Philips Hue Motion Sensor

mavsguy842

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I've just put in an order at Best Buy for one Philips Hue Motion Sensor, which is a new product. My plan is to use it in our infant daughter's room to make life easier when walking into the room for a diaper change with my hands full.

Has anyone else ordered these or have plans to in the future? What ideas do you have for incorporating them into your home? I'll update with my experience later.

UPDATE Oct 5 2015:
I received the sensor in the evening of October 3rd and got it setup last night on the 4th. Setups is very easy. Open the Hue app, pull a plastic tab out of the sensor to activate the battery and the app finds the sensor in about 10 seconds. You need to pick which room/s the sensor will control. The sensor comes with default settings, including time of day to consider day and night, default scenes for each (day/night), how long to wait before turning off the lights when no motion is detected, and sensitivity for both ambient light and motion.

I adjusted the time period for day/night to start the day earlier (5am) and end it earlier (10pm). I picked different scenes for day and night. I left defaults for the lights-off setting to after 1 minute of no movement, motion sensitivity on high and ambient light sensitivity.

I placed the sensor on a dresser pointed toward the door of our infant daughter's room and it worked as expected. Normal standing movements is enough to keep the lights on, and when the sensor thinks there's no movement it dims the lights before turning them off so you have the chance to make a larger movement to trigger the sensor if necessary. The cat triggered the motion sensor once early this morning; hopefully that doesn't happen too often or I might have to adjust the motion sensitivity settings or angle the sensor upwards to avoid triggering when he goes into the room.
 
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hotdiamond

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I'm considering purchasing the motion sensor for my bathrooms as my kids always leave the lights on. So with the motion sensor, I will be able to install so that when someone walks into the bathroom, the lights auto on and after they leave, the lights will auto off?
 

mavsguy842

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I'm considering purchasing the motion sensor for my bathrooms as my kids always leave the lights on. So with the motion sensor, I will be able to install so that when someone walks into the bathroom, the lights auto on and after they leave, the lights will auto off?

Yes you will. You can specify the length of time the sensor waits to turn the lights off after it stops detecting motion. I have mine set to 1 minute so as to waste as little electricity as possible.

The only issue I can see for a bathroom is that if someone is in the shower the motion sensor might think no one is in the room and shut the lights off while you're showering. Perhaps the natural movement of the shower curtain would be enough to keep the lights on. When the sensor thinks you're gone, it first dims the lights before turning them all the way off, so I guess it's possible to wave an arm or ruffle the shower curtain to get it to detect motion if that were to happen.
 

hotdiamond

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Great! Thanks for your reply. I hadn't thought about the shower issue. Also, our master bathroom has the toilet area enclosed as if it's a closet, so the lights could potentially go off while someone is on the toilet. Hmmmm....Not sure how that would work. Thanks again.
 

mavsguy842

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Great! Thanks for your reply. I hadn't thought about the shower issue. Also, our master bathroom has the toilet area enclosed as if it's a closet, so the lights could potentially go off while someone is on the toilet. Hmmmm....Not sure how that would work. Thanks again.

If the toilet has its own light bulb, which I assume it does if it's similar to a closet, you could setup the bathroom overall as a logical room and a sensor to control its lights, and the toilet room and its light as a separate room with its own separate sensor to control it. So it'd work like this:

1) Walk into the bathroom and bathroom lights turn on.
2) Open the toilet door and the toilet light turns on. Close toilet door.
3) Bathroom lights turn off.
4) Finish using the toilet and open the toilet door. Bathroom lights turn back on.
5) Leave the bathroom. Toilet light turns off, followed shortly thereafter by bathroom lights.
 

hotdiamond

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If the toilet has its own light bulb, which I assume it does if it's similar to a closet, you could setup the bathroom overall as a logical room and a sensor to control its lights, and the toilet room and its light as a separate room with its own separate sensor to control it. So it'd work like this:

1) Walk into the bathroom and bathroom lights turn on.
2) Open the toilet door and the toilet light turns on. Close toilet door.
3) Bathroom lights turn off.
4) Finish using the toilet and open the toilet door. Bathroom lights turn back on.
5) Leave the bathroom. Toilet light turns off, followed shortly thereafter by bathroom lights.

Good idea. I'll think about it if I decide to do our master bath. For now, I'll test out the children's bathroom and see how it works. Thanks again!
 

mavsguy842

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Great thread :) Been thinking about adding Hue to the house and this new sensor looks like it might be a good idea.

