issue I recommend doing the same thing you know don't delete your unresponsive child accessories out of the app like I said just add a new one and it should replace the unresponsive one with the same name automations and you know all the same settings now when I go to the matter section you can see that it shows that I've not connected it to any ecosystem that's because I did that Hub migration which removed all the previous settings of the Hub so I'll go through that same process to add the Hub to homekit Via matter right now and now we can see that it will start bringing in all of my connected child accessories unfortunately none of the names come over when you do this through matter so you will have to reassign the names for each accessory that that you add to the Apple home app now my older m1s Hub that was you know in the Apple home app will show up as unresponsive along with all the child accessories and stuff that were paired to it and um you know that's because that Hub was basically wiped clean and restored to a factory default setting uh when we did that Hub migration so I would want to just remove that hub from Apple home uh since we're replacing it anyways with the new Hub and that's the Hub migration process all in all I'd say they did a really good job with it it went smoother than I really expected it to be honest there's a little bit of frustration especially if you're using homekit as you will have to you know reconfigure all of your aara accessories as well as the associated scenes or automations in the home app on the other hand Google home and Alexa will retain all the configurations as both of those Integrations are cloud-based if you remember there is an option to connect the Hub to homekit without using matter so it's you can kind of do both it's a little confusing I know you can actually do both at the same time if you add the M3 to Apple home via both the matter integration and the homekit integration it would result in duplicate hubs and child devices in the Apple home app so just be aware that there are slight differences between the two methods the homekit integration will expose The Hub as a security system so you get that security system accessory in the Apple home app and you can use that in automations and stuff like that um you'll also get some other features like adaptive lighting maybe for certain aara child accessories those features you won't get when you integrate The Hub into Apple home via matter what is kind of cool I guess is that I think you can use both of these Integrations simultaneously at least at least that's what it seems like so I can use the homekit integration to add the Hub to Apple home if I want but use the matter integration for other smart home ecosystems that I might be using like Google home or even homey Pro the M3 Hub essentially supports three categories of devices um that you can pair to the hub a car devices third-party matter devices and IR devices so let's cover each real quickly adding a car devices to the hub is pretty straightforward just like it's always been the big difference here with the M3 Hub over the other AAR zigby hubs is that we can now add those newer accara thread devices to the M3 Hub since again this is the first car Hub to have thread support so let's add this aara P2 motion and light sensor to the hub to pair this just tap new device and look for the accara motion and light sensor P2 go through the prompts holding the button and then scanning the code after a few moments it is added successfully to the aara home app change the name and location if you wish adding a car zigby devices to the hub is pretty much the same process so one thing to note with the zigg versus thread accessories paired to the hub all the zigg accessories will then be automatically exposed to your smart home ecosystem where the bridge is paired to like apple home for those thread accessories like the aara P2 motion sensor that we just uh paired for this you will have to also go in and add the device individually in your Apple home ecosystem because this will not automatically be added through the Hub since this one uses thread next I wanted to try adding a third-party device to the acar hub that's another big selling point of this product the ability to add third-party matter devices right well I should have probably read the fine print a little bit closer so this here is an eve matter over thread sensor I figured I'd be able to connect this one because it's a matter over thread this Hub supports matter and thread well after putting the eve sensor into pairing mode and trying to add it to the aara app I get an error saying access to the matter device is not currently supported yeah so that's that big asteris I was talking about earlier currently at the time of launch the M3 Hub supports only the following third-party matter devices select single color in RGB lights from Philips Hue connected via the Hue Bridge electrical switches and dimmers from levaton and thermostats from Google Nest that's it so this was a pretty big disappointment for me hell I couldn't even test this because I don't have any of those supported devices now in my opinion if that's all you can support here you're best not to advertise that you can add thirdparty matter devices to the acar hub when you say that I think okay this Hub supports Wii and thread it's the premier allinone Hub right so I should be able to add any