PIR for Home Assistant (outdoor light)

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › PIR for Home Assistant (outdoor light)

KellyP

1250 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 115

ID Verified

Subscriber

#315177 19-Jun-2024 17:41

Hi team,

I'm looking at adding a PIR to our verandah lights, initially looking at these

The lights are 3 downlights, and the switch is a PDL solid state dimmer. The verandah faces to road however I don't want the light to come on everytime someone walks past, ideally limit this to a specific distance so that it only comes on if they are on the property.

Question - are better optiosn for a PIR than the ones I linked?

Thanks

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#3250914 19-Jun-2024 18:13

Probably overkill, but a solid alternative with Home Assistant is to use a camera and Frigate - you can block off areas you don't want included, and have the lights triggered much more reliably with person/vehicle detection. (Also you can then configure it to get a notification picture when there's a delivery while you're out etc).

That's what I've got set up anyway - a cheap IP camera over our door, which triggers the outside light for when we walk around at night/sends me a notification with image if someone comes when we aren't at home. I did get a usb coral accelerator as so that smart detection stuff from several cameras could run on my low-powered HA machine without a CPU hit.

snowfly

549 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 112

#3250923 19-Jun-2024 19:16

As above I also do this with camera's.

I've got Reolink camera's, integrated with Home Assistant, and a simple automation that runs when a Person or Vehicle is detected (e.g. driveway camera) which then turns on driveway lights (via a shelly).
And when person/vehicle detection is turned off, wait a set period then turn lights off.

Can easily block areas of detection in the camera.
Great benefit is the light isn't triggered by animals/cats/general movement, compared to our front door light which is triggered all night long by roaming cats (its a dumb PIR, which I'll eventually replace with a reolink doorbell cam)

johno1234

3352 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2843

#3250952 19-Jun-2024 20:30

Outdoor camera will cost way more than an outdoor PIR though?

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#3251043 20-Jun-2024 09:15

johno1234: Outdoor camera will cost way more than an outdoor PIR though?

Which is why I said it was probably overkill :)

On the other hand, the sensors that were linked are around $50 and have pretty poor reviews, while the cameras I am currently using cost around $65 and work very well. The main extra expense is the USB Coral, which is about $115 from RS, but it can handle several cameras.

richms

29098 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10209

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3251069 20-Jun-2024 09:56

johno1234: Outdoor camera will cost way more than an outdoor PIR though?

Cameras are $25 on aliex for a 4/5megapixel POE one, its the switch and cabling and the processing of the image that is more work.

I have some of the deta sensors and am just using them in the tuya app.

No trigger for motion detection unless it is dark enough to make the lights come on, turning the light onto manual will then fire the automations that are set for when the light goes to alert state, so syncing up multiple sensors in the tuya automation isnt happening. I have not had the tuya home assistant integration stay up for long enough to do any testing on how well it works there, and local tuya never worked when I tried it.

Richard rich.ms

johno1234

3352 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2843

#3251089 20-Jun-2024 10:26

This Athom detector looks good as it has both PIR and radar.

https://www.athom.tech/blank-1/homekit-human-presence-sensor

Anyone tried this?

Apple TV

Stream your favourite shows now on Apple TV (affiliate link).

KellyP

1250 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 115

ID Verified

Subscriber

#3251114 20-Jun-2024 11:16

Thanks for the replies, there already is a camera here. It's a Uniview 5MP turret PoE camera, would it be compatible if used with Frigate/Shelly?

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#3251143 20-Jun-2024 12:05

Highly possible - the 5MP is enough resolution and it is an IP camera. Check with VLC to see if you can view an RTSP stream from the camera. This site suggests the following url format, although your model might differ:

rtsp:// [USER] : [PASS] @ [ADDRESS] : [RTSP PORT] /media/video[STREAM TYPE]

where

[USER] – This is the username to access your device
[PASS] – This is the password to the user
[ADDRESS] – This can be the IP address or the domain / DDNS name of your device
[RTSP PORT] – This is the RTSP port of your device, the default is normally 554 or 9090
[CH] – This refers to the channel number that you want to pull
[STREAM TYPE] – 0 for main stream, 1 for substream