Outdoor Lux Sensor

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.

Bert, I'd like to be there. That control console with WS-2k is sweet. 'Just need to get some basic things working now (new house). I do want a weather station. I might ask you for that driver code :slight_smile: ...

In any case, thanks!

I use @iharyadi's awesome Zigbee Envrironment Sensor on my screened porch. It provides Temperature, Humidity, Illuminance, and Pressure in a nice simple and reliable solution.

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Looks good. Just build it into a super small IP65 box, add a louvered vent--might be baller!

There is solar radiation and UV sensing built into the ultrasonic wind sensor on the Ambient Weather WS-5000 Array which can be used by several of their systems (including the WS-5000).

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loving my new Tempest weather station, but might be a bit overkill.

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How do you think it compares to the Ambient Weather WS-5000?

I have an old Honeywell/Meade system that has mostly died and I am looking to replace it.

One of the flaws of the Honeywell/Meade sensors was the battery compartments didn't have durable enough weather seals. This caused the batteries in the rain collector and the UV sensor to crap out due to corrosion. The barometers and the wind sensor worked for a long time (5 or 6 years).

I never owned one so it wouldn't be fair to try and compare. I can say this one the the sexiest weather station of the bunch. The 1st one my wife actually said "oh that's kinda nice" SOLD!!

I've only had it a set up a couple months, I'll give an honest opinion once the "newness" wares off.

Fair enough. I probably won't make a change until warmer weather here anyway. I don't want to be on the roof in this weather.

I disagree. I have two of the new versions and I like the look. My observation is that is doesn't give you good granularity (if that's the right word) on lux-it's really meant to be "dark enough to turn on the light" accurate, in my opinion .

What it does lend itself is associations, if you're into that. The advanced driver allows associations. I have it so that it turns on three switches, independent of the hub.

No temperature sensor.

OK, perhaps "beast" is a bit rough. It just seems large and industrial to me. It is by far the largest motion sensor I own. It's fine for what I use it for - it's on the ceiling of the carport. It's definitely good that it runs on USB so I don't have to climb up on a ladder to change batteries. People probably mistake it for a PTZ camera . . . that's probably a good thing.

I don't have all the fancy features on the original version. They have improved it considerably.

I have 2 of those (ZSE-29) on my gutters down spot elbows. They fit decently tucked up in the 90 of the soffit and "aren't very" visible. I mean if you wanna see them you will.

Nice thing is they only trigger after dark (unless you change it), so no readings all day means super battery life (year plus here and still at 80%)

Aeotech Multi sensor 6 is my fav if your have a plug on a porch or somewhere dry.

I use NR to average all my outdoor sensor to give me "ambient" temp/hum/lux/etc...

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Its second worst feature, in my experience, is that it has ridiculously long reporting intervals, as it only reports lux changes after a doubling or halving of lux. This is too coarse for creating delightfully consistent automation. Eg if you create a rule to turn on a light when lux is <= 50 and the last lux value was 51, your rule won’t trigger until the lux level falls to 26, by which point your room is in near darkness. The much cheaper Xiaomi sensors report within seconds of any change in lux level.

I use an Inovelli LZW60 4-in-1 in the front yard. The LZW60 does motion, temperature, illuminance, and humidity. They are not outdoor rated, but I have it protected, so it is not directly exposed to rain. It survived our moderate winter (only got down to 26F this winter).

Tech, The Tempest WX station you have, how well does the solar work? I mean, I get you might want that to face that panel in a southerly direction (given, well, the Northern Hemisphere), but say you have three "grey days" in a row--is it still running?

How do you pass-along the data to the Hubitat enviroment?

I've used one these in my work (racing, during tests) accurate, but expensive:

I believe that. I used it to switch on/off outdoor lighting and it was sensitive enough and quick enough to do that.

I use the Hue motion indoor for lux and just point them out a window. I have two setup on the East/West sides of the house and it works well for lighting.