I wish that was true, but is there even a single presence sensor with Thread? Even Aqara's FP2 presence sensor which doesn't need a hub is not a Thread device for some reason but WiFi, and the only official Matter-first presence sensor I can find (Meross) is also WiFi based.
@@d.j.vandermeer3832 I agree, but maybe there's some kind of limitation as to why there is not a single Matter over Thread presence sensor? Matter standard in general seems to group motion and presence sensors into "occupancy" which is why for example newer Eve Motion sensors that come out the box with Matter (or if you update your old ones to Matter fw) now show up as occupancy sensor in Home app instead of motion sensors. Whole thing seems very poorly done and I am getting sick of Matter's overpromises and underdeliveries and am personally moving back to zigbee in my new house.
I hate ecosystems - if it needs a hub I don't want it. The review is amazing! The stuff that you said is less expensive, because of a hub needed is because they make money on the hub, or there is a tech reason?
They have the more expensive sensor which is WiFi based and doesn't need a hub, so it's not a tech reason. My guess is they wanted a cheaper presence sensor option for their users who already own one of their many hubs. If you just need the presence sensor and don't want Aqara hub/ecosystem, you can get FP2.
Great video..!! As usual. I happen to be very interested in this sensor ever since I heard of it. Eric, is there a line of smart products that work with my Mesh network even if the internet is down? And may be mix some brands? Any thoughts? (beacouse if pricing I've tried to stay away from apple HomeKit so thing like TP-Link attract me)
Actually, there is a lot of them, most likely anything that doesn't relly on wifi for connection. Like Zigbee, but you need to run your automations locally with something like Home Assistant.
Great question. There are a lot of options here but at this point I would look at Matter over Thread devices and pairing them with Home Assistant or Apple Home. You might find cheaper options with Zigbee but Thread is where the industry is moving.
But is this a true presence/occupancy sensor? Meaning, will it detect an idle person. I have this device for my office, and it seems to only be triggered by motion. Would be interesting to know if it could work in a bathroom situation
you got the product for free, but i appreciate that the whole episode doesn't feel like that other blonde guy that does home automation videos who is basically just reading copy from the company's PR people. I'm not looking for hyperbole or sales, just some advice to fill in my gaps. thanks for the good videos. easy to listen to, easy to understand.
Good review. Thanks. I'm thinking about putting one of these in my master bedroom. It's a pretty big room with an area where the bed is, a sitting area with a TV, and a bathroom area. If no one is present, I want all of the lights to turn off. I currently have a SmartThings motion sensor that points into the bathroom area which turns on the sink/vanity lights if someone walks into that area. And then the lights turn off if there's no activity after 5 minutes. Is it possible to have a single presence sensor in the room that will turn lights on and off based on how far away someone is from the sensor? Let's say that someone walks into the room, during daytime hours, I wouldn't want the main lights to turn on, but if that person walks into the bathroom area, even if it's daytime, I want the vanity lights to turn on and when they leave that part of the room, the lights can turn off (with maybe a slight delay). Is that possible? Or would I need three separate sensors, one for each part of the master room? And what happens if I want the lights to be on, even if it's during the daytime? Is there a way to overwrite whatever settings are activated with Aqara?
How does this thing handle glass? I’m thinking of putting one in my bathroom and wondering if it could detect a person behind a glass door in the shower.
Is there a way to have this be a presence sensor to turn on a light but only at a certain time of day? For example our laundry room and entry way both get lots of light during the day but at night we might want the light on in either area. Can I tell the device turn on the lights when it detects movement but only when it’s dark?
I'd go as far as to say the FP2 is almost unusable and completely unreliable. Ghost detections make nearly everything an interference zone. The lights stay on for hours even when no one is in the room, and adding more interference zones doesn't help. I appreciate that Aqara has continued to update the FP2, but this device is terrible and only seems to be getting worse. It's no surprise they removed some features since they were extremely buggy. To quote one of the greatest scientists: 'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.'"
I know it's not fun I agree the sensors should be more stable. At least Aqara continues to ship software updates. Many companies abandon their products' software not long after launch.
@@EricWelander sure I am obviously glad to see updates but if they don't really fix issues it might as well be abandoned. I hope to be proven wrong obviously but it's outrageous that these $80 devices aren't more rock solid especially after a year in the market.
Around $49 on Amazon. About $20 less than the FP2. Some things are worth the upgrade for $20 but in this case I would save the money and get the FP1E if you have an Aqara hub.
