I use the little Xiaomi sensors on Zigbee for most of my automations. They seem to report major changes almost instantly, and if there is only minor changes still give regular update. Not to mention the battery seems to just last for ages. I didn't need one with a display as I can use graphs for that. I agree with your comments about range. Although you can do long range ZigBee with the right devices, none of these devices are designed for attaching to a directional, high gain antenna. A strong mesh and how they play in the mesh is important and as far as I can tell, all the devices you featured play nicely in the mesh.
I like the display for the moments like... Geez I'm cold... Is it me or the room temperature. *Looks over the shoulder * yes it's me. (Instead of loading user interface)🙂🙂🙂
BTW about the video itself, I really liked how this came out 😀, with the moving camera on the products, but still (not moving) on you and your hands. Even the background LED rainbow light was a nice feature (and the frequency analyzer meter as well) and while it had an impact, it was not distracting. It is said “opinions are like bellybuttons… everybody has one, and mine usually stinks!”, but I thought this was a really great job!!!
Thanks, I was wondering who will notice the spectrum analyser in the back :) I managed to fix it in time for this video. At some point I will also display my sub counts and maybe subscribers comments (moderated). I appreciate the feedback it helps to have another perspective on things
@@notenoughtech Hey Mat, like many others, I'm also here for that spectrum analyser. What is that? (Great comparison by the way, and thank you for doing it). I would also be interested in knowing the extreme temperatures those sensors can handle, but I think I will just be converting one of them to use some type of battery which can handle the cold. A little diy never killed anyone.... :)
Thanks for the great video! For me an interesting fact that you did not mention is battery lifetime, because I am not willing to add devices where I have to change batteries every few month. I guess temperature drop means battery voltage drop, which is significant in these small coin cells, and thus reduced reporting rate..?
Aqara sensors tend to fall off the network quite often. Especially if the coordinator goes down they usually don't come back. I didn't see this problem for tuya sensors. But tuya sensors have less humidity temporal resolution (important for shower fans automations). Interestingly aqara contact sensors don't have network problems.
@@notenoughtech I tried three different coordinators, home assistant native zigbee and zigbee2mqtt - same result. They are known to have problems with certain light bulbs and plugs, so maybe they don't like something on my network. There is a variant that is advertised as zigbee 3.0 compatible. Maybe these are better. Mine are the older ones.
Great review. I bought both Tuya devices with luminance for switching on my lights when it is getting to dark in my living room. Both are useless. The baterry consumption of the Moes is terrible; after about 6 weeks the display disappeared. I installed a new battery and after few days display started flashing. The other device does barely react to changes in light conditions, it remains at 50 lux. Only taking it outside in bright daylight does give higher values. I hope to find one that works reliable.
Hi, Moes device - if your display disappeared, this indicates another issue - e-inks usually stay on the last screen (which happens when I pull the battery out of that one as well). I found the lux updates to be pretty swift on my devices, however they are capped at 1000lux (which equals day).
Great Video Mat. My experience has been limited to the Xiaomi (WSDCGQ11LM), Aqara (WSDCGQ11LM): , Sonoff ( SNZB-02) and Meross (MS100EU) ) sensors, all have been pretty good, the Meross has been the most dissapointing from a range point of view and for HomeAssistant users it requires the use of the Meross hub. The Aqara sensor has been the most reliable and I have 15 of them, including three that are used outdoors, two in 3D printed enclosures and one in my polytunnel. I got a single Sonoff sensor to try out because of its low price and it seems fine. If price was a key consideration I would choose the Sonoff, although there is not a great difference in price if you source the Aqara sensors directly from China. In my opinion the Aqara is a nicer looking sensor and my personal favorite. I also have a positive experience using the Sonoff relay/temperature unit (TH10) which I use to monitor my chest freezer.
Thanks for a great video! Would love to have timestamps in description to easier jump around when watching the video again, makes a huge difference for long in-depth videos like this.
@@notenoughtech Hmm, they're not working for me at least (as in not showing up in the bar). I just double checked another video I know was working before and that's still working. If it's not showing up for you either (so it's not just on my end), you can try adding a "00:00" timestamp (intro or whatever) and writing all timestamps with leading 0 and see if it helps.
@@notenoughtech Yeay, it works now! Thanks for looking into it! I think the 00:00 did it, I've seen people having issues with chapters before because they didn't have a chapter for the very beginning of the video, so I'm guessing it's required to make the chapter work.
are there any good epaper zigbee sensors by now? I still use xiaomi BLE ones and they look awesome glued to a wall, but I really want a zigbee one. Extra feature I want is two buttons to set the temperature. Would even DIY if such project is available.
I have a temperature sensor experiment going on right now with the Sonoff sensor. As sold they do TERRIBLE with extreme cold temperatures. They have a tendency to lose connectivity. I have come to the conclusion it's a battery problem shared by all(most?) coin cell based sensors. I have one running in my freezer now for a few days off a single lithium ion cell and it's doing fantastic. I plan on doing a second experiment after this with two AA or AAA batteries.
I've had the small Aqara sensor in my freezer since the start of last september. Within the first week, the battery percentage dropped from 100% to 48% and stabilized there. As I write this, it reports 45% and has had no issues during the 4,5 months I've had it there. I've also had the same type sensor as an outdoor sensor (even if it's not rated for outdoor use) for a year (temperature ranging from -12 to 26 C here in western Norway) and it works like a dream. It has a little roof over it, but if it's rainy and windy it does get a bit wet. That reports 78% battery remaining right now and has worked perfectly.
