Aeotec Motion Sensor - any experience/ reliability comparing to hue motion

Hardware
1

HEllo,
anyone tried that motion sensor? I saw sonos are terrible, I have hue which is bit pricey, is it good idea to go for that one ie aeotec?

thanks

2

I have a few, actually only using 2 of them now took one out because it was a pain. Not really happy with them. The ones I have are the “Smartthings” version before Aeotec bought them, they show up as Samjin. I have been using the Aqara ones and found they work perfectly, I like that they also have a light level sensor…

3

@marvin
thanks, i am more then surprise… as i though aeotec is a good brand but apparently producing same shit as sonos does.

I have philips motion - no issue at all.

Aqara is too big … so i rather dont go that way … the only solution - even pricy - seems to be philips hue motion.

4

Aqara too big? The foot is separate and the sensor is quite small, I think I could fit about four in the space of one hue outdoor sensor. I don’t know any smaller one if you do not attach the foot. Wat size limits do you have?

5

Ummm… not sure why you think it’s too big, take a look. I don’t know if Aeotec has improved them at all but I know the ones sold by Samsung weren’t the best. Mine would drop offline, respond slow or sometimes not at all. Just seemed to be problematic compared to Aqara which have been solid for me. I use a Conbee 1 with native ZHA as an FYI… no deCONZ.

Aqara
Aqara1024×765 61.2 KB

6

Almost forgot if you can find the Aqara P1 (new version) it’s supposed to be even better.

EDIT: Just read some more on the new ones… very pricey and are supported only by Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA is in beta stage so not prime time ready yet.

7

thanks,
so these can basically compete to philips hue motion in terms of stability etc?
are all aqara zigbee devices stable etc?

thanks

8

I have no experience with Philips, they are too pricey. Mine have had good battery life and have been rock solid some for over a year. For $17 I think they are great I always have a spare in the drawer because I never know when I’ll use another one someplace.

9

@marvin i see,
thanks

Do they have also other sensors that good - like window sensors etc?

thx

10

I have a Temp sensor and a few door/window sensors and have been happy with all their products. From what I have read a lot of people use them, good price and reliability. Just do a search for “aqara” on the forum and see what pops up. Any problems I have seen are usually a fault somewhere else not the Aqara product. And you don’t need their hub even though it may say so…

11

@martvin these motion devices are not working properly, just chinese crap and waste of money?
once paired it works like 10min then its not working at all

Publish ‘set’ ‘detection_interval’ to ‘motion-sensor-xxxx’ failed: ‘Error: Write 0x54ef44100043e436/1 aqaraOpple({“258”:{“value”:[30],“type”:32}}, {“sendWhen”:“immediate”,“timeout”:10000,“disableResponse”:false,“disableRecovery”:false,“disableDefaultResponse”:true,“direction”:0,“srcEndpoint”:null,“reservedBits”:0,“manufacturerCode”:4447,“transactionSequenceNumber”:null,“writeUndiv”:false}) failed (Data request failed with error: ‘MAC transaction expired’ (240))’

plus reporting completely nonsense Illuminance: 65534

so there is no way to activate based on the number of lx in the room and set automation… i was expecting that nothing chinese will work properly and stamped.

they works somehow ie they react on movement but nothing else ; reporting of lux broken, extra configration broken …

12

lol after 5 days of usage…

image
image884×94 1.96 KB

it says battery 5 years. yes it was 100% first 5 days.

13

okay looks like battery reading was incorrect… shows again 100%
but LQI is quite often drops from 120 to N/A

The lx reporting is completely broken → aqara p1 motion sensor - illumination value is not updating properly / also even the device is inside dark room nonsense value of illuminance":65534"lx; is presented. · Issue #12596 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · GitHub

14

I do not know what is going on with your motion sensors but aqaraOpple is a switch, not a motion sensor so this error is not related. Maybe you’re trying to send data to a (different?) sleeping battery operated device?

The Aqara motion sensors are cheap but work pretty well for a lot of people. But take in to account that with the motion sensor lux is only updated when motion is detected, It is meant to decide if motion should turn the light on if it is dark. The rest of the time it is on power save mode, so the battery will last long (it does). So buy the dedicated lux sensor if you need it for blinds or things like that.

Here’s a comparison between the lux sensor in the Aqara motion sensor and the dedicated lux sensor (the latter is exposed to direct sunlight, the motion sensor is in a cove that explains the lower total lux):
Aqara Motion sensor:

image
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Aqara luminance sensor:
image
image2140×987 103 KB

15

@edwin_d yes seems its my fault, as u said the illumination is not read constantly.

In that case its read only during the movement; is it possible make condition that once movement happen check value of the lx and if lower then some value → power on light.

I assume movement+lux has to be read simultaneously or really fast to be able to check such a condition?

thanks!

16

Yes, if you just received a motion event, the current lux value is accurate for that moment as the values are sent together. That is exactly what the lux sensor is meant for, so you can easily put it in a condition for the automation that is triggered by the motion. You do not need to be fast, lux values do not change very rapidly. As you can see from my graphs, it just does not update a lot.

17

okay then sorry for my reactions, as i thought it should measure lux for such a purposes constantly.

1 Like
18

Thanks @Edwin_D for stepping in… nothing I can add except I have very good luck and no problems with these motion sensors or my other Aqara sensors.

@phier if you told me that you wanted constant light reporting I would have pointed you to a different sensor. As explained the light sensor in the Aqara is only for the moment not constant monitoring but is good for determining conditions when the device is triggered. I have other Z-Wave motion sensors I use for constant monitoring and have them set to report at specific light change intervals. As mentioned the Aqara Zigbee light sensor also works pretty good but in my opinion Z-Wave is better suited for constant monitoring because of it’s lower power consumption on battery operated devices.

19

@marvin, thanks
well maybe i didnt understand it properly before…
I want to trigger action once movement is recored and specific number of lux (or interval) are there - so this might be doable…
The other thing is that sensor p1 reports randomly wrong lux value ie 6554lx ; so there has to be firmware/code/ or other error, other ppl reported that also.

regarding the zwave motion sensor - could you recco any? I was not aware that zwave are handling battery consumption better then zigbee.

thanks

20

The only ones I have experience with are Fibaro, Aeotec and Dome. I don’t know if you can get the Dome anymore but they have been pretty good. Out of the 3 the Fibaro has been my favorite. I have 2 Aeotec ones, a Multi Sensor and a Tri Sensor that I’m not using they seemed a little slow but that was before Z-Wave JS was implemented so I may try them again at some point. Z-Wave sensors tend to be pricey compared to ZigBee and have less range but seem to be less trouble and definitely use a lot fewer batteries. I have sensors that the batteries have not been changed for over a year and are still good. They are more finicky to setup initially and depending on the configuration, reporting intervals mostly, you can chew up or prolong battery life. One of the big things though is the configurability most have many settings you can change.