SmartSense Motion Sensor from Amazon.com different?

Is there a difference between the SmartSense Motion Sensor that’s available through Amazon.com and the one that is sold directly from SmartThings? The picture on Amazon looks different than the one on the SmartThings site.

amazon’s is “last years” model

which has a power option and no temperature

the new mode has no powered option but measures temp

The SmartSense Motion sold on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/SmartThings-STSS-IRM-001-SmartSense-Motion-Sensor/dp/B00GM7V8J2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411389457&sr=8-1&keywords=smartsense+motion is “version 1”, the original SmartSense Motion.

On the ST Shop link you can find “version 2” here: https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/smartsense-motion-sensor

The Amazon one (at least the one at the link) is the “official” SmartThings device, but it is the older device. Both can sense motion (of course), but the version two is smaller and also has temp sensor ability. However the version two ONLY runs on battery and does NOT act as a Zigbee repeater. Version one can run on battery or on the power cord (USB micro). When plugged in Version one DOES act as a Zigbee repeater.

Is the AEON multi sensor worth the extra $10 over the SmartThings one?

@seannymurrs

It depends on your need, but I would think in most cases either would work just as well.

Where and how do you plan on using it.

I’d like to have it mounted in my kitchen to turn the lights on when I walk in. The switch for the lights is at the far end of the kitchen so usually we have to walk through the room to turn them on, very inconvenient when it’s dark.

Some say the SmartSense is quicker because ZigBee communicates with the hub faster than Z-Wave. In either case, you may need a powered device between the hub and sensor if it is a great distance.

Aeon has luminance so you can turn lights on only when needed.

Another thing to consider is that the new motion can trigger every 12 seconds. the old one I believe is 2-3 minutes. I own both and haven’t had issue with either.

The Aeon would work just as well as the SmartSense for this. The Aeon has some nice advantages: Temp sense, Light level, and Humidity in addition to Motion. The AEON can also run on batteries or be plugged in. Finally the AEON has a sensitivity dial so you can adjust how much motion is needed to trip it as well. Do note that the AEON is z-wave, not Zigbee. So it wouldn’t act as a Zigbee repeater, even when plugged in. (I honestly don’t know if it acts as a Z-wave repeater. Can’t recall right now.)

One last note: Remember that ST is cloud-based. That means when a motion detector sees motion, it triggers, sends a message to the hub. The hub then sends this to the cloud, which then looks at the motion and decides what, if anything, it needs to do about it. It it needs to act (such as: Turn on specific lights), the cloud then sends the command to the hub, which sends the command to the bulbs/outlet/switches that need to be turned on.

All this happens really, really fast… but not instantly. You can easily have two second lag between motion and lights on. So, depending on how big your kitchen is, this action might happen after you’ve already traversed the room and are already standing at the light switch.

The rumors are that the new ST Hub (the fabled Hub 2.0) will have more local control. That is: It won’t need to access the cloud for some commands. If that’s true I would expect this sort of actions (motion → lights on) to happen much faster… like in the range of .5 seconds or less.

It also has temp and humidity sensing. Though shorter battery life (I have found)

The Aeon Multi sensor does not act as a Z-Wave repeater even when it’s plugged in.

I’ve got an Aeon multi and the (old) smartsense motion.

For my use case (detect motion, turn on lights), I prefer the smartsense motion hands down.

In my completely unscientific tests, the smartsense multi is faster to detect my presence and preform my set action.

The smartsense motion normally responds under a single “Mississippi” whereas I normally get a good 2 “Mississippis” with the aeon multi before the lights turn on.

That being said, the aeon is nice for those with ghosts/pets/children as you can adjust the sensitivity to avoid misfires.

If you’re just going to use the sensor to turn on the lights when its dark, I’d go with the smartsense.

For me the Aeon is fine unless SmartThings has server delays.

The Aeon multi can associate with up to six other Z-Wave devices. Has anyone tried doing this? Of course you couldn’t create more sophisticated automation based on other factors such as time of day, etc. However, for turning on a basement light, for example, I would think you could get the fastest response and not be concerned with SmartThing server delays.

Thanks for the input guys, I ended up going with the Aeon sensor.