Motion sensor recommendation

Hardware
1

I am currently using 4 fibaro multi-sensors (see: https://www.fibaro.com/en/products/motion-sensor/), but I am thinking about replacing them.

Issues I am having:

  • sometimes I get false triggers, even though the sensor is pointed into a direction where there is no movement/window/heater/mirror/whatsoever. E.g. entering the room will trigger it, but even after leaving the room, I will get multiple triggers afterwards. I had similar issues with the other sensors when experimenting with the sensitivy. I had to factory-reset some of the multiple times to get rid of “always-on” issues.
  • the sensor seems to trigger slowly (1-2s delay), which is an issue when it shall serve the purpose of activating lights when entering a room / passing through a room. I already set “pulse counters” to 1, resulting in a better reaction time, however its still around 1s.
  • the “blind time” is too long, e.g. going back and forth between rooms does not trigger lights in each corresponding room, but instead leaves you in the dark when you’re still within the “blind time” of the sensor. I was only able to reduce this value for 1 sensor where it now works, but no matter how often I try to set this parameter for the other sensors via homeassistant, the blind time remains the same.

So all in all, the sensors only work semi-reliable. I am wondering if other sensors will behave the same, or if there is any better products out there?

Update

Ok I’d like to share my latest experience with the variety of motion sensors I have tried so far.

Fibaro FGMS-001 4 in 1 Sensor (Z-Wave)

pro has sensor for movement, temperature and light (and tampering, if that matters)
pro LED can be disabled
pro has lots of settings regarding sensitivity and data transfers which can be set via Z-wave
pro blind time can be set to a really short interval. I have set 2 of mine to as low as 2 seconds, which in almost any situation makes them trigger when they should trigger

con sometimes I get false positives and I fail to track down the issue
con 2 out of 4 sensors go crazy after some days/weeks (e.g. the repeatedly report motion although there is none). I’ve sent them back to the shop waiting for replacement/repair
con expensive (44€)
con even after

TOOGOO® PIR 433MHz sensor via Sonoff bridge

pro really cheap (6€)
pro virtually no setup whatsoever (just sends and events come in via MQTT)
con fails to reliably detect motion
con detection comes with a delay of 2-4s which renders it completely useless (I’ll have the room crossed within 4s and thus I’ll be left in the dark)
con it was shipped from china, took a month to arrive, and I cannot send it back (normally in germany you can send back stuff within 2 weeks without reason and get your money back)

Sonoff PIR2 PIR Sensor 433Mhz via Sonoff bridge

Essentially the same as the before mentioned sensor (-> useless)
Also shipped from china.

Philips Hue motion sensor (Zigbee)

pro small and handy
pro detects motion pretty fast, basically instant (wow!)
pro detects motion, temperature and light

neutral price okay (35€)
neutral blind time is 10s, and there seems to be no way of changing it

OSRAM Smart+ ZigBee motion sensor

pro even smaller than the philips one
pro detects motion and temperature

neutral detection time is mediocre (1-2s)
neutral price okay (33€)

con LED doesnt seem to have an option to turn off
con blind time is a hefty 35 seconds (!), which renders it useless for me

Conclusion

I am torn between the fibaro and the philips sensor. I’m really impressed by the low latency of the philips one, while I love that fibaro can have a really low blind time. When putting sensors in every room and attach lights to it, a higher blind time leads to your lights remaining off when you go back and forth between rooms.
This might be my special situation, because I turn lights off once motion is detected elsewhere (and not when motion is no longer detected, which will most of the time turn off in wrong situations, because sensors rarely cover my entire rooms).
Thus, low blind time is crucial for me, same as quick detection. I will definitely keep the philips one for my hallway, because there, actually, I turn lights off after a delay of 60s or something, so blind time is not an issue.

Need help

I have not yet tried any of the various other sensors like Xiaomi, Aeotec etc, but it would be nice, if other people would add to this thread their experience with other products.
Relevant details would be:

  • detection time/latency
  • blind time (time until sensor can detect motion again)
  • LED can be disabled?
  • price
  • bugs/flaws/issues?
  • technology/setup (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wifi, …)
6 Likes
2

I am using the Philips Hue motion sensors with the Hue custom component. Works pretty well for me and if you’ve already got a Hue bulbs and Hub then a simple investment. They also provide temperature and light sensors.