Ha! Thankfully no. My deck is red and last year when I painted it, the paint brush cleaning in our basement laundry room got some red paint on the walls.
I have Philips Hue bulbs with a Hue hub and Hue motion sensors. I don't see Hue offering any presence sensor to update their motion sensors. But sometimes the lights go out when I am still. Can I use this device and their hub with Hue bulbs, ditching the Hue motion sensors and Hue Hub?
You can definitely combine Aqara sensors (and hub) with your Philips Hue light bulbs. I also ditched my Hue Motion Sensors, but kept all my Hue Bulbs and switches. Not sure if you can cut out the Hue Hub though. I think for automation in HomeKit, you are required to connect your Hue Bulb via the Hue Hub.
I have a heavily Hue centric light system with around 40 bulbs and several switches and motion sensors. The motion sensors only occasionally get it wrong. I also have several other company’s hubs and recently added Aqara’s FP2, contact sensors, blinds and curtain gear as well as their T1M light. Contact and motion sensors work easily with Hue.
No one is able to answer this so maybe - just maybe you can: Can this sensor turn on/off smart lights when someone walks along a stairwell? (My stairwell has smart lights on the side of the steps). Or does this detect planar (2 dimensional) flat floors only?
You are mistaken. The FP2 does not require Aqara hubs to work with Matter any more. It was true when they first came out, but updates fixed that. I have two that I have installed in Home Assistant without the Aqara app. And I've sheared them with HomeKit with a simple button push and a QR code scan. And just recently Matter allows third parties to update devices wihtout using native Apps. And HomeKit should be able to do the firmware updates directly in the near future. The FP2 isn't perfect, but it does the job nicely, and it has a light sensor, which the FP1s do not.
I don't remember saying this in the video. I'm sorry if I was not clear. I am fully aware that the FP2 does not require a hub, but the FP1E DOES require a hub which is what I said was a key difference between the FP1E and the FP2
A motion sensor without a light sensor seems somewhat pointless. I found it annoying that the fp2 didn't also come with temperature and air quality sensors. Because it's wired, there is no need to be stingy with the power budget.
thanks! gonna get this for the very same use you used as an example. I Put in a generic motion wall switch in my laundry thinking it would be enough. But the light goes out on us all the time. Was particularly an issue when I was tiling a wall and the washer/dryer was between me and the sensor. It constantly went out while installing and I had to get up and move around to turn it back on. This will be much better. Don't like the idea of a hub though. Why not spend the extra $20 and not spend the hub cost if I don't have other devices that use a hub anyway? And I've noticed your dry hands and cuticles before too and never said anything. Seems it was too much for some this time. LOL
2 cents: I had a similar issue in my bathroom. My wife would often straighten her hair and do stuff in the bathroom, getting herself ready for things, maxing out the timer, and the lights would go out. I overcame this by doing 2 things. First, I increased the timeout by a few extra minutes. I also added a trigger that if motion was detected for 15 minutes, then added another 14 minutes to the timer, and so on with a couple of intervals. This solution has worked for me and may be helpful as well. That said, I do use a multi-sensor for motion, temp, humidity and lux and use that sensor for a whole host of automation in one room as opposed to a device with one feature.
Sadly the Ai detection add considerable delay. Depending on where you are in relation toa server it can be quite bad. Instead of turning the lights on at the top of the stairs they come on when you are at the bottom. More of a gimmick at this point then anything else and needs more work.
Yeah it would be nice but I don't know if they could make a reasonable size for battery life trade off. I think that setup would be too big. I wonder how USB battery banks would do with something like this since they can be so large these days.
For this sort of money you'd want the room coverage to be faultless, even if you're forced to put it in a sub-optimal location due to power source restrictions.
I didn't know the pricing at the time of recording. It looks like here in the US the FP1E is $49 and the FP2 is $69. That's a decent discount if you are buying more than one
guys... you do know that there is an Aqara FP1 out for two years now eh? what is the difference with this one!? the Aqara FP2 is WAY better than this. so why did Aqara release it?
My take: Hardware is similar to FP1 but that was never released in all regions. FP1e uses machine learning to help detection be more accurate. It’s less complicated than FP2 which average consumers had trouble with.
Thanks for the insight on this. Your videos are fantastic. Don’t mean this disrespectfully, but you might want to look into using lotion on your hands. Trust me. I’m a black person who knows about skin hydration. Dry hands will cause you problems later.
