Xiaomi Motion sensor with zha vs zha_new

I’ve been using my xiaomi motion sensors with zha_new since I got them since they weren’t supported on zha before the custom quirks were released. They were working perfectly fine exactly the way I wanted them to. Then recently I decided to move to the official zha since it is maintained better and supports more devices.

The motion sensors, however, work very differently. On zha_new, the sensors would timeout every 5 seconds and would turn the binary_sensor for that sensor to on if there was any new motion after that 5 seconds. On the official zha the sensors timeout after 2 minutes of no motion. I very much prefer the method that zha_new uses because it gives me more flexibility and more control over my automations.

I know there is a hardware hack for the sensors to make them timeout after 5 seconds, but I don’t have the skills or the tools required to do it. But why would I need a hardware hack if it’s already possible to do in software? My question is why is zha_new different and how can we bring over that functionality to the official zha?

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i did the hardware hack because i didn’t knew there was a way like zha_new.
The way i did it was with electric paint that i bought from amazon. it is really simple.
i know this is not an answer on your question but maybe a way to make it work without soldering.

Do you have a link to the electric paint that you used?

You or someone probably have to make a quirk for it, see GitHub - zigpy/zha-device-handlers: ZHA device handlers bridge the functionality gap created when manufacturers deviate from the ZCL specification, handling deviations and exceptions by parsing custom messages to and from Zigbee devices.

Its a dutch site

but i think the sell it on amazon too

Today i went from deconz to zha to test how it works.
I have an issue now with the aqara motion sensors.
When a motion is triggered the light goes on and after 30 seconds when no motion is detected it turns off.
Now with zha the motion sensor makes some false triggers so after a minute or so motion is triggered while im not there.
With deconz i hadn’t that issue. Does anyone experience the same? The sensor goes back to cleared after 5 sec because of the hardware hack. Whats the difference between zha and deconz with this? And apparently with zha_new it could be done without hardware hack.

And today it was time to go back to deconz. The false triggers from the motion sensor made me go back. I also have the feeling that deconz have a lot more range?! With deconz the hardware mod works like a charm

Range depends on coordinator hardware and routing so no it should not be any different if have same coordinator hardware (example ConBee or RaspBee) and same routers so that mesh looks the same.

I did the hardware hack on 3 xiaomi/mijia sensors, and with the 3 sensors I’m getting false/ghost triggers after the initial motion trigger. The false triggering occurs at random delays after the first, real trigger… sometimes it is 7 secs later, other times even a minute later… the 3 sensors exhibit the same behavior… I’m connecting my HA to them via ZHA to Sonoff Zigbee Bridge flashed with Tasmota.

Can I use/connect to my sensors using Deconz + Sonoff Zigbee Bridge?

Deconz can only use a Conbee or Conbee 2. No other adapters supported.

I use deconz instead of zha for these sensors. I tried to switch to zha from deconz but i got to many ghost/false triggers.
Apperantly there are no zha users that hacked the motion sensors.

Reported it as a bug here [BUG] Mijia/Xiaomi motion sensor with hack reports false motion · Issue #523 · zigpy/zha-device-handlers · GitHub

Maybe if more people writes about it, a fix can be developed.

Hey all, I’m using a Aqara Motion as well since a couple of days, and it’s been updating very slowly. The trigger to motion is very fast, but the off signal comes after 2 minutes. Also the lux sensor will update every hour or something?

If I read the TS correctly, it seems like a software approach inside ZHA should let this thing work much faster? So, is there a way to get this rolling? Where should I post something to get this started, is there a github from ZHA itself or something?

Thanks a lot!