@@PiercedBrosmen You may have gotten better or fresher batteries that are standing up better to the cold. My sensors that aren't rated for outdoors have done well in everything but extreme cold. I've had issues with humidity being off after heavy blowing rain but a better enclosure should fix that.
Batteries and cold don't like eachother. The voltage drops due to impairment in reactivity of the components so your battery has to account for this. I'd experiment with extending the probe's traces so you can keep the temperature sensor on the outside.
@@notenoughtech I was originally going to use a battery pack on the outside to power the device on the inside. I started talking to others and realized all the AA powered devices were working great for people inside freezers. That's why I decided to try other batteries.
@@jmr Same experience with my sonoff sensors, i have 4 in greenhouses/outside and they are acting very badly below freezing point (random disconnects) and dies out completely somewhere around -10 deg. Celsius, two of them reconnected back after some time and started false reporting 22 deg C until i reset them.
Re 1 degree precision of the LCZ030, reading the zigbee2mqtt page it indicates the precision can be configured? Was it zigbee2mqtt you used, how was it configured? The screen shows 1 decimal place of precision so it should at least be able to report that.
I had to first set it up in Tuya so it would report data to zigbee2mqtt. I'm pretty sure I left it as is. I was a bit puzzled by this. On one side I appreciate them having this option on the other side... Why🤷 haha
I tested some of these devices with a certificated device (Traceable 4155 RH) in order to check how accurate they are. The humidity value is quite out of reality. Aqara TVOC Temperature: - Aqara: 22.0 - Traceable: 21.9 Humidity: - Aqara: 59% - Traceable: 53.3% Sonoff SNZB-02 Temperature: - Sonoff: 22.2 - Traceable: 21.6 Humidity: - Sonoff: 69.9% - Traceable: 62.8%
I'd have to read more about the sht30 but dht series sensors suffer from saturation issues and needed to be chemically restored from time to time especially after working in high humidity. Could be the case with others too
I probably will tackle PIR next - just need to stock up on some types first. I think I busted over $100 of my cash on temp sensors to have a decent selection
great video. can you use the tuya sensors in home assistant. i have problems with my other tuya devices led strips and so on. i can not use them because i dont hate the device -id :-(
Look for the outdoor ones. Humidity might be an issue and cold can kill the battery quickly. The only one I know that would work well is switchbot outdoor sensor but that's not gonna pair with smart things
Really good review, was doing a similar guide but needless to duplicate when it was so well done by you! So I have shared a link to it instead and recommended it. What you could add is that aqara sensors do not update their mesh once it has been created. And that many of the sensors stop reporting below -20 // Markus
@@notenoughtech - no, unfortunately, it seems that they only try at inclusion, then a new inclusion was needed if they were moved too far from the first place. When the inclusion was done again, the ID was kept, however, this was tested with deconz and a conbee 2 unit.
I evaluated small lipstick-size Tuya sensors. My biggest complaint is the extremely slow response time. 40-50 minutes to equilibrate 5*. Not really usable for automations
If you have a 3d printer go for Moes one. - you could print a battery enclosure and connect the cell pads with cables. Just remember you need 2 X AA for 3V
Super helpful review, teardown in particular helped! Do you know what the TVOC sensor is in the Aqara TVOC? Curious to compare that to other HomeKit sensors.
Hello sir Nice video again, Sir , How to overcome zigbee range issue..?? I am using home assistant with usb sonoff zigbee stick.. But if I move sensor away from zigbee stick (basically two concrete wall) then range is completely lost.. Please answer, how to solve this problem
Thank you for another great video! I have a question that I have not being able to find and answer for. I have an Ikea zigbee 5 button control connect to a conbee II that will drain the battery in about a week or less. Do you have an idea why? I have search and search for a solution online but have not found any. HELP
In a week? Is conbee forcing some crazy repointing frequently update? Check with Zigbee2mqtt about setting the reporting updates perhaps this will help
@@notenoughtech I will try that! What would the reporting setting be? Also, would you have video of zigbee2mqtt with conbee II? Once again thank you for all of you help!
What great analysis, I've been using the Sonoff, one inside & one outside in sheltered North facing area, -5 so far & seems ok, also going to try the Sonoff PIR & door contact's. All via a Lidl hub btw.
Great Video. What are the reporting resolutions of the different sensors? I am currently testing sensors for myself and noticed that the the sonoff only reports in 0.2°C increments. The Moes has 0.3°C increments. So for example the sensor reports 20.03°C and the next temperature will be to 20.25°C with no change inbetween. I measured my data just in one room over a long period, so it isn't a reporting frequency problem. Did you collect such data too?
I covered my findings in the charts. With the response resolution there are 2 things to consider. First is the resolution of the sensor and trigger threshold. Rough observations puts this roughly at 0.2C change. However there is a temperature raise rate. Your temperature sensor may seem like reporting every X degrees but you have to factor in the rate of the temperature rise Vs min refresh frequency. It's hard to create conditions to test for this as you'd have to control perfect rise in the temperature to a 0.1 degree to confirm it
@@notenoughtech Yeah you are right. It is pretty challenging to do and I only discovered it after multiple days. Is it possible to get your raw data? I would like to find a sensor with 0.1°C trigger threshold, maybe I can find one with your data. Another thing to add to the Moes one: The trigger resolution also affects the display refresh, as far as I have seen on my one, which makes it a good looking one, but the display isn't really accurate. For example if it's at 19.7°C it won't refresh until it hits 20.0 degrees or higher. Even if the room is at a higher temperature than 19.7.
