Food for thought...
The real guts...
(Use Google translate to do a not half bad translation!)
Also...
J
Does this just make them report motion in 5-second windows instead of the default of approximately 60? I don't have a use case for that myself (one-minute of "timeout" before inactivity is more than sufficient for lighting automations, my primary use), but if there's any cool ideas I might be missing out on, I'd love to hear them.
Now, if there was a way to make the new (Aqara?) versions report lux without motion, that would be great. 
(I didn't realize they, like the Hue motion sensors, were limited in that way. Or at least that is my experience with them.)
Not wanting to divert this thread but the Hue motion sensor does report lux at regular intervals without any motion.
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Interesting--I don't actually have one, so I was relying on this report from Mike who wrote the driver:
In any case, to bring this back to Xiaomi, that is definitely my experience with the Aqara sensors--an unfortunate drawback, unless this workaround also helps with that.
I agree, it would be great if the Aqara Motion Sensor reported lux at regular intervals not just with motion.
How did you get it to do that? Has not been my experience or as @bertabcd1234 posted, has not been @mike.maxwell 's experience either.
Are you saying when paired with HE or the Hue bridge? I cannot get that to happen when paired with the Hue bridge, and I cannot get that motion sensor to function at all when paired with HE.
Yes this is indeed their behavior. I think this is probably a battery saving measure for both these motion sensors. Since they are motion sensors, not purpose built illuminance sensors, it would seem they decided illuminance only needs to be reported in reference to motion to determine if an activation is required. I've not tried this with Xiaomi. It may not work without their gateway. The Hue of course does work to check luminance before activation, but that would be ridiculous if it didn't work with their bridge. Since I can't get it to function with HE, I've no way to test if that function works outside of the Hue Bridge.
I have several of these motion sensors, but they are all the NON-Aqara type. I have NOT yet converted any of them using this method so can not comment at all on behaviour. I will be converting 1 of them in due course to verify functionality.
With reference to battery life, the anecdotal evidence (as per article comments) is that it marginally effects longevity, but still is in excess of a year, which as a comparison, beats my Iris sensors by a huge margin. JD Roberts does however raise a valid potential concern about flooding the network due to excessive "chattiness" of the protocol as a result of the mod. Again, the anecdotal evidence (as per article comments) is that this has had no undesirable effect on other systems (non HE / ST).
Personally, based on first-hand behaviour observations upon pairing my own, the devices do in fact resort to 5s reporting intervals for motion for several hours after the initial pairing, so if this is standard device behaviour then, and is forced behaviour (using this mod) post installation, I cannot see it being an issue. Time will however tell.
Just for the edification of folks, the Xiaomi motion sensors have always reported motion upon detecting, but is hard coded to only reset the "motion detect" flag at a minimum of 60s. This is why there is no point to try to detect motion earlier in a 60s period. This distinction is however academic at best, but is worth noting as this mod changes the behaviour resulting in, effectively, a motion reset every 5s, meaning it can now also report motion at 5s intervals if motion occurs.
With respect to Aqara lux readings, the author of the mod may be better suited to answer the questions raised earlier; he is active on the ST forums.
J
I paired it with the HE hub and it picked the stock Hue Motion sensor driver and it just works.
Maybe try resetting it to factory default first.
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Man I tried EVERYTHING (included fresh batteries). I spent two hours trying various things. I can now get it to pair every time, but it just doesn't give me any response every time. I even have a test hub now, and it gave the exact same result. Maybe there were a ton of these produced with different components inside that just don't work with anything but Hue Bridge. I've seen a few reports saying they could not get them to pair and when they replaced them, it worked fine.
I've given up on it. Not worth my time. Xiaomi are faster, cheaper and stable now with the TrΓ₯dfri outlets in place. No reason I would use anything else now unless it's cheaper or free.
Sorry Bob. Not understanding what you posted. This is directly paired, but it says lux 0 and motion active. You were making the point that it reported lux even when no motion was detected. What is it you're showing in this post?
As far as paring success, maybe it's a difference in manufacturing between the UK versions and the North American versions. Mine is model: 9290012607 (and I thought is was just Japanese manufacturers that were horrible at model numbers).
I'm in the UK and it's dark outside. It's placed looking out of a window to get Lux measurement and I picked it up just to trigger motion.
Understood.
The point @mike.maxwell and I am trying to make is if the sensor doesn't detect motion, it does not report Lux measurement until motion is triggered again. You are saying is does, or do you have to trigger motion to see a change in Lux measurement?
You both should update your location profiles 
Click your self in the upper right corner, Click the gear. On the left, click Profile and (finally) youβll see Location.
That Location info is then shown to anyone that clicks your name in a message posting.
Nope 
Well very good. Then this is more a limitation of the Hue bridge than the sensor itself. Well you certainly are lucky you are able to pair the motion sensor and it's functional. I'm not unfortunately.
