Looking for a reliable multisensor

Hey all,

I have 2 different use cases

  1. Living Room, use lux to turn on/off lights during the day based on presence
  2. Master bath, use motion, humidity and lux to turn on/off ceiling fan and lights

What multisensor is recommended these days? Preferably to use a built in driver as I am not a coder
Which ones to stay away from?

Thanks in advance
Rick

Unfortunately, there aren't really a lot. The Aeon Multisensor is a popular choice, though perhaps because it's only one of few. It does motion, lux, temperature, humidity, vibration, and UV. Before the end of the year, they also plan to release the TriSensor, which does motion, lux, and temperature. There also Monoprice and ZooZ 4-in-1 sensors that do motion, temperature, humidity, and lux. If you're not opposed to Xiaomi, the non-"original" motion sensors also can do lux and temperature, but (I think) no humidity. However, they also have a standalone temperature and humidity sensor. I know the Aeon Multi and Zooz 4-in-1 (might also work with Monoprice?) has a driver built-in to Hubitat. Xiaomi devices don't, but it's really not much harder than copy-and-paste to add one.

Of the above, I've used the Aeon Multi 6 and the ZooZ 4-in-1. Both were slow-ish to respond to motion, but the Aeon in particular seems to work well for most else (and really everything, but the delay in motion--not that much worse than most Z-Wave sensors but slower than most ZigBee sensors--might get annoying if you're using them for lights). I didn't use the other features on the ZooZ much (which looks identical to the Monoprice, though maybe they have different firmware and work differently) but it was so unreliable for motion I had to switch it out.

Any of the above should work for your living room automation, and most should work for your bath (just make sure you get humidity). If speed is important, you might also consider getting a separate, fast motion sensor (probably ZigBee if you're not opposed) and adding whatever other sensors you need to make it work. You might actually get some additional benefit from this--say, a fast motion sensor that sees motion coming into the bathroom door, and but maybe the Aeon mounted somewhere that can see the rest of the room, even someone in the shower (and this sensor, of course, can also monitor humidity, etc.). Sometimes just one sensor in a room like this will be problematic since, for example, people in the shower might not register motion on one and have the lights turned off on them.

Also, a suggestion: my lighting automations mostly work based on mode, which I have change automatically based on time of day (relative to sunrise/sunset and my typical bed/wake times). If you play around with lux enough, you can probably figure out what works for you in each automation, but I found this easier in my case. Just another idea!

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I would stay away from the Monoprice 4-1. I have a few and they are very finicky to get all 4 sensors working. Even changing out batteries will halt the motion.
Zooz 4-1 is pretty decent with the newest one with the CR battery model.

I am a noob (have only just ordered my HE - currently use ST), and a non-programmer. I use several Xiaomi sensors, can you elaborate on this a bit more? Possibly point me to a how to? I am surprised that the Xiaomi sensors are not supported - they are so cheap and have been working well on ST for me, so would really like to use them in the Hubitat system.

Xiaomi sensors are likely to never be officially supported by either Hubitat or ST (or anyone besides Xiaomi)--they do use ZigBee, but a non-standard "profile," compared to the standard ZigBee Home Automation 1.2 profile that Hubitat, ST, and others support. It just happens to be similar enough that many of these can be tricked into pairing with and using the Xiaomi sensors anyway. I think the only reason people really like them is because they're cheap, not because they are easy to pair :slight_smile: (though with known good repeaters, most find them to work well once you get past that).

Have you paired any to ST (sounds like you have)? If so, the process is similar but actually a bit easier since you can do it all from the Hubitat web/admin UI and don't have to split your time between the ST app and IDE like you do on ST. This thread has both the drivers and pairing instructions: [Release] Xiaomi device drivers

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@bertabcd1234, thanks for the explanation and link. It will make the transition to HE easier. Yeah, they can be very difficult to pair, but once they did, they have been good, cheap sensors for me on ST.

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