I watched this. But I can't remember do all of the tuya sensors work out of the box with the sonoff dongle in home assistant? I want to order some, but I don't want to if I have to jump through hoops to get them to work.
Great stuff. Maybe the answer to the 2 anomalies can be solved by any generic ghost hunter show. According to them a "spirit" passed through that particular sensor?😉
@@notenoughtech I think it's more the difference in audio range between the loudest parts of a video (like intro music etc) and quieter talking parts. When they are drastically different people turn down the volume at the intro, then it's too quiet for the rest of the video. Don't worry about it - nothing major. I may just be going deaf 🙂
I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and start buying from those offshore sites. A pair of the Sonoff SNZB-02 sensors costs $37 here in Canada.
$37? That's very expensive. Either Banggood and AliExpress are pretty good if you don't mind the wait. These are Amazons of the China and do take more than a fair share of my money :D
I have several of these Sonoff sensors in my home. Some of them consistently read significantly higher values than the others, some of them up to 10 % RH. I compared them not only relative to each other, but also to several other hygrometers, both electronic and mechanical, from different manufacturers. I don't know how accurate they are, but their calibration seems to be abysmal.
The RH tolerance is approx 5% on the datasheet for the sensor. So if you see difference up to 10% it would be within spec although at very extreme ends of the spectrums. Take in account the fact that humidity reading is taken "on the spot" which also may vary as air isn't as uniform as you think.
Not to my knowledge but ppl in the comments say their Aqara survives well in the cold
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I have a similar system, but sometimes the ZB sensors gets randomly disconnected from the Sonoff ZB Bridge. I had enough and bout an esp32 and a few bluetooth sensors to test. They look much stable until now, but I have no long term experience with them. Do you have BT sensors as well? Could you create a BT / ZB comparison, what is the downside of the BT sensors?
My only experience with Bluetooth is thanks to Switchbot. I have to say that my hesitation over that technology was purely down to rather hard to work with protocol than actual issues with systems using it. It works so well with switchbot that I'm very pleased. I don't know why BLE isn't more popular but something tells me it's the lack of common protocol standards in the industry where everyone makes their own library to make the BT works for them and no one else. That's my guess.
@@notenoughtech Yes... Just wanted to suggest to try out the Bluetooth sensors, Xiaomi has a few $4 sensors, an esp32 is also around $4 and Tasmota supports them out of the box. My experience was pretty good compared to Zigbee and I think the community would also appreciate a comparison video.
The problem is finding a gateway we can all hack and use with this. As unlike ZigBee I bet each company has their own way of connecting to BT
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@@notenoughtech I managed to use a simple lolin32 as a gateway just by flashing with Tasmota and the sensors managed to connect to the gateway without any problem, and also, no additional pairing was needed. It was really easy and no extra knowledge is needed.
You should do a freezer test. I put my sonoff SNZB-02 and a Tuya TS0201 in the past but both tend to be a bit sketchy when it comes to updating on Hubitat. It is good to put them in the fridge and freezer to see if they are working correctly and are accurate.
Fridge and freezers are often made of metal (on the outside) which can degrade the signal a lot. Test like this would be a testimony to a good battery cell and PCB coating which will accumulate some moisture rather than the quality of the sensor. If anything you are likely to damage these as they are not rated outdoor. With the outdoor rated onces... Now that's something for the freezer!
I haven't seen any Zigbee ones that would support this. Sonoff HT series has the capability and new probes: notenoughtech.com/featured/sonoff-th-elite/
I tried a few of the sensors in this video that are supposed to report more frequently and that was not the case of the sensors I received. Tread carefully!
Please note that reporting will also depend on the temperature changes. Ideally you want reports to happen on temperature changes only. Otherwise it's a waste of power. Test the reporting frequency by moving sensor from one temperature to another trying to keep the difference of temperature to reasonable value. 1 C would be a good start. If you get an update within less than 2min you are pretty ok with the selected sensor at least for typical heating use
Thanks for the comparison video! I have a couple of Xiaomi WSDCGQ11LM placed around the house. Was also going to use them for temperature control, but the update rate is way too low. I'm getting an update every hour, or if the temperature changes by 0.5°C. This is way too low to use as a process value for the control, unless it is acceptabel to have 1°C oscilations. So I'm a bit surprised you are seeing an update every 5 minutes. Could it be that the sensors you are using have a different firmware (is that info available in the Zigbee message?)? If I'm not mistaken, these button cell sensors can't be updated over Zigbee, but maybe there are other possibilities.
Your network is broken and your updates are not getting to your destination - you have either congested mesh, (not enough routers vs end devices) or severe WiFi interference. This would be the most likely scenarios. To confirm - take your coordinator and offending sensor away from everything else (power other devices down if you can) and power them close to each other - you should see regular updates if that was the issue
@@notenoughtech Aha, I tried 2 times, probably because I include a link. Let's try again. No, connectivity is not the issue. I get messages exactly every 60 seconds or when there is a 0.5°C. This is normal behaviour, or at least I'm not the only one. You can even find this in the FAQ of Xiaomi. I did notice the video description is mentioning the same part number for the Xiaomi and the Aqara (I copied the number when typing my first reply). But the circular one is normally WSDCGQ01LM.
