Hi All,
I’m looking for the best motion sensor to filter out cats. I have bought Frient but this filters nothing and no adjustment options.
In this forum I read about ecolink as the best to filter out pets. However this is not available to buy in the Netherlands.
Any other recommendations?
Thanks
Maarten
Most motion sensors that work with smartthings are either camera-based or heat-based. The heat based ones are called PIR for “passive infrared.“ This means that when a heat source passes through the detection field, the sensor reports “motion.“ But really it is heat.
Sensors which say they can be adjusted to not trigger for a pet really are just made a little less sensitive so that amount of heat that, say, a 20 kg animal gives off is not enough to trigger it while the amount of heat that a 50 kg animal gives off is.
That means two things.
One) you will have the best success for animals under about 15 kg. And if you have children in the home, you run the risk that they will not be detected either.
Two) any PIR sensor with adjustable sensitivity can be used For this purpose, whether it is advertised for that reason or not. You just need to find one that you can set so that it doesn’t trigger from the pet.
THE ONE WITH THE MOST OPTIONS
Given that information, one of the most adjustable sensors is the Fibaro multisensor. It is available on the EU zwave frequency or on the US zwave frequency. You can try a number of different settings until you get one that works well for you. It’s just that it’s expensive.
( they also have a model which looks exactly the same but it’s for HomeKit. Don’t get that one, it won’t work with smartthings. You want the Z wave one.)
THE SIMPLER, LESS EXPENSIVE CHOICE
The eco- link is popular in the US because it is inexpensive and it already has a “lower sensitivity“ setting which is just a switch inside the device. So it’s very easy to use.
The equivalent for the EU would be the following from everspring. Very inexpensive and has a toggle setting on the device itself. But like the ecolink it’s really just a choice between two settings. So it either works or it doesn’t.
Thanks a lot for your extensive answer, really appriciated. I think I will try the fibaro one first and see if I can make it work. I only have small cats. I will try to play around a bit with the settings and location of the sensor.
The Frient motion sensor has no adjustment options at all. I will find another usecase for that one 