Help! My closet is haunted! CentraLite Motion Detector

Installation Home Assistant OS
1

I have a CentraLite Motion detector glued to the ceiling of my closet. About a week ago or so, the motion detector detects motion almost every minute 24/7 round the clock.

The motion detector still detects real motion when I enter the closet. However, it will also detect motion even when nobody is in the closet.

The only thing remotely close to motion is the blinking LED lights for my wireless router and Ethernet switch. The LED’s aren’t very bright either.

I have no idea how to troubleshoot something like this. Could someone please tell me what can cause false triggers like this?

The battery level is at 92%

Things I’ve tried:

  1. Take battery out… then put it back in.
  2. Select “Reconfigure Device” in Zigbee options
  3. Cover the leds lights on my wireless router and switch.

Below, is an example of the activity over-night:

Ghost
Ghost402×1010 76.7 KB

2

try to cover the LED light and see if it fixed the problem?

3

Check to see if there’s an HV/AC vent in the closet. (Rare, but I’ve seen it.)

4

Mice possibly? :joy:

5

I tried that. It’s pretty much pitch black in the closet.

6

No air blowing or vents in this closet.

7

I actually considered that. However it’s going on every minute… no movements while its triggered. Sometimes it happens immediately after no motion is detected.

8

When you build binary sensors with ESPhome you usually have to add in a pullup resistor as GIPO pins can float and be set off by electromagnetic interference which you experience as multiple false detections often every few seconds.

9

Thanks for the tip. This is just a regular CentraLite motion sensor. I have several of them. This is the only one that started these false positives about a couple of weeks ago.

I’m starting to think maybe the sensor is damaged.

10

If you have several identical sensors, can you temporarily swap the questionable one out with a known good one? This would help identify if the issue is the sensor or the location.

1 Like
11

The sensor in my closet is glued to the ceiling. I think I’ll just move one of my identical sensors into the closet to see if it is also constantly Triggered. If it isn’t I guess I’ll have to assume the one on the ceiling is defective.

12

I just moved an identical sensor into the closet near the other sensor The identical one doesn’t detect motion unless I go in the closet The one that’s been in the closet still has false triggers; however it detects real motion too.

Is the one with false triggers damaged/malfunctioning with no way to repair? I can’t seem to find any posts on this forum with the same issue.

13

You can try taking it out of the casing and see if there’s anything (water, dirt, spiders) inside that might interfere with the operation, but if the electronics aren’t working properly, there’s nothing to do but to replace it.

14

Although the battery reads 92% what about swapping battery from different sensor into the closet sensor?

15

Ill try that. I didn’t think it was battery/power related since it detects motion instantly when I enter the closet every time.

EDIT: I did take the battery out and put it back in previously… but I’ll replace the battery to see if it makes any difference.