The Aqara Hub G5 Pro runs over WiFi and is not only a full true-colour night vision camera (image sensor 1/1/1.8″ – aperture f/1.0, resolution 2688*1520, field-of-view 133 degrees diagonal) but also a hub. It runs off 5v at up to 2A and handles both 2.4 and 5Ghz WiFi. Other protocols include Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth.
Well, that was a mouthful, let’s have some photos… but first, why Aqara? I’ve both received to test and bought dozens of Aqara products over time and I like them – sensors that work using Zigbee with Aqara claiming you need to use their hubs, but in fact working entirely reliably on Zigbee2MQTT – so the best of both worlds.
The G5 is the latest in a line of hubs from Aqara, some with cameras, some not – and comes complete with a power lead – i.e. a decent USB-C lead along with instructions, a pair of screws and a pair of raulplugs along with a very thin “manual” which in fact does nothing more than make sure you know where to plug in the USB lead as well as pointing you to an online manual and video on the Aqara APP – personally I’m happy with that as printed manuals for new products tend to become out of date VERY quickly – such is the world of IOT.
Skipping power supplies is a trend I think started in the phone industry – personally I’ve mixed feelings about that but as long as it will work with any old USB wall supply, I guess I’m happy as I have a number of multi-output USB-C power units.
I’m going to do my usual thing and start off blind, no manual and use and existing power supply and lead on my bench.
“Ready to connect, please open the APP” said an American voice. Thankfully I have the Aqara Home APP on my phone but maybe the voice could have said “please open the Aqara Home App and make sure ytou create an account befoer starting”. Ok, that’s a bit long-winded. Here we go… at least I know my power supply is working and there’s a tiny yellow/white light flashing in the front middle of the unit (reminiscent of a trip to the optician).
Don;t blame me – I’m a natural born experimenter – I could not help looking to see if my Zigbee2MQTT woudl accept the camera hub before attaching to the Aqara hub. It seems not, probably just as well. Light is still flashing – so – on with the APP…
What’s that little metal disk in the photo for? Well, it opens the back which exposes copies of the QR codes on the base and also a reset button. Very upmarket-looking – I’ll ignore that for now and open the APP as instructed. that for now.
One open APP, one camera/hub with flashing light… what next – the + button top right of the APP of course.. Add accessory – “Camera Hub G5 Pro (WiFi)” appears. I click on the image.
“Scan” indicates the APP, which shows a live video from my phone’s camera. I scan the leftmost QR code on the base – “unrecognisable code” – so I scan the rightmost code.. The App is asking me which of my WiFi access points I want to use and seems happy with either my nearest 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz points – I pick the latter. It wants to know the password but that is already stored on the phone so all I (hopefully) have to do is press “Next step”.
“Network connecting, please wait” – “The account is bound successfully, welcome aboard” says the American voice. The only thing I’m going to change here is “default room” to my office.
“Next”. Oh I need to rename “Camera” I think…. “Add a card to the homepage board” – go on then…
Well, the camera works – that’s a good start. At the risk of letting you see what a mess my office is in – here below right is the first APP page with live video – very smooth – high quality – about half a second delay from real life.
That tiny light centre front of the camera is now red, regardless of whether I’m moving or not.
I couldn’t resist jumping the gun and looking at settings, no sign of needing an SD for storage, but I did notice “RTSP LAN Preview”. “When turned on, you can view live video from the camera through a LAN tool” – the spelling error is theirs, not mine. I’ll report it because I can.
SO timeline works – without bothereing to check on the seb it’s obvious there’s some memory in there for storing short bursts of detected movement at least.
Oh, now I’m sitting here and the light is blue. What’s that all about? Moving doesn’t seem to change it. So, there’s a DECENT camera on the front, an obvious sensor and a black circle that for now escapes me…. microwave?
I’ve written about many cameras so the controls you see on the right would not look out of place for any modern camera aside from those extra recognition buttons. No pan and tilt here but I can manually move the camera around and up and down on it’s base.
I’ve now checked settings above and know that RTSP will work but what happens when I go over to Home Assistant – will I actually have to THINK?
Home Assistant – Notifications – New Devices Discovered – will it be that easy? Let’s find out. No real idea what the significance of Thread is here as I’ve not used it to date but it appeared when I plugged in the G5.
I clicked ADD then OK and a new integration appeared like magic. That tends to be the way with Home Assistant.
But surely to get the camera at least into HA I’m going to need to give it an IP or something? If like me you come across Thread for the first time – this could be something to leave for a clear head in the morning?
Hmm. NOW I’m getting worried..
I had a quick word in the morning with Aqara and of course the camera in the G5 has no controls as it is just part of the HUB and they assured me I can integrate the camera into HA using RTSP – so GENERIC CAMERA it is, then.. It would have been nice to adjust sensitivity and turn the light on and off in HA – but it is what it is…..
And minutes later thanks to the RTSP information provided in the APP, there it is added into my Home Assistant along with my other cameras – don’t worry about the aliasing – expanded to full screen, that disappears completely.
EARLY morning test – I’ll soon point the camera outside soon to get some external shots and maybe a night shot but right now after a few nice days – it’s raining. Of course the G5 can also act as both Matter controller and Zigbee hub. I’ve more new Zigbee devices coming soon, I’ll add them in, just to test that as I normally use Zigbee2MQTT. Aqara can also offer a paid online HomeGuardian system, integrating all your Aqara cameras if you wish.
There’s a spotlight you can turn on and off and adjust brilliance (very bright when running flat out) – thats the white area on the right side, shown here at 2% otherwise you’d not see the actual G5.