I have searched and the last post I see about outdoor motion sensors is just over a year old. I have only found the ZOOZ ZSE70 Motion sensor on the market currently, I don’t need all the features I already have 2 of those but I need some more to turn on lights around the outside of the house while walking dogs.
Who else has OUTDOOR rated motion sensors anyone ? A search on Amazon shows nothing. I have some 3rd reality ones on the front porch and such but those are protected from the rain. I am tempted to see if I can CAD a design for the 3rd Reality one and 3d Print some sort of a TPU housing that can slide over it for protection. Not sure how much the TPU would reduce the range and I am not a CAD designer so it would be crude.
I have plenty of the CR123A’s for my weapon lights so that’s not an issue, I also think they last longer than AA’s due to higher current capacity although at a larger size. 2 AA’s are 3v while 2 123A’s 6v so not only are they higher in current usually the consumption will be lower due to higher operating voltages usually mean lower current.
BUT you do bring up a point I have heard hue needs it’s own hub is that correct or is a HUE hub just a Zigbee coordinator ? I have a Sonoff 3.0 E coordinator along with a ZOOZ 800 coordinator. Don’t want to spend more on an ADDITIONAL coordinator if I can already do it with what I have. Also the HA Green which I run has WiFi, does that mean I don’t need a WiFi coordinator and can use WiFi products from Shelly etc directly ? I know many WiFi products require an app and communicating with the respective cloud like with SwitchBot.
I have 2 old switchbot smart plugs and had to jump through hoops via the app to get them to work, bought those awhile back before even thinking of automating the house.
Having WiFi on the device you run HA on has nothing to do with using other devices that use WiFi; it’s just a matter of them all being on the same network (be that connected via Ethernet or WiFi) and having a HA integration. Shellys are great and are all local with HA. And while I don’t have a Switchbot plug, I believe their WiFi products also work locally with HA; I know their BT products work great directly with HA.
BUT then I would need a BT adapter plugged into my Home Assistant Green. I may try to find a cheap WiFi product and try it out. Yes I have a good WiFi network in the house but always thought that any WiFi device would need to be connected to it’s respective cloud to work back to Home Assistant. I had 2 Eaton switches when I first toyed with the idea of actual automation and they stunk… had to have the app and one day the server apparently crashed could not get them to work. The next morning one switch worked, the other one was bricked, tossed it in the garbage. Already had HomeAssistant when this happened so I just bought a Z-Wave switch and replaced it.
I have 2 ZOOZ units and they work well but trying to be more cost effective, already have 2 and need about 2 or 3 more. The HUE is quite a bit more than the ZSE70’s which are motion, light, temp, humidity AND if a 12v power supply is used they are also repeaters.
There’s your problem with WiFi devices, the random cheap ones almost always require a cloud connection. Do a little research and see if they have a local HA integration first.
Fair enough if you don’t have one already or BT Proxies around the house. In my case, I already had a bunch of ESPHome devices scattered around my house and it was simply a matter of adding BT Proxy to them.
I think I have a BT dongle somewhere… just not sure it will play well with HA Green, I had used it a few years ago with my laptop before they had BT built in.
I have seen a LOT of WiFi devices but they always seem to say “in the app” that’s when I move on.
Recommend keeping an eye on the Zooz store, their stuff goes on sale a few times a year, including Black Friday.
And since nobody has mentioned it, another option I use is an outdoor WiFi camera like Tapo C310 which can be isolated on a non-routable vlan and provides a motion sensor in HA via ONVIF or HACS integration.
You might be right regarding that the ZSE70 is cheaper in comparison to the Hue Outdoor Motion. But as already stated is that you do not need the Hue hub because this sensor is using Zigbee, whereas the ZSE70 is Z-Wave. And if you already have invested in building a solid mesh, as this is key for a successful automated home, there is no doubt that your decision makes even more sense.
Yes my zwave network seems to work much better than zigbee and I have a sold network with plugs throuout the 2 homes and the 30ft allway. The only bad part is that these Zwave motion sensors need 12v to act as repeaters and they are mounted outside where there is no easy way of supplying a waterproof 12v. My network can get even stronger outside in the yard (5 acres) if i manage to get 2 or 4 of these powered up.