I’ve recently built a new shed for my garden, and wanted to put in a motion sensor to turn on the lights when I enter it.
But sadly the Smartthings Motion Sensor doesn’t do well outside, the battery was drained a few weeks and that sucks.
Does there exist any kind of motion Sensor that can survive being outside in a shed or similar location?
I live in the nordics, so the temperature will swing between -10 to 35 Celsius during the year.
How far away is the motion sensor away from the hub or nearest repeater? You may need to add an additional repeater. Or perhaps, you might have better success using an open/close sensor on the door instead?
The sensor is about 8-10 meters fro the actual hub (and three walls).
It’s about four meters from my office where a Hue bulb is located (unsure if that counts as a repeater?). The shed itself is also outfitted with five Hue bulbs.
8-10 meters is probably pushing the limits of the sensor especially with the 3 walls. Hue bulbs do not count as repeaters because they are on their own hub. Another option is to use a motion sensor that can be powered such as the 1st gen SmartThings motion sensor (now discontinued) or the Aeon Labs motion sensor. It’s also Z-wave Plus which has a longer range.
A powered sensor might be the solution I’m looking for then.
Are there any cheap ones on the market? The Aeon one I have installed in my house, and it’s lovely. But really expensive and overkill for the shed.
This Iris smart plug is working wonders for my system. I have 1 smartplug outside and 1 inside.
$34.00 is not as inexpensive as some MonoPrice devices but when you consider you are getting a smart outlet and both Zigbee and Z-wave repeaters then 34 is not so bad. Having this as a repeater was the difference between working and not working for MonoPrice Z-wave devices in my system. http://www.lowes.com/pd/Iris-120-Volt-White-Smart-Plug/999925330
You will need this device handler to make the Iris smart plug do everything it can with the ST hub.
Does the Iris also come in a Scandinavian edition for plugs? I can only seem to find plugs that will not fit anything in my home.
Alternatively, do you know if the Aeotec Smat Switch works as a repeater? I have one of those in the house that is not being used at the moment.
Is a viable option also just getting a Z-Wave repeater and plugging that into the shed? Like the once that Aeon Labs make?
If the five Hue bulbs in the shed are working fine and all you want the motion sensor for is to turn on those bulbs, then I would consider trying the new Hue motion sensor which is just coming out next week. It’s also expensive, but it has several excellent features and it will probably work if the hue bulbs are working.
The motion sensor itself may be invisible to SmartThings, we don’t know yet. But you could capture the bulb coming on as a SmartThings event.
Available for pre order at both Amazon and the Hue site.
The iris smart plug is sold in the US only and operates on the US Z wave frequency. Do you have a US hub or a UK hub?
Any mains powered device except a smoke sensor should repeat for its own protocol. So Zwave repeats for zwave, zigbee repeats for zigbee.
The Lowe’s iris plug is unusual because it includes both Zwave and s zigbee radio. But again, the zwave radio is on the US frequency.
Once a device is manufactured, the Z wave frequency cannot be changed. So you always need to buy zwave devices that are on the exact same frequency as your hub.
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Is_this_device_a_repeater%3F
My hub is a UK one.
The SmartThings home page says that their motion sensor is Zigbee, so I would need a Zigbee sensor instead of a Z-Wave extender correct?
Yes, if you are trying to get signal to a zigbee sensor that is paired directly to the smartthings hub then the device doing the repeating must also be a zigbee device that is paired directly to the SmartThings hub.
You had mentioned aeotec: they only make zwave devices. So if you were using that as the repeater, you would need to use a Z wave motion sensor.
If the hue bulbs that you already have are working fine in the shed, then the point of using the new Hue motion sensor is that it should also work fine in the same location. You wouldn’t need an additional repeater. Devices attached to a Hue bridge form their own mini-network. 
I’m finding it strange the motion sensor fared so badly outdoors. I have had one in a black metal post box since last winter. Temperatures go right up to 40c plus in the sun to less than - 10c in winter with wind chill at night.
Amazingly considering it’s also really the furthest device from my mesh or hub being right at the bottom of my driveway it’s been practically the only sensor that’s never dropped off or failed in the 9 months its been installed. Battery level is still showing as 88% and has surpassed all expectations to be honest.
I chose to use a motion sensor in the post box rather than a contact sensor due to the false alarms of a flapping postflap due to wind and also the metal interfering with the contact. It’s been a very successful experiment.