Configure sensitivity of Hue motion sensor without Hue bridge

Hardware
1

As the title suggests: Is it possible to change the sensitivity level of the Hue motion sensors without a Hue bridge?

I bought the new outdoor sensor specifically because the sensitivity can be adjusted and didn’t even consider that I would have any problems as I already have several Hue lights working just fine with my deCONZ dongle.

But I was wrong. The motion sensor shows up just fine and works, but it seems that the sensitivity setting is only configurable through the Hue app, which only works with the Hue bridge. I think? Is there any way around this?

At the moment it’s detecting motion on the other side of the street, which is even worse than sensor I’m supposed to be replacing.

Edit: For anyone else facing this issue, it turns out that you can use the deconz.configure service in Developer Tools to edit Hue motion sensitivity. Like this:

service: deconz.configure
data:
  entity: binary_sensor.outdoor_presence
  field: /config
  data:
    sensitivity: 0
2

With Zigbee2mqtt you can change this. So you could consider moving from Deconz to zigbee2mqtt. The built-in ZHA might also work, I just havn’t tested it.

3

I guess I need to migrate everything from deCONZ. Just looked into ZHA and it seems I’d need to factory reset all or some of my devices, which sounds like a major PITA. Anyway, thanks for the tip.

4

Yes, unfortunately when you move to new Controller software, you need to repair.
The only other option I can think of is the good old "cover some of the Sensor with Black Tape":grin:

5

Haha. I can live with moving to a new controller.

1 Like
6

I’ve been trying the Hue sensor in different locations and would like to play with the sensitivity settings. Where/how do I do it in zigbee2mqtt? In the z2m GUI by selecting the device and using its “exposes” sub-menu?

Thanks

7

Yes, use the Zigbee2mqtt UI, and when here click on the Motion Sensor, and then select the Exposes tab in the top. Here you can play with the settings.

8

Thanks!

The default worked in locations where the motion detector didn’t see much until a person came close but not in locations where it could see a lot of things going on in the street.

Long term solution may be to apply AI to a video feed from a security camera to detect motion

1 Like
9

Hi there,

I got the problem, that my hue motion sensor not detects all motions…
For the integration I use ZHA and found this option:

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But I cannot change the sensitivity level (I read online that 4 is the highest level)

Do you have any tipps for increase the sensitivity or the interval of detecten?

10

where do you find this OccupancyCluster option?

For the SML001 there are 6 related entitites (ZHA)

battery
temperature
motion sensitivity
identifybutton
occupancy
motion

you can simply adjust sensitivity using the sensitivity entity, with three options (low, medium, high).

11

where can I find the sensitivity entity?

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the cluster option you can find here:

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12

thanks, found the cluster option and changed it to two… it appeared to have an effect somehow. The sensor is triggered less frequently…

13

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FYI - this is only available for the SML01 (indoor motion sensor). Unfortunately, the Hue outdoor sensor (SML02) doesn’t have this option, strangely.

14

wait. Strange. After having manually changed the occupancyCluster sensitivity value to 2, the entitity appeared in the list of related entities for my SML02 Outdoor motion sensor.

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I can now change it in the same way as I can the indoor sensor. Strange! :slight_smile:

edit:

To add to the mystery… if I do exactly the same thing with my other SML02… no such thing happens, and the ‘sensitivity’ entity remains hidden.

Puzzled…

15

so for my sml01 this entity is also hidden

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I am just checking out, if it is possible to update the firmware of the motion sensor w/o the hue bridge (I use the conbee2 stick…)

Maybe an old firmware can be the problem?

16

I don’t think there is an easy way to update the firmware through ZHA (at least not to my knowledge). Pairing it to the bridge, updating it, and re-pairing it to HA seems (unfortunately) to be the easiest way, from what I have read in different topics on this forum.

I’ll try to update the firmware and see whether it makes a difference.

17

update: it appeared now also on my other device… i just had to wait a bit :slight_smile: (had already restarted the system so that wasn’t what was causing it)

18

so what you do exactly?
At my sensor this link doesnt appears…

by the way → max for the indoor motion sensor is 2? so this is what my log says…
I dont understand why sometimes the occupancy doesnt register a motion…

19

The indoor sensor has 3 levels (0, 1, 2), I believe.

I wish I could be more informative but I simply changed the occupancyCluster sensitivity value to 2 manually. Then the sensitivity entity appeared in the list (with some delay). Mysterious :slight_smile: