FAQ: Do you know of an outdoor motion sensor?

[Danes (Dan)]

@Navat604 or anyone else that might know the answer to this

Question 1: So the drawing above is a dual relay switch correct?
Question 2: Can you add another circuit for a second set of lights on here using the S1 and L2 spare terminals?

Thanks

[Navat604 (R.)]

@Danes

Question 1: So the drawing above is a dual relay switch correct?

Question 2: Can you add another circuit for a second set of lights on here using the S1 and L2 spare terminals?

Yes they are dual relay and we are using both relay.
The motion sensor is using s2(switch trigger for L2 load). So whenever S2 is triggered. L2 will have voltage. The reason we don’t use L2 here is because we just want to know the trigger from the motion s2 and not care about the state of L2.

S1 is trigger for L1 and same as above. We are only using L1 to control the light and not using the trigger S1.
Does that make sense?

[NomadTech (Daniel Ionescu)]

@Navat604
What’s the purpose of neutral switching?
One relay should be enough to control one light, freeing second relay for another

[Navat604 (R.)]

@NomadTech

What’s the purpose of neutral switching?

One relay should be enough to control one light, freeing second relay for another

So you have full control of the light instead of the motion sensor. One example would be you want to know the motion but don’t want the light on.

[Danes (Dan)]

@Navat604 that sounds perfect thanks for claering up my question

[NomadTech (Daniel Ionescu)]

@Navat604
So if you do not activate neutral and go to change bulb and have motion you also get a shock as voltage now is live?
Also, what if neutral is spliced somewhere and now you break it?

[Navat604 (R.)]

@NomadTech

@Navat604

So if you do not activate neutral and go to change bulb and have motion you also get a shock as voltage now is live?

Also, what if neutral is spliced somewhere and now you break it?

Sorry I misunderstood you question earlier. This is a dual relay module so the internal 2 relays share the same incoming neutral and line hot.

[Jrfarrar (J.R.)]

@DaveR12

I believe the issue is that the sensor output needs to see a load like the connected bulbs produce. When it’s just connected to the Fibaro switch input (S2), it doesn’t see a load and therefore doesn’t switch on it’s output.

I’m having this exact same issue and wondering the same thing! Did you ever find a load? I’d hate to have to put on a small resistor to achieve this.

[DaveR12 (Dave)]

@Jrfarrar

I’m having this exact same issue and wondering the same thing! Did you ever find a load? I’d hate to have to put on a small resistor to achieve this.

I never found a solution. I emailed the manufacturer, but never got a response from them. I did a quick check on adding a resistor, but it seemed like I would have to duplicate a 60 watt bulb and didn’t know how to safely dissipate the heat.

[Navat604 (R.)]

@DaveR12

I never found a solution. I emailed the manufacturer, but never got a response from them. I did a quick check on adding a resistor, but it seemed like I would have to duplicate a 60 watt bulb and didn’t know how to safely dissipate the heat.

Just a quick check to confirm it requires a load and not the z-wave switch wiring. Remove the light bulb and check for voltage when motion.
60watt minimum seems odd. That means it will not work with LED bulb at all?

[DaveR12 (Dave)]

@Navat604

Just a quick check to confirm it requires a load and not the z-wave switch wiring. Remove the light bulb and check for voltage when motion.

60watt minimum seems odd. That means it will not work with LED bulb at all?

You might be right. Right now I have the S2 wire connected to the detector output along with the LED bulbs just so I can at least tell that the motion detector has tripped. I used the S1 input for my manual wall switch to manually turn the lights on. I can turn the lights on programmatically, but if the motion detector is tripped, it turns on the bulbs and I lose control and only get reporting. My goal would be to only have the bulbs connected to the output of the z-wave switch and not also connected to the motion detector output.

[Jrfarrar (J.R.)]

@Navat604

Just a quick check to confirm it requires a load and not the z-wave switch wiring. Remove the light bulb and check for voltage when motion.

60watt minimum seems odd. That means it will not work with LED bulb at all?

Correct, it does require a load. Wiring is fine and works just fine as long as a load is also attached to the output of the motion sensor. Using a single 9 watt LED is barely enough (meaning not reliably). I think mine needs about 25 watts. I’m assuming all motion sensors are not built this way so now to find one that does not require the load.

[storm_k3 (Kev)]

Hi - I have bought the new version SP816 which is Z-WAVE plus. any ideas how we get an updated device handler ?

[minollo]

Are you saying the old one doesn’t work with the updated device?

[storm_k3 (Kev)]

not tested thoroughly, but it seems not when i looked at it.

i got it to work on a generic Z-Wave plus motion/temp sensor device handler already published… i modified the code to get the battery status to work OK. But not sure whether its optimised for the SP816

[JDRoberts]

One quick update for 2018: Mike Maxwells zone manager smartapp is no longer being supported, but you won’t need it because you can do the same thing with webcore.

[JDRoberts]

2019 Update

Both Phillips hue (Zigbee) and Zooz (Z wave) announced new outdoor motion sensors at CES 2019 for release later this year. I haven’t looked into the details yet, but they should be good additions to the market. We’ll just have to see if they have solved the false alarm problem.

The Phillips Sensor is rated IP 54, so rain shouldn’t be a problem. It will be available in both the US and UK.

Philips Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor Released - Hue Home Lighting

It looks like the Zooz model is less weatherproof, requiring a sheltered area. But it’s also less expensive and has a USB power option, which will be good for those with winters regularly below freezing. And it is only available for the US.

Zooz Z-Wave Plus S2 Outdoor Motion Sensor ZSE29 (Battery or USB Power)

[rontalley]

@JDRoberts

It looks like the Zooz model is less weatherproof, requiring a sheltered area. But it’s also less expensive and has a USB power option, which will be good for those with winters regularly below freezing

The Smartest House

Zooz Z-Wave Plus S2 Outdoor Motion Sensor ZSE29 (Battery or USB Power)

Finally, an outdoor sensor! PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS The first Z-Wave motion sensor made for outdoors Great for flood light automation and monitoring Adjust LUX trigger and motion time-out right from the sensor (no advanced configuration is available,…

I picked up one of the Zooz outdoor motion sensors around the beginning of December 2018. I finally got it installed around the 24th of December 2018 and it has been working OK once I figured out how to set it correctly. The setting are made on the device itself with little adjustment dials. I found the motion trigger to be very sensitive to sunlight and cloud movement. However, once adjusting the daylight setting appropriately, I’ve had less false positives. I believe that I still need to adjust it even more as it still picks up ghost motions. The battery is already at 70% however, I didn’t have it set correctly before so it was sending way more messages than necessary.

Door contact for comparison:

[JDRoberts]

Thanks for the report! Bonus points for positioning the sensor correctly at 90° to the door you are monitoring.

[Jwwhite (JIm)]

I’ve had mine installed for a couple months. Its been working quite well. I have the sensitivity set so it only detects people, cars, larger animals. It’s over my garage door.