Advice on Motion Sensors

Hello @LANCE. Unless I missed it, I haven't seen Zooz products mentioned. I've had a few ZES40 (and other products) for quite a while and they've worked really well for me. Unlike @jtmpush18's experience, they activate fast enough for me even though they are Z-Wave. I mainly control by lux level but also use time of day to adjust the dimmer level so overnight it's more like a night light level. I order through their US store, The Smartest House, since we're both in NJ. Their products are available in Canada through Home Tech Solution. They are also the Zooz seller on Amazon.ca. I've also had great experience with their tech support, and getting firmware updates. I also like that @agnes.zooz is regularly posting to the community here. Whatever you decide, good luck!

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I started off with TuyaTec RH3040 motion sensors, I have six of them around the house. They’re quick and inexpensive (15 UKP when I was buying them). I’ve since added Hue motion sensors with Lux to the lounge and conservatory, and have rules determining lights on/off in those and other rooms dependent on their readings. I’m also using one of the Tuya sensors to augment the Hue one in the lounge. Not to trigger lights on, but to keep them on in the evening when the Hue doesn’t detect that we’re sat on the couch :grin:

You’re going to find the Xiaomi Aqara devices on Amazon.ca, but for more than you’ll pay from GearBest or Banggood for Aqara and Mijia devices. It’s just that you can get them quickly from Amazon, and it will take between 2 weeks to a month to get them from GearBest or Banggood.

If you are not squeamish about adding a Raspberry Pi or having an old laptop running all the time, you might want to checkout Home Assistant Device Bridge. It's really not hard to get going at all, and once it's setup, you'll be able to just add very inexpensive and small Xiaomi devices with ease. They'll just show up in Hubitat and you'll be able to incorporate them in automations with the same simplicity you could any device directly connected to Hubitat Elevation.

You'll just want to make a small investment in a ConBee 2 Zigbee gateway dongle, but it's so worth the money. If you have many sensors to add, you'll make it back in the savings (assuming you don't buy the Xiaomi devices from Amazon) in adding Xiaomi devices. I previously would have steered clear of recommending Xiaomi devices, but this setup is solid in my house and there's many others that report the exact same. It opens up a lot of other inexpensive devices that are also supported by the ConBee 2. And you can add anything HomeKit wifi compatible too.

Keep in mind, that just because the ConBee 2 has good range and hangs onto the Xiaomi devices like glue, you still need Xiaomi compatible repeaters on that network if you want to pair more than 32 devices directly with the ConBee 2, or your house is large. There's many posts and threads dedicated to the subject of Xiaomi compatible repeaters, but on the low end (yet perfectly functional) we're talking IKEA Trådfri repeaters and outlets, mid-range is Iman's devices, and on the high end (very powerful), Xbee is the current king of the hill.

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In my experience z-wave motion sensors are noticeably slower than zigbee, I use only SmartThings 2018 model motion sensors as they turn on lights with zero lag.

I would also state range of the sensor to is a issue with percieved quick response times. It can seem slow if they dont have good enough range for the space they are covering.

I have used Aeotec multi sensor 6, Samsung motion sensor, Ring Gen 2, and the ADT Smartthings Alarm Motion sensors all pretty much in the same spot. Only two of them have been great for light Automations. The ADT Smartthings motion sensor and the Ring Gen 2 Motion sensor blow the other two out of the water and it simply comes down to the range they can reliably detect motion at. They can detec at well over 25 feet. The other two struggle to see something reliably 15 feet away.

To follow @Ken_Fraleigh's very good advice, use the built-in Zone Motion Controllers app to combine several motion sensors into one virtual sensor that you use in your automations. The virtual zone motion controller is triggered if any of the sensors grouped together in it are triggered. Very useful.

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