SmartSense Motion Sensor doesn't work behind glass?

I just bought the “Smarter Home Starter Kit” - the motion sensor doesn’t seem to work if it’s behind glass? For example, if I place it in a window facing the outside, I can go right up to the window outdoors and wave my hands in front of it and nothing happens. It seems to work fine if I remove the glass between the sensor and the moving object.

Another motion sensor question: I set up the motion sensor to turn on the wall outlet that has a lamp plugged into it. It will trigger, and work correctly - but in my SmartThings app, it doesn’t show the light as being on. It’s always displayed as off. Manually pressing the light switch button in the app will show it as on or off accordingly.

Those seem to be the only two kinks in the setup right now… any advice would be much appreciated!

@bowzy You are correct, there is no way the Motion sensor will work through glass, it needs an unobstructed view of the area being monitored.

What version of the ST App are you using? iOS or Android. I’m running iOS and sometimes there can be a delay before the App showing what is happening. This will normally correct itself in a few moments, or a pull down to refresh the screen works.

Tried it both on the latest iOS and Android version of the apps, I don’t think it was a refresh problem, but I’ll try the pull down refresh when I get home tonight.

[quote=“bowzy, post:1, topic:6906, full:true”]
I just bought the “Smarter Home Starter Kit” - the motion sensor doesn’t seem to work if it’s behind glass? For example, if I place it in a window facing the outside, I can go right up to the window outdoors and wave my hands in front of it and nothing happens. It seems to work fine if I remove the glass between the sensor and the moving object.[/quote]

The majority of motion sensors are Infrared Sensors. They detect heat as it moves through their field of view. When the heat level changes in an area the detector assumes this is motion.

If you put it behind glass, especially energy efficient glass, this will greatly reduce the amount of infrared that gets through to the sensor and in most cases will not trip the sensor.

I have this issue too with the mobile app not always “lining up” with the real world. Generally it doesn’t cause too much of a problem as the more I’ve used ST, the less I’ve actually used the mobile app to view what’s going on.

I originally got into ST looking at it as being able to use my phone as a “house” remote control. What I found was that the more I got into it, the more I automated things and rarely do I pull out the phone to check on status or things or toggle switches.

That said this is still a problem. I’d definitely contact support and see if they can work through with you on this issue.

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I am using Android. on a HTC Evo 3D and a Nexus 7 and on a HTC One. All three devices do not update the lights state. turn on, back page, go back into status and lights show off.