Is there any nice lux reading sensor for outdoors?
I have a weather station that have almost everything but one thing it does not have is read how bright it is outside. I was thinking it can be fun to read Lux and maybe even UV.
I have 433Mhz,Zigbee,Z-wave and wifi connect to my Home assistant.
I ended up using a Digi XBee3 (ZigBee) and a TSL2591 with an I2C bus. This gives a decent lux reading.
But it won’t give you radiation (watts/meter) like you see on some weather data pages (e.g. ATG rooftop data (washington.edu)).
I have my own XBee mesh network (custom Python controller code) that I wrote before I discovered HA. My controller code already used MQTT, so to interface with HA I created MQTT sensors to read my custom topic and it has worked well.
HA is awesome for integrating this DIY stuff 
1 Like
Personally I use a Zooz 4-in-1 ZWave sensor on my front porch. More-so for the motion detection (turn on front porch lights w/ motion), but it does offer a lux sensor as well.
Worth noting I have this under a covered porch, so not exposed to the elements.
My is a Conrad ws-0101
Connect with USB to Cumulus MX
1 Like
Hmm look like indoor.
hmm nice but not so easy to buy for me for a low price.
I use it outdoor (as you can see from the lux values) without any problems.
hmm ok like this one
Mi Light Sensor (review) – Homekit News and Reviews
I’m just afraid that sometime it can be very cold more then -10 so when I read this I do wonder
working temperature: -10 ~ 50ºC
Sorry, can’t test, almost never gets this cold over here.
For outdoor, I use the Zigbee Outdoor Philips Hue Motion Sensor. I have 2 of them :
Hue Outdoor sensor | Philips Hue (philips-hue.com)
True outdoor sensor.
Give lots of other informations as well.
Reports Lux level between 0 and 138000.
Works perfectly for a few months now.
1 Like
I assume it works by using the zha integration (no hue hub required)?
No hue hub required of course, and I guess it works fine with ZHA or Deconz but I don’t use them so that’s just a guess. What I know for sure is that they work perfectly with Zigbee2MQTT that I use.
3 Likes
This is the best choise I came up so far for cold enviroment (live in Finland). But it would be nice to know if there are any other alternatives, since Philips is quite expensive…