I have been trying to work on some automations relying on motion and humidity using the Zooz 4-in-1 ZSE40 sensor, but I'm struggling with a reporting timing aspect of the sensors that I found others on these pages also ran into: the humidity (and temp and lux) only report when motion is not active. Then it also only does so every 3-5 minutes (when one of the three changes).
I was wondering if someone that uses the Aeotec Multisensor 6 could provide some insight:
Does that sensor reports regardless of the motion? Or generally how does it compare for reporting?
How quickly does the battery need replacement (I see it can be USB, but for now I have no easy means of providing USB power)?
What would one do with UV sensing?
Same question, but vibration?
Is there an advantage to what they tout as digital lux readings?
No - this is a shortcoming. These sensors are very very chatty. I will suggest an alternative at the end of my answer
If you pair it on battery it won't repeat and will save you some battery, but if i remember, i think I only got about 3 months out of them. I have mine mains powered.
really nothing. Unless you placed them in a greenhouse or something. I'm sure there is a use for it, but nothing comes to mind for me.
Tamper - someone beating on a door - again not the most useful. You might be able to use it for a dryer or washer to show when the cycle completes .. Hmm ... maybe I'll try that.
None - because it doesn't report consistently enough to make a difference. You can set these to report more often at the cost of the battery, but I use lux to determine if a light should turn on. Works for that as long as there's a long interval in trigger. You could set it up to poll every so often, but battery. It comes down to the fact that the multi's are z-wave and can't report as quickly to support good battery life. They're naturally slower to report.
Now, If you're looking for something that is going to consistently report temp and humidity real time, then look at @iharyadi 's environment sensor. THAT little guy is amazing. I use it to adjust my fan speeds real time. they're not pretty, but they are amazing.
here is a link to the one I bought. But, there have been others since. You might just pm him and find out what he's got. I think he sells them on ebay. They're worth the wait. I guarantee you'll like them. He has a corresponding driver, so you'll want to ask him about that so that you get it installed to your hub.
You're welcome!
One last thing. I said I used these for my fans. I had to adjust the parameters to include a deadband space between because they adjust so fast, I had to contend with the fan fluttering speeds when it hit a certain temp. They're THAT good.
It looks like it needs an outlet so it can power the USB (from what I saw in the YouTube). So, an additional question - if I want to try and just use the humidity as a separate sensor, are there any recommended humidity-only sensors that are battery powered? It's for a bathroom where outlet availability is a premium resource, so I'm not sure how to power it.
I wouldn’t recommend the MS6. Both @erktrek and I have seen these sensors slow down zwave network by looking via zniffer. For whatever reason they are using very slow 9.6 speeds even though they are zwave plus devices. I reached out to their support and they provided some detail but never answered my follow up questions. I also find their sensitivity isn’t that great, mine are installed in the ceiling via their mounts.
If Inovelli ever comes out with a ceiling mount for theirs I would consider replacing them. Here is link to that sensor. I’d check their community for stats on how responsive it is:
Inovelli doesn't have any plans to restock that sensor, but it did work well for me. The Aeon did too, but my batteries didn't last more than a couple months and I had to find a way to USB-power it. Lux reporting for me was good for outside, but I never used it for indoor levels.
I'm not sure--i just remember reading that on their forum thread about out-of-stock products. I believe it didn't sell well enough for their expectations, so I'd doubt they have any immediate plans for anything similar. But they do appear to have a few cool projects coming up!
They did mention potentially replacing them with a 700 series version. Naturally, demand is important given they are a very small (~5 person) outfit, so for anyone interested please let them know.
Thanks for the tag -- been answering tickets and responding in our community all day -- looks like I have some work to do in this community!
Yeah, we're thinking about purchasing a small batch as they sold decently towards the end, but a lot of those numbers were inflated by some fraudulent purchases (more to come there... story for another day) so we're going back and forth.
Also, our bread/butter is switches/lighting and we wanted to invest more in some new switch opportunities (Z-Wave 5-Button Scene Controller + Dimmer Switch | Project Limitless - Projects & Roadmaps - Inovelli Community). The sensor was a white-label product (ie: we put our name on the manufacturers product) and while good, it didn't have the Inovelli firmware on it that we're known for, so we're going back and forth on whether to produce more.
Totally get it. If y’all also created an in ceiling mount like the MS6 I would definitely replace my 2 with your sensors. I am just not impressed with these Aeotec sensors and lack of their support for help.
What I ended up doing for now was using an additional Zooz 4-in-1, and taping entirely over the motion sensor (my wife's suggestion). This way only the temp, humidity, and lux get reported (and I can modulate the frequency by tweaking the trigger parameters in the device setup – within the previously identified 3 - 5 minute cycle of the sensor that I found in other posts).
Conversely, the other 4-in-1 I had already now doesn't need to use those, and I can adjust those three parameters to minimize their frequency (and maximize the battery) – I may replace with a motion-only device at some point.
One note is that it seems the tape needs to be off the sensor, so it can read motion, when updating any of the sensor settings by waking it up.
It's in this area that Zigbee sensors really shine.
There are a number of them that will do the trick - and are battery powered that seem to last forever.
NYCE makes a great sensor, as does Tuya, as does Centralite, as does....
If you have the Zigbee mesh, (or even part of a Zigbee mesh), this is the approach to go for.
I have about 8 of the MS6 units. They used to last about a year on SmartThings, but I'm lucky if I get 1-3 months on Hubitat.
That being said, people might not be aware, but it seems the batteries do not drain evenly. When I remove them from the sensors, I see typically one is at 0.5v, and the other is still at 3.0v. Do check when you're swapping... could be wasting. Also, when you put in one battery, the sensor lights up... kind of weird. I guess it's a parallel circuit, but doesn't evenly draw.
After posting this thread, I found this in another one:
I think it explains the voltage you've measured. I ended up getting in touch with Zooz, and it seems it was because the sensor was automatically connecting with S0 security, and never prompted me to choose. I had to get a z-stick to use as a secondary controller, so I could get the prompt to include without security.
I didn't realize you could actually use the secondary control to include devices... this makes me wonder if I could use this trick to include my Schlage lock that refuses to work on the C7. Force it into S0 or none mode. The only message I get that indicates it's almost working is the bootstrap-now-exclude-and-repair thing in the logs. The UI really should indicate something in this scenario.
