Has anyone used these sensors outdoors? I’ve looked up the specs on multiple sites including Itead website but there is no mention of IP65 or IP66 equivalent details for clarity.
They suck for indoor usage (where they’re intended for), so imagine the horrors using them outdoors (where they’re not intended for).
Having crappy motion sensors vs great motion sensors can determine how amazing and stable your entire home will function, or how everything turns into shit and you’re more stressing about automations than actually using them. They are key parts of home automation. Save headaches (and even money down the line) and don’t cheap out on motion sensors.
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Exactly the reason, I’ve ditched all Sonoff motion sensors from my home. Nightmare’s are gone now…
Sonoff switches on the other hand work like a charm…
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@ASNNetworks I admire your candidness and exactly the no-frill feedback I was looking for. As I am learning first hand that the joy of buying cheap IoTs and putting things with my shoddy workmanship is really short lived 
I bought this motion sensor few days back - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DJ28BNY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1, it is super affordable, aesthetically designed but turned out to be too sensitive. Each time wind picks up and trees even as much as move, it will register motion even at the lowest setting.
I had great luck putting a PIR (HC-SR501) and a Doppler (RCWL-0516) on a D1 board, it actually worked like a charm but finding a box (weatherproof) for it is proving challenging and I am not interested in buying a 3D printer just for this one.
Any recommendation for external sensors for a home?
Got to disagree here. These motion sensors were my first step into home assistant 2 years ago.
I have not changed a battery in them since day 1 and they never fail me. I have 10 of them now.
I wouldn’t use them outside though, I have one in a shed which works fine, but I wouldn’t risk exposing them to the elements.
I use them with zha and tubes coordinator.
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Take a quick look at the post I linked. Not only my experience, but countless of others in there AND in the numerous Github tickets.
The Hue outdoor sensor seems to be one of the best out door sensors. I don’t have that myself (I live in an apartment) but I read great things about them. They are kinda expensive, but if you only need one it will pay itself back over time.
You could try the Hue indoor sensor (which I use all around my home), but it’s not really made for outdoor usage (rain, cold temps, less range/angle).
On a personal note: I have used different PiR sensors from different brands (Aqara, Sonoff, Konke, IKEA, Blitzwolf) and there is a reason I ditched them all and got the Philips Hue motion sensors. I currently have 9 of them and paid around €270 in total. Which is still less than all those crappy sensors I had to throw out combined. Seeing as how a lot of my automations are build on motion sensors, that investment still cheap on what it gives back. Btw, this isn’t just my personal experience. I automated my younger brothers home as well. He was going mental with those cheap sensors as well. He eventually replaced them all for Hue. He’s extremely happy now (so am I not having to keep hearing him complain about the automations not firing lol).
@ASNNetworks Thanks! Do you know if Philips hub call OEM cloud for anything? I like to keep all my IoTs on the local VLAN and not go outside.
I think what is getting lost in this disconnect is that “motion sensor” requirements are different for each location.
Take the unit that I had to return for being over-sensitive - Amazon.com
This unit would have been perfect for a business looking to monitor entrance lobby after work hours but it did not work in my case as my backyard has lots of trees that moves with wind.
But your point is well taken and thanks for sharing!
Reliable outdoor motion detection is very difficult, especially if you want to cover larger areas. You’ll have a hard time finding the single perfect sensor. Instead, sensor fusion and context processing is what matters outside. Use different sensor technologies and combine them. For simple setups, it can just be AND’ing two or three sensors, over a trigger time window.
I experimented with many different setups for months, using PIR, radar, lidar, vmd and others. A lot worked approximately, but nothing was really good. The system I’m having now is almost what I’d consider perfect for my use (although deer might still rarely trigger it) and consists of a combination of almost a dozen industrial level PIRs from Panasonic, Lidars (Garmin v3HP), Time of flight sensors (TF Mini) and ML VMD (mostly line crossing), all combined with a custom statistical model and a Tensor Flow model implementing sensor fusion.
Then again, for a simple porch motion light, the Hue ones are probably fine 
Just curious. Could you describe in what way they “suck”?
I’ve been using these Sonoff motion sensor for (almost) a year, and they always worked reliably. I never had any problem with miss-detection or false positive(I did have to change the orientation several times to avoid detecting my cat).
WRT using them outdoor, I do have one motion sensor in the patio, but under the eaves so not directly exposed to rain. Your case might be different though.
Click on the hyperlink, I explained it there.
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Just bought my first new SNZB-03. ZHA - Home Assistant, pairing without problems. Motion was not detected properly and new battery was showing 6%. I bended both battery contacts a bit further and battery jumped up to 100% and motion detection works fine now.
Hi all,
I just paired two of these via Conbee II. They paired no problem, but aren’t registering motion. Any ideas?
Thanks!
They are working now - not sure why they didn’t work immediately. However, after a few minutes, they worked as advertised.
The trick with the sensors is to bend the battery contacts so they have a solid connection to the battery. I have 9 of these around my home and they work perfectly.
Even with bended contacts and new battery they still give false positives.
Where are your sensors mounted? Give an example of false positive.
Nobody at home
You might have a rat or a mouse running round when you leave the house.