So I recently got the Samsung SmartThings hub v3, and it seems pretty cool, albeit some automation working sparidcally, we’re getting the hang of it!
Anyhow, we’ve purchased many of these Samsung motion sensors and multi - purpose sensors (seem to be Samsung branded, but say Zigbee at the back).
Research suggests this hub supports Zigbee, Zwave and WiFi. We Want to put a motion sensor we’ve got an outbuilding which is around 150/175 metres away. This building is connected via WiFi, but won’t reach with Zigbee, as the Samsung Hub is in the main building, 150/175 metres away.
Is there a motion sensor which can connect via WiFi to this Hub?
There have been quite a few threads about “I want to extend my network to the shack / detached shed / some other building in my property” where people have explored solutions including rolling out another hub or wiring something. Maybe search around and see if you can find something that doesn’t require you to reinvent the wheel.
It could be as simple as using a camera connected to the network. If the WiFi signal is strong enough out there, you could roll out the simplest of WiFi enabled cameras and have it do double duty as a motion sensor – not to mention that having a picture / video might be more useful than just knowing there was motion out there
There are almost no battery operated Wi-Fi devices, because Wi-Fi uses about 10 times the power of zigbee or zwave and they just don’t have the battery life.
But there are a couple of plug in motion sensor options. I don’t think there any that officially work with smartthings, but as long as they have IFTTT you can get cloud to cloud integration that way.
You can also make your own mains powered Wi-Fi contact sensor for about $10. ( information in the weekly article.) You could do something similar with the motion sensor, although it would probably cost a little more. You can find the appropriate parts from robotics sources.
As @viguera mentioned, Another alternative which is very popular is to get one of the Wi-Fi cameras which has a built-in motion sensor. Ring and Arlo have official smartthings integrations. Others like blink have an IFTTT channel you can use. Some are combined with lights that can be effective on an outbuilding.
Anyway, just read the wiki article and it should give you some ideas.
There are WiFi motion sensors, I had one of these for a while to experiment with:
It operates on the Tuya platform and i think works with IFTTT. I got it because we’re starting to stock a range of WiFi products at work based on the Tuya platform. I found that wven when being used to control lights on the same platform, without using the IFTTT integration it was slow to respond, with a delay between 5 and 10 seconds to activate a light. I put the delay down to it having to connect to the wifi every time it woke up and that taking some time. I ended up giving it away because of the lag. You may find a mains powered wifi sensor will improve that but since you’ll still have to use IFTTT and will therefore have variable lag that may or may not work for you. If it’s just for an alarm, fine, if you want to automate lighting I doubt it will respond quickly enough.
Normally WiFi devices don’t sleep (it’s one of the things that makes them go through batteries so quickly). You’re definitely right that if that particular brand has been engineered to sleep, re-connecting to the network every time it wakes up will add noticeable lag.
Zigbee and zwave battery-operated devices typically don’t have that issue because they don’t have to go through a rejoin process after they sleep. (Although the devices that also get moved around physically like handheld remotes may have to find new neighbors if they’ve been moved to a new location, but that’s still faster than a network rejoin.)
I did notice recently about a dozen Wi-Fi battery operated sensors, all from the same factory, in the coolcam design, all using the Tuya or Smart Life app. It looks like they are intended for the Amazon Echo market, but the ratings are pretty uniformly abysmal, as opposed to the few that appear to have been designed independently for Wi-Fi.
The unacceptable ones are also using the same small cases and the same small batteries that zigbee ones from the same factory use.
The Wi-Fi sensors that were designed from the beginning for Wi-Fi tend to have much larger cases and use at least three AA batteries. They are discussed in the wiki article.
So I suspect your experience was pretty typical with the small ones, regardless of brand.
The one I had was tiny, and had a very small battery that was still going after 3-4 months when I gave it away, which is what makes me think it was going to sleep between detections. It actually worked quite well, and I’d have found a use for it had it not been for the lag.