I am a little sad because these presence sensors only detect presence (which is great, but only if you want that). I wish they were combined with other sensor types (e.g., temperature, humidity, lux, and so on) like traditional motion sensors are at this stage. It would make it a lot more versatile. It looks like a great product IF you have an Aqara hub AND and you only need one type of sensor for the room. Outside of that, it would be unusable.
You got the "Everything Presence" sensors from Lewis (a YT creator for smart home) that are everything you're looking for. There's also another brand that does modular sensors with mm wave, co2 etc but can't remember the name)
It's APOLLO. There's even a Bluetooth beacon for your smartphone to catch onto it and warn home assistant who's home. Lewis (Everything Presence Sensor) seems easier without any configuration tho.
@lgfs you know what I forgot about. That said the reason for not purchasing was the high cost and early adopters tax for this. I will wait next year for other companies to catch up and have it at a more reasonable price.
I agree the FP1E is way better than the fp2 because it actually works where my fp2 has given me alot problems with the inference zones and it always detects ghost people. But with the FP1E it seems to work a lot better and it's just more simpler and I like that it's not Wi-Fi.
We don’t need more hubs but thread enabled devices to strengthen our thread mesh.
I wish that was true, but is there even a single presence sensor with Thread? Even Aqara's FP2 presence sensor which doesn't need a hub is not a Thread device for some reason but WiFi, and the only official Matter-first presence sensor I can find (Meross) is also WiFi based.
That’s why I wrote we need more Thread enabled devices.
@@d.j.vandermeer3832 I agree, but maybe there's some kind of limitation as to why there is not a single Matter over Thread presence sensor? Matter standard in general seems to group motion and presence sensors into "occupancy" which is why for example newer Eve Motion sensors that come out the box with Matter (or if you update your old ones to Matter fw) now show up as occupancy sensor in Home app instead of motion sensors. Whole thing seems very poorly done and I am getting sick of Matter's overpromises and underdeliveries and am personally moving back to zigbee in my new house.
Going forward I want all my devices to connect directly to Home Assistant. I don’t want hubs anymore.
I hate ecosystems - if it needs a hub I don't want it. The review is amazing! The stuff that you said is less expensive, because of a hub needed is because they make money on the hub, or there is a tech reason?
They have the more expensive sensor which is WiFi based and doesn't need a hub, so it's not a tech reason. My guess is they wanted a cheaper presence sensor option for their users who already own one of their many hubs. If you just need the presence sensor and don't want Aqara hub/ecosystem, you can get FP2.
Thanks Eric, ordered the FP1E, installed and works great. My first presence sensor, it looks I will replace some of my motion sensors with the FP1E
Great video..!! As usual. I happen to be very interested in this sensor ever since I heard of it. Eric, is there a line of smart products that work with my Mesh network even if the internet is down? And may be mix some brands? Any thoughts? (beacouse if pricing I've tried to stay away from apple HomeKit so thing like TP-Link attract me)
Actually, there is a lot of them, most likely anything that doesn't relly on wifi for connection. Like Zigbee, but you need to run your automations locally with something like Home Assistant.
Great question. There are a lot of options here but at this point I would look at Matter over Thread devices and pairing them with Home Assistant or Apple Home. You might find cheaper options with Zigbee but Thread is where the industry is moving.
But is this a true presence/occupancy sensor? Meaning, will it detect an idle person. I have this device for my office, and it seems to only be triggered by motion. Would be interesting to know if it could work in a bathroom situation
Yes it is a true presence Sensor
@ yeah.. not for me. I have this and it doesn’t function as a presence sensor but a motion sensor.
you got the product for free, but i appreciate that the whole episode doesn't feel like that other blonde guy that does home automation videos who is basically just reading copy from the company's PR people. I'm not looking for hyperbole or sales, just some advice to fill in my gaps. thanks for the good videos. easy to listen to, easy to understand.
Good review. Thanks. I'm thinking about putting one of these in my master bedroom. It's a pretty big room with an area where the bed is, a sitting area with a TV, and a bathroom area. If no one is present, I want all of the lights to turn off. I currently have a SmartThings motion sensor that points into the bathroom area which turns on the sink/vanity lights if someone walks into that area. And then the lights turn off if there's no activity after 5 minutes. Is it possible to have a single presence sensor in the room that will turn lights on and off based on how far away someone is from the sensor? Let's say that someone walks into the room, during daytime hours, I wouldn't want the main lights to turn on, but if that person walks into the bathroom area, even if it's daytime, I want the vanity lights to turn on and when they leave that part of the room, the lights can turn off (with maybe a slight delay). Is that possible? Or would I need three separate sensors, one for each part of the master room? And what happens if I want the lights to be on, even if it's during the daytime? Is there a way to overwrite whatever settings are activated with Aqara?
