So this morning my suspect unit had another false motion event. This has been swapped in location so it must be something specific in that unit itself. It's now in the bin.
I've had a couple more arrive (that I ordered before the false motion started) so I have replaced the faulty one with one of the new ones and will see how that one goes.
I have noticed though that these units are slower to react to motion than the Aqara ones I had planned to replace with the Sonoffs. When I switched over I felt this was the case so I ran a test with an Aqara and a Sonoff side by side and in walking into the zone watching the logs the Sonoff triggers around 600ms after the Aqara, I tried this several times and it was always at least 600ms and sometimes 700ms. In motion lighting terms that is huge and the difference between positive and negative WAF so I'm not going to be getting any more of these and will only use the ones I have where speed is not vital or as a secondary "keep lights on if active" type environment.
All in all, I wouldn't really recommend these units on my experience.
FYI and in my limited experience, I hated my smartthings motion sensors. Bad sensitivity, poor range, just rubbish. Assumed it was due to being battery powered and just a bit cack overall - I gave up having them linked to living room lights as I found I could walk through the room and it took a bit of aggro to actually have them activate. Which initially caused me to place 3 of them around the room in an attempt to have at least one pick up motion. Awful.
Now I use a 12v honeywell PIR via a nodemcu. Cost about 6 quid I believe, and I only need one, works flawlessly and covers the entire room.
It may be that the Sonoffs aren't slower as such they just have a narrower detection angle.
In my test setup that would certainly explain the delay as the detection as you enter that room relies on a wide detection angle from where the sensors are.
I have used both drivers and am getting the false motion with both.
As for motion detection, yes they are slightly slower than the Xiaomi/Aqara but not really an issue for me.
As for positioning, where I have mine they do not need to cover a wide angle.
I really do like these devices and this has only become an issue recently.
BTW the issue is very intermittent for me. I have written a rule to report motion detection if no other devices are active and I've not had a single false motion for the past 2 days.
Just a quick update.
I still had one giving random false notifications.
In another thread they were having issues with a motion sensor continually dropping off their network.
They tweaked the battery contacts as they thought the battery felt a bit loose and had no more issues.
I did the same to this sensor and so far so good.
Time will tell but thought I would pass on the information.
I am new in home automation and for sure I got in to the Sonoff world, since they are very affordable.
I also bought and HE hub, and integrated the sensors, just to see if they are compatible (for the moment). Since I don't have any zigbbee or zwave bulbs or switches, yet I went back to the Sonoff Zigbee hub and tested to see how the motion sensors perform.
I made this introduction, just to let you know that the issues you have with your motion sensors, appear on the Sonoff hub too, therefore might not be related to any driver on HE, but to the sensor itself.
So, when tested inside my home, the first two I bought, performed well. I noticed some suspect triggers at one of them, but I was not 100% sure they were false.
Couple of days ago, after 2 weeks inside, I placed them in the garage, which compared to my home is not heated, and I was surprised to see that the battery levels are dropped to 50% and 75%. Just seems to soon, for a new sensor. I know that the temperature(4 degrees C), influence battery level shown in the app, but I want to see if this also can be the reason for the false triggers
Conclusion up to know:
Out of two motion sensors, placed in the same location, one with 50% and the other with 75% battery level, only the one with less battery gave false triggers.
I moved both of them inside the house, the same spot, no movement what so ever, so I am checking:
Thanks for this information. It's good to know that it is likely to be a sensor issue.
I still have one playing up so I'm going to swap batteries with another one and see if the issue moves with the battery.
OK folks. Latest update.
The problem of false motion detection has moved with the battery.
So if you get this problem, try changing the battery.
I've just changed it so fingers crossed.
EDIT: With chirpys driver you get battery voltage when used with Aqara devices. I don't know how accurate it is but it is a reference point I suppose.
I put the battery from the device that gives false motion in an Aqara sensor and it gave a reading of 3.02V.
The device's battery that does not, gives a reading of 3.22. Not sure if this proves anything or not but just thought I would document it for anyone else that may stumble across this thread.
Coming back, but unfortunately not with a clear conclusion.
With both sensors in the house, facing a wall, no false motion detection happened.
While sitting in house, the battery level changed from 75% to 100% to one of them, while the other (one with false detections, while in the garage) remained at 50%.
The only conclusion I can have, based in this, is that a low battery sensor can trigger false events, but only in large environment. Facing the wall, no false events.
I know that is not convincing, this is why I will replace the battery, too.
I'll be back.
PS: I have now 4 motion sensors (2 in the warm environment, and 2 in the garage). Only the one in the garage with 50% battery triggers false events.
The motion sensor in the garage, the one with 50% battery level and false triggers, went offline.
I bought new batteries, and I replaced it. I measured the old one: 3V
The new on was 3.3V but the application showed the red symbol of an empty battery.
I put back the old battery, and the symbol was the same: empty battery.
I put back the new one, left it for couple of minutes and the symbol got ... orange I think, indicating about 30%.
Over night it reached the status full.
Now, after 18 hours since I replaced the battery, I got no false triggers.
I had the same problem. In the end I had to return the Sonoff motion sensor. I bought a Philips Hue sensor and so far it has been flawless. Nice bonus to have both the Lux and temperature sensors
Glad I'm not the only one seeing some issues with these devices. I got a new one today and it doesn't seem to want to stay inactive. Every time it goes inactive within milliseconds it jumps back to active. Has anyone seen anything like this before?
I have another Sonoff motion sensor, and it seems to work great. Been using it for a while with lights in my bedroom and it has been solid.
After a week of no false motion reports 6 of them started playing up last night.
I updated my hub yesterday and false detection has happened before after an update. Definitely something spooky going on.
I have 30 plus of them and in conjunction with zone motion manager app you can require 2 or more of them to become active within a time frame that you set to become active. I has allowed me to use them outside and requiring more than one of them to become active has eliminated the false motions with expanded coverage.
I have all mine in Zone Motion Manager just because it is easy to replace the device here and not have to worry about changing my rules should I change a device.
Just looking at it I think I will change ZMM from motion activation to triggered activation as other motion sensors will be active as well as the ones in the zone. This should stop lights going mad in the middle of the night.
5 days ago all hell let loose again with lights turning on in the middle of the night.
Bought a Tuya Zigbee 3.0 motion sensor and gave it a try. Been working great so I'm going to swap out the Sonoff devices for the Tuya ones.
Bit of a shame as I like them but needs must.
No more 'All the lights have turned on again' in the middle of the night.
I've listed them on UK eBay has them if anyone is interested.
