PACKAGING

The Motion and Light Sensor P2 (henceforth referred to the P2) follows on from the Door and Window Sensor P2, which was the first Matter over Thread device from Aqara, and although it’s the same design as Aqara’s Motion Sensor P1 with Zigbee, it’s not a replacement, as not everyone has, or wants, a Matter smart home, or has a Thread Border Router that’s required for a device such as the P2.

It’s quite clear from the front of the box that this is a Matter over Thread product, so you will need a Thread Border Router to get full usage out of it, and you’re required to have a Matter controller. Luckily for the majority of Apple Home users, the HomePod Mini, some of the later Apple TVs, and the second gen. HomePod all contain a Thread Border Router (TBR), as well as acting as Matter Controllers. Even most of the older Apple TVs and original HomePod are Matter Controllers, they just don’t have a TBRs, but without the latter, you’re going to have to make do with the device using Bluetooth, which I guarantee is not going to be fun.

Aside from the P2 using Matter over Thread, as opposed to Zigbee 3.0 in the P1, the former also finally exposes the built-in light sensor to Apple Home, which may or may not be of use to you. As it stands, it might not, which I’ll touch on later.

The packaging claims a long battery life due to the P2 using two CR2450 coin batteries, although some have reported less than stellar longitivety in this area when it came to the P1. It’s difficult for me to put this to the test unless you’re willing to come back to this review in a year or so, so hopefully the claim – as vague as it is – is accurate.

PACKAGE CONTENTS

CR2450 batteries are included in the P2, so you don’t have to go on the hunt for them. If you’ve only ever owned the original Aqara motion sensor, this clearly has a larger ‘chin’, which is due to the battery compartment having to contend with two large coin batteries. The manual comes with a Matter QR code, but of course no HomeKit code.

The Matter code is also printed on top of the P2 itself. A code of this type is a departure from the Zigbee models, as they weren’t technically compatible with any platform, because it’s the hub that both allows them to function, and expose them to ecosystems like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home etc. Because of this Matter code, and the deployment of Thread, no Aqara hub is required – sort of – which I’ll touch on later as well.

The mount is included, as usual, and is pretty much the same as the original. Above the sensor is a small blue LED that acts as a signal for letting you know what’s going on during pairing, although it is also supposed to flash when it detects motion, which is optional, which lead us to the points I was promising to go into later; as the P2 is a Matter device, this means that at the time of this review, it can’t be added to the Aqara app. Why? Because the only Aqara hub that supports Matter devices – the Aqara Hub M3 – is not available internationally yet. It has been released in China, and I have one here, but the Aqara app doesn’t list the P2 as a device to be added. This is also currently the case with the Matter over Thread contact sensor. Because of that, it means some of the features and options you’d normally get with the P2 are not accessible. I’ll come back to this later, but for now let’s focus on the P2 in Apple Home.

ADDING THE P2 TO APPLE HOME

I haven’t posted the process of adding a device to the Home app for a while, but for the benefit of new users I’m doing it here;

• Tap on the plus icon and select Add Accessory
• Scan the QR code or enter the digits manually
• Select Add to Home once it discovers the device
• Wait for it to add the sensor

• Choose the room you want to place the sensor in
• Change the name of the device if required
• Change the names of the individual sensors if required

That’s it! The sensor is added, just like you would any Apple HomeKit compatible device.

Looking at settings for the individual sensors, you get battery levels and the relevant info for each. What you might notice is that the P2 is identified as an Occupancy Sensor, which isn’t quite right. This means it’ll be listed separately from any other motion sensors you might have in the same room. As you can see above, Motion Detection and Occupancy are shown as separate things. In practice this doesn’t make a lot of difference, but it’s worth noting.

As you can see from the three light sensors – one by Philips Hue, one by QingPing, and the Aqara P2 of course. Whilst the Hue and Aqara are fairly close, the Qing Ping is way out, which is something I mention in the review for their product, which is a Thread device but not Matter compatible. So I would say on balance, the light sensor in the P2 is fairly accurate. Note: The light sensors from all three were tested in my studio, not in the corridor, as I wanted to make sure they were all exposed to the same amount of light from the same position and angle.

THE MOTION SENSOR IN USE

I admit I was a little concerned that the P2 would suffer the same fate as the P1 did, which for many people had some sort of ‘blind spot’; If you passed by the sensor, it was almost always triggered, but if you stood in front of the P1, you could wave your arms around, jump up and down, and generally look like a lunatic, but it wouldn’t trigger. This has been reported many times both in customer reviews and on social media, whilst surprisingly, it has barely been mentioned in any of the YouTube video reviews on the P1 sensor.

I’m happy to report it does NOT seem to be suffering from this issue, and so far (I got it around the start of the year but didn’t start using it until February) it has triggered every single time. What a relief!

Now to the issue of it being unable to be added to the Aqara app. As already stated, at the time of this review, it can’t be added, and even though I tried adding it to the Aqara app using my M3, it simply wouldn’t take. I attempted this by putting it into pairing mode from the Apple Home app, and manually entering the generated Matter code in the Aqara app. It could be that my M3 is Chinese and the P2 is International, but that seems like an artificial block to me, as I’m sharing a Matter device from another ecosystem, as opposed to attempting to add it directly to the Aqara app. Either way, I didn’t succeed, which means that I can’t set the cooldown period for the sensor, which is currently stuck at sixty seconds. This also has a bearing on the light sensor, as this doesn’t seem to change until there has been a motion event, so without access to the settings it clearly must have, you’re currently stuck with the cooldown period it’s set at by default. The motion sensor does have three motion detection settings as well (high, medium, low), but without being able to access them in the Aqara app, you’re stuck with the medium sensitivity setting, which is set at a 5 metre distance (high is 7m, low is 3m).

The good news is that once you trigger the motion sensor, it doesn’t become blind to subsequent motion events during this period. So if you triggered the motion sensor, it would begin its 60 second countdown, but any further motion events within those 60 seconds would reset the countdown. For example, if I triggered the motion sensor, and it started its countdown, and I triggered it again 30 seconds later, the motion sensor would not reset until 90 seconds after the initial motion event. This is useful for certain situations where you might be still for a period, maybe when you’re on the loo, or your putting on your makeup, for example, where you’re not constantly in motion.

Currently there are only a couple of Matter over Thread motion sensors; Eve Motion is one, and another is by a company called Avatar Controls. Both QingPing and Onvis Make HomeKit over Thread motion sensors, with the latter having a nice feature you can read about in my separate reviews, so if you like Thread but aren’t too concerned about Matter these might be other options.

One thing I will say about Matter over Thread devices compared to any Zigbee equivalents is that there is still some proving to be done. By that I mean that almost all of my Zigbee devices have been rock solid, which is something I can’t always say with Thread devices – Matter or HomeKit. They’re close, but I do find that when a Thread device starts acting strange or goes unresponsive, it’s harder to pinpoint the problem than it is for a Zigbee device. I’m sure things will improve with time, and so far the P2 is carrying the flag for Matter over Thread due to its good behaviour, but when my International M3 eventually arrives for its review, I hope I can update this review to reflect the optional extras available via the Aqara Home app.

The post Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

That’s not the only improvement though, as aside from being upgraded to Thread, the SMS2 now includes a basic light sensor, and unlike many motion sensors, you can create automations to turn the motion detection off, based on other devices, the time of day, or as part of a larger scene. This is initially achieved in the Onvis app as a scene, which is then exposed to HomeKit for use as a standard scene or as part of an automation.

The SMS2 is the newest product from Onvis to join its lineup of Thread products, including the Contact Sensor CT3, the 5-button Smart switch, and their S4 smart plug (in EU, US, and UK versions), with the plugs being Matter over Thread, as opposed to HomeKit over Thread for the rest of the lineup. There’s talk of releasing a Matter over Thread version of the SMS2 in the future, but for now, it’s a HomeKit exclusive.

You can buy the SMS2 for US$34.99 on Amazon.com and UK£34.99 on Amazon.co.uk now, and although it’s also listed on Amazon.de, the release date is listed as December 20th – a last-minute Christmas gift, perhaps?

The post The Updated Onvis Motion Sensor w/ Thread is Out Now appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

BOX | CONTENTS

As with most decent manufacturers, the box follows the same minimalist rules; the product on the front, floating against a white background. Only the Qingping logo and ‘Works with Apple Home’ badge go some way to breaking things up. Looking around the packaging, I immediately noticed there was no Thread logo to be seen. As I’d been sent a review model, I was informed this was probably not the final packaging, hence the missing Thread badge. It’s a Thread device though, trust me!

the back states wireless connectivity uses Thread and Bluetooth. The latter is only used for initial setup and as a fallback option, should Thread go AWOL.

The sensor uses not one, but two CR2450 batteries, which are thankfully already provided.

Aside from the sensor, which we’ll look at in more detail, you get the following; a mounting ball joint, a circular double-sided sticker, and a manual in English, German, Chinese, and Japanese. The ball joint is magnetic, allowing the rear of the motion to hold on magnetically, whilst also allowing the sensor to be both easily angled and removable. It comes with an adhesive backing.

