Samsung Motion Sensors - fed up with them not working - whinge warning

(Ian Holt) #1

A bit of a whinge…sorry

I really liked the Samsung SmartThings Motion Sensors to start with…
great sensitivity (for me, no pets)
great response time
So I bought a few (6) and put them around the house to automate mostly lighting and presence notifications…

The hallway coming on at night without fumbling for the light switch was what won my wife over to my adventures in home automation.

So the most important component of everything I have installed in the house is the hallway light (Hue) and the hallway light motion sensor (smartthings sensor).

The Hue lights are amazing and work really well. Never had a problem.
The motion sensors… oh my goodness, it is as though QA/QC is an alien concept.
3 so far have failed, 2 of those I have had replaced and the 3rd has just gone.

So 2 replaced, just dropped off the network and no matter what I did (battery replacement, reboot, wifi channel changes as per other threads), they would not come back.
One sensor, worked as expected for 2 weeks, then one night went on a complete fit, started detecting motion at every few seconds…guess what, the battery drained in a matter of hours… awesome design.
The most recent one… just stopped being detected by the hub and no matter what I do will not come back.

The fact that there has been no warning… battery always reports 100% even when dead and I have replaced with a new one.

So how can I trust this technology? Even more so, now we are back to fumbling for the light switch it has brought the whole setup under the gaze of my wife who is not looking very impressed at my spending… gulp!

So I am off to buy a Fibaro motion sensor… I tried the Aeon one and the distance and sensitivity is rubbish.

If that is also rubbish I’m going to try the Elgato Eve stuff. The tech may be Bluetooth, but for goodness sake I just want the sensors to work… or at least report that they may not in the case of battery drain.
I’m really wondering why Smartthings would have mass market takeup when I have so many failures and also it is not plug and play.

Now, I understand the bandwidth issues of wifi and zigbee… but as a consumer why should I need to care… just work out of the box!!!

Ok whinge over or I might start on the battery design… poor choice of battery size, poor/none battery reporting, really poor battery housing contacts etc etc etc

Grrrrrr very frustrated!!!

(Bob) #2

I have 4 ST ones that are now paper weights.
I have tried Hue, Fibaro, Orvibo and Xiaomi and all work better than ST ones even though you need a custom device handler to get them to work.
ST sensors, IMHO, are rubbish.

(terence peace) #3

Same here. ST motion sensors and power plugs are a wast of time.

(Ian Holt) #4

@tezz, which plugs and sensors have you had success with?

@bobbles of all the brands you mentioned, which did you prefer? Or did it vary depending on the room or use?

Thanks.

(Bob) #5

For the price point the Xiaomi ones are pretty good. They can be difficult to pair but once done I don’t get any issues. Likewise the Orvibo but they are big.
If you want temp, motion and lux readings then it’s the Fibaro or the Hue.
I prefer the look of the Fibaro but I have had the odd issue which requires a battery pull. Maybe twice a year.
I have had no issues with the Hue.
There is also a Xiaomi Aqara Motion Sensor that gives lux readings but it only reports lux when it reports motion so this not really practical for me.
So here is my favourites.
For motion only. Xiaomi. Small and cheap.
For temp and humidity only. Xiaomi. Small and cheap.
For lux, motion and temp it’s a toss up for me. Fibaro for looks but I have not had any issues with the Hue.
Contact sensors are again Xiaomi. Cheap and small.
Sensative strips for contact sensors when you want to put them in the door/window recess where they become invisible.
In general the Xiaomi products are cheap, small and do work well. I always look to these first.
Hope this helps.

#6

Iris sensors are the way to go for motion/contact/plug. They adhere to the HA 2.1 standard, are locally executed, and receive OTA updates from ST. If you play your cards right when they go on sale you can pick them up for less than the Xiaomi sensors.

Xiaomi sensors are cheap and fun to play with but I wouldn’t use them on anything you want to rely on.

(Bob) #7

I’m in the UK and we do not get the Iris product.

As for the Xiaomi comment above I couldn’t disagree more.
I have had absolutely no issues with these devices.
You pay your money you take your choice. :smile:
Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.

(John Crighton) #8

I use Fibaros, and have not had many problems.

The only problems I’ve had relate to them being dropped, repeatedly on to a hard surface. They tend to start reporting motion about 3 times a minute. This has happened with two - one balanced on top of a cabinet (new one bought, now screwed in) and one attached to a washing machine which kept getting knocked off (now replaced and relocated).

Other than that, and you can’t really blame Fibaro, they’ve behaved impeccably.

(Eric) #9

+1 to them sucking!

They are all on sale at Amazon and I’m telling friends to pass.

(Ian Holt) #10

Thanks everyone who has responded so far.
I am in the UK as well.
Can I assume the Xiaomi sensors are these:


or

I don’t need temp or humidity, just motion, so the price is much more to my liking :slight_smile:

(Ray) #11

I think the only way to make the ST motion sensors reliable is to have a billion zigbee repeaters around the house. I have probably around 30 zigbee plugs/switches with repeaters and only have false motion with low battery now. Battery status is a huge issue for me since all my sensors show 1%. Unfortunate for the EU users because the Iris sensors are awesome.

(Ian Holt) #12

The mental imagery of a billion zigbee repeaters made me chuckle.
I would love to see the perfect setup for a 3 up, 3 down victorian terrace.
Maybe I’ll map mine out, post the floor plan up to see whether anyone would comment on how the placement of sensors etc could be improved for best connectivity.
The thing I struggle with most is when it says that the hub should be 6 feet or so away from the wifi router…hmmm not so easy with the cabling and placement options I have.

(Bob) #13

Yes. They are the ones.
Top one motion only. Does not come with any mount as shown in the bottom one.
Bottom one motion and lux.

(Ian Holt) #14

Thanks @bobbles

(terence peace) #15

I’m got some plugs coming. I will post here when I’ve tested them.

(Eric) #16

I have about 25 lowes iris smart plugs (zigbee) in services throughout my house. The ST motion sensors are still slow and unreliable. I’ve also let my zigbee network rebuilt several times…

(Ian Holt) #17

Thanks. Will be good to know.

(Paul) #18

I have had exact same experience - I have 8 sitting in a drawer that are all dead. reached out to smartthings on twitter and nothing! however, i then switched over to using Hue motion sensors - adding them to Smartthings instead of hue (They cant be connected to both at same time) and only one has dropped off the system as unreachable in last 6 months - and unlike the Smartthings motion sensors the Hue ones are dead easy to re-pair to network. they are reliable and very quick, and sensitivity is perfect for me. just my two cents and experience but I would go for Hue. I have 2 in all my rooms to give complete coverage.

#19

I’ve got 7 of these ST motion sensors and get at least one false alarm a day

None of them have dropped off my network, though, since I moved all my lighting products to Philips Hue

(terence peace) #20

I got these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heiman-HS2SK-Z-Smart-Plug-White/253260185417?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

They are way better then smartthings outlet.