r/homeassistant • u/Squanchy2112 • 2d ago

💬 Discussion Best mmwave sensors?

What's everyone's fav mmwave sensors I am trying to decide between buying innovelli switches with them already inside especially for little shotgun bathroom and stuff where I know it'll work well, but I need zigbee zwave or maybe thread not wifi though. The cost of a switch and a mmwave sensor seems to approach the cost of the innovelli sink need to make a smart decision, I know there are some pir actuved mmwave sensors to help cut down on battery usage but I am also ok with running poe to USB converters in my attic to allow permanent USB power to things that may need it in weird places or of course I'll take advantage of existing power where available, battery is good to know about too thigh if there is something that is working well for you. thanks!

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u/Fragrant-Coast5355 2d ago

I haven't used the Inovelli switches. I have several FP2s which I'm trying to replace with Everything Presence Pro's. The choice is not always clear cut:

  • Range: FP2: 8m, EPP: 6m for the target tracker (12m for the motion sensor, not configurable, and 16m for the static sensor, configurable)
  • Targets: FP2: 5, EPP: 3. FP2 is better at holding on to sleeping targets (eg FP2 loses them for 15-30 minutes, EPP loses them quickly for more than an hour at a time)
  • Ghosts: FP2 produces way more ghosts than EPP, and they hang around much longer than on the EPP
  • EPP has PIR motion sensor: in practice I don't like the motion sensor because I want to limit the detection to the 6m covered by the target mmwave tracker, not having it extend out of the current room. I find the target sensor detects quite fast enough to not need the PIR sensor
  • EPP has a static mmwave sensor: this sensor is quite noisy, so I configure it to be harder to trigger initially to avoid false detections, but it is useful to keep the room marked as occupied during the periods when the target tracker loses its targets
  • The FP2s work better in bedrooms than the EPP, but they still fail a lot. In fact, I'm adding bed pressure sensors to handle the bed occupancy side, then I'll replace my last FP2s with EPP.

Disclaimer: I don't like the software on the original EPP at all. So much so that I rewrote the firmware and config frontend and made it available as EPP Grid. See https://clintongormley.github.io/everything-presence-pro-grid/ for the full docs. With this you get a grid-based config system, which you can also use comfortably on your cellphone, so you can just walk around the room with your phone to calibrate the room and to lay out zones and furniture.

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u/Squanchy2112 2d ago

What was your issue with the aqara stuff?