I know there are tons of reports with folks having the same issue.
Hue Outdoor sensor that constantly drops off the mesh. Only seems to be an issue on C8 hubs. They can go for months fine, then suddenly I have to re-pair them several times in one week. Nothing has changed with wireless, channels, mesh, etc. One that I have issues with is maybe 10 feet from a powered repeater, and maybe 20 feet from the hub itself.
I just re-paired it this morning before work, was working fine but now stuck on active and off the mesh again.
Anyone find a solution? There's not much else out there in the way of outdoor zigbee motion sensors. Plus as much as these Hues cost, I hate to replace them.
Had the same and never found a fix for it.
Workaround I use: Hue hub right next to HE, sensor connected to Hue bub, Hue hub connected to HE over matter.
Rock stable in my situation.
No help here.
I have one, probably 25M from the hub, HE is 2 floors up and inside the house.
It has been solid except for that time at band camp when I change the ZB channel.
That's a bummer. I do have a hue bridge but only a few lights on it. (Hub and a handful of bulbs were gifted to me) And none really close enough to be a good repeater for the sensor.
I've focused on building a strong zwave/ZigBee mesh off the hub.
Feels like moving the trouble sensors to the hub add complexity and possible delay in automations.
For those of you doing this, do you still get battery and lux reports to hubitat thru the hue bridge?
For what it's worth, as another data point... I have an outdoor Hue sensor that's on my C8. It was on my C5 without issue ever. When the C8 came out and I switched over, the Hue sensor dropped repeatedly — so often that I kept a little screwdriver by the back door so I could easily dismount it and re-pair.
There were quite a few people at that time having problems with zigbee devices dropping. The Hue sensor was the last one that finally started behaving. It's been fine for ages now, and I put my screwdriver away long ago.
I did have to put in a new battery about 6 months ago, which also gave me a chance to wipe out the cobwebs and whatnot. It paired itself immediately when powered back up. It pairs directly to the C8 vs to a repeater, and that might be the difference? I do have a Hue bridge, but there are only lights on it.
I too had nothing but trouble with Hue Outdoor Motion Sensors. I have no idea why people keep recommending them.
The only way I could keep them from dropping out is to run extension cords through my attic and garage roof and placing repeaters 3-4 feet away from them.
They pair quite easily but during brief power failures they drop out and are too stupid to reconnect to the same repeater they have been connected to for weeks and months.
Before installation I checked their temperature accuracy. One reads 3.6F too high the other 3.0F too low. You can enter offsets in the driver but is the error the same for 90 degree temperature swings?
They are black and their temp sensor is less than an inch to whatever it is mounted to. Mostly sensing the temp of the side of the house.
Have they been updated? Are they ZigBee 3.0? Web site does not say.
Battery level reports at 100% practically forever. Accurate? Makes you feel good anyway.
They cost $50. I certainly would not purchase a Hue hub just to make an old fashioned sensor work.
I have replaced the Hues with four cheaper Zooz ZSE70’s. They work perfectly. Have not climbed a ladder since July. If you can believe Hubitats Z-wave topology they are meshed with almost every 800 series repeater in the house. Tested temp accuracy of within 0.3F compared to a Zooz ZSE44. I know, not very scientific but they all read the same.
Eight levels of motion sensitivity. Can sense birds and squirrels if desired. Only minus is the field of view is less wide than the Hues.
My Hues have been retired to the basement and garage where they are within several feet of repeaters. They stay connected and work as well as $7 dollar E-bay motion sensors and the Hues have an added benefit of reading temperature. Well, the approximate temp anyway.
Same here. Several times. Got rid of them (Indoor).
I had an outdoor Hue motion at one time mounted on a tree, until the unfortunate gate-crumpling by an oil truck incident, not the Hue's fault...but that's another story.
Still using old Zooz motions-working well, powered by usb.
Have a couple of the new ones, but have not installed them yet.
I wonder if the lux readings are better than the old ones, which was basically...night or day?
Probably because they’re stable in some installations. For instance, I’ve had two that have been stable for 5 years. Had them on a C-5, then a C-7, and currently on a C-8 pro. They’ve never dropped off.
The indoor versions have been pretty good.
I have a couple outside in my mailbox and package bin, wrapped in Saran wrap.
They use the CR123 battery too.
Unfortunately, I don't have records on batteries...just a sense they've lasted awhile, at a long distance (more juice required?) and in cold weather (upstate NY).
As a side note, I also feel that the indoor ZSE18 LR's perform better, than the Hues anyway. More snappy. Plus, I think it has a wider range of sensitivity-at high sensitivity and maybe 7' distance it's like a mwave presence sensor, lol. Whereas, on the lower end, it'll ignore my cat. Subjective findings all, and not an outdoor sensor.
I am not discounting the bad experince you and others have had with keeping them online -- that's clearly a real thing, and having had my fair share of zigbee headaches when I moved from C7 -> C8, I can well appreciate the frustration.
But mine's been a rockstar for numerous years - it sees seasonal temp extremes from over 100 to -20F, all sorts of crazy weather, and that thing has never blinked. I'd notice an issue right away since I use its lux in some automations and it controls an important backyard light that we rely on daily.
I too have modified mine for mains-power in past few years, but it was equally reliable prior to that.
I'm pretty sure all the outdoor sensor generations are ZB3.0 -- Hue moved away from ZLL (or ZHA1.2 or whatever they began with) a long time ago.
I think that everything depends on how they're connected to the hub. LR devices can only connect directly - so there are no "hops" involved. However, they are limited to transmission at 100 kbps.
One of my outdoor sensors is connected via a repeater; the other is connected directly. Theoretically, the one connected directly is communicating at 250 kbps.
Agreed. Hue moved from ZLL to ZB3.0. Also, as with your experience, I hardwired mine for convenience; not reliability.
With mesh devices there are many potential points of failure. And each router/repeater brings its own potential idiosyncrasies. FWIW, one of my Hue sensors uses an old Samsung outlet as a repeater. It has never dropped off - at least motion automations that light up my car port have never failed.
The Hues were working great for years, and all my motion sensors were Hues, including the freezer.
Then almost all of them dropped off after a couple of power outages.
The first time, I went to each one, took it apart, etc.
The second time, I just let it ride...they never joined back up by themselves, and I got rid of them.