I cant think of reasons why it would default to 1h updates other than congested mesh. Especially if this is for multiple sensors. These were reporting fine for me so unless you have like very old batch with different sensor firmware i can't think of another reason
@@notenoughtech These were the first devices I started with. They have been behaving like this from the start. I just checked the software version, it's 20160516. Model ID is lumi.sensor_ht.
I tried Tuya sensors before and they worked fine - most should be able to as they use ZigBee 3.0 as well. You may not get all the data (like pressure or TVOC) depending on the sensor type as Sonoff endpoint has to be set for it and they accept right now humidity and temp
well good and fine but there is NO temperature zigbee sensor for outside use like indoor and outdoor use that like a weather station of sorts there is no zigbee light like i want to turn on a led light inside those led light that costs 1 euro that are small and work in the closet... but as always good info and good video
You could prototype one as ZigBee modules pop in here and there and they work pretty well (just like esp boards). But the products mentioned by you would make a lot of sense.
Call me a simpleton, but I prefer Tuya. Cheap, large ecosystem, one app, one account, one Alexa skill, one hub, and for these sensors the option of great battery life by avoiding teeny coincells. Tuya covers both WiFi and ZigBee.
Most of those thermometers only update the historic temp chart every hour even though the temp display may be close to real time. So the historic is useless. Why even bother to include it ?
Sorry? Include what? Temp sensors? Apart from switchbot all the sensors report data real time. How long the data is stored is purely down to the cloud ecosystem you are in.
Misleading review. TS0201 doesnt report 6 times in 5 min interval, but only once every 30 min. Aqara TVOC doesnt hold connection with Sonoff dongle, not for me, not for many other peolpe... Even in your video it shows broken connection sign it top right corner... and you are saying it is the best? common.
The report intervals depends on the temperature changes as well as timers. If you have issues with tvoc experiment with firmware. That usually helps. In my sonoff dongle video i have specified firmware that works the best for me and I'm on it since
What I say to myself everyday is, "I wish the microcontroller and IoT scene had a temperature and humidity sensor...". I mean I am constantly working on projects that need temp and humidity sensing and there is just no sensors to be found. Oh, wait, no, the opposite of both those things. I never have a project that needs a temp and humidity sensor and there are a gillion to choose from and there is practically nothing different between them. Who is buying all these temp and humidity sensors? Why is there a new temp and humidity sensor every other day? Enough with the temp and humidity sensors. Isn't there something else to sense in the world? By the way. this is not a comment on the quality of the video, that was great. It is an indictment of Big Sensor and especially Big Temp and Humidity. Fuck those guys.
Some of these units work on AA batteries. Honestly they would last years. It's a little bit like asking for a remote for your TV to be powered by a lead. I agree that for some installations it makes sense but if you have to change the battery once every 1-2 years... It is simpler than just dragging the cable to your unit
I use the little Xiaomi sensors on Zigbee for most of my automations. They seem to report major changes almost instantly, and if there is only minor changes still give regular update. Not to mention the battery seems to just last for ages. I didn't need one with a display as I can use graphs for that.
I agree with your comments about range. Although you can do long range ZigBee with the right devices, none of these devices are designed for attaching to a directional, high gain antenna. A strong mesh and how they play in the mesh is important and as far as I can tell, all the devices you featured play nicely in the mesh.
I like the display for the moments like... Geez I'm cold... Is it me or the room temperature. *Looks over the shoulder * yes it's me. (Instead of loading user interface)🙂🙂🙂
Some devices like the Osram plugs will actualy destroy you mesh :(
@@friedrich1277 There are a few devices that do not comply to the standards. Luckily these are becoming fewer as the standard is enforced harder
BTW about the video itself, I really liked how this came out 😀, with the moving camera on the products, but still (not moving) on you and your hands. Even the background LED rainbow light was a nice feature (and the frequency analyzer meter as well) and while it had an impact, it was not distracting.
It is said “opinions are like bellybuttons… everybody has one, and mine usually stinks!”, but I thought this was a really great job!!!
Thanks, I was wondering who will notice the spectrum analyser in the back :) I managed to fix it in time for this video. At some point I will also display my sub counts and maybe subscribers comments (moderated). I appreciate the feedback it helps to have another perspective on things
Does the spectrum analyser have line in or is it just microphone ?
@@notenoughtech Hey Mat, like many others, I'm also here for that spectrum analyser. What is that? (Great comparison by the way, and thank you for doing it). I would also be interested in knowing the extreme temperatures those sensors can handle, but I think I will just be converting one of them to use some type of battery which can handle the cold. A little diy never killed anyone.... :)
It's available now: notenoughtech.com/review/awesome-led-panel-from-hell/
Thanks for the great video!
For me an interesting fact that you did not mention is battery lifetime, because I am not willing to add devices where I have to change batteries every few month.
I guess temperature drop means battery voltage drop, which is significant in these small coin cells, and thus reduced reporting rate..?
Aqara sensors tend to fall off the network quite often. Especially if the coordinator goes down they usually don't come back. I didn't see this problem for tuya sensors. But tuya sensors have less humidity temporal resolution (important for shower fans automations). Interestingly aqara contact sensors don't have network problems.
I can't fault them if I'm honest - they behave well in my mesh. Perhaps there is something else at fault? What coordinator/firmware are you on?
@@notenoughtech I tried three different coordinators, home assistant native zigbee and zigbee2mqtt - same result. They are known to have problems with certain light bulbs and plugs, so maybe they don't like something on my network. There is a variant that is advertised as zigbee 3.0 compatible. Maybe these are better. Mine are the older ones.
