I have a ZSE18 motion sensor. I have it set to the least sensitive level. But the cat walking by is still setting it off. Any idea how to get it setup so a pet doesn't set it off buy a human does?
Have you tried adjusting the angle of the sensor upwards to minimize the chance of the cat being detected?
You might even try blocking the bottom ~1/3 of the sensor with tape to help.
Now if the cat is a climber, you’re probably out of luck.
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The sensitivity setting may be enough to exclude the cat. Just remember to wake the sensor up so it can sync with the hub or wait for the usual wake cycle to come around.
The problem is my 11yo who likes to go on walk abouts at night. He's figured out he can crawl underneath it if it's angled up, so I have it angled down directly at the floor.
The other problem is, the magnetic/swivel mount isn't all that strong, so any little pull on the usb power wire or vibration in the area, such as a slamming door, changes the angle.
Maybe switch to using a video camera based solution with person detection? Something that can discriminate between animals and people?
Not an easy problem to solve, based on your requirements.
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This would be the way to go.
I’m a very recent user of object detection using video cameras. I’m amazed at how well it works. I’ve been using Scrypted NVR, and after less than a week of training, it can identify specific faces from multiple angles. It can also pick up all humans and some animals very well (cats, dogs, squirrels, and possums).
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I've seen where people use tape to block the lower part of the PIR sensor to not catch things closer to the ground, so that is one option to try. PIR field of view can be blocked, unlike mm-wave sensors.
Maybe this is not an option for @user7093 in light of what they wrote (quoted below):
Missed that comment. That is an issue, a PIR sensor is not going to distinguish between an 11 year old and a cat based on sensitivity if it is aimed down where both of those things will be moving.
What are the capabilities of the radar presence sensors, or whatever they're called, lol?
Can they distinguish different masses, sizes, etc?
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I thought there were 'pet resistant' pir sensors? Not saying they work well.
The efficacy various between brands. About 80% of the time, mine do not pick up cats, but pick up humans. But the remaining 20% is sufficient to make them worthless .....
I think units made by Aqara are much better.
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Which Aqara model do you recommend?
I’ve only tried the FP1E.
While researching the FP1E I got all excited when I discovered the FP2, only to see it's a CF to get it working with Hubitat.
Do you have a C8 Pro hub? If so, it should be pretty easy to addd the FP2 directly to the C8 Pro hub using the HE built-in HomeKit Controller integration.
I don’t know if it would really help with pets, though. One of the big advantages of the mmWave sensors is that anything moving will trigger them, not just warm bodied animals/humans. So, a plant or a curtain that moves when the HVAC is blowing can be a problem. The FP2 allows one to ignore areas of a room where these objects exist, like a ceiling fan. But there is no pet-immunity setting that I recall. There is a sensitivity setting, IIRC…. Maybe that would be enough?
