Motion Detector Suggestion

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
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I bought a Fibaro Motion Detector a few weeks back. I like the look, the form factor and design of the device, but I’m struggling to get good consistent results. I’ve adjusted the sensitivity to keep the dog from setting it off, and it seemed to be working well for a while, however it is very slow, takes about 2 seconds to get the lights to come on. I’ve tried moving it around to get it to pick up motion quicker, but I only seem to have made it worse.

This application for use in a hallway. Walk into the hallway, most likely you are going upstairs so it triggers GE Link Bulbs in the 4 hallway ceiling lights. Unfortunately, by the time the lights come on I’m half way up the stairs.

I thought I had the device settings tweaked pretty well, but other than setting the sensitivity very high so it picks up everything is there anything else someone can suggest?

I would be fine with installing a z-wave motion detector switch in place the standard light switch. When you walk past it, it would go on. Any suggestions for a good product to do this? Downstairs hall is a 3 way and upstairs is a 4 way so it would need to support that.

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Try masking the detection area with tape.

Some tape still passes some IR so you might have to double-up.

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I know it’s not the way the marketing pictures show it, but most motion detectors work best when you walk crosswise past them rather than straight towards them. This is just a physics issue, it’s detecting a change in temperature and it’s easier for it to do that if you’re not walking straight on. So the first thing is to consider where you’ve placed it.

The next issue is that the zwave network itself. If, like most people, you paired the sensor very close to the hub and then moved it to its final location, have you run A zwave repair recently? This is just a utility that updates the Z wave address tables and can make the network more efficient. This reduces lag time. The Fibaro sensor is a zwave device.

You could also have the same issue with using the Zigbee network, which is what the GE lightbulbs are using, but then you would likely also see lag with other methods of controlling those lightbulbs. Still, it’s easy to do the network update and it’s one of those “can’t hurt, might help” things. For Zigbee, to force an update of the address tables you just unplug the hub for at least 15 minutes and then plug it back in. (You also remove the batteries if you’re using them for this time period.) That’s all you have to do, there’s no utility you have to run, it will automatically heal the network when it returns after being off power.

So those are the first two things I would look at: motion sensor placement and if the network’s address tables are up-to-date.

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Thanks for the suggestions! I learned the zwave repair when I installed a lock so I do make sure I do that when adding/moving devices.

I will try different placement for the sensor. I had it in the corner pointing straight ahead down the hall as you suspected, so I will move it to be crosswise.

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