I have been a loyal Wink user for several years and have finally had enough. I have a Hubitat Elevation C7 on order and it should arrive on Wednesday.
Currently I have approximately 30 Lutron Caseta devices in my home along with a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro.
I own a couple of Leviton DZ15S Z Wave light switches, BUT I AM NOT CURRENTLY USING THEM.
Now to my question; I am looking for recommendations on a couple of motion sensors and contact sensors. I have been doing some research and it seems a lot of people are saying that Zigbee devices respond much quicker than Z Wave devices. Price is not the main issue (within reason) as I only need a handful at this point. I do want a fast initial response time and a short reset time.
I would assume getting them all from the same mfg would minimize conflicts, or issues.
One that seems to have good reviews is the Phillips Hue Indoor Motion Sensor, but I am open to suggestions as I don't see a contact sensor from them.
I have Zooz ZSE18 motion sensor, worked very well. It can (optionally) be USB powered so that you don’t have to keep replacing batteries, and USB power makes it a great repeater (it seemed to attract devices to repeat through it like flies). Downside, like you noted, it is Z-wave, and had about 1/3 to 1/2 sec delay, noticeable but not objectionable. I replaced them with GE Smart Motion Dimmer/Switch (26931 / 26933) (with integrated motion sensor that can be used as an independent motion sensor in automations) because guests complained that it was a camera in the bathroom. Others have recommended the Nyce NCZ-3043-HA ceiling motion sensor (Zigbee), if you can find them.
As for contact sensors, I use the Aeotec Recessed Door Sensor 7, which works fine if you update the firmware to 1.05 (Bryan Copeland found a bug that prevented it from working S2 security in earlier firmware).
Welcome to the Hubitat Community - I have had good success with the Xiaomi motion and contact sensors. They are nice and small, batteries last a decent time and they have been reliable on my network.
Good luck with the transition. One thing you will like is the rate of updates and the assistance of the community here.
I’m going to suggest that you confirm items are on the compatible devices list before purchasing.
While some have success with products like Xiaomi directly joined to the hub ( and I’ll qualify this by saying I have many Xiaomi devices, but not many directly joined to the Hubitat hub), many have problems and it can be very limiting to how you are able to handle and expand your Zigbee network.
Zigbee motion sensor are generally faster to respond. Hue are good, but not particularly fast (I have two). I don’t honestly have a good and really fast Zigbee motion sensor recommendation for you right now. The ones that I like are the Sylvania which was made by Centralite and the Samsung which was made by Samjin, but both now unavailable.
If you’re willing to spend some coin, NYCE motion sensors are, well, nice.
For contact sensors, I think the Ring Z-Wave are decent, reasonably priced and fast enough. Although again, I must let you know that I own the version 1 Ring contact sensors, not the version 2.
In regard to Xiaomi, I think they are excellent and very reliable when joined to their gateway. No drops or problems of any kind. But you have to sync their gateway to Hubitat somehow. I do that with HomeKit automations. That’s not a reasonable step for everyone, which is why I generally don’t recommend them.
Ditto this above. You can still find the Sylvania ones on ebay...and sometimes the old Iris V2 ones. Either of those with the Lutron are a very fast solution. I do know there are other zigbee motion sensors that are fast so hopefully others will chime in.
You can get Iris iL07_1 v3 motion sensors on ebay for $13 each, or buy them in bulk for $10 each, maybe even less if he takes your offer. I have a bunch of them, they are fast and retrigger in 30 seconds. Battery life is also great with the CR2, vastly better than a monoprice sensor I have which took two AAA batteries and died within a few months.
My experience is way below some (maybe all) of the posters above. But I'm always suprised at how nobody ever suggests my go-to solution of standard 12v Pir's & magnetic contact sensors using nodemcu's.
Can only speak for myself here, but I've found them (a) cheap and (b) flawless.
The downside of course is that you need to run a few cables. But that hasn't caused me any issues. Don't need to worry about batteries either.
/opinion
Edit
The retrigger times etc are fixed, but I get around this by using hubitats built-in app to create a motion zone for each single internal sensor, which times out after x amount of secs/mins. I then use the zone as my dashboard motion sensor.
I also use this approach with some cheap external AC pir's through relays. Again, I use the motion zone app to reduce false alerts to well, pretty much zero by having two of these on my driveway, having the zone activate only if both are active in x secs. Mine seems to be the only driveway floodlight on the estate which doesn't randomly fire up.
I also recommend you bookmark the Hubitat Compatible Devices page. When I first got my C-7 I was going to that page constantly as I searched or smart devices to add to my HE and home. Quick note, just because the device is not specifically called out on that page does not mean it will not work at all. The HE has several "generic" drivers that will function with tons of other devices, however it's a YMMV scenario. Devices listed on that page are either tested to work with Generic or have their own custom built-in driver included.
As for motion and contact sensors, I have tried several Z-wave and Zigbee and just can't recommend any Z-wave variants at the time being. The Zigbee are more than noticeably faster to detect and report motion activity to HE which makes a big difference in things like lighting automations. The Iris Gen3 are highly recommended but only available used on eBay since they are no longer made. I personally love the Philips Hue indoor/outdoor motion sensors and have them all over the house for automations.
Contact sensors I have used the Ring 2nd Gen Z-wave with good success, but on high use doors and ones that use automations I use Nyce Zigbee contact sensors for the same reason as motion.
I've used a lot of different models of motion sensors.
I've found that speed of response is the most important attribute of a motion sensor.
