Hi. I own over 40 Xiaomi / Aqara devices, including a number of Aqara Motion Sensors, have worked extensively on and currently maintain the collection of device handlers of theGitHub/bspranger/Xiaomi repository, and have spent countless hours researching on and testing my Xiaomi / Aqara devices. So let me see if I can help clear up a few things.
Yes. Aqara motion sensors send a “check-in” to the hub every 50-60 minutes. That message contains the battery voltage data used by the driver to produce the battery level event.
If you aren’t seeing any battery report events / log entries in the third hour after pairing or at any time afterwards, then the Xiaomi / Aqara device has dropped off the network. Xiaomi / Aqara devices are supposed to supply an initial message with battery voltage during pairing, but for unknown reasons that message isn’t received or passed on to the device handler. After pairing, in my experience and from reading user reports, the first or second check-in messages can sometimes be missed somehow, before they start on a consistent and regular basis. So it’s best to wait 3 hours.
First off, it’s important to understand that Lux reports from an Aqara Motion Sensor only occur when motion is detected. But if the sensor is still connected you are placing light in front of it and not seeing the lux value change when motion is detected, then there’s either a problem with ZigBee connection or much more likely a hardware issue.
The best way to know if it’s still connected is to look for Live Log entries.
So this tells me that the device isn’t connected / has dropped its connection.
The IKEA Tradfri Outlet is known to work great as a repeater with Xiaomi / Aqara devices. I have one myself and have done plenty of testing with it. However, I would double-check whether there are actually any other ZigBee repeater-based devices at your girlfriend’s with all of the trouble you’re describing. Pretty much any ZigBee device that plugs into the wall and isn’t battery-powered will be a repeater, with the exception of some kinds of ZigBee bulbs (such as Sengled bulbs).
There is absolutely no way to increase the “refresh rate” (reporting interval) of Xiaomi / Aqara devices. They are programmed in hardware to do what they do and do not respond to any ZigBee commands normally used to change the reporting interval. This is probably because they were designed to work only with an Xiaomi / Aqara gateway hub, and not any other hub. In fact pretty much all issues with Aqara / Xiaomi devices being used with a SmartThings Hub stem from the fact that they aren’t meant to be used that way.
Still, plenty of people have managed to get and keep them working, like myself.
When an Aqara Motion Sensor is first paired, it is in a “test” mode which resets motion detection about every 4-5 seconds. This “test” mode lasts 2-3 hours, and after that the sensor resets motion detection after 60 seconds. There is no way to change this behavior without modifying the hardware. One person figured out a hardware “hack” which involves bridging two contact points on the sensors PCB.
No. The sensor’s hardware never sends any message to indicate motion is no longer detected. So this has to be accomplished in software - using the settings of the device handler. If you are using the bspranger device handler, the code starts its own timer to send a motion inactive event after a specific amount of time.
The default is supposed to be 60 seconds (to match the behavior of the hardware) but the last contribution to the device handler was to change the default timer to 120 seconds (though this wasn’t reflected in the text for the preference setting):
In my experience changing the Motion Reset setting to 65 seconds is about the best minimum that can be used. Here’s what happens with a setting of 65 if there is motion for 2 minutes:
- The sensor detects motion
- The device handler creates a
motion detectedevent and starts a motion reset timer of 65 seconds - 60 seconds later, the sensor’s hardware resets and detects motion again
- The device handler resets its motion reset timer to 65 seconds
- 60 seconds later, the sensor’s hardware resets but no motion is detected
- 5 more seconds later, the device handler motion reset timer finishes and creates a
motion inactiveevent
Since you’ve settled on changing the setting to 300 seconds (5 minutes) just imagine the motion sensor possibly detecting motion during the device handler’s countdown and the device handler’s countdown is reset to 300 seconds again. Note that a repeat motion detected event will never happen because by default only events where the state changes (i.e., from detected to inactive) will be created.