I’m using a run of the mill motion sensor in the living room that turns the lights off after a certain duration of no motion (unless the TV is on). Sometimes the lights turn off when I’m still in the room because I’m stationary.
I know people seem to like the mmWave sensors for this and I’m considering getting a Screek 2A from eBay.
I’m curious if anyone here has used one. Thanks!
I’ve got two of the Screek 2A sensors and think they’re good. Mmwave technology isn’t a magic bullet that automatically works every time, like all radio tech there are some limitations.
I use one to turn on a light in a hallway and the other to detect when someone approaches the front door and issue an alert via ntfy.sh. Once in a while it misses some motion, so I’d probably not recommend it if you were building a human life kind of scenario, but they’re fine for me.
More importantly, they’re well supported by HA/ESPHome, open source, inexpensive and compact.
I am using one and I found it quite unreliable. Sometimes too sensitive, catches motion that happens far away. Often blind, just ignores the most obvious motion.
Plan on combining it with sensors of other technology to compensate that.
For a cheap or free solution, you could detect when your TV is on (Chromecast integration, home kit TV integration, etc. or power monitoring smart plug) and don’t turn off the lights if the TV is on.
I already have this set up and it works well. Sometimes I turn the TV off and stay in the room on my laptop for a while, and the lights turn off. It’s easy enough to turn them back on but I’m wondering if mmWave could help.
I’m using a mm wave sensor for a similar purpose and it works well. I don’t use it as an on trigger. I use it to help decide when to turn lights off.
That’s exactly how I’d use it. It’d have a time delay, too.
Also, completely unrelated, but it’s odd seeing a totally normal, non-tankie user from lemmy.ml.
You watch TV with the lights on‽ What kind of a monster are you??
Soft white (2700K), ~800 lumen bulbs. It’s pretty cozy with the lights on. Not harsh at all.
its the x-files tho
So show me yours, I’ll show you mine, “Tool Time”
You’ll Lovett just like Lyle
And then we’ll do it doggy style
So we can both watch X-Files