My own personal list of "best" motion sensors:
NYCE (not the ceiling one)
IRIS V2 (a centralite model, but you can't get it anymore)
Tuya Zigbee V3.0 (from alieexpress, so you have to wait 4-8 weeks for it to come)
I've used: Heiman, Konke, Eria Adura, Xiaomi, Sonoff, Aeotec, Zooz, (and probably others that I still have in my storage containers)
Your mileage may vary...
I recently purchased TP Link Zigbee motion and contact sensors from B&H. I have used these for a couple months and they have worked very well. The sensors are kinda on the large size but they work well with Hubitat. Right now they are about $20 each. I really like the Smartthings sensors but you can't get them anymore. I believe that Aeotec will be making some but who knows when.
Good Luck
Just to add to what I said earlier, my only experience with any type of 'smart' sensors prior to my current system was actually with the smartthings motion sensors and the multipurpose sensors.
I can say with absolute certainly that the 12v honeywell pir's outperform the ST ones in an extremely noticable way. For example, I actually had 3 (!) of the ST ones dotted around the front room in an attempt to detect movement - and it still performed badly. For comparison I now use one single 12v pir in their place and it's faultless.
Thank you everyone for the replies. I have spent quite a bit of time researching all of your recommendations.
Based on everything I have read on this community, I plan on trying to stay with all Lutron Caseta switchs/dimmers and Zigbee sensors/contacts (avoiding Z-wave). Since I currently have all of the Lutron stuff covered, I just need to add the Zigbee stuff.
Today, I ordered the following:
1- NYCE NCZ-3043-HA Ceiling Motion Sensor
1- NYCE NCZ-3041-HA Wall Motion Sensor
1- Iris Motion Sensor IL07 3rd Generation - Used from Ebay
I plan on trying these to get a little experience with each and see what will work best.
Now on to my next questions; Since my current plan is to try and stay with all Zigbee sensors/contacts, should I also order a Zigbee repeater (or 2)? Any recommendation on which one? I see mention of an IKEA repeater, is it the TRÅDFRI Signal Repeater? Is there something better? Also, I think from what I have read, that Zigbee is "self healing" in that I could add the repeater after the fact (if I find it is needed). Is that correct, or do I need to add the repeater before adding the individual devices?
I use a handful of the Tradfri sockets and/or Tradfri repeaters dotted around the house. Both do the same job. The repeater is just a little USB dongle thing...which can be plugged into any USB outlet (although they come with a USB power adaptor anyway).
I've seen some posts about different signal strengths of repeater devices...so in that respect some may be 'better' than others. But as I have them in most rooms of the house they appear to be providing a stable mesh (the only way I can determine that is how frequently my devices drop off....which is very infrequently.) I have many of the Aqara/Xiaomi motion/light/contact/temperature sensors in my setup...and have had (touch wood) few issues with them dropping off.
I completely forgot about one of my favorite motion sensors that would work for you due to your investment in Caséta. The Lutron Caséta occupancy sensor. Not more expensive than NYCE, but arguably more advanced sensing technology. Very sensitive and one of the fastest I've ever encountered. You cannot use them directly in HE. They have to be linked to a Caséta device in the app, but that's unlikely to be an issue for you with all Caséta devices you have. You can use them to trigger a non-Caséta device in HE by monitoring the state of a Caséta device they trigger. So this could be a mix of Caséta and non-Caséta devices, or you could trigger a Caséta in the app that isn't actually plugged in, but HE would still see the change to that device (this is how I use mine).
The Caséta doesn't have temperature or illuminance readings, but it does do it's core function better than any other I've used before. They are unfortunately a bit large, but the CR-123 battery is supposed to give 10 years of battery life. We will see.
If you need temperature, there are a lot of inexpensive and very small all-in-one temp, humidity, and barometric pressure sensors that will work well. Konke is one that many have said works well and doesn't drop. There's a community driver for it.
Correct, but unless you live in a one bedroom apartment, the chances are you're going to need repeaters. Yes the IKEA work well, but they are not that powerful, so if your property is large, you need one at least every 30 feet or so. Don't bother with the dedicated IKEA Trådfri repeaters. They are pretty weak. Stick which is the IKEA Trådfri outlet. It's kind of large and not that attractive, but it works better than their dedicated repeater and is still inexpensive.
Iris or Centralight 3210-L Make AMAZING repeaters. Validated through my xbee's which give me a view into the zigbee mesh. They also have a zwave repeater built in but I do NOT recommend adding that. Just add the zigbee outlet. They are also fairly inexpensive.
Keep in mind that for door and especially window sensors, the size and shape of the sensor and the mounting orientation may drive your choice depending on the design of your windows, frames, and trim. I had some windows where I couldn't find any of the "regular" sensors that would fit so I ended up using the Sensative Strips (I think they call them Guard now). You can put them on the frame of the window and they are completely hidden. They are quite expensive and I am now finding, after about 4 years, that the ten year life advertised for the battery may have been an exaggeration.
I have heard this before, but @pifemaster you should keep in mind that if you want to experiment with Xiaomi devices at some point, the IRIS are not compatible with Xiaomi devices and from what I've read, Xiaomi devices will drop as if there were no repeaters at all.
I think the better way of stating this is that the Xiaomi devices are non standard and are not compatible with all other zigbee repeaters. While some have great luck with them some have a horrible time keeping Xiaomi on the network without using other specific devices. A search of Xiaomi on this forum should bring up the relevant topics.