Battery operated motion sensor

[Thedude]

Looking for a good battery operated WiFi enabled motion sensor.
Shelly the maker of the WiFi relays Shelly 1 and Shelly 2 just demonstrated one at Berlin trade show that is battery operated and has alleged battery life of 5 years.
Unfortunately production and deliveries haven't started yet.
Does any other company make something similar to that.

Thanks,
TheDude

[rge]

Looking for a good battery operated WiFi enabled motion sensor.
Shelly the maker of the WiFi relays Shelly 1 and Shelly 2 just demonstrated one at Berlin trade show that is battery operated and has alleged battery life of 5 years.
Unfortunately production and deliveries haven't started yet.
Does any other company make something similar to that.

Thanks,
TheDude

Five years battery life for a wifi device? I'll believe that when I see it, unless it's a specialist and/or very large battery!

[Guest]

Wifi drains a battery very quickly and/or some sleep mode will delay the signal for a few seconds. You should look into RF instead; good battery life with two aaa batteries and signal reception is instantaneous. This is essentially what Zwave/Zigbee uses without the proprietary aspect.

C$ 9.30 16%OFF | DIGOO DG-HOSA HOSA Wireless Infrared PIR Detector Sensor Motion Detection For 433MHz Home Security Alarm System Kits
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtwhZ75

My original intent was to deploy everything Wifi but for battery operated devices (motion, temperature, leak, etc) it doesn't seem like a good option unless it has some proprietary/expensive battery.

It does however require some technical knowledge to integrate (here using Sonoff bridge/OpenMQTTgateway + ground plane antenna for extended outdoor range. Tasmota is also an option).

[Thedude]

Five years battery life for a wifi device? I'll believe that when I see it, unless it's a specialist and/or very large battery!

Deep sleep is the answer plus the use of special micro controller. Battery is surprisingly small. See for yourself.

[Thedude]

Wifi drains a battery very quickly and/or some sleep mode will delay the signal for a few seconds. You should look into RF instead; good battery life with two aaa batteries and signal reception is instantaneous. This is essentially what Zwave/Zigbee uses without the proprietary aspect.

C$ 9.30 16%OFF | DIGOO DG-HOSA HOSA Wireless Infrared PIR Detector Sensor Motion Detection For 433MHz Home Security Alarm System Kits
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtwhZ75

My original intent was to deploy everything Wifi but for battery operated devices (motion, temperature, leak, etc) it doesn't seem like a good option unless it has some proprietary/expensive battery.

It does however require some technical knowledge to integrate (here using Sonoff bridge/OpenMQTTgateway + ground plane antenna for extended outdoor range. Tasmota is also an option).

Is there an US source for these? What Gateway do they use?

Thanks,
TheDude

[ksum]

Also note that some internet provider's routers limit the number of WiFi devices. You may want to check that before adding too many WiFi items.

I use (typcially USB) powered z-wave units whenever possible. They are faster to report (appears instant) than battery units as there is no wake-up. Zigbee is considered faster to report when on battery than z-wave, but I do not have any zigbee devices so I am unable to give a first-hand opinion.

[Michael McSharry]

Battery operated Wifi devices do need special circuitry to start a processor from sleep or power off. Trigboard https://www.kevindarrah.com/wiki/ind...itle=TrigBoard is a good example. For many things detection to reporting in a second or two is acceptable, but for motion sensors this is usually not an acceptable behavior. It takes time to establish a WiFi connection with router/AP. Improved when static IP is used, but still not ideal. For occupancy sensors it would be fine. In the Shelly case it appears that have a low power processor that maintains the WiFi connection so this may end up being a good product.

[Guest]

Is there an US source for these? What Gateway do they use?

Thanks,
TheDude

I use the Sonoff RF bridge :

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3298...27424c4dDeoBjp

+ OpenMQTTgateway/Pilight (or Tasmota/Portisch but its list of compatible devices is somewhat smaller)
and MCSMQTT from Michael McSharry

https://docs.openmqttgateway.com/
https://1technophile.blogspot.com/20...or-how-to.html
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/devic...RF-Bridge-433/

As stated earlier, the signal is realtime, no delay whatsoever and no sleep mode required as power consumption is very low;
2 rechargeable NiMH AAA batteries typically last well over a year if not more (again no proprietary battery here... $)

Like everything else on Aliexpress, you'll probably have to wait a few weeks to get your hardware but at less than 10$ a piece, patience is rewarded.

Banggood pretends to have a US source but I doubt it is, maybe worth a try:
https://usa.banggood.com/DIGOO-DG-HO..._warehouse=USA

For what it's worth, my review is very positive; I have 7 of these installed and they interact perfectly with HS via MCSMQTT.
also:
7 Door/window sensors https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3296...27424c4dLyy4uf
4 leak sensors : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3282...27424c4daENeW6
2 Smoke detectors : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3297...27424c4dadYDJT
5 Temperature/humidity sensors (via OpenMQTTgateway/ESP/BLE)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001...ou_142018334.0


Reception is great within a standard home but If you need to extend reception range you can add a fairly simple to build ground plane antenna and you'll get 200+ Ft of range, indoors/outdoors (see my post at the bottom with pictures).

https://community.openmqttgateway.co...ed-range/777/8

BTW I've been using such an antenna with X10 motion sensors (310Mhz instead of 433) before I got rid of X10 and I'm pretty sure it would also do a good job for Zwave/Zigbee as long as you have the right frequency and build the antenna/connector accordingly.

