New Fibaro motion sensor available in NZ

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › New Fibaro motion sensor available in NZ

SumnerBoy

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#147264 13-Jun-2014 22:42

I have managed to get my hands on one of the new Fibaro motion sensors (a Z-Wave device, like all Fibaro gear). A very cool piece of kit. Fibaro seem to have a very good knack of producing compact, feature rich devices. This thing is the size of a golf ball and claims to run for 2 yrs on factory default settings. It will detect motion (seems to be very sensitive, although this can be configured), report temperature and light levels, as well as the standard battery level messages. It also has an accelerometer which will generate a tamper alarm if the sensor is moved.

I haven't actually mounted it yet, but it comes with a very simple cradle which just clips around the 'ball' allowing you to swivel the sensor in any direction. They provide a single screw (+ gib fixing gizmo) for fixed mounting, or a small double-sided sticker. Will be surprised if the sticker is sufficient since it is only about 10mm diameter, but the sensor is very small and light so it might be ok.

I have it associated with my Aeon Labs USB Z-Stick and openHAB (www.openhab.org) is happily receiving temp/light/motion events. Very very impressed. More with the size to be honest, as there are other sensors out there (i.e. the MultiSensor from Aeon Labs) which do the same things, but this one is so small and discrete you could put it just about anywhere and hardly notice it was there.

There is a slick video from Fibaro here which shows off what you can do with a sensor like this, although I think some of these features would require the full Fibaro Home Center 2 controller in order to unlock their full potential.

Full details here...

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#1065284 13-Jun-2014 23:15

So long as you actually clean the surfaces before using those stickers, they usually are fine.

The people with problems with them usually wipe some sort of crap like spray and wipe over the surface, let that dry onto it and then are all surprised when the adhesive cant stick.

Do they really look like that tho? With that ugly colour on the front?

Richard rich.ms

SumnerBoy

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#1065324 14-Jun-2014 08:08

The LED is completely configurable. Can be turned off entirely, set to flash different colours based on temp when motion detected, or any colour of your choice. You can also set a lux threshold for day/night and then tell the sensor to only detect motion during night time, or vice versa. Some clever bits of config mean you can tweak it to suit and ensure you get the most life out of the batteries.

networkn

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#1065940 15-Jun-2014 12:09

I often look at this stuff and think I should try it, but as an experiment there is a reasonable investment to get on your way.

KBilly

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#1066009 15-Jun-2014 14:36

I'm just trying to get started with z-wave automation at the moment. It's proving to be a bit of a learning curve with OpenHab but I've managed to get a server running and can access it via the web, currently trying to figure out how to get my Aeotec usb stick working and a switch.

Eventually I want to have a system that detects when somebody has had a shower and will then turn on the bathroom fan and heated towel rail for a set amount of time.

The fibaro sensor looks pretty good and I will no doubt pick one up (if I can figure out how to get things working) at some stage.

SumnerBoy

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#1066029 15-Jun-2014 15:11

Yep I have exactly that setup in my bathroom. The beauty of openHAB is it is very easy to integrate different protocols and devices. I.e. I have a cheap 433MHz temp/humidity sensor talking to an RFXCOM USB transceiver in the bathroom, and then a Fibaro 2x3kW relay which controls the ceiling fan and heated towel rail. In openHAB I have a little rule which tracks the humidity and when it starts increasing at rate greater than 5% per min it flicks the fan on, until it drops below 50% or after an hour.

If you have any questions about openHAB let me know, I have been heavily involved with it over the last 12 months. In particular the Z-Wave binding which I helped write/test initially. It can be tricky to get up and running but once setup it is pretty powerful and flexible.

SumnerBoy

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#1066031 15-Jun-2014 15:13

networkn: I often look at this stuff and think I should try it, but as an experiment there is a reasonable investment to get on your way.

Yeah it can be a bit pricey, but I found those Fibaro 2x1.5kW relays at $140 are pretty good value when you consider you can control two light circuits for $70 each. And once you start automating things it is a lot of fun working out clever ways to get them all interacting.

Or maybe that is just me...

KBilly

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#1066041 15-Jun-2014 15:55

SumnerBoy: The beauty of openHAB is it is very easy to integrate different protocols and devices.

Yeah it looks quite powerful and flexible, albeit a little bit overwhelming at the moment. I'm only a few hours into it though.
Not sure where to start with this usb stick though, I need to study up a bit more.

SumnerBoy

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#1066042 15-Jun-2014 15:59

What are you running everything on? You just need to figure out what port the stick is being registered on and set that in your openhab.cfg in the ZWave binding section. Take all the JARs out of openhab/addons that you are not using and then configure the ZWave binding to have DEBUG logging. You should get plenty of detail in that log to indicate how things are progressing.

I am sure you have found this, but just in case...https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/Z-Wave-Binding

The ZWave binding is pretty stable these days, are you running the latest snapshot build from https://openhab.ci.cloudbees.com/job/openHAB/? This is pretty stable as it has just moved into feature freeze for v1.5.0.

Shimmer

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#1066182 15-Jun-2014 20:27

I'm not sure if that's creepy or cool.

Whatever the answer I think I want one. Also like the look of the smoke detector...shiny.

You selling either of them?

How good is the motion/presence detection in comparison to the Aeon Labs Multisensor (assuming you have one)?

SumnerBoy

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#1066186 15-Jun-2014 20:34

Definitely cool ;). Yeah got a few of the motion sensors in stock but the smoke sensor is still getting tested for compliance etc. PM me if you want to know any other details.

SumnerBoy

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#1067268 17-Jun-2014 09:48

I have mounted the motion sensor in my ensuite using the double sided sticker. The sticker holds the device no problem, it is so small and light it really is quite impressive. And the mounting cradle is great - makes it very easy to reposition the sensor in any orientation, as well as making it simple to whip it out to change batteries etc. Overall very impressed with this sensor.

SumnerBoy

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#1068468 18-Jun-2014 14:09

Spoke too soon...went upstairs yesterday to find the sensor had fallen off the wall. So I wouldn't recommend using the sticker, especially if in a high humidity room (like an ensuite!).

Shimmer

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#1068491 18-Jun-2014 14:28

And my verdict is.... cool not creepy

My only problem now is resisting the urge to flick it to set off the tamper detection warning that makes it flash through all the different colours.

SumnerBoy

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#1068518 18-Jun-2014 14:54

Yep - they are some pretty lights ;)!

richms

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#1068676 18-Jun-2014 17:13

SumnerBoy: Spoke too soon...went upstairs yesterday to find the sensor had fallen off the wall. So I wouldn't recommend using the sticker, especially if in a high humidity room (like an ensuite!).

Did you clean it first?

Richard rich.ms

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