I wanted to jump in and share my feedback on the Aqara FP2 motion sensor, especially since @MacSparky mentioned it in the latest episode. I have had it for awhile and done a deep dive.
I created different Zones in the Aqara app for areas in my home office. Right now, it’s just “Desk” and Walkway." I also have “Interference Zones” where natural movement like fans, are located. These zones push to HomeKit as separate home sensors, as well as the entire home office.
In the Home Automations, I use these sensors to trigger my lights and fans based on time and on “If” statements (converting the “Scenes and Accessories” to a shortcut.)
For example, if the “Walkway” zone detects presence and there is no presence at the Desk zone, it turns on lights, based on the time of day. But if there is a presence in Desk, it does nothing. So, if someone walks in the empty room, the lights turn on. but if someone walks in the room when I am already sitting at my desk, nothing happens.
When I enter the Desk zone my ceiling fan turns on, and a different lighting scene is triggered.
What I like is that presence is only triggered a second time if the FP2 detects Absence in that zone, and then Presence again. So, once I sit down at my desk, if I change the lighting, it will rarely trigger and mess my lighting up again.
David, it sounded like you have had a couple of false positives when you were podcasting. Not good. If you had a specific light that is only on when you are podcasting (or set to a specific state), you could add this to your automation shortcut. “If presence is detected and the back wall light is off, trigger this scene. if not, do nothing.”
FYI, my experience is that when detecting presence, the FP2 is accurate 98% of the time.
BUT, when it is detecting absence, it is only accurate about 75% of the time. this is SO FRUSTRATING. The major (but not only) culprit is the ceiling fan. I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of. I have created an Interference zone where the fan is. I have moved the location of the sensor 4 times. I tried moving the sensor from high up in the room, to about 5 feet off the floor. Surely then, it can learn that the movement 8 feet in the air is not a person.
Aqara says the solve for this is to go into the app, into the device, into the “…” menu, into the “Function Setting” menu and choose “Reset to Absence Status.” Sounds convenient, right? It says that doing this when the room is empty helps the device learn to improve accuracy. my experience is that it’s not helping.
When the ceiling fan is not on, the accuracy when I leave the room is about 90%. so much better, but really still not good enough for my non-nerdy wife.
Was that too much information? if anyone is struggling with the FP2 and I can help, please let me know!
