Z-wave light & temperature sensor reports

Configuration
1

I’m configuring the z-wave Aeotec TriSensor for light level control and I’m not sure how the Reports are handled in HA. Any help form experienced users would be much appreciated.

It seems that Parameter 24 “Light automatic report based on time” sends the light level at timed intervals (default 3600) to sensor.luminance as this value is updating every 1 hour in HA.

However there is Parameter 22 “Light Threshold Report” which looks like it is supposed to send a report whenever the lux measurement changes by a certain amount (default 100). If I artificially change the lux near the sensor with a lamp I do not see the sensor.luminance value updating. It only updates on the timed interval. The same seems to be applicable to the temperature measurements.

I want to poll the lux level and temperature frequently (maybe every minute) to enable a good resolution of data for controlling lights and zoned heating. Currently looks like I need to increase the Timed report to every minute which will effect the sensor battery life, this feels wrong if it is possible to handle using the Threshold reports.

Is anyone able to advise how to use of these sensors effectively?
Are the Threshold reports and Timed reports fundamentally different?
Is the sensor not actually generating the Threshold report or it just being ignored by HA/controller?

*Bonus points if you can explain the last statement in this parameter description:
“This parameter is configured the time interval for light sensor report. This value is larger, the battery life is longer. And the light intensity changed is not obvious.”

2

Does it send new lux values when motion is detected?

3

No doesn’t look like it. See example image; only getting hourly lux reading (red) during several state changes on the ‘Burglar’ and ‘Binary Sensor’. So plenty of chances for a state change report on the lux.

The Binary Sensor is default Disabled and I believe you are supposed to primarily use Burglar for motion detection (0-low, 8-high). Tried Enabling the Binary Sensor but you can see it had no effect. Got it Disabled again now as apparently it can cause some issues).

@mclever have you got the TriSensor in use and do you get reports triggered like I am hoping for?

Contemplating excluding the device from z-wave, factory reset and then including again.

Thanks!

HA_Lux2|690x418

4

No, I was thinking of buying some of these and it is sounding like I will look elsewhere for a solution… I converted from ST so I have those motion sensors and want to upgrade to lux included.

5

Fair enough. I’ve got one of the TriSensors and one of the MultiSensor 6. Will be trying out the same tests with the multi. Plan was to see if both do the job to a similar standard before kitting out more rooms. If the TriSensor can do it then its a good choice at a tenner cheaper than the multi.

6

It can be configured on the Aeotec multi sensor, as I have mine reporting Lux every minute via Zwave.
All the other data apart from motion I have set to hourly.