Recommendations on latest and best contact and motion sensors

Looking for opinions on contact sensors and motion sensors that work well and are reliable. 2020

There's no shortage of either. What do you want? Z-Wave or zigbee?

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I guess zwave as most of my devices are zwave

You should post zigbee recommendations too while you are at it :slightly_smiling_face:

I have a few z-wave motion sensors (Dome, Fibaro ZW5, Zooz ZSE18) that are all uniformly quick at detecting motion. I don't have any z-wave contact sensors that I use as door/window sensors - I use them for other purposes.

On the zigbee side, the Iris v2 and v3 motion sensors are very quick.

The bulk of my contact & motion sensors (~15 motion, ~20 contact) are Xiaomi Aqara. They are very fast, but are not standard zha1.2 (or zigbee 3.0), and require very careful selection of repeaters on the zigbee mesh. So I don't recommend them unless you're prepared to do what I did - put them on a separate Hubitat with only Xiaomi-compatible zigbee repeaters.

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Anything OEMed by Centralite, including the Iris v2 sensors (discontinued but sometimes available on the secondary market) are considered good by many people, myself included. This would include models 3326-L (or -L2) and 3320-L (or -L2). The Sylvania/Lightify sensor was similar but seems to be unavailable lately. For a new option, the current-gen (fall 2018 release date) SmartThings Motion sensor is good and pretty cheap too (my second-favorite thing about the Iris sensors--their $30 USD list price was good at that time). This would be model IM6001-MTP or GP-U999SJVLBAA or possibly whatever else they've labeled it as. Their current-gen mutlisensor is also good--and actually most generations of any of their sensors are too, except a generation or two of motion sensor some people have had problems with. However, these are all Zigbee.

There are also a variety of Z-Wave options. I don't like most of these for motion sensor because I haven't found one that's as reliably fast as any of my Zigbee sensors, but for contact sensors this usually matters less with the way I use them (your needs may vary). Here, I'm much less picky about brands, but Zooz, Inovelli, Dome, and Aeon are a few manufacturers who have or will have one or more motion or contact sensors. I usually by these based on price, though I'm not a fan of the bulkier ones that take AA(A?) batteries.

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For motion sensors, I have had or have iris, zooz, Ecolink, hue. The iris motion sensors eventually just died. No apparent reason, they just stopped working. I have zooz ZSE40 for motion and illumination. These work pretty good now. First gen ate batteries like crazy and were a bit flaky. I have zooz ZSE18 just for motion. I am finding these to be a bit flaky. Actually just sent one back for replacement the other week. They also seem to go through batteries somewhat quickly. But they are small and I like the magnetic base. I just bought a hue motion sensor which I use for motion and illuminance. Really, I bought this one because I am still in search of a stable motion sensor that does motion & light. So far, it seems pretty good. Battery is still reading 100% after about 3 months of use and it is in a heavy traffic area. Now the very first motion sensor that I bought was the Ecolink because it has pet sensitivity. This one has been a rock solid motion sensor. Very reliable detection and I don't think I have had to change the battery yet. I have had it since early 2017. The only downside with this one is that it is bigger than the rest. Hope this helps!

Anyone have experience with the Ring branded motion and contact sensors?

@bcopeland has written drivers for them. I think I saw him say that they're fast (or maybe that was @SmartHomePrimer) - one of those two guys.

May have been both of us regarding the contact sensors. I have the v1 so I cannot speak to the v2. The v1 are very fast. The v1 motion sensor is very fast to react, very slow to reset. Typical security type motion sensor, not intended for lighting. Iā€™m using mine for shutting off lights in the pantry that are left on. If I remember correctly, the motion sensor reset time it something like 2 minutes.

Makes sense for security. A 2 minute reset would work in some lighting situations as well, I guess.

Yep. Fine for manual on and off after 2 min or more. Not good for activating lights.

What's the motion reset time for the V2 and V3v

Not aware of a v3. The v2 just came out. Perhaps @bcopeland knows.

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Just experimented with 3 different motion sensors: Fibaro, Zooz 4 in 1, and Hue. Here is the summary:

Fibaro - kind of bizarre eye thing, but fine, I could get used to the look. However, I could never get it to pair correctly on my system. The instructions and options were amazingly complex - too complex. I gave up on it.

Zooz - got in connected to my system, but it seemed to throw a wrench in my whole zwave setup, with other devices becoming unresponsive, etc. Regardless, the device was flaky. Changes made in the device setting would show as pending, but I couldn't them to actually update on the device. Motion sensing was very inconsistent. I gave up on it.

Hue - paired easily (as Zigbee). It is responsive to changes in settings and has delivered consistent motion sensing. The overall build quality of the device is much higher than the other devices - its weight and fit/finish is just more solid. I did notice that it sometimes forgets to report lux, which I use for lighting rules. I fixed this problem by doing a device refresh with RM on an interval basis (found that solution in another post).

So far, the Hue motion sensor has been a winner for me.

What kind of range does the Hue motion sensor have?

Also what kind of motion does it detect? I've heard most motion sensors only work if you move perpendicular to it. Would these not be good for motion where you're walking away or towards them? What about for in an office, where you're just sitting mostly still?

I think the Hue documentation says 30+ feet for the range. I actually have mine in my office - it's about 10' away from me, directly to my side. In this arrangement it will detect relatively "small" motion - e.g., sitting back in my chair and leaning forward, but not simply arm movement such as computer use. I use the sensor to turn on some desk lighting and have it set for a 20 minute timeout. Most of the time it works as desired - once in a while the lights will turn off when I am working and I have to intentionally move to get them back on.

So it sounds like you have it in the ideal position that I've heard people say to place motion sensors in. Have you had any use cases/tests that used it head on? How'd it perform?

Do you know if the Ring Motion Sensors have an ambient light sensor like the Hue motion sensors?

They are security devices. No temp or ambient light sensors.

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That makes me more comfortable paying the extra $10 for the Hue sensor. Hue motion sensors also have temperature? That's also a nice added bonus!

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