Outdoor Lux Sensor

I'm (surprisingly) having trouble outdoor light level sensor? Any recommendations?

It'd be nice if it captured temp, humidity, and/or motion too.

-Jeff B

I just put in a couple of Hue outdoor motion sensors. They also do lux and temperature.

Zigbee. Pair directly with Hubitat (no Hue bridge required). Fast reaction on motion. Motion sensitivity is adjustable through the driver/Hubitat device page.

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Good price if you are a Costco member.

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The above would be my recommendation if you want something outdoor rated. The only two other products I'm aware of are the Sensative Strips Comfort (temperature and lux; not cheap and no replaceable battery, even though it's supposed to last a long time) and the Zooz ZSE29 (motion and lux; I think this one reports actual lux values; I know their indoor 4-in-1 reports percentages and isn't super-useful for some thresholds).

Otherwise, what I've done is use readings from a sensor that is actually indoors, in a window and facing outside. The Dome, Fibaro, Hue (even indoor), and Inovelli sensors all lux sensors that have worked well for me. The Zooz 4-in-1 technically has one too, but I don't find it great for this application.

FInally, you could do what I also did: I got a weather station (Ambient Weather WS-2000, in my case, but a few other models work too, as does an Ecowitt Gateway with any compatible sensor) over the holidays, which as a built-in lux sensor I'm pushing data from to my hub via a custom driver. :slight_smile: Outdoor-rated, for sure, and not subject to any mesh network oddities that may haunt an outdoor sensor if it's far from your hub.

Thank you, Eric. btw, is this the same product?

www amazon com/Philips-Hue-Outdoor-Wireless-Required/dp/B07NDFQF2T

On the Amazon page it doesn't say much about light level, or temperature. That said it looks the business.

'Still like to find one that had a hygrometer too.

Thank you too, Bert!

There's no integrated hygrometer. But there is an integrated temperature sensor, and an integrated lux sensor, which Hue calls their "dawn to dusk" sensor. Be aware that lux readings are provided every 5 minutes - even if the change occurs more rapidly than that (my bad, I had disabled more rapid lux reporting).

Ok, on the ambient website. Looking the features list, it doesn't mention a light-level sensor outright, just "sunrise-sunset." I need to trigger something whenever it's dark outside: storm or night.

Is it Z-Wave? Or are you connecting to it through WiFi (you mention pushing the data)? I suppose I'm new enough the Hubitat that I'm not quite sure what you mean...

Any more help would be appreciated.

Thank you, aaiyar, that's helpful info too.

Another possibility would be to use a weather feed such as OpenWeatherMap. The data isn't coming specifically from your yard, but you can probably find something pretty close by. That would give you temp and humidity also, but not motion.

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Thanks, Reid!

That sounds like an Internet / cloud-based service--which is fine. Having said that, I was trying to build this system with as little dependence on the Internet as possible. It won't be zero, e.g. I'll need IFTTT (et al.) for a couple of things.

There is at least one more option for a zigbee lux sensor. The xiaomi zigbee 3.0 light sensor. I integrate these into Hubitat via zigbee2mqtt (so fully local - no Xiaomi hub involved). They're pretty accurate and sensitive.

I think there are others who use this sensor directly with Hubitat.

FWIW
I've been using the Mijia Lux Sensor outside illumination. But I have it on the inside of a north facing window. I use it to light turn on our accent lights daily. Via observing the accent lights its been working satisfactorily for about 6 months now.
I found it didn't do what I wanted if in a West facing window. Too much variation between direct sun and general inside lighting conditions.

I then use a Xiaomi Aqara Temperature, humidity and pressure sensor hanging in my (open) porch. So the temp and humidity exposure is of the outdoor but no rain or snow. Its been there for over a year.

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Thanks, JR--checking 'em out now.

The Sensative Strips provides Temperature and Lux. It is entirely sealed so it's pretty safe from the elements. That is also it's worst feature (IMO) because all physical interaction with the device is done by waving magnets over it in a specific pattern and watching a single small LED for blinking patterns. Once it's paired (Z-Wave) it's pretty solid but I didn't enjoy having to move them (exclude) from SmartThings and over to (include) Hubitat. This sensor seems to be doing better on battery life than my Sensative door/window contact sensors. It's still showing 100% after about four years in service.

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That looks like it to me.

Does the Zooz ZSE-29 now report Lux? Was that added when they updated the firmware? I know they made a lot of feature additions. Unfortunately, I have the original ZSE-29 and they are not upgradeable :disappointed: Also, the ZSE-29 is a bit of a beast - it's pretty big and not particularly attractive.

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I've posed the question to them, Eric. I'll let you know what they say.

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I use 2 Xiaomi illuminance sensors. They are cheap as chips and utterly reliable. I average their value to set my day and evening modes. They work perfectly and haven't dropped from my mesh once.

On the plus side - the Zooz ZSE-29 can be powered by USB and it's a pretty good motion sensor. It also has adjustable sensitivity. I think part of the update was to make that configurable through Z-Wave parameters instead of only being adjusted with small switches on the unit.

I know they have a bunch of different models with different features, but mine definitely has a light sensor and reports lux values (or really whatever unit you choose to display it in--not sure what the "raw" values are). Mine is the WS-2000, which is probably a bit more expensive than what I would have bought myself, but it was a gift. :slight_smile: And setting up an entire weather station just to get lux into Hubitat is probably overkill, but I can't say it isn't fun...and definitely local data!

It is not Z-Wave, however. The outside module uses proprietary(-ish?) RF to communicate with the inside base unit. That is then connected to my Wi-Fi network, and I'm using one of their new firmware options to push this to a device on Hubitat with a custom driver I wrote to parse this data. There are older solutions that involve either the Internet (fetching the data from the AmbientWeather or Wunderground site you can upload your data to; seems silly to me to involve the Internet when the data is already at my house) or adding an Ecowitt Gateway (apparently previously the only option to get local data, but AmbientWeather added this in a firmware update last November and I'm not sure anyone noticed, hence my need to write a custom driver; the Ecowitt can also the sensor data in addition to the first-party base station, so it just supplements that if you add one--which you don't need to anymore).

But, yeah, might be a bit more than you need. For just lux, a Z-Wave or Zigbee sensor with lux might be better, and I see there are lots more suggestions above now.