2 Likes
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Are those zigbee-based? I have a zigbee connector too (via https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt).

I do not want to introduce proprietary gateways/hubs into my setup.

4

I use Aeotec Multi sensors and they are very fast to respond to motion. The only false trip I am getting at the moment is with one particular sensor which I think must be faulty. I have the rest time down at 2 seconds so they quickly report no-motion once I leave a room

5

I use Aeotec Multi sensors and they are very fast to respond to motion. The only false trip I am getting at the moment is with one particular sensor which I think must be faulty. I have the rest time down at 2 seconds so they quickly report no-motion once I leave a room

Those you mean:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0141FQDJQ/ref=psdc_2077641031_t1_B07GCQ16KP

Look good on first sight, the comments however indicate several issues:

  • green blinking every 5 minutes which cannot be disabled (fibaro’s do the same, however it can be turned off)
  • battery sensor seems to report 100% after 8 months, yet the sensor will cease to work (user reports the batteries went down from 3V to 1.2/2.8V), so the battery status is unreliable
1 Like
6

I have the Multisensor 5 model. No annoying lights. I also run them on USB power rather than batteries

7

I have those. Until few days ago they worked fine, Now one of them is triggering all the time, I have not checked the cause of the error (maybe needs a hard reset?).
Overall are googd quality

  • until few days ago never false trigger (for at least half a year, few days ago one became “crazy”)
  • no delay, at least not 1s+ so good on that
  • they also sugffer blind time, I guess they use this “trick” to make the battery last longer. Those are zwave maybe in settings there is an option to reduce this time (standard I think is 60s), I will check and report back
8

Yes, the time can be reduced. I have mine set at 2sec

9

battery consumption?

10

I don’t use batteries, they are all powered by USB

11

:roll_eyes:

And the green blinking can really not be turned off?

12

By default they (the NEO) blink red when there is motion (no blinks when there is no motion, ever). From the settings you can disable the red blink when there is motion (never tried it though)

13

Ah sorry, I was confusing your answer, I thought you were having the aeotec ones.

14

I’m using zigbee2mqtt with Xiaomi motion sensor.
it’s work great. https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/c5obHJag

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Yes they are Zigbee based.

16

I currently have a single Xiaomi PIR. It works great regarding the PIR. I have it in the stairway and it turns the light on before I get on the first stair. I would say it’s fast enough for me and my family. Downside it that it takes cca 1-2 minutes to switch from “movement” to “no movement” and to turn off the light. But given the price, it’s cheaper to have light running for 1 minute(LED lamps that is) every time than to pay 60EUR for an Aeotec/Fibaro.

Bigger problem for me is the illumination sensor, which updates only on movement or once/hour. Need to do some testing if that breaks my automation idea: turn on light when illumination is less than 20lux. If the sensor reports 100lux (from 50min ago), when it detects motion, will illumination sensor state get updated fast enough for automation to turn on the light or not.

Good thing is also that you dont need a hub (I’m using zigbee2mqtt), but the range of receiver is rather short, so I’ll need to add a few routers (6EUR/piece)/powered devices around the house to extend the range. Z-wave is better in this field, since it runs on 9xxMHz.

1 Like
17

Because I am very pleased with other Shelly devices I have ordered this one for test as motion sensor https://shelly.cloud/product/shelly-sense/
It has mqtt built in as the others

18

Uff yea, that’s a bit expensive:) It does have a few more sensors like IR blaster, but still almost 10x times expensier then Xiaomi:)

19

Yea. But because I am to lazy to make any diy devices and have the means to be able to buy what I want I try to get quality stuff. This one I dont know if its good but only way to find out is to buy one

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20

If you own a Raspberrypi you can order an RF module and use some premade scripts to capture cheap RF motion sensor signals. They cost ~$10 each. Very affordable.
Let me know if you want to know more.

1 Like