Oh, actually, another downside was that it was 2.4ghz wifi only, and (as with all tuya devices so far that i’ve tried) could be a bit fiddly to set up if you had 2.4 and 5ghz networks sharing the same ssid - my phone had a preference for the 5ghz, no means of manually changing to 2.4, and the app used the network the phone was connected to so…
Thank you for this, and the suggestion about the camera, however, I already have an NVR system (HikVision) which is there for cameras. However, the motion sensor is good, but a bit too good - movement of trees or anything will result in it being triggered - and neither can I connect them to Samsung SmartThings.
I did consider purchasing another hub for that location, but have heard about interferences in the past (as 2 on the same network) - is that the case, or not true?
Thank you. Let me check out this article thoroughly - a quick skim through, and it seems there is some pretty useful information in there. In regards to being battery or mains operated (plug), I don’t mind if it’s mains/plug operated.
Aha, I can look into Ring again, but the eco system I’ve got myself into is the Google/Nest (with Google Speakers everywhere, Hubs, Nest Products, including doorbell etc.)
It depends on the specific model of smartthings hub that you are using.
With the V1, V2, Nvidia Shield, and ADT hubs, it’s fine if all the hubs are on the same ethernet network but each has to be assigned to a different location in your account. They can’t see each other‘s devices or control them. ( these models do not have Wi-Fi radios.)
With the V3 when using the new app, you can have multiple hubs on the same Wi-Fi or ethernet network and they can be assigned to the same location. You will be able to switch Back and forth between them without having to log out of the new app, but they still cannot see each other’s devices or control them.
With the Wi-Fi mesh versions of the hub (there is a first and second generation of these) they can be on the same network with their own sub hubs ( indeed, they are commonly sold in a pack of three, one to be the master hub and two sub hubs), And they will all work together as one location and all control the same devices in a coordinated fashion through the master. But if you put two masters on the same Wi-Fi network everything will get very confused and probably won’t work. Potentially even if you had assigned them to two different locations in your account.
So that’s why the model makes a huge difference. A set up which might work fine with two V2 hubs might not work at all with two Wi-Fi master hubs.
Talk to the people in the following thread about using your nest devices with smartthings. You might be able to use either IFTTT or the custom code in that thread to use nest cameras as your Wi-Fi motion sensors.
Another good option that works for many people as mentioned in the wiki article is to add a Hue bridge in the outbuilding, Have hue motion sensors Turn on hue lights in the outbuilding, and then have those lights coming on trigger smartthings events.
That’s a combination of LAN and zigbee, But the zigbee is communicating to the hue bridge as its own mini network. The smartthings integration is via the communication to the hue bridge. You will probably need to put a Wi-Fi access point in the outbuilding that has an ethernet port and plug the Hue bridge into that port. That should get everything connected to your LAN.
Also, the wiki article was updated this morning to make it simpler for those just looking for a simple camera, motion sensor and lights solution. Then the more complicated options are discussed after that.
I have a hub v3, so, hoping things go smoothly, with adding in another!
You seem like someone who knows this ecosystem rather well. Looking to add in a siren that is compatible, and come across this ‘D-Link DCH-Z510’, what are your thoughts, and/or recommendations?
The following device class feature FAQ should help whatever you’re looking for a device of a particular type:
If you don’t find the information you need there, just start a new thread and we can talk about sirens.
This forum has a lot of great information, but it’s important not to switch topics in the middle of a thread where it confuses people who find the thread in the future.
as far as the specific model you asked about, some community members have it but they don’t like it very much. See discussion in the following thread and you can add any follow-up questions there.
And again, just start a new thread if you want to talk more about sirens. We should keep this one to WiFi motion sensors.
The UeeVii Bridge works great without burying a cable to an out building, then using a router as an access point(Netgear works great). Good luck finding a WIFI motion sensor; I have one that works, but now they seem to be out of business. The deal is, no one wants to make compatible components because they want to sell you their system. I am guessing you would need another hub in the other building.
There have been very few WiFi battery powered motion sensors in the past because Wi-Fi uses too much power and the battery life was very short.
however, Shelly has had one out for a little less than a year that is using the very newest power saving Wi-Fi technology and seems to be quite successful. It has become quite popular for people using a “hub optional“ set up with smartthings. So that’s a definite candidate. It will work out of the box with a cloud cloud integration to smartthings, or if you want to get really technical you can set up a local server, but most people won’t want to do that. So as of this post, 2022, there are now some options.
