If you’re looking to get a motion sensor for your Z-Wave home automation setup, Fibaro has something very interesting to offer. You see, while most motion sensors look like, well, motion sensors, Fibaro’s Motion Sensor is quite different. First, it’s about the package, a smallish sphere, about the size of a golf ball. Then, it has an uncanny resemblance to an eyeball.
In fact, if you already thought it looks like an eyeball when you open up the box, you are going to get all the confirmation that it is one, once it has been powered and started doing its work. I’ll get to that in a bit.
The next thing about the Fibaro Motion Sensor is that it isn’t just a motion sensor. It’s also a temperature sensor. It will measure light levels as well. In fact, it even works as a vibration sensor. That’s right, it’s a 4-in-1 sensor that does motion, temperature, light and vibration.
So while motion detection could be your primary purpose, you get the bonus of other sensor input. The vibration sensor, in particular, is quite interesting, because it can be used to detect earthquakes. It isn’t something particularly of concern to us here in Singapore, of course, but perhaps home owners in earthquake-prone localities will find much use of such input.
I mentioned this Fibaro Motion Sensor is small, like a golf ball. It’s all of 44mm in diameter. When the LED indicator lights up, it really looks like an eye. It’s a full RGB LED too, so the eyeball is capable of being lit up in different colours.
To be honest, to have this eyeball light up in the dark of the night from the corner of the room might be a bit spooky. It’s best to warn everyone at home about it lest they freak out one night.
Motion detection is good at up to 7 m range, with over a 90° angle of view. This gives the Fibaro Motion Sensor a pretty good coverage area suitable for most indoor home use. It supports Z-Wave Plus, making it suited for home security applications.
The Fibaro Motion Sensor is highly configurable. You can set the colour for the LED when motion is detected. The default setting for the motion detection indication is quite unique. It’s not a fixed colour, but will either be blue, green, or red, depending on which of three zones the current temperature is in. The thresholds between the zones are configurable.
You can configure the sensitivity of the motion detector. You can configure light intensity levels to define “night” and “day” modes, and then choose if the motion sensor works only in the night, only in the day, or at all times. Temperature reporting frequency, and delta threshold, can be configured.
There are many more configuration settings available. I think the Fibaro Motion Sensor is about the most configurable Z-Wave device I’ve come across, apart from controllers, of course.
The Fibaro Motion Sensor cost £33.07 (£29.70 during a recent sale) from Vesternet.
Conclusion
The Fibaro Motion Sensor is a small, golf ball-sized, multifunction, motion sensor for your Z-Wave home automation system.
Pros:
- Small, cool, design
- 4-in-1 sensor does motion, light, temperature, and vibration
- RGB LED indicator with an “eye” effect
- Highly configurable
I honestly find it difficult to pick out a real con about the Fibaro Motion Sensor.
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