Good news, folks! Motion sensing triggers will soon be available to further trick out our Philips Hue lighting installations, without complicating matters with yet another hub and ecosystem — like Smartthings. From the FCC submission, we glean the Philips Hue Motion Sensor (with ambient light sensor) is both battery-powered and Zigbee-endowed. While we’d typically expect an accessory like this to be fueled by a watch battery, an overseas retailer Alza indicates a pair of common AAA batteries will be required — conceivably reinforcing what looks to be a 2×2″ profile. Further, the description indicates a 100 degree field of view over 5 meters. And, if we use their pricing as a guide, we should expect the Hue Motion Sensor to land somewhere in the $40-60 range when it hits within the next few weeks.
Also incoming: a refreshed Tap and an updated 2.1 Hub.
Thanks Dave. Could you elaborate further? :)
Well, my first use case would probably go something like this: Sit a motion detector on my garage shelving. When it detects motion, turn on the two overhead bulbs (which I’d need to buy). Hopefully I could then set a timer – 10 minutes after motion last detected, turn off. My second scenario would probably be a security light for my deck. Right now when my Arlo cam detects motion, it should trigger a WeMo bulb to turn on which then turns off ten minutes after motion (all via IFTTT) — unfortunately WeMo is junk and the trigger barely fires.
I personally use a Zwave motion sensor for my home office. When I walk into my office, my lights all fade up. 5 minutes after motion hasn’t been detected, they all turn off.
This is all done with the https://home-assistant.io software, and while Home Assistant is realllllly nice and easy to use, Zwave with your own USB Zwave stick is..not.
Being able to drop $40-$50 bucks on a motion sensor and easily pair it with your existing hub and allowing this same kind of behavior is a no brainer. It’s realllllllly nice not having to turn lights on or off.
@Jon Maddox
Jon do you use a hue hub + a Zwave motion sensor only or the Zwave sensor + its own hub ?
I have an aeotec z stick plugged into a raspberry PI. Sort of a home rolled hub.
Really looking forward to this. We have Hue in 3 rooms. I could easily see adding more and a couple of motion sensors.
$40 to $60 sounds a little expensive. I recently bought half a dozen of the Smartthings motion sensors and I only paid around $30 for each of them. And I thought that was high.
Many people are saying Hue is overpriced. I’m in that camp. And, yet, I pay.
When can I find more information on the updated Philips Hue Hub, version 2.1 that you mentioned ?
I don’t mind the price, if the system, as a whole, is worth it. After all the great reviews, I just bought a the Philips Hue Go. The bridge is the Homekit version. Upon installation, it didn’t even ask me to scan the Homekit Id. The Hue Go has a candle flicker scene, which I can’t seem to access from the software. I wanted to set it up so that it goes on during a certain time of the day, but since I can’t access the candle scene, that’s not possible. I can’t even modify the scenes that come with the default software. The Philips hardware is solid, but the default software seems like a forgotten orphan piece of the system.
Hue Motion Sensor is officially official today. Ships in October @ $40. Definitely getting at least one!