Xiaomi Aqara leak sensor won’t connect to ST hub v3

I have the Smartthings hub 2018 v3 connected through WiFi. I bought the Xiaomi Aqara leak sensors. For the life of me I cannot get them to show up as discoverable devices through the smart things app. I have read all of the step by step posts. I have pressed the sensors button every way possible. I cannot even see the sensors showing in the hubs IDE log which means I can’t even find the catchcall to set up the sensors manually.
Does anyone have any information about how I can do this? Is it even possible with this hub??

Appreciate everyone’s time.

Which SmartThings app are you using?

I am using the new smartthings app. Not the classic.

Kind of obvious what is coming next…

Try using the classic app? I’m not sure the Xiaomi devices can even be controlled in the new app, never mind discover them.

When you press on top of the sensor, you see a blue light blinking inside?

Yes I do. I’ve tried poking it every which way. Still never shows up.

The only time the version of the app will affect joining of a Zigbee device is when you are attempting to perform a Zigbee 3 join as Zigbee 3 join flow is not supported in the classic app. The primary difference between joining a Zigbee 3 device and joining a Zigbee HA device is that a Zigbee 3 device requires you to scan a QR code that is typically located on said device. With all that said, as far as I am aware there are no Zigbee 3 Xiaomi devices currently available on the market.

We are aware of some recent Xiaomi devices that contain a new version of firmware. This new firmware is missing one of the values required by the Zigbee spec that is queried while a device is joining. Because this required value is missing we are currently failing to onboard Xiaomi devices that have this updated firmware. This is an issue we are aware of and are working to address; this should be resolved with some changes in the upcoming 24 release! There is not an easy way to determine if a Xiaomi device has this new firmware unless you are unable to join said device; I apologize for any issues this is currently causing you.

Ok great! That sounds really promising. Per the firmware update email we received, I will wait until my hub is updated with version 24 tomorrow the 11 th.
Will let you know.

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I had the same problem with a zwave sensor from homeseer. Requires a device handler. I found out the new st app doesn’t support it. I tried the st classic app and it found the device immediately.

So I got the 24 update. The devices still would not add. I then went and tried the classic app. One thing I noticed was when in pairing mode in classic app, the hubs green light would blink. When I left painting mode in classic app the green light on hub would stop blinking. Doing the same thing on the new app, the hubs (it’s 2018 v3 by the way) green light would never blink. Needless to say after some leak sensor poking I could only get it to finally show using the old classic app. Not the new one. So they are showing up now. Also note that the devices do show up in the new app but the app can not connect to the devices and cannot get to their setting or gather their status. But new app sends alerts. So Classic app will have do for now unfortunately.
Not 100% sure what to make of this but it does seem I need to use be classic app to get the hub into pairing mode. Interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Seems to be what I have found as well. Thx.

Zudz, i’ve been waiting for your feedback as i have been looking to get a couple of these sensors so thanks, its appreciated. I’ve also got a v3 hub and started out with the new app (only had ST a week or so) but have already been steered back to the classic app as the SHM will not work with SharpTools.

Any tips to pair them with the classic app r is it pretty straight forward?

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That seems really quite odd that you would not see the hub enter “join mode” when trying to join a device through the new app. Can you confirm for me that you did see the hub light blink green when joining a device through the new app prior to the 24 release?

If you never saw the blinking green light in one app this may boil down to being some confusion around how to join Zigbee and Z-Wave devices using the new app. Understandably this can be confusing, but if you want to join a Zigbee or Z-Wave device you need to select “Tap here to add devices that aren’t shown in the list above”. This will bring up a large selection of types of devices that are officially supported. If you are attempting to join a device that is not officially supported (such as Xiaomi) you can simply go ahead and select any other device from the list and the hub will still enter join mode as you would be use to if using the classic app. Let me know if this fixes your join problems when using the new app, otherwise we can try and figure out what is going on!

Hello. So in the new app, the only way to get the green light to go on and off (pair) is the way you explained by picking a supported device. Then it blinks. But I still could not get these Xiaomi leak sensors to pair through new ST app even that way. I went back to the classic app and they showed easy enough and could pair.

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That really is quite odd as if you see the green blinking light there should be no difference between if you are in the new app or the classic app. I will look into this but glad to hear you got everything to pair!

Hi there!
Any update on this matter?
I am considering buying a few of these Xiaomi sensors to try it out in my fire heated sauna (separate small building right beside the house). They are rated -20C to 60C so it will be interesting to see if I can set up a notification when it’s ready. Just need to know if these sensors can be used with SmartThings V3 and the ST APP (version 1.7.21-25 as of right now).

Hey Johan,

What I can say is that these are not products we officially support because of their inability to follow all aspects of the Zigbee specification. With that said, there are a lot of customers that use Xiaomi sensors frequently with success on the V3/V2. I advise reading through the following thread for info https://community.smartthings.com/t/original-aqara-xiaomi-zigbee-sensors-contact-temp-motion-button-outlet-leak-etc

@BroderickCarlin, thanks for your quick response. I will have a read there.
By the way, perhaps you can recommend another sensor for what I would like to achieve? IP68 and tolerant to both high and low temperatures.

Thanks in advance.

Are you just looking to monitor temperature? I sadly do not have any sensors I could recommend based off of personal use. I have been intending to give one of the Qubino micro switches a try that offer support for a remote temperature probe that can measure between -50C and 125C. Take a look here: http://qubino.com/products/accessories/

EDIT: Please note that the Qubino products are also not certified to work with SmartThings. I believe there are users on the forum that are using these with success but I believe they will require a custom DTH. See [RELEASE] Qubino Flush 1D Relay, Flush 2 Relays, Flush 1 Relay, & Flush Dimmer

EDIT2: Note that these are Z-Wave senors and they make versions for every region of the world and a sensor made for one region will not work in another (Z-Wave frequency is region dependent) so make sure the region of sensor matches the region of hub (Most likely US). I may have made this mistake when trying to order one of these in the past… :smiley:

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