New user planning out what to buy for door and motion sensors

Just installed and setup my Hubitat this week with my Philips Hue Hub, Logitech Harmony, and Amazon Echo devices as well.

I'm fully ready to slowly turn my house into something much better. Some simple things I'd like to get setup are having motion/door sensors turn lights on and off (when opening a door the room lights turn on, or when detecting motion in the front yard the porch light turns on)

I've been reading all week, and as I understand it, Zigbee devices are MUCH better with latency turning lights on and off. I'm down for that, as I don't want to have lights take longer to turn on with automation, that it would be to just flip the light on by a switch myself.

So, if Zigbee is the way to go, I want everything as uniform in my house as it can be (I come from an IT background, so uniformity when it comes to tech is pretty high on my list). Can anyone recommend/link a couple of good devices to get me started with my small projects? I live in the US, so Amazon is pretty much the way I buy everything.

I'm thinking two door sensors, and two motion sensors to start off with, unless I need something else. I've got my Philips Hue bulbs connected to the Hue Hub, which is connected to the Hubitat, and I'm guessing the motion/door sensors would be added into the Hubitat and then controlled by rules.

I've got some Samsung motion detectors that work for me and 'reasonable' priced from Amazon. Somewhere in Youtube land is a comparison of motion detectors and latency. I think the Samsung placed in the middle. I wouldn't get too stuck on conformity because odds are high something better or cheaper things will be available about 2 hours after you purchase something, plus there is always a chance you'll purchase something that doesn't do what you want.

I'm not really wanting to go down into a deep hole where comparisons between a ton of devices are very minor, I just want to find a solid device that will do what I want it to do, that is compatible between my current setup and just stick with those.

I do understand that uniformity isn't always going to be achievable, but I'd like to start with it and work my way outward.

Also, this is why I asked for recommendations and links, because everything is so vague when it comes to devices. I looked up Samsung Motion Sensor, and I found like five different types.... and it looks like they all require another separate hub... I'd like to stay away from another hub as that's why I thought I was buying Hubitat to begin with. If you have any more recommendations, let me know, and thanks for the reply!

None of the zigbee motion sensors need another hub, Even the Hue motion sensor can use hubitat w/o the Hue hub - in fact that is how my Hue sensor works and is the recommended way to deal with Hue - lights only on the Hue hub.

Welcome to the Hubitat Community!

Are you considering adding an alarm system? There’s a really good community integration for Ring Alarm which allows you to use the Ring contact and motion sensors with Hubitat. They are Z-Wave, but it’s the latest Z-Wave 700 technology and they are very fast and reliable.

Just a thought. Cover both bases at once.

Oh really? Awesome! Good to know. So, would you recommend this Samsung motion sensor, or this Hue Motion Sensor?

Thanks! I have been considering it, but we already have a SimpliSafe system, and I haven't seen any great way to integrate it yet (But I'm just starting out, got my hub two days ago). Also I want to stay as far away from anything Ring. I don't trust them at all.

That looks like the Samsung I use. I don't recommend the Hue sensor - I find it really slow and the settable sensitivity doesn't work that well for my application.

The latest Samsung motion sensors are very good. The hue indoor are ok, a little slow. The Hue outdoor motion sensor is excellent.

For the contact sensors, the Samsung multi sensors are ok. But as contact sensors, they are a little large and they are a bit too sensitive to the magnet, so the gap has to get very big before they react.

You would probably be happier with a lot of used Iris v2 contact sensors from eBay and they’re inexpensive too. You’ll find lots of posts here with links to sellers. Alternatively, you can still buy Centralite contact sensors. Centralite is the maker of the Iris sensors. They’re rock solid.

The camera hyperbole has nothing to do with the alarm system. Also, Amazon owns Ring, so if you don’t trust Ring, then you don’t trust Amazon either.

I really don't trust Amazon either, but I live in the mountains, around a 45 min drive to the nearest big store. Ordering from them is a nessesary evil. But that's besides the point, the wife wants to keep SimpliSafe and I am running my own PoE UniFi cams on our network. So Ring is just out of the question as far as she is concerned.

I felt like I read that Iris was completely killed by Lowes and no one should ever buy it. Am I misinformed? Or do those connectors work with Hubitat without anything extra? I saw a lot of version 1 Iris contact sensors for fairly cheap, what are the differences between V1 and V2?

The Iris hub (which was also made by Centralite) is dead, but the v2 sensors are standard Zigbee sensors made by Centralite. The v1 were not and are not standard Zigbee. Work was done to allow them to work with Hubitat for displaced Iris owners who owned them and had no way to use them once Iris servers closed down. But they are not as reliable and some have had a lot of issues with them. Avoid buying v1 sensors.

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Here are the Centralite contact sensors, still available.

Here’s the latest Samsung motion sensor

Ah ok, that makes sense, thanks for the info. I'll stay away from any V1 stuff. Thanks for the links too. Would you recommend the Centralite sensors over Iris then? If the price isn't much different, I'd rather just get the newer ones, that are easier to come by instead of having to search out Ebay.

They're literally the same thing. Just slightly varied depending on the vendor. Centralite which filed for bankruptcy last year seems to have found new life with their current owners and their products are once again for sale. Centralite was one of the biggest OEM manufacturers for smart home gear prior to their financial troubles which seemed to occurs around the same time as the Iris platform went belly up. They might have had too many eggs in that basket and Iris shutting down put them over the edge.

Sylvania motion sensors are also made by Centralite. I have one of them and it's excellent. Very sensitive and the battery life was great. Most devices tend to stop working properly when their batteries get below 50%, but that thing worked without fail down to 6% (verified with an external battery tester)