I want to install a smart light system at home without installing smart bulbs, it is, just installing a smart light switch and a motion sensor.
Basically what i need is to have the ability to switch on/off the lights with alexa/google home etc… and have a motion sensor to switch on/off the smart switch as well when movement is detected. I dont even know if there is any way to integrate a smart light switch with a motion sensor…
I have been reading about zigbee and z-wave, but im a bit confused about whats the best option. I have seen sonoff ecosystem (https://sonoff.tech/product/smart-home-security/zbbridge) and looks like it might work, but i dont know if there is any better option. Can somebody advise?
Welcome! As long as you have a hub which can talk to both the motion sensor and the light switch, then it’s simple. The motion sensor sends a message to the hub, and you have a rule set up so when the hub gets that message it sends the message to the light switch.
The light switch and the motion sensor do not have to be able to talk to each other Directly in that kind of set up, and that is typically what smartthings customers do. So the devices can be using the same communications protocol, but they don’t have to be As long as both can talk to the same hub.
So you will have lots of different choices for both the switches and the motion sensors. You also have multiple choices for the hub.
If you just have simple rules, you can even just use an echo device with a built-in hub, like the echo plus or the echo show second generation. Again, there are multiple different brands of motion sensors that can work with these and multiple different brands of light switches.
Another alternative is apple HomeKit. You can also get devices which work with both Apple HomeKit and echo, so if you are already using Apple devices like an iPhone and an iPad that can be a good choice.
If you want to have more complicated rules, then you probably need a more complicated hub like smartthings.
The following community FAQ discusses why you might choose a smartthings hub instead of just an echo device or Apple HomeKit. It explains just what we mean by “more complex rules.”
So what you want to do is quite easy, you will have a wide choice of different sensors and different light switches, and you will decide which hub to use based on a number of different factors including how complex the rules are that you want to set up.
BTW, this forum is specifically for customers of the Samsung SmartThings ™ home automation platform, and all of the questions and answers are assumed to be in that context. It’s a very active forum, so it often comes up near the top in Google searches on general home automation questions, but it’s not a general forum.
If you are looking for a discussion group which is brand agnostic, try the reddit home automation subReddit:
