Motion Sensors - Alternatives and Challenges Discussion

Other Devices & Integrations Door Locks & Sensors
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I thought it might be useful to set up a thread to compare notes on alternatives to motion sensing with Vera2 (or Vera3), as there are some elements to the set-up that seem to take some tweaking. Since some of this seemed non-obvious (to me at least), shared experience might be useful to anyone involved.

First off, it seems there are fundamentally two choices I’ve come across: i) the HSM100 Z-Wave device; and ii) the Insteon 2420M. If one is focused fundamentally on motion, then the HSM100, which is 2x as expensive per unit, has a cost disadvantage. This can mount up quickly, if you have 10s of sensors in your home. I would welcome any input as to alternatives people have used that might be superior (at least in some ways).

The HSM worked for me (with Vera2) pretty easily and immediately. That said, it is not immediately obvious it is working, depending on how you have polling and wake-up timing set. However, if you leave it alone for a day or so, you’ll start seeing some tracking, e.g. via the dataMine plug-in. The temp resolution seems to be 1 degree F (not sure if any different in C), so any monitoring that logs only ‘when changed’ will need to wait for some movement.

If cost is no object, then the biggest challenge with the HSM100 seems to be battery life. I need to re-visit my settings (expect polling and/or waking up way too frequently), as I managed to kill my sensors 3x AAA batteries in a few days. I’m sure I have significant inefficiences just to confirm thing was working, but I’m also curious to know if anyone has implemented a ‘battery eliminator’ solution for HSM100, i.e. transformer plugged into wall. I couldn’t even get comfortable that the battery case was in series, i.e. 4.5 volts required – seems jumper on two of the batteries, and the third isolated separately (from quick resistance test).

The 2420M seems to have pretty reasonable battery life so far (few weeks, but with ‘always on’ occupancy mode set). We shall see. Biggest problem I have is with stability and programming via Vera2. I’ll get six or so of these sensors set up, and then after reboot (or something), the Vera2 seems to be ‘cleared’ of these devices, or they are back to their generic i/o initial state. Takes Vera2 quite some time (and sometimes seemingly never) to communicate adequately to get these devices identified as type ‘_Motion Sensor’. Again, comments welcome against this general experience. By comparison, the reliability of the data logs with Insteon-centic HouseLinc software is far better (but of course I’d prefer not to have a spare laptop always on for this purpose).

In any event, reactions to any of this welcome. Specifically, advice on optimized polling settings for HSM100 and/or battery eliminator options. And tips re: getting good communication between 2420M and Vera2 welcome. Are things considerably better with Vera3? Has anyone found the 3rd-party Insteon plug-ins provide a better base for the 2420Ms?

JohnR

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I went a different route and installed an alarm panel. Door, motion and window sensors are much cheaper and reliable.

The only third party plugin for insteon is alsteon that I know of. Which is suppose to be much better than stock support.

  • Garrett
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I have both a HSM100 and a ZIR000.

The ZIR000 is in a box somewhere after it was found to eat batteries very quickly (~weeks). The HSM100 has been relegated to the garage to measure the temperature. I wasn’t able to get it stable enough to use as a motion sensor, although others have had more success in this area (esp after conversion to plugpack, and parameter tweaking to take advantage of being powered)

There are a number of posts on the board with folks converting their HSM100’s to use wall-warts to great success, and that the newer “v2” model has onboard support for adapting it in that manner.

That said, I don’t plan on buying additional battery-powered Z-Wave devices. They seem too finicky to configure and keep running over time (again, others have had more success here)

When I add more sensors, they’ll be added to my Alarm Panel (either wired or wireless). They’re widely available, with models for all sorts of use-cases, and I suspect their a little more road-tested (as ADT etc don’t like callouts 8) )

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You start with talking about motion sensors, but then digress into temperature sensing?

Anyway, I use an Everspring SP814 which may or may not be available in the US and it doesn’t require any polling? You get a status pushed when it detects motion, and when it no longer detects motion. Parameters can be changed to suit your own detection frame.

Or am I completely missing the point?

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nop dont think so quinten
the thing is the vera is highly configurable so to suit every individual needs… hence there is no such thing as ‘best settings for the devices’ maybe just adding missing parameters but this is also in doubt as vera is very good at finding these. which is according to the specs of z-wave

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@Quinten,
My comment was that the HSM has Motion, Light and Temp. I found it completely useless for Motion, so I only use it for it’s Temp sensor (an expensive one at $85) :wink:

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Unlike guessed, I have not had any issues with the motion in the HSM100. But it does seem to be hit or miss with different users.