I wonder if this is 3.0 compatibility issue. I don't think I have any sensors from pre 3.0 era.
Great review. I bought both Tuya devices with luminance for switching on my lights when it is getting to dark in my living room. Both are useless. The baterry consumption of the Moes is terrible; after about 6 weeks the display disappeared. I installed a new battery and after few days display started flashing. The other device does barely react to changes in light conditions, it remains at 50 lux. Only taking it outside in bright daylight does give higher values. I hope to find one that works reliable.
Hi,
Moes device - if your display disappeared, this indicates another issue - e-inks usually stay on the last screen (which happens when I pull the battery out of that one as well). I found the lux updates to be pretty swift on my devices, however they are capped at 1000lux (which equals day).
Great Video Mat. My experience has been limited to the Xiaomi (WSDCGQ11LM), Aqara (WSDCGQ11LM): , Sonoff ( SNZB-02) and Meross (MS100EU) ) sensors, all have been pretty good, the Meross has been the most dissapointing from a range point of view and for HomeAssistant users it requires the use of the Meross hub. The Aqara sensor has been the most reliable and I have 15 of them, including three that are used outdoors, two in 3D printed enclosures and one in my polytunnel. I got a single Sonoff sensor to try out because of its low price and it seems fine. If price was a key consideration I would choose the Sonoff, although there is not a great difference in price if you source the Aqara sensors directly from China. In my opinion the Aqara is a nicer looking sensor and my personal favorite. I also have a positive experience using the Sonoff relay/temperature unit (TH10) which I use to monitor my chest freezer.
I wonder how the outdoor ones perform for you - whats the battery like?
@@notenoughtech they seem to work fine, I’ve not (yet) noticed a problem with battery life, but they have only been installed for about 9 months.
9 months is pretty good. What's the lowest temp they have been in?
@@notenoughtech -4 or -5 deg C so far, typically the outside temp here rarely gets lower than -5 or. -6.
Thats good to know I'd be a bit worried about the battery in that temp but if you have no issues I guess we are good to go ;)
Thanks for a great video!
Would love to have timestamps in description to easier jump around when watching the video again, makes a huge difference for long in-depth videos like this.
They are in description. Is UA-cam not picking those up?
@@notenoughtech Hmm, they're not working for me at least (as in not showing up in the bar). I just double checked another video I know was working before and that's still working. If it's not showing up for you either (so it's not just on my end), you can try adding a "00:00" timestamp (intro or whatever) and writing all timestamps with leading 0 and see if it helps.
Ok, I moved the stamps to front and added 00 format - they showed up straight away!
@@notenoughtech Yeay, it works now! Thanks for looking into it!
I think the 00:00 did it, I've seen people having issues with chapters before because they didn't have a chapter for the very beginning of the video, so I'm guessing it's required to make the chapter work.
I'll bear this in mind for next videos thanks for letting me know
Excellent review! And I am wondering where you bought the colorful light? It looks sooooo nice!😆
I'll get more details about the panel next week ;)
I too am intrigued about your spectrum analyser
are there any good epaper zigbee sensors by now? I still use xiaomi BLE ones and they look awesome glued to a wall, but I really want a zigbee one. Extra feature I want is two buttons to set the temperature. Would even DIY if such project is available.
I have a temperature sensor experiment going on right now with the Sonoff sensor. As sold they do TERRIBLE with extreme cold temperatures. They have a tendency to lose connectivity. I have come to the conclusion it's a battery problem shared by all(most?) coin cell based sensors. I have one running in my freezer now for a few days off a single lithium ion cell and it's doing fantastic. I plan on doing a second experiment after this with two AA or AAA batteries.
I've had the small Aqara sensor in my freezer since the start of last september. Within the first week, the battery percentage dropped from 100% to 48% and stabilized there. As I write this, it reports 45% and has had no issues during the 4,5 months I've had it there.
I've also had the same type sensor as an outdoor sensor (even if it's not rated for outdoor use) for a year (temperature ranging from -12 to 26 C here in western Norway) and it works like a dream. It has a little roof over it, but if it's rainy and windy it does get a bit wet. That reports 78% battery remaining right now and has worked perfectly.
@@PiercedBrosmen You may have gotten better or fresher batteries that are standing up better to the cold. My sensors that aren't rated for outdoors have done well in everything but extreme cold. I've had issues with humidity being off after heavy blowing rain but a better enclosure should fix that.
Batteries and cold don't like eachother. The voltage drops due to impairment in reactivity of the components so your battery has to account for this. I'd experiment with extending the probe's traces so you can keep the temperature sensor on the outside.
@@notenoughtech I was originally going to use a battery pack on the outside to power the device on the inside. I started talking to others and realized all the AA powered devices were working great for people inside freezers. That's why I decided to try other batteries.
@@jmr Same experience with my sonoff sensors, i have 4 in greenhouses/outside and they are acting very badly below freezing point (random disconnects) and dies out completely somewhere around -10 deg. Celsius, two of them reconnected back after some time and started false reporting 22 deg C until i reset them.
Re 1 degree precision of the LCZ030, reading the zigbee2mqtt page it indicates the precision can be configured? Was it zigbee2mqtt you used, how was it configured? The screen shows 1 decimal place of precision so it should at least be able to report that.