Thanks for another great video Eric. The FP1E is definitely a good tool in the smart home tool belt!
instead of getting the hub, can I just use my Aqara G3 camera hub?
How does this thing handle glass? I’m thinking of putting one in my bathroom and wondering if it could detect a person behind a glass door in the shower.
Is there a way to have this be a presence sensor to turn on a light but only at a certain time of day? For example our laundry room and entry way both get lots of light during the day but at night we might want the light on in either area. Can I tell the device turn on the lights when it detects movement but only when it’s dark?
You can set automations with motion sensors using timers to stop lights turning off when you're in a room
Thanks for confirming my recent FP2 "buggy days" experience
I'd go as far as to say the FP2 is almost unusable and completely unreliable. Ghost detections make nearly everything an interference zone. The lights stay on for hours even when no one is in the room, and adding more interference zones doesn't help.
I appreciate that Aqara has continued to update the FP2, but this device is terrible and only seems to be getting worse. It's no surprise they removed some features since they were extremely buggy.
To quote one of the greatest scientists:
'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.'"
I know it's not fun I agree the sensors should be more stable. At least Aqara continues to ship software updates. Many companies abandon their products' software not long after launch.
@@EricWelander sure I am obviously glad to see updates but if they don't really fix issues it might as well be abandoned. I hope to be proven wrong obviously but it's outrageous that these $80 devices aren't more rock solid especially after a year in the market.
Great review, thanks again. Any idea what the price might be?
Looks like $50 on Amazon
Around $49 on Amazon. About $20 less than the FP2. Some things are worth the upgrade for $20 but in this case I would save the money and get the FP1E if you have an Aqara hub.
Don't forget: Use code US01FP1E for 20% off (August 6-10)
(from video description)
Did you murder someone in your laundry room? Looks like there is a lot of blood splatter on the wall haha
Ha! Thankfully no. My deck is red and last year when I painted it, the paint brush cleaning in our basement laundry room got some red paint on the walls.
Blood on the wall................Calls it his laundry room🤔
I have Philips Hue bulbs with a Hue hub and Hue motion sensors.
I don't see Hue offering any presence sensor to update their motion sensors.
But sometimes the lights go out when I am still.
Can I use this device and their hub with Hue bulbs, ditching the Hue motion sensors and Hue Hub?
You can definitely combine Aqara sensors (and hub) with your Philips Hue light bulbs. I also ditched my Hue Motion Sensors, but kept all my Hue Bulbs and switches. Not sure if you can cut out the Hue Hub though. I think for automation in HomeKit, you are required to connect your Hue Bulb via the Hue Hub.
@@RenierVHIn addition to my Hue hub, do I also need an Aqara hub to use their sensors with my Hue bulbs?
I have a heavily Hue centric light system with around 40 bulbs and several switches and motion sensors. The motion sensors only occasionally get it wrong.
I also have several other company’s hubs and recently added Aqara’s FP2, contact sensors, blinds and curtain gear as well as their T1M light.
Contact and motion sensors work easily with Hue.
No one is able to answer this so maybe - just maybe you can: Can this sensor turn on/off smart lights when someone walks along a stairwell? (My stairwell has smart lights on the side of the steps). Or does this detect planar (2 dimensional) flat floors only?
You are mistaken. The FP2 does not require Aqara hubs to work with Matter any more. It was true when they first came out, but updates fixed that. I have two that I have installed in Home Assistant without the Aqara app. And I've sheared them with HomeKit with a simple button push and a QR code scan. And just recently Matter allows third parties to update devices wihtout using native Apps. And HomeKit should be able to do the firmware updates directly in the near future. The FP2 isn't perfect, but it does the job nicely, and it has a light sensor, which the FP1s do not.
That’s right. I think that’s the big difference. I like my FP2 mostly because it doesn’t need a hub.
I don't remember saying this in the video. I'm sorry if I was not clear. I am fully aware that the FP2 does not require a hub, but the FP1E DOES require a hub which is what I said was a key difference between the FP1E and the FP2
@@EricWelanderyou were not mistaken. You’re spot on about the hub requirements for the FP1
A motion sensor without a light sensor seems somewhat pointless. I found it annoying that the fp2 didn't also come with temperature and air quality sensors. Because it's wired, there is no need to be stingy with the power budget.
