I don’t know anything about the iris motion sensor, but the Zooz Mini Sensor is smaller than the SmartThings Motion Sensor although it sticks out farther from the wall.
I haven’t done a comparison of Zigbee motion sensors, but I did do one for z-wave motion sensors a few months ago. You can find the device dimensions listed in the chart at the bottom of this blog post:
It sounds like you’re happy with the size, response time, and the motion reset time of the IRIS sensors so you’re probably better off trying to fix the battery reporting in the IRIS DTH instead of looking for a new device.
Update: So last night I decided to replace the batteries in my TWO Iris motion sensors that are getting “stuck” on Active (staying active after minutes, even hours, of no motion). The issue is intermittent. I figured OK I’ll just replace the batteries even tho they were at 3.03V. With a brand new batteries measuring 3.24V I had the same issue again the first time I walked by the sensors (they stayed Active for an hour straight). So my theory about the sensor performing badly due to battery voltage, at least in this case, is no good.
Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I suppose it could be communication with the hub. That said, it hasn’t been an issue for the past year (just started a few weeks ago). And the hub is only about 20 feet away and just one drywall wall away. I powered off the hub for 15 minutes because I know that is a way that Zigbee devices can reoptimize their network, but that didn’t make any difference.
I suppose it is possible that the sensors have just gone bad. But what are the odds that TWO sensors would start having this issue around the same time, having gone bad? That makes me think it is something else, like a communication issue. Any ideas?
Yes it is the depth I am concerned about. At any rate I will be curious to learn about what’s new in the next gen version that is due out at the end of October.
The new version will include auto battery reports and will feature optimized motion detection (so motion is detected and reported much faster). It will still run on AAA batteries though.
The NEXT update after that will include a change from 2 AAA batteries to a single CR123 battery which will substantially increase battery life for the sensor. That version will be released at the end of 2017 / beginning of 2018.
@krlaframboise Hey, thanks for this DH! I noticed you also have a Fibaro Motion Sensor ZW5 handler that doesn’t have its own forum link (otherwise I’d be writing there)
Do you have plans to add the ability to set the primary display type of the Fibaro sensor like you have as an option for this Zooz? Thanks!
I unknowingly wrote that DTH at the same time as another user and he posted his to the forum about a day before I completed mine. Fibaro is trying to get the other user’s DTH published by Smartthings so I didn’t bother creating a topic on the forum for mine.
I wasn’t planning on making any enhancements to that DTH, but after I finish a few other projects I’ll see how involved that change would be.
Same issue with mine. It’s just a couple months old and remains Active for long time at random times. It’s good that this is the only zooz product I bought as they don’t seem to be as good with ST.
The issue he was reporting was with his IRIS motion sensors and had nothing to do with the Zooz 4-in-1 Multisensor.
I’ve seen motion detection reliability issues with the Zooz 4-in-1 Multisensor when the battery dropped below 50%, but besides that I haven’t had any problems with it. I know you’ve only had it for a couple of months, but if you have the reporting thresholds set really low you may already have to replace the batteries.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about because I own every Zooz battery powered device and they all work great with SmartThings…
Zooz is also one of the only companies that actually participates in discussions on the SmartThings forum about their products.
@TheSmartestHouse Looking forward to the new device, especially if motion reporting and battery life is improved. Wondering if there will also be improvements in Lux reporting. DH currently only reports 50 lux for one device handler, and another popular one on the forum reports 80 lux max. Maybe its fine and I just don’t understand the lux reading but seems like when it reports 50lux as being max lighting I can still brighten the lights which means lighting really is not at max brightness.
@canuck The device has a default motion timeout of 3 minutes. Which means if motion is detected and then motion stops it will not report no motion until after 3 minutes from the motion event. Is it possible that is the behavior you are seeing? If so with @krlaframboise device handler you can lower this time down to 1 minute, but be aware this will reduce battery life.
Most light sensors can report at least 15,000 lux, but the sensor in the Zooz 4-in-1 Multisensor reports percentage of ambient light instead of lux.
One of the Zooz engineers came up with a conversion chart that went up to 100lux, but based on my testing it’s way off.
I did extensive testing in a controlled environment with 2 of the Zooz 4-in-1 multisensors and 5 different models of light sensors that report lux. The multisensors always maxed out at 100% before the lux reporting devices reached 50 lux.
The Fibaro ZW5 was the exception and it reported around 65 lux when the zooz 4-in-1 maxed out at 100%, but that device always reported at least 15 lux higher than the other 4 sensors so I don’t believe it’s accurate.
We’re finalizing the new version’s firmware and will be implementing updates in two stages. The first one will have optimized motion detection and power consumption through changes in the firmware only. This version will hopefully come out in the next 3-4 weeks.
The second stage will be a hardware update where we’ll be switching from AAA batteries to 1 CR123 lithium battery which will significantly improve battery life for the sensor. This version should be available in early 2018.
As mentioned by @krlaframboise, the LUX readings are a conversion from percentage values which are reported for monitoring purposes rather than light automation.