  • Garrett
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@garrettwp

Thanks for vote re: AlInsteon – going to chew through that post / thread when I get a chance and consider its impact on using the 2402s with Vera. Part of my problem is that I can’t move to UI4 because of reliance on dataMine plugin.

Back to the hardware them (on the sensors themselves), the alarm panel route sounds a smart call. However, I presume hard-wired connections, not wireless? Take the point re: cost and reliability, but not sure going to be practical in my case. Or do I have this wrong?

JohnR

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Oh, and anyone out there with ‘wall wart’ experience with HSM100 – I presume I have old variant. I’m happy to solder on to the battery contacts and modify case to put in a female low-voltage plug, but don’t want to go this route, if something really wierd with the circuit boards.

Presume low-amp, 4.5 volt transformer of some fashion actually does work as a battery eliminator?

JohnR

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You’ll see Wall wart conversions in threads like these:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,7844.0.html
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,9187.0.html

and some of the earlier work by the Homeseer board members:
How do you hook up a power supply to the HSM100? - HomeSeer Message Board

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[quote=“JohnR, post:9, topic:170975”]Oh, and anyone out there with ‘wall wart’ experience with HSM100 – I presume I have old variant. I’m happy to solder on to the battery contacts and modify case to put in a female low-voltage plug, but don’t want to go this route, if something really wierd with the circuit boards.

Presume low-amp, 4.5 volt transformer of some fashion actually does work as a battery eliminator?

JohnR[/quote]
any usb supply will do
just connect the outer wires of the usb cord (black(-) n red(+))to the batt-terminals

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Thanks for the responses re: battery elimination – will take a look and execute accordingly. JohnR

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Happy with both the HSM100 and the ZIR000.

Light sensor is a great feature; I let the sensor handle it natively, i.e. I don’t use the reading in any scenes at the moment.

I use the ZIR000 in a stair case where there is no natural light. The HSM100’s in several rooms.

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dont forget to set this parameter for disabling powersaving mode.

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Impressive detail re: setting these HSMs up with a/c power adapters. I can’t figure out how I missed those posts on my initial search. thanks, guessed, for the steer. JohnR

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My HSM-100’s have been extremely reliable for motion detection, its the light and temps that have gotten flaky on me at times.

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I use a DSC 1832 system with 24+ devices, and I think 18 of them are wireless (might be off by a bit on either number). Mostly DSC vanishing door/window sensors but a few wireless PIR sensors too. I installed the Motion sensors, but the door/windows came with the house. They seem to work great and I’ve only replaced one or two batteries so far so they seem to last several years at least.

Not sure DSC is the best option, I used it because that is what this house had, but I have been very happy. I also use about six x10 PIR sensors with my mochad plugin and a cm15a interface. Those work well too but I’m not sure I would recommend them for a new install.

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[quote=“oTi@, post:13, topic:170975”]Happy with both the HSM100 and the ZIR000.

Light sensor is a great feature; I let the sensor handle it natively, i.e. I don’t use the reading in any scenes at the moment.

I use the ZIR000 in a stair case where there is no natural light. The HSM100’s in several rooms.[/quote]

How do I configure it in Vera2 UI5 to handle the light sensor natively. By natively I assume you mean locally in the HSM100 (ZW-SNMT-01 in my case) itself and therefore only send the ‘tripped’ event if the light detected is above a certain threshold.

I just want it to do the obvious thing: only turn the lights on if it is dark. Just like a $10 unit with adjustment screws in the back.

Can I play with the ‘dark threshold’?

Is there a HowTo on these things? I am having difficulty making sense of the instructions that were e.mailed to me by the supplier - they seem to have been written by somebody who got it going by trial and error with no idea what is actually going on.

-Ben

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The [tt]Device Options[/tt] tab has [tt]Configuration Settings[/tt]; parameter 4 is the [tt]Light Threshold[/tt].

Is there a HowTo on these things?
There's [url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/ExpressControls3in1]this wiki page[/url] and a search here on the forum will probably turn up some good info.
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Thanks. Your post does seem to clarify that either a) my manufacturers instructions are wrong (they have parameter 4 as Sensitivity) or b) the ZW-SNMT-01 is not the same device with a different crystal in it after all.

The wiki does clarify some behavior but does not actually specify:

  1. the ‘Variable’ numbers on the ‘Device Options’ tab.

  2. anything about letting the motion sensor handle the light sensor “natively”.

So I am still rather confused.