I had to first set it up in Tuya so it would report data to zigbee2mqtt. I'm pretty sure I left it as is. I was a bit puzzled by this. On one side I appreciate them having this option on the other side... Why🤷 haha
Excellent review! That's just what I need! BTW, what's the colorful light? It looks magical.
Its gonna be a subject of a review next week. Stay tuned :)
I tested some of these devices with a certificated device (Traceable 4155 RH) in order to check how accurate they are. The humidity value is quite out of reality.
Aqara TVOC
Temperature:
- Aqara: 22.0
- Traceable: 21.9
Humidity:
- Aqara: 59%
- Traceable: 53.3%
Sonoff SNZB-02
Temperature:
- Sonoff: 22.2
- Traceable: 21.6
Humidity:
- Sonoff: 69.9%
- Traceable: 62.8%
I'd have to read more about the sht30 but dht series sensors suffer from saturation issues and needed to be chemically restored from time to time especially after working in high humidity. Could be the case with others too
Thanks Mat! The categories and caveats were super helpful!
I probably will tackle PIR next - just need to stock up on some types first. I think I busted over $100 of my cash on temp sensors to have a decent selection
Thank youuuuu for videos and lessons! Which ones sensors can Alexa reads as trigger??? Thank youuuuu.
If you pair it directly to the Alexa - all of them, otherwise it depends on the ecosystem you are using for your hub
great video. can you use the tuya sensors in home assistant. i have problems with my other tuya devices led strips and so on. i can not use them because i dont hate the device -id :-(
With Tuya you have either option to flash it or to use API. I have a dedicated tutorial about Tuya API, perhaps this will help?
Can you recommend one that would be good inside a refrigerator and connects with smartthings
Look for the outdoor ones. Humidity might be an issue and cold can kill the battery quickly. The only one I know that would work well is switchbot outdoor sensor but that's not gonna pair with smart things
Really good review, was doing a similar guide but needless to duplicate when it was so well done by you! So I have shared a link to it instead and recommended it.
What you could add is that aqara sensors do not update their mesh once it has been created. And that many of the sensors stop reporting below -20
// Markus
Is rebooting them helps to repair the route to coordinator?
@@notenoughtech - no, unfortunately, it seems that they only try at inclusion, then a new inclusion was needed if they were moved too far from the first place. When the inclusion was done again, the ID was kept, however, this was tested with deconz and a conbee 2 unit.
I evaluated small lipstick-size Tuya sensors. My biggest complaint is the extremely slow response time. 40-50 minutes to equilibrate 5*. Not really usable for automations
That's very slow actually
Did you ever see a ZigBee temp/humidity sensor that have e-link display and use AA or AAA battery please ?
Thanks for the video
Not yet. Both listed ones use coin cell :(
@@notenoughtech I think that that coin cell will run no more that some mouths :-(
Its not that bad actually. If you can afford the aqara one it will probably last over a year maybe 2.
@@notenoughtech Too much... I need 8 pieces :-(
If you have a 3d printer go for Moes one. - you could print a battery enclosure and connect the cell pads with cables. Just remember you need 2 X AA for 3V
Super helpful review, teardown in particular helped! Do you know what the TVOC sensor is in the Aqara TVOC? Curious to compare that to other HomeKit sensors.
There was no markings on them. I couldn't identify it
Thanks Mat. I have a few of the Aqara sensors. So far they work really well.
That's good to hear! I cannot complain about mine either
Hello sir
Nice video again,
Sir ,
How to overcome zigbee range issue..??
I am using home assistant with usb sonoff zigbee stick..
But if I move sensor away from zigbee stick (basically two concrete wall) then range is completely lost..
Please answer, how to solve this problem
Having zigbee repeater devices (lights, smart sockets) will strengthen your zigbee mesh.
@@BradClarke thanks
As Bard said - something that will act as a router. A smart bulb half way through the distance would greatly improve things.
@@notenoughtech thank you
Also try a better coordinator. My range improved a lot when I moved away from the CC2531 dongles.
Moes ZSS-ZK-THL vs Tuya LCZ030? Who best? Or other?
I like the Tuya one better
Great video !
That 32x8 matrix is dope ! is it running on awtrix ?
If possible please make a video on that
I have plans on that too.
This is a DIY kit: www.banggood.com/custlink/m3KRQt2DcF
Great video Mat. Very useful for me this one.
I'm glad you found it useful - it's been long time coming. I'm glad i could share all this
Thank you for another great video! I have a question that I have not being able to find and answer for. I have an Ikea zigbee 5 button control connect to a conbee II that will drain the battery in about a week or less. Do you have an idea why? I have search and search for a solution online but have not found any. HELP
In a week? Is conbee forcing some crazy repointing frequently update? Check with Zigbee2mqtt about setting the reporting updates perhaps this will help
@@notenoughtech I will try that! What would the reporting setting be? Also, would you have video of zigbee2mqtt with conbee II? Once again thank you for all of you help!
Do any of these have or support external wired probes? Know any that do?
None of these I'm afraid
Qingping clear glass are nice, I use them in HA
looks very similar to the round one from Tuya
What great analysis, I've been using the Sonoff, one inside & one outside in sheltered North facing area, -5 so far & seems ok, also going to try the Sonoff PIR & door contact's. All via a Lidl hub btw.
Im tempted to do a similar one for PIR sensors
@@notenoughtech Great, I'm sure we'd all enjoy that. Take care.
