[RELEASE] Zooz Q Sensor (ZSE11) community driver

Anyone using these as light sensors? I'm seeing numbers that seem WAY lower than they should be (like 100-300 for a brightly lit room during the day with the window open and sun coming in) - not certain if the sensors just suck (which would be crappy since I got them specifically because of them being a multisensor) or I'm configuring something wrong.

I am getting readings on mine up to 502 which I would assume when the lights are on full in that bathroom (no windows). It has 8 daylight LED bulbs (40w equiv each) so it gets pretty bright.

From what one of the devs said a while back, lux is hard to measure and quantify. I found this article which looks pretty good: Read Our Ultimate Guide To Lux vs Lumens vs Watts For Lighting Installations | Warehouse & Factory Lighting | GREEN BUSINESS LIGHT

You really just have to learn how your sensor reacts to different light levels and then adjust your rules accordingly. I think the consensus has been that the Hue sensors give the best Lux readings, possibly was the outdoor one people liked the best I cannot remember exactly.

I've had a few of these ZSE11's for awhile now to take humidity measurements. I use the data to control the dehumidifier, which works great. Recently, I realized I could also use this to send a reminder if I forget to turn off the light in the crawl (not yet ready to install a smart switch; trying to use the devices I have). However, the smallest increment for reporting lux changes with the standard driver is 10 and this is presenting a challenge.

Does this driver allow smaller increments in reporting?
Is there some other attribute this driver offers that the official driver does not that would make this usable to me for reporting lux changes?

When the crawl light is on, due to the required location of this device, this device reports about 12 lux when there is no other source of light.
The switch for the crawl light is inside the crawl, right next to the door. So when I turn the switch off, the door is still open, and at that point the device then reports 4-16 lux, depending on the time of day and how bright the sun is.
Once I close the crawl door, it reports 0 lux.
However, since the most sensitive setting I have is to report lux changes >=10, it often only the first change immediately, and takes hours to report the second change.
My rule is to notify me if it is past sunset (would rarely be accessing the crawl after then) and the lux >0 for more than 5 minutes. However, yesterday while I was working the lux was reporting between 12 and 40 (wind swings the door open & closed). I turned the light off and it reported 8 (from outdoor ambient light). An hour later, at sunset Hubitat notified me that the lux was not 0, even though it was. About an hour later the HE took a lux reading and reported 0.
I think the issue is the 10 lux min increment for reporting.

Yes, you can go as low as 1 lx. But that's also something you could do with the Basic Z-Wave Tool (and the device manual so you know the parameter number, size, and desired value) if you don't want to permanently switch drivers.

You can look at the options they offer to see if any seem like they might help you with your use case. Even if a driver doesn't provide it (though I think mine offers any that are documented*), you can still use the Basic Z-Wave Tool to change it:

https://www.support.getzooz.com/kb/article/1003-zse11-q-sensor-advanced-settings/

*documented except that I just started playing around with the 800LR version and have a couple updates to make :slight_smile:

So, in a bit of searching it seems like "The Basic Zwave Tool" is a different driver.
If this driver does it, is there any reason to not use this driver?

Alternatively, is there a way to force an illuminance reading in a RM rule?

The Basic Z-Wave Tool is a driver, but you use it just to change the parameter (or view the value or whatever other purpose you're using it for), then switch back to your regular driver. It will not work for regular device operation.

On USB power, yes, you could run the refresh() command, and the device should respond. On battery, no; its not listening and wouldn't get the command until it wakes up again (assuming the driver handles this like it should), likely once or twice a day by default.

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Thank you. It is on USB - which is why I bought this device.
I'll work on learning the refresh rule!

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