Eric, great video presentation! I ordered one right away using your promo code. Thanks!😎👍🏻
thanks! gonna get this for the very same use you used as an example. I Put in a generic motion wall switch in my laundry thinking it would be enough. But the light goes out on us all the time. Was particularly an issue when I was tiling a wall and the washer/dryer was between me and the sensor. It constantly went out while installing and I had to get up and move around to turn it back on. This will be much better. Don't like the idea of a hub though. Why not spend the extra $20 and not spend the hub cost if I don't have other devices that use a hub anyway? And I've noticed your dry hands and cuticles before too and never said anything. Seems it was too much for some this time. LOL
2 cents: I had a similar issue in my bathroom. My wife would often straighten her hair and do stuff in the bathroom, getting herself ready for things, maxing out the timer, and the lights would go out. I overcame this by doing 2 things. First, I increased the timeout by a few extra minutes. I also added a trigger that if motion was detected for 15 minutes, then added another 14 minutes to the timer, and so on with a couple of intervals. This solution has worked for me and may be helpful as well. That said, I do use a multi-sensor for motion, temp, humidity and lux and use that sensor for a whole host of automation in one room as opposed to a device with one feature.
Does it work with amazon alexa?
Yes it does
But it doesn’t have the lux sensor.. so you can t do complex automations😢
Sadly the Ai detection add considerable delay. Depending on where you are in relation toa server it can be quite bad. Instead of turning the lights on at the top of the stairs they come on when you are at the bottom.
More of a gimmick at this point then anything else and needs more work.
Not sure I would be buying m2 hub, knowing it won’t act as matter controller… eg aqara u200 won’t work with it
I just wished it uses battery for there may be no outlet where you want to place. I will still go with P1 just because of ease of placement.
Yeah it would be nice but I don't know if they could make a reasonable size for battery life trade off. I think that setup would be too big. I wonder how USB battery banks would do with something like this since they can be so large these days.
For this sort of money you'd want the room coverage to be faultless, even if you're forced to put it in a sub-optimal location due to power source restrictions.
People are animals too.....
Haha yes they are! Good point
hope fp1e is reasonably cheaper than fp2
I didn't know the pricing at the time of recording. It looks like here in the US the FP1E is $49 and the FP2 is $69. That's a decent discount if you are buying more than one
It does not sense my presence when I am sitting watching tv
guys... you do know that there is an Aqara FP1 out for two years now eh?
what is the difference with this one!? the Aqara FP2 is WAY better than this. so why did Aqara release it?
My take: Hardware is similar to FP1 but that was never released in all regions. FP1e uses machine learning to help detection be more accurate. It’s less complicated than FP2 which average consumers had trouble with.
110% @rcoletti1 what a great summary
Thanks for the insight on this. Your videos are fantastic. Don’t mean this disrespectfully, but you might want to look into using lotion on your hands. Trust me. I’m a black person who knows about skin hydration. Dry hands will cause you problems later.
Thanks for the advice. I agree I need to work on using lotion on my hands more.
I am a little sad because these presence sensors only detect presence (which is great, but only if you want that). I wish they were combined with other sensor types (e.g., temperature, humidity, lux, and so on) like traditional motion sensors are at this stage. It would make it a lot more versatile. It looks like a great product IF you have an Aqara hub AND and you only need one type of sensor for the room. Outside of that, it would be unusable.
You got the "Everything Presence" sensors from Lewis (a YT creator for smart home) that are everything you're looking for. There's also another brand that does modular sensors with mm wave, co2 etc but can't remember the name)
It's APOLLO. There's even a Bluetooth beacon for your smartphone to catch onto it and warn home assistant who's home. Lewis (Everything Presence Sensor) seems easier without any configuration tho.
@lgfs you know what I forgot about. That said the reason for not purchasing was the high cost and early adopters tax for this. I will wait next year for other companies to catch up and have it at a more reasonable price.
Gotta moisturise your hands bro lol
Haha yeah it's always a weakness of mine. Especially since I wash them like 1000 times a day taking care of my small children.
Let's normalize men taking care of other men
Ugh... just threw down $200 on some FP2s and the experience has been massively underwhelming
Bummer I'm sorry! I bet the software will improve on the FP2 as well over time. Not a great answer to hear now but it's worth being hopeful
I do NOT want Apple, or Google, or Amazon, or Microsoft controlling my home automation.
I agree the FP1E is way better than the fp2 because it actually works where my fp2 has given me alot problems with the inference zones and it always detects ghost people. But with the FP1E it seems to work a lot better and it's just more simpler and I like that it's not Wi-Fi.