Great Video. What are the reporting resolutions of the different sensors? I am currently testing sensors for myself and noticed that the the sonoff only reports in 0.2°C increments. The Moes has 0.3°C increments. So for example the sensor reports 20.03°C and the next temperature will be to 20.25°C with no change inbetween. I measured my data just in one room over a long period, so it isn't a reporting frequency problem. Did you collect such data too?
I covered my findings in the charts. With the response resolution there are 2 things to consider. First is the resolution of the sensor and trigger threshold. Rough observations puts this roughly at 0.2C change. However there is a temperature raise rate. Your temperature sensor may seem like reporting every X degrees but you have to factor in the rate of the temperature rise Vs min refresh frequency. It's hard to create conditions to test for this as you'd have to control perfect rise in the temperature to a 0.1 degree to confirm it
@@notenoughtech Yeah you are right. It is pretty challenging to do and I only discovered it after multiple days. Is it possible to get your raw data? I would like to find a sensor with 0.1°C trigger threshold, maybe I can find one with your data.
Another thing to add to the Moes one:
The trigger resolution also affects the display refresh, as far as I have seen on my one, which makes it a good looking one, but the display isn't really accurate. For example if it's at 19.7°C it won't refresh until it hits 20.0 degrees or higher. Even if the room is at a higher temperature than 19.7.
I watched this. But I can't remember do all of the tuya sensors work out of the box with the sonoff dongle in home assistant? I want to order some, but I don't want to if I have to jump through hoops to get them to work.
I only had issues with Blitzwolf sensors anything else worked with Sonoff dongle after I updated coordinator firmware
Great stuff.
Maybe the answer to the 2 anomalies can be solved by any generic ghost hunter show. According to them a "spirit" passed through that particular sensor?😉
Thanks for another very useful video. Thought I'd mention the audio levels on this video and some others is a bit low.
Hmm.. when I was editting it the mic overblown in 2 places in the timeline. That's strange.
@@notenoughtech I think it's more the difference in audio range between the loudest parts of a video (like intro music etc) and quieter talking parts. When they are drastically different people turn down the volume at the intro, then it's too quiet for the rest of the video.
Don't worry about it - nothing major. I may just be going deaf 🙂
I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and start buying from those offshore sites.
A pair of the Sonoff SNZB-02 sensors costs $37 here in Canada.
$37? That's very expensive. Either Banggood and AliExpress are pretty good if you don't mind the wait. These are Amazons of the China and do take more than a fair share of my money :D
I have several of these Sonoff sensors in my home. Some of them consistently read significantly higher values than the others, some of them up to 10 % RH. I compared them not only relative to each other, but also to several other hygrometers, both electronic and mechanical, from different manufacturers. I don't know how accurate they are, but their calibration seems to be abysmal.
The RH tolerance is approx 5% on the datasheet for the sensor. So if you see difference up to 10% it would be within spec although at very extreme ends of the spectrums.
Take in account the fact that humidity reading is taken "on the spot" which also may vary as air isn't as uniform as you think.
Thx for informative video👍
Any zigbee outdoor sensor? (for temp/humidity, and eventually light)
Not to my knowledge but ppl in the comments say their Aqara survives well in the cold
I have a similar system, but sometimes the ZB sensors gets randomly disconnected from the Sonoff ZB Bridge. I had enough and bout an esp32 and a few bluetooth sensors to test. They look much stable until now, but I have no long term experience with them. Do you have BT sensors as well? Could you create a BT / ZB comparison, what is the downside of the BT sensors?
My only experience with Bluetooth is thanks to Switchbot. I have to say that my hesitation over that technology was purely down to rather hard to work with protocol than actual issues with systems using it. It works so well with switchbot that I'm very pleased.
I don't know why BLE isn't more popular but something tells me it's the lack of common protocol standards in the industry where everyone makes their own library to make the BT works for them and no one else. That's my guess.
YT has removed your reply. Links?
@@notenoughtech Yes... Just wanted to suggest to try out the Bluetooth sensors, Xiaomi has a few $4 sensors, an esp32 is also around $4 and Tasmota supports them out of the box. My experience was pretty good compared to Zigbee and I think the community would also appreciate a comparison video.
The problem is finding a gateway we can all hack and use with this. As unlike ZigBee I bet each company has their own way of connecting to BT
@@notenoughtech I managed to use a simple lolin32 as a gateway just by flashing with Tasmota and the sensors managed to connect to the gateway without any problem, and also, no additional pairing was needed. It was really easy and no extra knowledge is needed.
@NotEnoughTECH sonoff motions sometimes stuck in active state... i prefer xiaomi... so much more precise
I guess at some point I'll do one for PIR :)
You should do a freezer test. I put my sonoff SNZB-02 and a Tuya TS0201 in the past but both tend to be a bit sketchy when it comes to updating on Hubitat. It is good to put them in the fridge and freezer to see if they are working correctly and are accurate.
Fridge and freezers are often made of metal (on the outside) which can degrade the signal a lot. Test like this would be a testimony to a good battery cell and PCB coating which will accumulate some moisture rather than the quality of the sensor. If anything you are likely to damage these as they are not rated outdoor.
With the outdoor rated onces... Now that's something for the freezer!
Where can I find temperature sensor with an external probe?
I haven't seen any Zigbee ones that would support this. Sonoff HT series has the capability and new probes: notenoughtech.com/featured/sonoff-th-elite/
I tried a few of the sensors in this video that are supposed to report more frequently and that was not the case of the sensors I received. Tread carefully!