Thanks. I wouldn't want to go back to traditional lighting.

I find myself walking into my own bedroom and thinking "Ugh, why didn't the lights turn on? Oh, right, no sensor." It's surprising how quickly you get used to them and taking their reliability for granted - it really skews your opinion on traditional lighting.
 

robertk328

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Thanks. I wouldn't want to go back to traditional lighting.

I find myself walking into my own bedroom and thinking "Ugh, why didn't the lights turn on? Oh, right, no sensor." It's surprising how quickly you get used to them and taking their reliability for granted - it really skews your opinion on traditional lighting.
I could see in the bedroom that it would be an issue having the motion sensor. Getting up to go to the bathroom, etc., would turn the lights on and wake up your spouse. I have an itch to get these, and maybe a wall dimmer switch to turn the ones on in the family room. Not sure my wife wants to talk to her phone to turn lights on, and guests, etc. But maybe an Echo / Echo Dot would be handy (and not expensive) to do so.

I need 6-7 in my kitchen, of the recessed ones, so may try the A19 in there to see how they work. $15 vs $50 for the bulb is easier to stomach for that many!
 

mavsguy842

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I could see in the bedroom that it would be an issue having the motion sensor. Getting up to go to the bathroom, etc., would turn the lights on and wake up your spouse. I have an itch to get these, and maybe a wall dimmer switch to turn the ones on in the family room. Not sure my wife wants to talk to her phone to turn lights on, and guests, etc. But maybe an Echo / Echo Dot would be handy (and not expensive) to do so.

I need 6-7 in my kitchen, of the recessed ones, so may try the A19 in there to see how they work. $15 vs $50 for the bulb is easier to stomach for that many!

You can set the sensor to do nothing during your normal sleeping hours, but yeah there are definitely some things you'd have to work out if you wanted them in the bedroom.

I would highly recommend the Hue dimmer switch. It's around $20 and you can assign up to 5 scenes to the 'On' button. It has dim up/down buttons and an 'Off' button so it's very easy for the inexperienced to use. The Hue Tap doesn't use any batteries, but I don't think it's worth the added cost over the dimmer switch.
 

robertk328

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Thanks! Picked up some Hue bulbs (v3 color starter pack) and an Amazon Echo on sale at Best Buy this weekend.
Need more bulbs (probably ambiance for the bedroom and white elsewhere) and definitely thinking about the dimmer.
 

hotdiamond

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I'm having problems adding the hue motion sensor within the app. It just continues to search for the sensor but never finds it. The LED light blinks and when I select that it's blinking, the light turns yellow and turns off, but the app is still searching for the sensor.
 

mavsguy842

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I'm having problems adding the hue motion sensor within the app. It just continues to search for the sensor but never finds it. The LED light blinks and when I select that it's blinking, the light turns yellow and turns off, but the app is still searching for the sensor.

A couple of things to try before swapping it out at the store:
Are you sure you have the most up-to-date Hue app? They released a completely new app a couple months ago.
Are you trying to add it within the Hue app and not within the Apple Home app? The sensor itself is not HomeKit compatible - it only works directly with Hue lights.
 

hotdiamond

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A couple of things to try before swapping it out at the store:
Are you sure you have the most up-to-date Hue app? They released a completely new app a couple months ago.
Are you trying to add it within the Hue app and not within the Apple Home app? The sensor itself is not HomeKit compatible - it only works directly with Hue lights.

Yes, I have the newest Hue app and I've been attempting to add it within the Hue app. I finally just gave up, but I'll try again tonight. I was hoping there was a step I was missing or something.
 

peepsula

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I bought five of them and really like them. Took a while to get the family on board and to not make fun of them. Friends and extended family noticed them working nicely and commented....family began taking credit for being clever....go figure.

Bit of a learning curve not to turn the lights off/on with the switch, especially the garage one since the way it is set up in my particular case you take the first step into darkness.

I use one in the kitchen for the three island lights, one in the garage, one on basement stairs, basement lights, and one in the laundry room.

One app feature request besides the obvious connection to homekit....an easier way to disable the sensor i.e. 3d touch. In my basement case it is mostly a walk through convenience but there is a TV and couch and when someone is down there they would prefer the light to stay on. 15 yr old hates having to wave his arm.