Seeking advice to set up light sensor with HA for motion blinds

Configuration
1

I have HA running on my Qnap NAS and just love all the different automations. I’ve recently set up an integration with my Motion Blinds gateway to control the blinds from HA. The gateway controls blinds on 2 large picture windows facing directly west. Once problem I have is to figure out how to get the blinds to close if there is too much sunlight so that our living room does not get too warm in the late afternoon.

Is there any HA compatible device that I could deploy that would monitor either the amount or intensity of light and send a trigger to HA to close the blinds? Possible a heat sensing device could work, but something that triggers when sunlight is at a specific intensity would be great.

Any thoughts/recommendations are much appreciated.

2

How handy are you? The cheapest solution would be a lux sensor (like a BH1750) connected to an ESP32 running ESPHome.

You don’t mention having a ZigBee or ZWave network, so a WiFi light sensor is probably what you’re looking for?

As far as automation goes, there are some great recipes out there for using built-in automation for automating covers (aka blinds), but I use Node-Red because I’m a visual thinker.

3

Thanks but I’m really looking for something more “turnkey”. Has anyone used the tuya light sensor? I can’t determine if this is compatible with HA though

4

I’m using Xiaomi Mi zogbee light sensors (also with Motion Blinds :smile: ), coupled to Conbee II and Deconz. That works just fine. Shielded from rain they even survive outdoors.

5

Thanks, can you provide any further info as to how to set up the Xiaomi Mi light sensor with HA?

6

They report lux values. One way is to create a state trigger for if the value goes over or under a certain lux value. I use a threshold sensor myself, the below example switches off below 50 lux and back on above 200 lux. The automation triggers on the binary sensor going on and off. If the sensor goes off it is dark and the garden lights should turn on, if the sensor turns on there is loght detected, so the garden lights can go back off again. Similar thresholdsensors are made for curtains (I picked the wrong example :slight_smile: ).

- platform: threshold
  device_class: light
  name: Tuinlicht grenswaarde
  entity_id: sensor.lightlevel_9
  upper: 150
  hysteresis: 50
7

Understood, but can this device be directly integrated with HA or does it depend on other hardware or platform to implement?

8

It is a zigbee sensor that I connect directly to the Conbee ||. I do not need the Xiami bridge or anything like that. It may be however that if you use another Zigbee platform in HA, they may not support it. That is why I mentioned my Conbee II stick and the Deconz integration.

Zigbee2mqtt also supports it by the looks of it:
https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/GZCGQ01LM.html

9

Personally I use this Aeotec 6 way sensor: MultiSensor 6 Z-Wave motion, light, temperature sensor

It uses ZWave, which I use a SmartThings hub to handle / integrate w/ HA. You can also use a HUSBZ-1 USB Zwave stick into your HA Pi/Nuc/hardware and run ZWave directly in HA / on your device.

Always multiple ways to skin a cat in HA it seems.

10

Sorry for my naivity, so the Conbee II is a hardware bridge that would connect the Xiami to my HA installation?

11

The conbee is a zigbee controller. You can call it a bridge if you want. HA needs something to interact with zigbee devices such as HUE bulbs, and indeed Xiami devices. It is not brand specific, so you can link al kinds of zigbee devices to it. I was assuming you had something already, but it seems you don’t.

Have you put any thought yet in the kinds of devices you want to control, and the communication protocols that zo with it? Zigbee, Z-wave, wifi, bluetooth, RF… All need some kind of radio device for wireless communication. Some may be already be supported by the device you run Home assistant on, but zigbee and z-wave generally are not.

12

I am using a Philips Hue outdoor motion sensor to measure light intensity and open and close my shutters (morning and evening). It’s pretty easy to setup an automation once the data is in HA.

13

Interesting, thanks for the tip. Amazon shows that it requires a Hue Bridge, is this bypass via direct connection to HA?

14

It does require a hue bridge which I had anyway since I also have some lights from them. I haven’t tried to go the local route with Hue. One downside of the Hue light sensor is that it only starts at 1lux which I find is already fairly bright and I’d like to open my shutters a little earlier but it works so it’s ok for now.

15

The Hue motion sensors work with ZHA or z2m, no Hue bridge needed.