Please note that reporting will also depend on the temperature changes. Ideally you want reports to happen on temperature changes only. Otherwise it's a waste of power.
Test the reporting frequency by moving sensor from one temperature to another trying to keep the difference of temperature to reasonable value. 1 C would be a good start. If you get an update within less than 2min you are pretty ok with the selected sensor at least for typical heating use
Thanks for the comparison video!
I have a couple of Xiaomi WSDCGQ11LM placed around the house. Was also going to use them for temperature control, but the update rate is way too low. I'm getting an update every hour, or if the temperature changes by 0.5°C. This is way too low to use as a process value for the control, unless it is acceptabel to have 1°C oscilations.
So I'm a bit surprised you are seeing an update every 5 minutes. Could it be that the sensors you are using have a different firmware (is that info available in the Zigbee message?)? If I'm not mistaken, these button cell sensors can't be updated over Zigbee, but maybe there are other possibilities.
Your network is broken and your updates are not getting to your destination - you have either congested mesh, (not enough routers vs end devices) or severe WiFi interference.
This would be the most likely scenarios. To confirm - take your coordinator and offending sensor away from everything else (power other devices down if you can) and power them close to each other - you should see regular updates if that was the issue
Your comment was blocked by UA-cam. 🙄
@@notenoughtech Aha, I tried 2 times, probably because I include a link. Let's try again.
No, connectivity is not the issue. I get messages exactly every 60 seconds or when there is a 0.5°C. This is normal behaviour, or at least I'm not the only one. You can even find this in the FAQ of Xiaomi.
I did notice the video description is mentioning the same part number for the Xiaomi and the Aqara (I copied the number when typing my first reply). But the circular one is normally WSDCGQ01LM.
I cant think of reasons why it would default to 1h updates other than congested mesh. Especially if this is for multiple sensors. These were reporting fine for me so unless you have like very old batch with different sensor firmware i can't think of another reason
@@notenoughtech These were the first devices I started with. They have been behaving like this from the start. I just checked the software version, it's 20160516. Model ID is lumi.sensor_ht.
Witch work with sonoff zigbee bridge?
I tried Tuya sensors before and they worked fine - most should be able to as they use ZigBee 3.0 as well. You may not get all the data (like pressure or TVOC) depending on the sensor type as Sonoff endpoint has to be set for it and they accept right now humidity and temp
@@notenoughtech Thanks
well good and fine but
there is NO temperature zigbee sensor for outside use like indoor and outdoor use that like a weather station of sorts
there is no zigbee light like i want to turn on a led light inside those led light that costs 1 euro that are small and work in the closet...
but as always good info and good video
You could prototype one as ZigBee modules pop in here and there and they work pretty well (just like esp boards). But the products mentioned by you would make a lot of sense.
Philips hue outside motion sensor has temp sensor in it. Works great!
Call me a simpleton, but I prefer Tuya. Cheap, large ecosystem, one app, one account, one Alexa skill, one hub, and for these sensors the option of great battery life by avoiding teeny coincells. Tuya covers both WiFi and ZigBee.
Hey, nothing wrong with Tuya. If it suits your needs, then why fix something that works right?
Sonoff ewelink update!! :) + half year history in app!
is the fewquency of the historical data still every 1h averaged?
@@notenoughtech Yes
FOURTHHH!!!
God damn it... Anyway, thanks for the video! Let's see if you convince me to update my xiaomi temp sensors... :D
Considering one of my categories, probably not... but you may be tempted to add one or two to the mix from that selection
thank you.!!
I think you are missing an important point which is the configuration of the device!
Not all sensor boards support configuration, so I run all at their stock setting.
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Most of those thermometers only update the historic temp chart every hour even though the temp display may be close to real time. So the historic is useless. Why even bother to include it ?
Sorry? Include what? Temp sensors? Apart from switchbot all the sensors report data real time. How long the data is stored is purely down to the cloud ecosystem you are in.
Misleading review. TS0201 doesnt report 6 times in 5 min interval, but only once every 30 min. Aqara TVOC doesnt hold connection with Sonoff dongle, not for me, not for many other peolpe... Even in your video it shows broken connection sign it top right corner... and you are saying it is the best? common.
The report intervals depends on the temperature changes as well as timers. If you have issues with tvoc experiment with firmware. That usually helps. In my sonoff dongle video i have specified firmware that works the best for me and I'm on it since
What I say to myself everyday is, "I wish the microcontroller and IoT scene had a temperature and humidity sensor...". I mean I am constantly working on projects that need temp and humidity sensing and there is just no sensors to be found. Oh, wait, no, the opposite of both those things. I never have a project that needs a temp and humidity sensor and there are a gillion to choose from and there is practically nothing different between them. Who is buying all these temp and humidity sensors? Why is there a new temp and humidity sensor every other day? Enough with the temp and humidity sensors. Isn't there something else to sense in the world? By the way. this is not a comment on the quality of the video, that was great. It is an indictment of Big Sensor and especially Big Temp and Humidity. Fuck those guys.
Nothing smells better in the morning like a rant :)
Trust me when I say this...I take having competition than being stuck with no choice.
I hate all of them are BATTERY operated. I want AC connection to connect and forget.
Some of these units work on AA batteries. Honestly they would last years. It's a little bit like asking for a remote for your TV to be powered by a lead. I agree that for some installations it makes sense but if you have to change the battery once every 1-2 years... It is simpler than just dragging the cable to your unit