My wife wants me to replace the switch in our walk-in pantry with one that’s motion based, so that when you open the doors the switch will pick up the motion and automatically turn on the light in there. Anyone have good luck with one brand/model of switch over another?
I use a Xiaomi contact sensor. Small and works well.
You do have to use a custom DTH for it though.
Most community members are using two separate devices for this, one motion sensor and one smart switch. That’s because up until recently the radio devices that communicated with the smart things hub or generally not small enough to fit into a switch as well.
There is now one motion switch available as of late 2017 from GE, but most people still use two separate devices. That also allows you to place the motion sensor anywhere you want to in the room, which can make it more effective.
Or as @bobbles suggested you could just use a contact sensor on the door which might be more reliable than a motion sensor, but you would still need a smart switch as well.
Essentially the sensor sends a message to the smart things hub when the door is open and then the hub sent a message to the switch to turn on the light.
See the device class features FAQ. It discusses both sensors and light switches.
You could also use a smart bulb instead of the smart switch in this kind of configuration.
There is also one smart bulb intended for an overhead light fixture which does have a built-in motion sensor, but for whatever reason it never really seem to catch on. There are a number of non-networked bulbs which do have this feature, and some people just use those if you don’t need to connect it to the rest of your home automation.
I use an Ecolink z-wave plus motion detector with a GE smart switch. Out pantry is fairly large as pantries go, but fairly tight for the motion detector. The set-up works fine, though occasionally I have to wave my arms to get it the Ecolink to detect motion, even with sensitivity set to the highest level.
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