Cheap Motion Sensor (2019) (US)

Hey folks. I’m looking for recommendations on a cheaper motion sensor. Their sole purpose in life will be to automate lighting throughout the house so I don’t need the extra features that most seem to come with now. Smaller form factor is a must though. I know the SmartThings ones aren’t overly expensive individually, but would be once I put them to the scale of all the rooms in the house.


I use this one. It’s a little smaller than a deck of cards.

Appreciate the response, but that’s $15 more than the SmartThings sensor and a little larger than I’m looking for.

What country are you in? The device selection does vary somewhat.

Also, what version of the smartthings hub do you have?

Z wave sensors, at least the inexpensive ones, are typically larger than zigbee sensors because zigbee handles power management a little better and so doesn’t need as many batteries. :sunglasses:

I have the ADT hub and am in the US.

In that case, I would seriously consider getting the dual logo ADT/SMARTthings sensors because they are very cheap right now.

These are neither Z wave nor zigbee, but use a proprietary frequency which is only available with that model hub.

They are on the larger side, similar to the Z wave sensors, but at 11 or $12 each it’s hard to beat right now.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SmartThings-ADT-Motion-Detector/dp/B077JVFKX7/

I have a handful of them for the security monitoring aspect, but they’re still rather large.

To give ya an idea, I have one of the regular SmartThings motions sensors sitting on top of the door frame in the water closet of my master bath.

What are you using for the lighting?

You mean for lighting control? A mix of GE and Zooz switches.

We should have the ZSE18 Motion Sensor back in stock within 10 days (hopefully sooner), it should do the job. But let us know if you have any doubts or questions!

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https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-smartthings-adt-motion-detector-white/6106102.p?skuId=6106102

Even harder to beat for $5

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The problem with those ADT sensors is that the app harasses you to do a system test to include them for security monitoring and where I want to place them will make them prone to false-postives.

You can add them and test them at the beginning, but then remove the individual sensors from your ADT monitoring so the false positives won’t matter in terms of your security rules. It’s tedious, but it should work. Under the “security settings” in the ADT part of the app you can individually change the monitoring status For each individual sensor.

So, I had an extra ADT sensor and decided to test it out in the garage. Did as you suggested; added the device, did the system test, then removed it from monitoring. Fun fact, it’ll still set off the alarm, it just doesn’t send the notification to ADT. The sunlight moving set it off.

I don’t have that system myself, so I don’t know all the details. Maybe @Mavrrick58 Will have some ideas.

I actually was just having this conversation with my coworker. For those without an ADT hub, another possibility is Xiaomi’s motion sensors. They’re only about $12 from GearBest. I will say, I haven’t used them myself (I plan on ordering a few soon) but my coworker uses them with his SmartThings and he hasn’t had any issues. He actually got lucky at the end of last year and managed to get them $6 each on a sale . . .

Anyway, that’s my suggestion. Hope it helps!

Xiaomi’s latest ones are great. they are hard to connect sometimes. lots of posts discussing it here.