Expect some learning curve to deploy but once done you'll be glad to have easy acces to a countless number of cheap and efficient devices & sensors:

https://compatible.openmqttgateway.c...x.php/devices/
https://manual.pilight.org/protocols/index.html

Also if you want to access even more devices that are not natively designed for home automation have a look below;
Another great project; ...and I now have access to my wireless BBQ sensor on my HStouch tablets while steak is grilling outdoors. Again via MCSMQTT.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3262...3dca2e0eKKWa3q
https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001...259f4c4dB3bTVp
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3254...259f4c4dB3bTVp

Otherwise, I agree that the upcoming shelly could be an option but price tag could be a dealbreaker.

feel free to reach out if you need assistance.

PS: as ksum higlighted, I also have a preference for wired devices (Tasmota/Wifi here) but the ease of installation on battery operated devices can be a plus in some cases (hard to reach, need to move device, etc.)

Cheers,

Yann

[Thedude]

Thanks, Yann. All clear. Ordered US stocked Sonoff RF bridge, Installed Florian's GW and Ordered Sonoff PIR Motion sensor, because your favorite motion sensor Dogoo is not available in stock in the US as far as my research goes. Will let everyone know how it all came together.

[Michael McSharry]

I have a Dakota motion sensor mounted 500 ft down the road with the receiving station in the house. The receiving station provides a relay contact closure when the motion alarm is played. This makes it very easy to extend the notification rather than a hack that converts the output to the speaker into a digital pulse. In prior years I had used this relay to trigger a X10 door/window sensor that sent the RF @315 MHz to W800.

Last year I had experimented with various 433 Mhz devices as part of the Cheapest RFID project. One of these is the QIACHIP that provides an encoded 433 MHz message when one of its four inputs is grounded. These devices look to be the guts of the 4 button RF remotes such as used for Sonoff RF devices. They accept power in the 5V to 24V range. A nice feature of the Dakota is that is provides a 12V output that is active only after the motion alarm is triggered. I set it up for a 1 second active after alarm and used it to power the QIACHIP. One of the four Dakota relay outputs was connected to one of the four QIACHIP inputs. The result is that the message is sent at 433 MHZ when the motion notification is triggered and the Sonoff RF recognizes the transmission. The bottom line is that the tiny QIACHIP circuit card can be mounted inside the Dakota receiving station, no external power (i.e. battery for X10 device) needed, and the motion notification is available on the network via MQTT.

[TC1]

, I noticed in the Sonoff bridge specs it can only address 16 devices at a time? Is there anyway around that? Adding a second bridge?

[Guest]

Hi TC1 this limitation only applies if you use the Tasmota bridge as a standalone unit. If you use Homeseer it will simply act as the RF bridge to receive/decode RF signals and then send associated data via wifi/MQTT protocol.

Thedude : i also have one of the original sonoff PIRs. Works as well. Feel free to reach out if you need assistance.
cheers

Yann

[Guest]

Michael McSharry :

great idea for the Dakota receiver. wasn't familiar with the QIACHIP, did you have to add the small homemade antenna loop ?

[Thedude]

Hi Yann,

Installed everything, up and running within 2 hours :-)
Still few questions for you

1. Do I need to flash "Portisch" RF firmware as explained here https://tasmota.github.io/docs/devic...RF-Bridge-433/ ? What do I miss if I don't go through this rather complex procedure? The motion sensor that I've got is working without it. Does your motion sensor need it?

2. Why did you refer me to Florian's MQTT GateWay? It seems that Sonoff RF bridge with Tasmota installed has its own MQTT bridge functionality that works for me. Am I missing something?

3. I get the JSON below over MQTT. I assume "Data" is the ID of the device. If I have several PIR sensors I will distinguish them by this ID. Timestamp is irrelevant as HS has it's own. Is any of the other information provided useful for anything? ... or maybe the device ID is in Sync. Hard for me to say as I purchased only one for testing.

{"Time":"2020-09-17T21:18:29","RfReceived":{"Sync":12580,"Low":440,"High":124 0,"Data":"D7586E","RfKey":"None"}}

4. Most of the RF motion sensors are not rated for outdoors. However after looking at mine I think it is well enclosed and can be used under an eave. Do you have any of yours outdoors and if yes than how are they doing?

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

The Dude

[Michael McSharry]

great idea for the Dakota receiver. wasn't familiar with the QIACHIP, did you have to add the small homemade antenna loop ?

It was not needed in my case with the Dakota and the Sonoff separated by about 20 ft. Range without an antenna is about 50 ft +/- depending upon the obstacles. I think I had about 150 ft range with antenna when I was doing my Cheapest RFID project.

Do I need to flash "Portisch" RF firmware as explained here https://tasmota.github.io/docs/devic...RF-Bridge-433/ ?

Yann can provide more complete guidance. In my case I did install it and that was all I needed to do. The Data field of the JSON packet is the unique RF ID. If you are using mcsMQTT you may want to consider the Elevate checkbox feature so each unique RFID can be put in separate HS devices.