matter over Wi-Fi or matter over thread device to this Hub something like you can do with hubitat or homie Pro right not in this case when I asked the spokesperson from aara about this I was told we are working on it and we are committed to test and support more device types and Brands but unfortunately it will take more time to develop this support the device landscape is quite complex we will have an official update once more device types are supported so what's kind of surprising to me about all this is that this is is limited you know just to select Brands which is kind of weird not device types or categories so I can almost understand it a little bit better I think if the limitation was just on device types but Brands too I don't know I don't know I just yeah not cool I don't think based on my experience with other multi-protocol smart hubs like hubitat or homie or whatever I think if you support matter thirdparty accessories you should be able to connect all matter over thread or all matter over Wi-Fi accessories like I said or at least specific device types I really don't see what the brand has to do with it I don't know that's just my two cents not really what I was expecting all right rant over moving on the third category we mentioned was IR devices so the Hub M3 is also equipped with a built-in three 60° IR Blaster that means it can be used to control IR devices similar to the aara M2 Hub and the G3 camera Hub the nice thing here is that you can not only control the hour device but the Hub recognizes when the device is controlled in another way like if you use a conventional IR remote maybe you like to use the IR remote and you know the aara app it will sync the status in the aara app which is nice you know if you're using the IR device and like automations or anything like that the M3 can also expose an infrared AC or heat pump to matter allowing you to control and automate the AC in your other matter ecosystems like apple home for example now there is a limit of only one AC device though that can be exposed to matter via the Hub so it does not expose the other IR devices like your TV or whatever to matter but it can do that with an AC device now personally I don't really have many IR devices but if you do this could be a great way to add some smart home functionality to those devices again those devices don't get exposed to matter other than the single AC device you can however get these IR devices into homekit through a Cara scenes which is kind of nice I actually made a whole video about that which I'll link Down Below in the description if you want to check that video out next now let's talk about Edge Computing and local automations if you have other aara hubs already and you add the M3 Hub to your network not doing the migration but adding it then it will become the lead over your other accara zigg hubs enhancing their local automation capabilities the alternative if you have another aara Hub is like we did earlier is to migrate all the zigg devices from that Hub to this new M3 Hub now prior to the M3 Hub automations between multiple hubs were executed in the cloud when you add an M3 Hub to your network those automations between you know multiple hubs become Edge automations as as they call it which means they can run locally on the M3 without the need for the cloud so it'll run even if the internet is down which is nice on top of that some acar zigg devices like the ceiling light the T1 light strip and the Dual relay module T2 can still execute automations simple automations even if your M3 Hub is down for whatever reason all this really just means more local control and communication which is always a good thing the inara app includes a a security system feature on the homepage if you tap on the shield icon you'll be taken there personally I don't really use this currently I used to use this a lot but I don't currently use this feature but it is a great way to build out like a simple DIY security system if you don't already have one you can create settings for a home away and night mode as well as a 24/7 alert mode the 24/7 mode is for things that you want like always to be monitored Around the Clock things like water sensors and stuff like that you can choose which child accessories will trigger the different modes you can configure other settings like entry and exit delays schedules and more as mentioned earlier in the video These alarm modes are also exposed to homekit but only when using the homekit integration not matter I've always really liked the Simplicity of creating and using automations in the aara app I think there's a lot of power here if something happens do something else it's very simple to setup but um it it's very powerful so you can choose what happens when a door sensor is opened closed or opened for you know a certain amount of time for example you can even add conditions and choose whether you require any or all of those conditions to be met let's use a door senser here to show you some of the automation capabilities with the M3 built-in speaker you can play an alarm sound or you can play a custom ringtone so this can be really cool for example I created some custom ringtones to serve as notifications for my my Gates and saved them to the M3 you can see the ones that I've already added here or you can tap edit and import new ones here's a little automation that I've created for my Gates the left gate is