Outdoor Motion Sensor - Works with Alexa

I already had five of the Hue indoor motion sensors, which are excellent. Whilst the need for an outdoor one never really occurred to me before, when I saw one was being released I was immediately interested - it’s a new gadget after all! In fact, it’s a great addition to the line up. Build quality is up to the usual high Hue standard - a bit larger than the indoor one and predominantly black in colour, with the exception of the sensor itself, which accounts for the lower half of the front dome. It also comes with accessories to enable mounting the sensor in all sorts of useful places - flat on a wall, in a corner, on an outer corner or beam. In my case, it’s the latter, and fitting it took minutes (as did set-up within the Hue app). It blends in really well - glad Hue went with black for the outdoor sensor. I live in a ground floor flat in a block of six and I’ve paired the outdoor motion sensor with a Hue bulb in the canopy above the front exterior security door to the stairwells. Whilst all the stairwell lights were already set to come on when it gets dark, having this means the outside light is not on all night. Someone walks in front of the sensor (which has a greater range than the indoor one) and it turns on the light to the preferred level and colour/shade, then turns off again after no motion is detected for the period you choose. All good so far, but that’s not where it ends - the best feature for me, is the fact you can also have the sensor control your indoor lights. The fact that this product (along with all Hue lights and accessories) is HomeKit compatible, means you can set up some nifty automations. In addition to turning on the outside light, I have a HomeKit automation that will turn on both my lounge and kitchen lights when motion is detected outside - but only if they are not already on. From a security point of view, this is great - motion-sensing outdoor lights have been a thing for decades, so they are not really that much of a deterrent for burglars. If someone is outside though and your inside lights go on, say in the middle of the night, that’s far more powerful in making someone think there’s someone alerted to their presence. All in all, I’m really pleased with it - looks great, feels high quality and most importantly, it’s really useful and versatile.

For the last twenty years, we have had an outdoor motion sensor that at dusk would activate one of two outside lights, on dim (25%), and when any motion was detected would activate both at 100% for 5 minutes, before returning to just one at 25%. The motion sensor started to play up, so I looked to buy a replacement that did the same. I couldn't find one. I came across this Smart motion sensor, and after some research, found that you could replicate exactly what my old motion sensor could do .... but with the added benefit of operating the lights by voice (Alexa) if you so wanted. Not that I needed or wanted to use it. I purchased a Hue starter kit (hub and two lights) for compatibility. Works extremely well. Come spring/summer, I'll be looking to upgrade another motion sensor on the patio with one of these. Follow the instructions and there are no problems in setting up.

For this to sensor work with Alexa (and to work at all, you need both Hue devices), you need... 1) Phillips bridge (it plugs into your router) 2) A Hue compatible bulb (even if you don’t want it) 3) An Alexa dot or similar Unfortunately, stupidly, you cannot just use the sensor on its own to have Alexa tell you when, for example, someone has walked up your garden path. You must have a Hue bulb set up too. Later you can unplug it I’ve found. It’s as fiddly as sowing a button on a shirt cuff whilst you are wearing it to get it all working. With wonky errors where Alexa says the sensor is not compatible and between the Alexa app and Phillips app they appear to be in competition to hide the set up from you. But with enough tapping and cursing once it’s been installed and you’ve had Alexa recognise all the devices by first setting it up in the Phillips Hue app, and given it all some time to settle, it does all work. My example: - I don’t use the bulb but stupidly you need it to set things up - Without the bulb the Hue app and Alexa apps don’t properly recognise the sensor, it’s pretty stupid and not intuitive at all. - When someone triggers my sensor, my Alexas in my house all tell me someone has triggered it. That’s what I wanted it for. - It’s an expensive way of finding out if someone is on your property but it works pretty well. And the Hue sensor itself is lovely quality. I expected it to be huge after reading the reviews, but it’s a nice compact size, about the size of a two packs of playing cards stuck together of and squared off - it’s small and chunky. Tips: - Set it up first in the Phillips app, once you can see its sensing movement go to Alexa and search for new devices - I seem to remember mine found three - the sensor, bridge and bulb. - When I tried to create a Routine in Alexas app, Alexa initially said the sensor was incompatible. But I think I restarted the app, again pressed the setup button on the sensor, and eventually Alexa allowed me to include it in a Routine. - If you want to still receive alerts in the daylight you need to increase the daylight sensitivity all the way up to the + symbol in the Phillips app. - Leave it in place before modifying any other settings, because I’ve found in some light conditions it sets off false positives so I am currently tweaking the overall movement detection gradually. - The Phillips app set up of the sensor is a total puzzle, ie: the set up of what it does when just don’t make any sense and there’s no explanation in the app. Best I’ve found so far is to set the timeouts both to 1 minute and set it to “do nothing” after triggering. It’s a pretty bad design. Of course I haven’t read the manual yet ;-) Good luck.

These sensors were very easy to install, requiring no wires - you just push a button on the back and connect them via the Hue app then fix them to the wall using a screw. The adjustments for light and motion sensitivity are also working just fine, unlike other reviewers posting here. One point to note is that you cannot use these sensors as an input using IFTTT to control other devices - this control needs to happen inside the Philips Hue application. What this means is that the sensors are only able to control Philips Hue devices (e.g. bulbs, or the Philips Hue plug), or Zigbee-enabled plugs from within the Hue app. I have got two of these set up - one at the front of my house controlling a lamp that contains a Hue bulb, and another at the rear that controls a set of fairly lights connected via an Innr Zigbee Smart Plug (until I get around to installing the proper Hue outside light I also purchased).

