What are the best Zigbee presence sensors currently? I use the following criteria:
- Battery life
- Included illumminance sensor
- Detection angle
- Zigbee connectivity
So far, I have tested three different sensors, and the ideal one is not among them:
- Aqara motion sensor – Good battery life, good detection angle, does include an illuminance sensor. However, Zigbee connectivity is not great. I’ve tested two of these in my setup. The first one finally joined my Zigbee network after way too many attempts. It is positioned close to my Zigbee hub. The second one I tried installing at the edge of my network, far away from my hub, but close to at least two lightbulbs that act as repeater. No success: it did join the network, but never kept connection for more than a day.
- IKEA Trådfri wireless motion sensor – Good detection angle, no illuminance sensor. Battery life is so-so, connectivity okay.
- Sonoff SNZB-03 – Excellent connectivity, excellent detection angle, very good battery life, but no illuminance sensor.
The Sonoff has the best quality, if you ask me, but is lacking an illuminance sensor. I’d be interested to hear other people’s experiences with other sensors. Would also be interesting to try a separate illuminance sensor (combined with the Sonoff presence sensor), but I’ve not yet found one.