open the right gate has been open for 5 minutes similarly you can create scenes in the aara app to control multiple accessories so I mentioned this briefly before but you can also export these scenes from the AAR app to Apple homekit now you can even do this with the Custom Sounds on the M3 or other things here in the car app to give you the ability to automate and use those same features in homekit all right so what are my final thoughts on this Hub should you buy one well if you're looking to get into the aara ecosystem for the first time or maybe you're just interested in some of the aara child accessories like you know the many sensors that they have light switches all that stuff you will want to HUB if I was buying in a Hub today for the first time I'd most likely get this M3 Hub it's basically a souped up version of the M2 Hub you can hardwire it via Ethernet which you know is great that that should be more reliable and stable you know than having to rely on your Wi-Fi network like many of the other zigg hubs it also has the hour Blaster and that pretty loud speaker that you can utilize you know for an alarm system or various automations and of course it does act as a zigby hub allowing you to connect all of those awesome child accessories to you know your smart home and you can also connect a Cara thread devices if that's something you want to do since this now has thread built in on the other hand if you are an existing AAR user and you're already happy with your current hub and setup everything's working great I really don't see the huge benefit of upgrading to the M3 Hub right now there is more and better local support for processing automations and things like that which is nice but you know if you don't have any issues right now with your current setup I really don't think you'll see much benefit in adding the M3 Hub unless this Hub has some features like the speaker or IR Blaster that your current hub doesn't have now the exception of course would be if you're currently running automations across multiple hubs in your house multiple aara hubs so if you have already have multiple aara hubs with child accessories and stuff paired to these different hubs adding the M3 would allow those automations to run locally which should just make them more stable and reliable now whether you already have a single aara Hub or multiple hubs you can either add the M3 Hub to your current setup and it will take that leadership role like we discussed earlier over your other hubs for automations and things like that or you can migrate child accessories from your older Hub to the new M3 if you just want to completely replace that old one like I did when I first heard about the M3 I had envisioned a car making the ultimate matter smart Hub I mean that's basically what they're saying right the premier all-in-one Hub that supports multiple protocols and all that that means something that you can connect any smart home device to or at least any matter device to that's what I Envision this is not that it's unfortunate cuz I think that a car home app has some very powerful automation capabilities but the fact that they claim this supports thirdparty matter accessories quite honestly is laughable to be honest sure they do support a very very limited uh few thirdparty matter devices but that won't help most of us if they could add support to all matter over thread devices or matter over Wi-Fi devices well then that claim would mean something then and only then could the accar M3 Hub be the ultimate multi-protocol all-in-one smart home hub but for now it's not it's not a replacement for something like hubitat or homie Pro or home assistant anything like that just to be clear let's just look at this for what it is another aara hub for your aara child accessories at least right now it's a great Hub with a lot of features I do love my accara zigg devices I'm sure I'll be using them for many years to come and they will need a hub and this is the one I'll use but this will not be my ultimate matter multi-protocol Hub uh for all my matter accessories not anytime soon anyways the M3 Hub is available right now globally for $129.99 us I have an affiliate link down below using the links down there do greatly help support this channel so I can keep making videos like this I should also have a discount code which I'll put down there as well hopefully you can save a few bucks if you decide to get one of these if you have any questions at all let me know down in the comments we covered a lot I've also done a number of videos on the various aara products and capabilities I put all that in a playlist that you can find right over here check it out if interested thanks again to Tren micro for sponsoring today's video protect yourself online with their premium Security Suite link and discount code are below for that thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Shane Whatley

Views: 40,551

Keywords: homekit, Apple Homekit, smart home, homekit apple, homekit devices, homekit smart home, affordable homekit, affordable homekit devices, home automation, smarthome, aqara, premiumsecuritysuite, trendmicro, aqara m3 hub, aqara hub, aqara matter, aqara matter hub, aqara vs homey, homey pro, hubitat, best smart home hub, aqara thread hub, aqara border router, aqara thread, aqara hubs

Id: mAfHInkI60Q

Length: 24min 43sec (1483 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024