outdoor PIR / motion sensor?

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Found some old threads on this subject, nothing recent. Anyone know of either an outdoor motion sensor, or an outdoor motion sensor / flood light combo? Would like to replace my X10 unit
http://www.smarthome.com/4080XT/X10-Motion-Detector-Floodlight-PR511-PHS01/p.aspx
which has worked faithfully for years with a z-wave setup. All sensors I have found are marked indoor use only
and while the sensor would be up under the soffit, I am concerned about humidity , possible false alarms
due to outside temperatures and such.

Or… is anyone using an indoor rated sensor outside?

Les

2

I’d recommend sticking with the (already installed) X10 motion/light assembly, and consider interfacing X10 with Vera using a 2412U or 2412S PLM plugged into her 2nd USB port.

Have you considered this already?

3

Had not considered it (didn’t know that was an option)
I’ll check into those devices. I still have a lot to learn about z-wave hardware.

Thanks for the tip!

4

Where are you from? I have been the using HSM100 Sensor since it was released ( in Florida) - it is out of the weather - sits on one of the front window sills (there is 4 foot overhang) controls the lights on the front of my house at night and the certain lights in my house based on Illumination.

5

I’m in Maryland. My concern was dropping $50+ on a sensor not rated for outdoors and having
it fail. In the past I have had plain motion sensor lights that were outdoor rated lock up whenever
it got humid.

That looks like a pretty cool sensor… HSM100 , Can Vera use all of its features? (the extra ones
it says for homeseer only: temperature, battery level, available light)

6

did some searching on the board and answered my own question… looks like in latest firmware everything
is showing up and supported…

Les

7

You should be alright in Maryland at least according to statistics - temperatures don’t look extreme on the low side - humidity should be no worse than here 7 miles off the gulf of mexico - I’d give it a go. 8)

8

I am going to try my HSM100 outdoors, but plan to caulk the outside closed to gain some weatherproofing.

9

Where are you located? The Z-Wave chip will handle the temperatures:

Recommended Ambient Operating Temperature of - 35 C to 85 C

The problem becomes the flex(expansion and contraction) of the board at the extremes ends - one solution to help with this is coating the chip/board with a clear epoxy.

10

Something makes me doubt HSM100 could possibly handle our -30 C… Battery will die the first night.
Besides century-old X10, are there any outdoor PIRs that can somehow be interfaced with Vera?

11

did you do anything special to the hsm100 to weatherproof it?