Some questions and sorry if this was answered before.
I've been looking for motion sensors and they are about 40-50$ then I saw the Aqara for 20$ and my question is, do I need the Aqara hub or can be paired str8 with our HE?
How reliable are they? I will used them for movement outside my house underneath the eve so rain wont affect them nor sun.
Thanks
I have not had good luck with Aqara sensors paired to HE. Others say they have gotten them to work so your experience may vary. But personally I don't use them.
I have had very good luck with the Hue outdoor motion sensors paired directly to HE, but they are a lot more than $20.
Aqara devices have been troublesome to keep reliably connected for many of us. I tried to use their contact sensors, they would not stay connected. I would not use them again on my hub, just not reliable for me.
Some community drivers are here:
Info on managing problems keeping them connected here:
I have a whole bunch and they are mostly ok but I do get a disconnect time by time and 1 has just started giving me false positives (I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that, changed the battery but it's still happening). So they are cheap, look great, but do have a few issues.
My favourite motion sensor right now is this one...
Zigbee 3.0 Tuya Mini Smart Human Motion Movement Body PIR Transducer Sensor Smart Life Home Security Wireless Connection Light
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mq4GQpY
It's tiny, round so it can be hidden in a hole in the skirting board or ceiling etc., seems to stay connected well, and the best feature is it has a refresh of around 15 seconds out of the box. I really like it.
And here's the driver...
Sonoff motion sensors seem to be working for folks, and they are not expensive...currently around $15 each in a two-pack on Amazon if you're in the US.
Yeah I have a few. But they are so ugly, square and really cheap plastic and battery contacts. I like the price point but Sonoff stuff is a tad junk in my opinion.
Yup...for $15 each you are not going to necessarily get beauty and high quality materials. But if they work... 
I still use 90% Iris motion sensors, v2 and v3, and a few of the old SmartThings sensors. I have a small back-stock of the Iris sensors that I've collected off ebay over the years. When they go I will be sad, small, fast, and reliable. They only seem to appear at crazy prices on ebay these days. 
I am one of the lucky ones with the Aqara motion sensors.
They have slowly replaced my Aeotec Trisensors since my Zigbee network seems to be more reliable and responsive than my Z-Wave one.
Yes @rmadrid20 they can be paired directly to HE and their battery lasts forever.
The only con that I personally find is that their illuminance sensor only reports when motion is sensed (not when illuminance changes).
I have 4 of the Aqara motion sensors. They all included on the first attempt. They are a bit sensitive because of a wide FOV. Took care of that with white tape over parts of the lens. Otherwise I like them because they don’t eat batteries like the ZooZ motion sensor.
Xiaomi Mijia Smart Light Sensor Zigbee 3.0 Light Detection Intelligent Linkage Waterproof Used With Smart Multi-mode Gateway
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOkwOSw
These definitely update on a regular basis without any motion sensing (they are just illuminance sensors). Cheap and work great.
I've had success with Aqara sensors too, although I did a of of reading up on here before I bought ANYTHING.
The consensus is that they seem to play ball with some repeaters, and not others. I went with Ikea Tradfri smart plugs & USB repeaters as they're reported to play nicely with Aqara. Ikea is also as cheap as chips.
5 Aqara motion sensors, 10 contact sensors, 1 temp/humidity sensor and a whole bunch of Aqara/Opple buttons all working reliably. Most have been connected for about 6 months with battery still reporting at 100%.
Yep, I was referring to the motion sensor’s integrated illuminance sensor, when I said they only reported illuminance when sensing motion.
Regarding your suggested Xiaomi illuminance only sensors, I know them well and they are becoming one of my favorites, helping replace Aeotec’s Trisensors. Xiaomi’s are very responsive and their size and form factor makes them easy to instal.
Agreed! Yes, I understood you were talking about the motion devices but just wanted to give a shout out to these great illuminance sensors for other readers who may not be aware of them.
I've got these light sensors driving some rules to turn on lights when it gets dark, and they work fine. No motion required for them to use.
As mentioned above, the key to keeping Mijia/Aqara sensors connected to the hub was using several Ikea Tradfri smart plugs as Zigbee repeaters; once I added a few of those plugs, all my Mijia/Aqara sensors stopped falling off the mesh.
Exactly the same experience for me.
Hi guys, I was looking for this xiaomi light sensor, but looks like out of stock from Aliexpress? Very strange.
Anyway, what do you think about this one below? Looks very cheap and it is nice that has got motion sensor + light sensor, right?
Hi BIGs, do you confirm that up to now is still having this issue?
I think this is a very annoying bug, right? Let's say you pass in a corridor during the night: If I have understood well, the very first time you pass, the lights don't turn on, because the sensor still reads the "old" value, when there was light, maybe sun light. Only in the second time will works fine. And then repeat this issue after each light changes.
Here the risk is too big that this device will not be supported in Hubitat (or any other home automation system different than Tuya).
Yes, they still work that way. But rather than an issue, that is the way they operate (to save battery?).
But they do not affect as you indicate if you program the conditions correctly.
Since they communicate Iluminance when they report motion, you can apply a conditional for Luminance when motion is triggered.
Motion triggers
If Luminance < X turn on lights
Otherwise don’t
Right. This is what is stopping me to buy this version.
Even if there are tons of Tuya devices that are compatible with HE, I was not able to find anything about this one.
Download the Hubitat app
