Tuya lux/light/luminance (+TH?) sensors?

Hardware
1

I’m on my third try with temperature+humidity+lux sensors, so I’m asking for some guidance on the topic.

If you want the long story, here it goes, but the actual questions are below this block:

At first, I did a lot of research on AliExpress, and settled for a boxy one with display, and weeks later the seller said “manufacturer is not selling Zigbee with lux anymore” :clown_face:
Bought another one, which is very pretty and compact, with an e-ink display. It arrived a few days ago and I discovered it’s faulty with non-Tuya gateways. Seller recommended trying another battery… I left home for a few days and when I came back, it was flashing black/white and the battery was dead :clown_face:

Thus, I’m opening up my options to Wifi sensors - I expect to have to replace batteries way more frequently? Anyhow, it seems my current options are:

  1. try to get a Tuya Zigbee hub and replace / add to my Raspberry so I can pair the Moes model? Although that’s quite redundant and not really sure it would solve the matter.
  2. the same boxy one from my first try, but Wifi version instead of Zigbee. Although, a single HA review mentions it’s imprecise, infrequently updates, and seems to require a Tuya hub as well?
    • bonus question: is there any “compatibility list” for Wifi devices like there’s the Blakadder Zigbee db? It’s not uncommon for me to stumble upon a half-working Tuya device in HA, which works great on their app.
  3. Get an exclusive lux sensor, although I didn’t manage to find anything cheap/reliable on Ali? (I live in Brazil, so that’s my only option for smart devices :frowning:), and then pair it with a coin-battery TH sensor (which I already have 4 at home and work wonders). I found this PIR+Lux one, but some other review mentioned trouble using it with HA.
  4. get something very ugly for a desk and overpowered (USB-only and with a siren), but which I know it works (at least in my fridge lol)

Anyone ever had any experience with Tuya-based luminance sensors, and more specifically, any of those models, or have any other to recommend?

Many, many thanks in advance!
– from someone tired of a dark office in cloudy days

2

I am still on a yet to end quest to find a good Lux sensor (good = decent price and useful readings). I have tried some Tuya zigbee stuff and found it really lacking in the range of measurements and frequency of measurements. Best I have found so far are the two (indoor and the outdoor) Hue PIR sensors, both have LUX sensors and maybe both have temperature sensors. However price is way on high side for these units, but they do deliver the best range of reading and pretty good frequency of readings. It has been frustrating, this seems like a simple sensor to build ‘right’.

As for temperature and humidity, I prefer the Bluetooth BLE devices over the zigbee devices. Better reading frequency, lower price and better battery life.

Good hunting!

3

I saw some other post from you speaking wonders about BLE TH sensors! I got somewhat interested, but my ZB coin-battery ones are working great, so no reason to change :slight_smile:

However… why the heck is it so hard to get a lux sensor working right??? hahah
It was so weird to see manufacturers dropping lux support in Zigbee models of the exact same device, but leaving lux on wifi models. Maybe some weird interference? I can’t see how that could happen…

And then, this one is completely riddled with weird compatibility issues. It’s a really pitty then, I guess :man_shrugging:

4

It is a mystery why lux is so hard. I built a couple custom lux sensors with some customizable zigbee modules I have. They work pretty good, depending on the lux sensor, I bought a couple different types. I can get them to register from down in the 0.1 lux to near 100,000 lux (out doors ;-)) and report every couple seconds. I need to print some 3d printed cases for them and take them beyond the breadboard.

1 Like
5

and it is amazing how few info there is to find on these sensors. This is actually the only topic I could find that mentions a stand alone light/illuminance sensor.

I just bought a Tuya light sensor on AliExpress (see photo below). It registers as:

 "manufacturer": "_TZ3000_do6txrcw",
    "model": "TS0222",
    "name": "_TZ3000_do6txrcw TS0222",

Adding this device is a pain in the … It is seen by ZHA and configuration is started but it hangs at that point. Somehow at a certain point, the device is visible in ZHA and it even seems to work. It provides illuminance, temperature and humidity although the last two are always “unknown”. Not surprisingly though since I do not see any temp/hum. sensor on the printed circuit board.

