Need Lux alternative

The zse29 appears to report actual lux based on the driver, but I'm unable to verify the reporting range for lux as it's not specified in the specs from zooz that I can find.
I have no expierence with this device, others will have to chime in in that regard.

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Do you know what the "parameter change to be reported by " are? Could these settings be a factor?

However I don't see how they could cause being locked at 50% unless there were no readings after the 50% reading.

It’s got a few other tricks onboard as well !!!

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This conversion to Lux has been broken for a long time. Hubitat reports values from 0-53 on Zooz 4-in-1 V2 sensors . My guess is that it is a hardware/firmware change issue. If you don't want to fix the conversion, maybe you could just get rid of it and at least provide a wider range of values.

What generation of the Zooz do you have? I have 1st gen with Firmware 1.4 and I don't get lux readings using the Zooz Outdoor Motion Sensor driver.

I'd encourage you to contact Zooz support. @agnes.zooz checks this forum. Make sure you have Light Change Trigger set to 5%. Not sure if it would make a difference, but the latest firmware is 24.16.

If estimated Lux is OK you can check out:

It calculates lux based on sun position and reported cloud coverage. Obviously not as accurate as a local sensor, but may be good enough.

Its my understanding that the FW version you mentioned doesn't work on a 1st Gen device like I have so I can't update. That means I can only configure using manual dials. Changing values in device page doesn't do anything. @agnes.zooz Can you confirm?

I didn't know a 2nd Gen device was already out when I bought one from Amazon that didn't specify what generation it was. And worse, it wasn't cheaper than I could have bought a 2nd Gen directly from Zooz.

Hello all,

My 4 in 1 is v2. Here is what I am now experiencing as well as the new unit I recently returned
Sun comes up, Lux value is 4 at 6:40am, it will creep up til it hits 50 (yes i know it's the max) My issue is, in reality it's not full daylight yet, the day will still get brighter yet it's already maxed...

And Lux reporting is now very sporadic, not every 3-4 mins as it should be which means drastic changes in lux can occur and light don't work b/c the reported value hasn't changed

When I talked to Agnes at Zooz a few weeks ago, she indicated it basically reports day and night, that's how I understood her.

I have been successfully using this for Lux for well over a year now, recently I had to go in and raise all my rule values b/c light weren't turning on during the day, it' never got dark enough according to the sensor.

Regarding OpenWeatherMap driver, I read through it last night and was under the impression that I had to already have an API key which I don't have. Maybe I didn't understand that correctly

@jeubanks, yes both zigbee and z-wave
@bill.d, Yes light trigger is set to 5%, been that way since I installed over a year ago. I'm currently on v17.9 FW, not sure if that is current or not, I have a msg into Agnes

Thanks everyone

Yes agreed, it's been broken from the beginning as there is no such thing as a light level reading from 0 to 100 percent...

There's nothing to fix.

If you want something more than a binary on off for a Lux trigger, don't purchase the 4 in 1.

I might have mucked up the thread a little because I have the Zooz ZSE29 Gen 1, not the 4 in 1. My apologies.

You stated that you attempted to scale the 0-100 to lux in the driver.

There is certainly a transformation programmed in the driver. As the driver reports 0-53. Not 0-100 that is reported by the sensor. See "scaledSensorValue" from the device log. The driver is converting sensor value of 97.03 to 47lux.

All I'm asking is that the scaling be removed.

The V2 hardware works fine even if it doesn't report true lux. It's not that hard to identify a 2 digit threshold for triggering automations. And note that the manual documentation states "Reports light level in percentage (1-100)." It never says anything about lux.

I know you don't like the sensor. I saw you criticize its performance on Hubitat live. I'm pretty sure that you were basing that on previous hardware/firmware combination. The V2 hardware with at least 17.9 firmware motion sensing is as fast as my Iris v2 Zigbee motion sensors.

You can get an OpenWeatherMap key. The key that you can't get is from DarkSky, which is used in a different weather driver.

Thanks Bill, I'll check it out along with searching my coat pockets, couch cushions and the laundry for a spare $40... hehe

The ZSE40 4-in-1 sensor's conversion was based on the comparison between the 100% brightness reported by the sensor and a lux report by other sensors which is why the max (100% brightness) is at around 50 lux. The sensor is ok for telling the difference between night / daylight which should be ok for light automation but is not the best choice for more detailed monitoring of lux levels.

It's better to use something like a dedicated lux sensor for that, Sensative Strips Comfort is another example next to the sensors listed by Mike above.

@toy4rick if you intended to use the ZSE40 for lux readings primarily and it's not going to work for you, PM me with your order number and I'll see what we can do!

@stephen_nutt we had to update the hardware on the ZSE29 VER. 2.0 to accommodate the new features and this is why the 1.04 can't be update over the air to version 2.

Only Version 2 ZSE29 Outdoor sensor will report lux to the hub and the range is 10 - 900 lux (as mentioned in the product manual under the lux sensor settings).

We won't be doing that with the inbuilt driver.

0 to 100 as a percentage is not a meaningful measurement for Lux. Lux is the unit specified for illuminance in Hubitat.

If one is interested in actual accurate Lux readings in an exterior setting, a sensor capable of resolving at least 10,000 Lux is recomended.
For interior use when not facing any exterior windows, 1000 Lux is more than enough.

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Lux has always been a pain for me, especially when I have a number of different devices.

They all seem to report in their own special way. Some are 0-100, some go 0-10,000. I have some that go 0-256. Even if I modified the driver to map the values so they all report something in a similar range, they all reported differently in that range. So I really had issues including them all into automation's.

My advice is to try stick to one brand. At least you will have consistent reporting that you can use in your automation's across those devices. If you stick to devices that "do it right" then that would be preferred as you can mix them and feel good that they are also consistent (hopefully) with others that do it right.

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I understand and agree that 0-100 is not a lux range. Zooz never calls the sensor reading lux. Yet Hubitat already takes that sensor reading, multiplies it by ~50% and puts it in the illuminance field.

The Zooz 4-in-1 perform fine in my home to in defining at least 3 levels - dim/dark, light, bright. I don't even know if giving 2x the range would improve the ability to discern between levels.

It just seems weird for Hubitat to take the sensor reported level and multiply it by about 0.5.

You need to read the specs on what they are reporting, if you're trying to measure something, and the specifications don't enumerate the units or range of reporting available then it's generally prudent to look else where for that specific attribute.

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Yeah, i get the frustration with this device and illuminance, in retrospect it would have been wiser not to include the illuminance capability and just deal with the resulting complaints generated by that decision...

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To get it straight - do you in the Hubitat driver take the sensor output and run it through a conversion (multiplying by about 0.5) before outputting the level to the state?

As stated in other posts above even the devices that try to report real lux are often not comparable between brands. So to set up automations based on levels requires a bit of trial and error if one is using different sensors. A Zooz sensor is not any different even if it's on a different scale. It might or might not be accurate enough for a particular application.

I really don't have a problem with the device as it works for my simple turn on the lights if there is motion and its dark enough scenario. I'd just like the raw sensor value (translated from decimal to integer) to be the reported Hubitat illuminance level.