Outdoor motion sensor lighting

[JDRoberts]

Welcome! (I’ve moved this to projects so you can get individualized responses based on your particular set up.)

Timer and manual control are easy-- it’s the outdoor motion sensor part that’s difficult. There are a number of sensors that are rated for outdoor use, like the Aeon multisensor, but that tell you specifically to turn off the motion sensor part and only use them for humidity and temperature sensing, as the outdoor environment tends to create a lot of false alarms.

You can read a lot more about using motion sensors outdoors and how people approach that in the FAQ (this is a clickable link)

FAQ: Do you know of an outdoor motion sensor?

I am looking for outdoor motion sensors to monitor my yard. I bought a pair of the Aeon Labs Aeotec Z-Wave Multi-Sensor and am quite unhappy with them. Even on the lowest sensitivity setting it randomly sends alerts, some perhaps due to clouds changing the lighting (even though PIR is not supposed to be susceptible to this) and others I can’t explain at all. With several false alerts a day this thing is just useless. The Smartthings Motion sensor works great, I have some in my house, but it is indoor rated only. The Schlage / Nexia motion sensor is also indoor use only. I am hoping someone has come across an outdoor rated motion sensor they have been able to pair with the Smartthings hub.

I’m sure there will be other community members who can help discuss the various wiring and lighting aspects.