I did not (yet) test the lux levels reported by the device but they look to be what I expect to see at the current light level. To be honest, I don’t even care about the exact levels. I just want to use the ‘current’ level to trigger an automation to control the lights and curtains.

This sensor is being sold by AliExpress “lvhong Store” (Shenzhen Luhong Information Technology Co, Ltd.) as “Tuya Zigbee Light sensor” and seems to be a common TS0222 sensor that is being sold by more companies. Apart from the note “need to use with Tuya gateway” in the enclosed manual there is no reference whatsoever to a brand name.
It reports the illuminance about every 10 minutes or faster when the level changes.
After installation it seems to work as expected and with the price of 6 Euro, I don’t mind if I have to fumble with it for 5 minutes before having it working :upside_down_face:

image
image684×515 23 KB

6

Hello,
I just bought the same one and try to have it recognized…
Hope It will work.
I am just wondering whether I first upgrade my MQQT to v2.0.

Let’s see !

Best regards.

7

I bought one. It seems there are people who have it installed in Zigbee2MQTT version 2, but I am not able to get it configured.

I tried the external_converter, but also no luck so far.

Can anyone help?

Here are the logs:

info 2025-01-21 10:01:03zh:controller: Succesfully interviewed '0xa4c138cf86d212d2'
info 2025-01-21 10:01:03z2m: Successfully interviewed '0xa4c138cf86d212d2', device has successfully been paired
warning 2025-01-21 10:01:03z2m: Device '0xa4c138cf86d212d2' with Zigbee model 'TS0222' and manufacturer name '_TZ3000_do6txrcw' is NOT supported, please follow https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/advanced/support-new-devices/01_support_new_devices.html
info 2025-01-21 10:01:04z2m:mqtt: MQTT publish: topic 'zigbee2mqtt/bridge/event', payload '{"data":{"friendly_name":"0xa4c138cf86d212d2","ieee_address":"0xa4c138cf86d212d2","status":"successful","supported":false},"type":"device_interview"}'
8

I use the following external_converter:

const {battery, temperature, humidity, illuminance, iasZoneAlarm} = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/modernExtend');

const definition = {
    fingerprint: tuya.fingerprint('TS0222', ['_TYZB01_4mdqxxnn', '_TYZB01_m6ec2pgj', '_TZ3000_do6txrcw']),
    model: 'TS0222',
    vendor: 'Tuya',
    description: 'Light intensity sensor',
    fromZigbee: [fz.battery, legacy.fromZigbee.TS0222],
    toZigbee: [],
    exposes: [e.battery()],
    configure: tuya.configureMagicPacket,
    extend: [m.illuminance()],
};

module.exports = definition;
9

This one worked:

const fz = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/converters/fromZigbee');
const tz = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/converters/toZigbee');
const exposes = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/exposes');
const reporting = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/reporting');
const modernExtend = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/modernExtend');
const legacy = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/legacy')
const e = exposes.presets;
const ea = exposes.access;
const tuya = require('zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/tuya');

const definition = {
    // Since a lot of Tuya devices use the same modelID, but use different datapoints
    fingerprint: [
        {modelID: 'TS0222', manufacturerName: '_TYZB01_4mdqxxnn'},
        {modelID: 'TS0222', manufacturerName: '_TYZB01_m6ec2pgj'},
        {modelID: 'TS0222', manufacturerName: '_TZ3000_do6txrcw'},
    ],
    model: 'TS0222',
    vendor: 'Tuya',
    description: 'Light intensity sensor',
    fromZigbee: [fz.battery, fz.illuminance, legacy.fromZigbee.TS0222],
    toZigbee: [],
    exposes: [e.battery(), e.illuminance()],
    configure: tuya.configureMagicPacket,
};

module.exports = definition;
10

Meanwhile I installed this TS0222 on 4 different systems, all running ZHA, without needing any user provided quirks. So it seems ZHA does support this particular ```
“_TZ3000_do6txrcw TS0222” version of the sensor.
Somehow it shows up with temp & humidity but these are always 0 as there are no such sensors in the device

11

I don’t even see a quirk for _TZ3000_do6txrcw , so it’s somewhat zigbee compliant. You could add one if you wanted to remove the temperature and humidity sensors.