I’m looking to create some kind of home alarm using indoor motion sensors. I’m considering using either the IKEA or Aqara motion sensor but am looking for some guidance on pros and cons.
I am running Home Assistant on an rpi 3+ with a conbee ii. I currently have one aqara motion sensor, mainly for testing. It seems to work just fine. Currently no plans to use the sensors to trigger lights, but maybe in the future.
The IKEA sensor is locally about 30% cheaper than aqara.
I use the Aqara sensors, mainly because I like the swivel base and the size. I also use a cut-down Command Strip to stick them to the wall rather than the indestructible double-sided tape they provide. I’ve had some of them for a year and all still report the battery as 95% or 100%.
I’ve seen some posts suggesting Xiaomi battery devices only pair successfully to the controller rather than repeaters, but in deCONZ some of mine show as paired to lights, so I don’t believe that. A more likely suggestion is that they don’t change their pairing once set, so you need to pair them “in place” so they find the closest repeater. I’ve tried changing the pairing, but deCONZ then doesn’t show what they’re paired to.
I think I agree with you on liking the aqara best. Much nicer design than ikea’s. But if the idea is them being of out sight, then I guess looks isn’t the main focus. Also, completely agree on that tape they come with. Man, almost destroyed an aqara temp sensor trying to get it off furniture.
No repeaters in the house. We turn our lights on/off using our old fashioned switches, so no power to them most of the time. But so far no range issues with zigbee.
Think my best solution will be to grab a sensor from ikea as well and just start testing. Fairly sure I can cover the house with three sensors.
I wouldn’t say the lux is that bad, although the only thing I use it for is to turn the lounge lights on during the day if it’s dark (which it always is in my old house).
Have both. Aqara is definitely more stable for me than Ikea (using with Deconz + Conbee II stick).
As stated Lux is a bit binar-ish; non linear measurement very quickly jumping from 0 to hundreds of lux, but point where I’d like to distinguish from being dar or light is ~3.
It also contains temerature sensor, but again it is of from real temp by ~10 degrees… I do not think becaus e of sensor being so worm… perhaps some calibration with HA would help, but I vever played.
But, if you want to use it as motion sensor only, it waaay better that Ikea. It has better sensivity and detection range. It also have nearly 180 degree horizontal field of view vs ~90 of Ikea. Mounting system is way more convinient vs Ikea giving you lots of freedom while mounting sensor.
Primarily for lights… but as my primary alarm system is failing (some sensors after 20 years cause false alarms) I can always double check if alarm was false or true. At this stage I’d not rely on these sensors as home made alarm system…
I am using them for an alarm as well, in conjunction with presence detection. But the most useful function is to turn the lights on at 50% when I get up in the middle of the night for a leak, so I don’t fall down the stairs.
This does not mean that they will work for 20 years on one battery :-). They will report 100% forever and then one day start failing. So check the battery when you start getting issues.
My experience with Aqara is also mostly good but their problem with not updating their pairing has started to affect me. It has stopped me from getting Hue bulbs for lamps that might sometimes be turned off at the wall switch.
Using Zigbee2MQTT I find the ikea sensors a lot more reliable and Im slowing transitioning to them rather than the Aqara ones. Other people have the opposite experience so YMMV.
I have aqara, tradfri and hue motion sensors. I tend to fade out the aqara and tradfri sensors for hue.
Hue motion sensors have a much shorter dead time between detecting motion and no motion (about 10 seconds), report also temperature and luminosity in lux.
I have used the proprietary bridges, zigbee2mqtt and switched to deconz with conbee2 6 months ago, I’m having the best result with deconz.
I’ve not seen a Xiaomi sensor in real-life, but from the pictures, I liked Samsung Smartthings more. I have 2 connected to Conbee II. No Smartthings hub or app needed.
