Try reset Absence state in more settings when you see this happen. It’s supposed to help the sensor learn. Have you messed with the sensitivity settings to see if it helps? The Aqara app seems buggy to me when it comes to displaying people in the room. the Fp2 seems to send the correct info to HA though, that’s all I’m really concerned with. I try to stay out of the Aqara app unless I need to set something up.
I try not to use the Aqara app either and leave everything to HK. However, in this case the sensor is sending wrong data to HK and so I have to solve it here.
I tried lowering the sensitivity to the lowest and resetting the state. So far, unfortunately no real result. But thanks!
Try moving the sensor to another location.
Do you have Entry/Exit points in the Hallway Zone? Settings these up right seem to help a lot. I usually extend them 1 square out from the last point the sensor see me. Basically make the Entry/Exit larger
Thanks for taking the time to post specific instructions. This should be pinned at the top!
Hi, a short follow up. I’ve worked multple days from home now (sitting still in an office chair). The sensor sees me all the time. Not even a single false negative. And neither a false positive when not in the room.
It’s perfect. It’s awesome.
Hi Pim. Where in your home office did you place the sensor? Mine is basically above me, mounted to the wall, and I guess the angle is just too wide since I regularly get false positives and negatives.
If you after some them Amazon UK have stock again.
Mine is placed in the corner, at 1.9m height, slightly angled downwards. I’ve disabled all fancy features. Just presence detection, sensitivity set to high.
Cheers for the heads up, got another 2.
Just picked up 5 from Amazon UK (global shipping). Excited!
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The above way step-by-step is the correct way to get the FP2 into the HA. However, the zones don’t show in HomeKit. For most this won’t be an issue, but for me it was. I use the FP2 to turn on lights and to play music from OneLink. Currently there is no way to get Onelink into HA (only HomeKit), so with the FP2 only exposed to HA I can’t play music when occupancy is detected.
The work around for this is to create an input Boolean for each zone. Make sure you configure the input boolean to be controlled by the occupancy zone (via an automation) and voila zones are exposed to HomeKit via a toggle. I can use the toggle to trigger Airplay music on my Onelink. Hopefully, this helps someone who needs the FP2 exposed in HA and HomeKit.
I have 9 fp2’s, I’ve paired them using Apple devices and android devices. I don’t recall ever having to sync them with Homekit. There’s an option too but you don’t have to put them in homekit. You can just make your zones then sync them with HA. I was never forced to put them in Homekit first. If I’m remembering correctly. Pretty sure all I did when using an Apple device was Install the Aqara app then setup the Fp2 and its zones then throw them into HA? Then share the zones with HomeKit through HA. Am I missing something ?Either way the zones always show up in Homekit or HA.
I’m the blog post author, and setup 3 FP2s this past week. I followed the process in my post, which does start by adding the FP2 in the Aqara app. But built in to the Aqara onboarding work flow is adding them to Homekit… you never leave the Aqara app…it does the Homekit add behind the scenes. Maybe there was a button to tap to skip that, but I don’t think there was.
Not that I ever saw. If you have only iOS devices with which to onboard the FP2s, you appear to have no choice but to add it to HomeKit, add it to the Aqara app, remove it from HomeKit, and then join it to HA. It’s a pain, and sometimes it’s finicky, but it does work.
The present version is still very buggy, but the product manager promised on this forum that the problems will be solved soon.
I opened a couple of support tickets with Aqara and their response was updated firmware is 1-2 months away. No idea if that’s accurate or not, but it reset my expectations to not expect new firmware or a less buggy Aqara app for a number of weeks.
I have two of these running in my house. Some quick thoughts:
- As noted, WiFi only. I haven’t blocked them from the internet yet but the recent firmware update supposedly allows that.
- They connect to Home Assistant via the Homekit Controller integration just fine. I was stymied on this a bit because Home Assistant wasn’t finding them nor would Apple Home on my iPad. Turns out they just needed to be power cycled. After unplugging and replugging both showed up via auto-discovery in Home Assistant.
- The Aqara app works really well for setting up the detection zones AND THEY ARE AMAZING. I have one of these at the end of the living room/kitchen in my house and it can see the entire area including down the hallway quite a bit. What’s most stunning though is that you can define regions like “computer desk” or “sofa” and see if there are people in specific parts of the coverage zone. This enables new automation options like, “If it’s dark AND the TV is on AND someone is sitting on the sofa, then turn on TV lighting.”
- In Home Assistant, what you’ll get is an entity for the overall presence, LUX, and one entity for each of the detection zones you have configured (up to 5 I think).
- From a price standpoint, depending on your house layout, they aren’t as expensive as they seem. I had 4 motion sensors in the front of my house at about $20 each. They are all replaced by the single FP2 at $100. That’s on top of doing a much better job.
- Presence detection clears MUCH faster than my PIR sensors. If I get up from my desk and walk the 3 paces to the kitchen, the desk presence is cleared by the time I arrive in the kitchen… usually. Sometimes (maybe 1 in 20) it takes it maybe 25 seconds to figure out nobody is there anymore. The much faster response time is going to simplify much of my current logic.
- They are very sensitive. The one in the bedroom was easily able to keep track of my wife sleeping in bed virtually motionless. So no more turning off the lights because the person was too still. That was a major complaint of my wife and it’s a thing of the past.
- When they are first installed there is a lot of ghosting and false detections. I think there is some sort of simple AI in them though because after a few times clearing the presence data from the app, this seems to go away either entirely or completely.
In the past I have used corporate versions of this technology. It worked better, but at the time it also cost $8000/sensor. The fact that the FP2 does almost all of what those did at a $100 price point is mind-boggling.
Overall I’m very happy although I’m looking forward to another firmware upgrade or two which I expect will only make them better.
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For me, this issue cleared up after a few times resetting the absence state which, as geox19 says, seems to help it learn. Also, from watching youtube, having a well-defined room setup (walls, interference zones, etc) helps with this. It’s still not 100% perfect, but it’s a zillion times better than the multiple ghosts I was getting when they were first installed. Ghosts are rare now and they clear on their own after a bit.
New firmware 1.1.7 has been released. Should fix several issues. Have not tested it yet though.
Version: 1.1.7_00022023-05-18
What’s New:
- Fix the issue of not reporting enter and leave reports when entrance and exits zone is set.
- Remove the limit that when there are targets within one meter, do not create other targets.
- Optimize the target judgment logic in high sensitivity zones and fix issues where the target cannot be permanently maintained.
- After setting up the entrance and exits zone, optimize the target algorithm , fix the problem of targets being taken away within 1 meter near the entrance and exits zone.
- Modify the sensitivity logic for the entire zone, fix issues with target waving not being triggered and children not being able to detect.
- Add monitoring parameter setting thread to fix situations where parameters cannot be set.
- Optimize calculation time to prevent abnormal device restarts.
- Add monitoring parameter setting thread to fix situations where parameters cannot be set
- Optimize calculation time to prevent abnormal device restarts
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