I'm quite happy with Philips Hue LIghts so I bought this motion sensor to control my lights and also to use it with Alexa. The setup was pretty easy. I had a hiccup setting it up with Alexa though. Alexa could see the sensor but the motion detection trigger didn't work at all initially. To get it to work, i had to disable the Philips Hue skill and then re-enable it. The motion sensor works as advertised, i.e. it can detect motion but it's way too sensitive even though I've set the sensitivity level to the lowest. It seems to detect anything that moves including tree leaves and branches. Maybe it's not a PIR sensor. To work around this problem, I now have to block its view angle to point it to just my backyard door.

I got this and then I see that it needs a Hue Bridge! Misleading description in the sale!

Ich habe den outdoor Sensor unter dem Dachvorstand vor dem Haus montiert, dort soll er die Leuchten vor der Haustür und im Windfang schalten, sowohl beim Hinausgehen als auch beim Annähern von außen. Eine 3. Leuchte oder auch ganze Szenen könnten im Bedarfsfall noch dazu geschaltet werden. Die Montage war insofern eine kleine Herausforderung da ich nur ca. 3 Meter Platz bis zum Bürgersteig habe und der Sensor bei Passanten nicht anspringen soll. Die Reichweite ist wirklich enorm. Durch Montage unter dem Dachvorstand und Ausrichten zum Haus hin habe ich eine Position gefunden, die mich zufrieden stellt. Das Einrichten des Sensors in der app ist kinderleicht, auch das Ausrichten/Einstellen per app geht super und ist eine große Hilfe. Das Einschalten der Leuchten bei Erkennen einer Bewegung geht schnell, die Tageslichterkennung funktioniert perfekt. Die leichte Einbindung in Alexa erweitert die Möglichkeiten noch, so könnte man beispielsweise das Limit von max. 3 schaltbaren Lampen umgehen, andere Smarthome Bestandteile wie z.B. Steckdosen schalten und mehr. Ich werde weitere Sensoren am und im Haus anbringen.

È il primo sensore Hue da esterno che acquisto. Facile da installare l’ho aggiunto al Bridge di casa facilmente. Adesso anche le luci dei balconi si accendono al mio passaggio quando la luce solare non è sufficiente. Come per quelli da interno è possibile configurare il livello di luce sotto il quale far accendere la o le luci. È anche possibile definire la sensibilità di rilevamento dei movimenti. Una volta configurati i 2 parametri sopra è possibile definire 2 fasce orarie distinte alle quali assegnare due livelli di luminosità diversa. Io ho configurato tutti i sensori interni per funzionare quando la luce interna non è sufficiente al massimo della luminosità fino a sera, mentre durante la notte ho impostato la luminosità al minimo. Si potrebbero configurare anche per non accendersi completamente dopo una certa ora. I sensori dei balconi invece li ho congigurati per lavorare sempre al massimo della luminosità. Diversamente da quelli da interno che sono dotati di una calamita per poterli montare ovunque, quelli da interno hanno una basetta estremamente versatile che consente di montarli anche sugli spigoli delle pareti, come vedete sulla foto. Personalmente ho provato sensori di altre marche, ma nessuno funziona bene come quelli della Philips. Assolutamente consigliato

J'ai équipé ma maison en domotique. Tout marche très bien mais j'avais un souci pour l'ouverture/fermeture des mes volets. Je me basais sur l'heure du couché du soleil mais parfois le temps était un peu gris la nuit tombait plus vite. Tout du moins la luminosité était faible bien avant l'heure de couché du soleil et je fermais mes volets manuellement. Désormais avec ce détecteur extérieur, je peux récupérer la luminosité extérieur et donc me servir de cet indicateur pour déclencher des actions comme fermer mes volets. De plus, en complément de la luminosité (LUX), j'ai la fonction détecteur de mouvement. Que demander de plus. Bien sur, si vous n'avez pas de domotique, ce capteur est tout aussi génial pour vous, car il faut parti de la gamme HUE. Vous pouvez donc avec l'application mobile Philips Hue, déclencher ses actions. Par exemple, si la luminosité est à 100lux, je ferme les volets en envoyant un ordre à un module HUE connecté à mes volets roulants. Je peux aussi allumer mes lumières (intérieures ou extérieures) HUE. Le détecteur capte un mouvement, alors il peut allumer votre lumière HUE extérieure pour faciliter votre arrivée. Clairement un module très interessant et polyvalent. Il vous permet aussi de récupérer la temperature extérieure. Niveau installation, c'est très simple. Là encore, Philips a pensé à tout les cas d'installation. En fixation droite, en angle. Vous pouvez même vous affranchir de percer votre mur pour l'installer puisqu'il est possible d'utiliser des colliers de serrage (non fournit) pour l'installation. Ce que j'ai personnellement choisi. Installé depuis 1 mois, pourtant en plein soleil (au sud), la couleur du capteur ne bouge pas. Les données remontées (temperature, luminosité, mouvement) sont très efficace et réactif. Je ne peux que le recommander.