Aqara
Aqara Curtain Driver E1 (Rod)
- Zigbee
Verified September 2026
Hangs off a standard curtain rod and drags the fabric along — a proper SwitchBot Curtain rival that runs on Zigbee instead of Bluetooth, which most HA users find more reliable at range once you're a few rooms from the coordinator. Pushes up to 12kg on rods (SwitchBot's Rod version caps at 15kg) and only fits smooth 25-32mm rods with no telescopic sections, so measure before buying. The 6000mAh battery is rated up to a year per charge, beating SwitchBot's roughly 8 months, though heavier curtains and longer tracks drain it faster. No Aqara hub needed on Zigbee2MQTT; a track version (£89.99) covers rail-mounted curtains instead.
In Home Assistant
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Position | Cover (0-100%) | Read/write current curtain position; also drives target position for movement commands. |
| Motor state | Sensor | Reports live motor activity (stopped/opening/closing/pause); prone to sticking on opening/closing after travel completes, requiring a correction automation. |
| Hooks lock | Lock + sensor | Physically locks the curtain hooks to the rail, separate from motor movement — useful to prevent manual tampering during scheduled automations. |
| Manual action | Event | Fires manual_open/manual_close when the curtain is pulled by hand rather than driven electrically; usable to sync scenes without polling. |
| Battery / illuminance | Sensor (%, lux) | Built-in battery percentage and a light sensor on the driver head, usable for daylight-based automations without a separate lux sensor. |
Zigbee2MQTT exposes motor state (stopped/opening/closing/pause) separately from position, but a known converter bug leaves motor state stuck on opening/closing after the curtain physically finishes travel — the common fix is an automation that watches for position reaching target and force-corrects state after a short grace period. Initial calibration is also a real pain point: open/close limits and travel direction are set via a limits-calibration command, but without the Aqara app you're walking through the physical-button calibration sequence blind, since the app-guided steps aren't replicated in any HA UI. On the plus side, an action attribute reports manual_open/manual_close in real time whenever someone hand-pulls the curtain, reliable enough to drive scene-sync automations without polling position.
Specs
- battery
- 6000mAh rechargeable Li-ion, rated up to 1 year per charge, recharged via USB-C
- dimensions
- 140.5 x 96 x 44mm
- rod compatibility
- Round, smooth rods 25-32mm diameter; extendable/telescopic rods not supported
- max curtain weight
- 12kg on rods and U-rails; approx. 8kg on I-rails