The circular sticker is designed to allow the user to mount the sensor directly to a surface without the need for the ball joint, although this means the sensor can’t be angled.

THE SENSOR

I’m not quite sure how to describe the shape of the sensor, other than it’s a bit like one of those bullet cameras you see on the outside of buildings I guess. Either way, it’s still not large overall, measuring just 38mm in diameter and 36.5mm in depth. When compared to the Eve Motion, which is the only other motion sensor utilising Thread right now, I’d say it’s around 3-4 times smaller.

There’s a HomeKit QR code on the side, which answers the question of whether this uses Matter – it does not, at least not right now. It may get an update for Matter, but nothing has been officially announced so far.

The rear of the sensor has an indent to marry up with the ball joint, which is also the battery cover. The inside of the cover has a magnet that ensures it connects to the wall mount magnetically. This cover unscrews with a light touch, so getting inside the battery compartment is easy.

As it uses two coin batteries, the way these are installed is via a separate battery holder, that can then be removed separately. Once again, this is quite easy to remove, with a small turn anticlockwise. To one side is a small blue tab which is actually the reset/pairing button. This is a little harder to get to, especially if you have very short nails, or have the proverbial ‘sausage fingers’, but a small screwdriver is usually enough.

IN HOME | HOMEKIT

I did mention the name of the product at the start but it’s probably a good idea to reiterate that this is a motion and light sensor. In Apple Home, you get access to both sensors, and both can be used in automations of course.

In the Eve app, as long as you have at least one permanently powered Eve Thread device (Eve Energy for example), you can view some details of your Thread network. In my Thread network, you can see I’ve highlighted the two Qingping motion sensors I have set up, as well as the Thread details for one of those devices.

As these are basically HomeKit over Thread devices, they currently only work with HomeKit. If they do get an update to become Matter over Thread, as has been the case with a few Eve devices recently, then they’ll work with any Matter-capable platform, including Google, Amazon, and SmartThings. However, if you’re a strictly Apple Home user, in essence, this is more than good enough.

Also note these are labelled as ‘endpoint'(s), which means these can’t share or extend the Thread network, only receive the signal. This is due to them being battery-powered. If they were in a position to be ‘routers’ (i.e. helping spread the network and pass on info between devices and a Border Router) the batteries would last weeks at best. This is why only mains-powered devices are generally set up as Thread Routers.

THE QINGPING+ APP

I do like the Qingping+ app, probably more than most other proprietary apps, although I’ll be the first to admit I don’t use it that often. My workhorse is the Home app, and that’s that. Still, if you really want to keep track of motion and light data, this is the app for you. You also don’t have to create an account and still access pretty much everything. It’s so well laid out, I find it a joy to use, with quick look cards for both sensors, as well as 24-hour and 30-day readings for light.

Motion detection history is also very detailed, although possibly not as nice to look at, as it’s just a list. I should note that as Thread and Bluetooth are about the same when it comes to how much data can be transmitted, it can take a while to download the historical data to the app. You can also export the data as a .csv file that’s sent via email. there aren’t too many options for you to change, but one option is to change the countdown period, which offers as little as five seconds before resetting, to five minutes, with the first 60 seconds offered in five-second increments, and thereafter,  increments of one minute.

Whilst all motion sensors have a countdown or cooldown period, many sensors in this countdown will be ‘blind’ and won’t detect motion or the lack of it during that period. The Qingping (along with the Eve, Hue motion and a couple of others) allow the motion sensor to continuously detect motion or no motion during that time, which can be quite handy in many circumstances.

So, if for example, you have your Qingping set to 45 seconds between the moment it detects motion, and resetting to no motion, if you move in front of the motion sensor, that 45-second countdown will restart. Sensors that don’t have this ability will just begin the countdown until it’s complete, and then become active again.

SENSOR PERFORMANCE (MOTION AND LIGHT)

In my tests (which you can see in the video review) the motion sensor was pretty much on par with the Eve Motion. I did notice that the detection range was a little shorter than I’m used to, but then I always found that the original Aqara motion sensor always reached a little too far for my use cases, so this is no bad thing in my opinion. I have one situated in the corridor, and another near the doorway to the main bedroom and so far I’ve encountered no issues as such, which includes any instances of automations failing to trigger, or indeed a lost connection.

The light sensor did stump me a little, however. In the tests I performed, I compared it to the light sensor built into the Hue motion, Eve Motion, and a dedicated Mijia motion sensor that uses Zigbee. At low levels, all three were comparable in their readings, but in medium and bright light, the Qingping displayed much higher readings – pretty much double the readings from the other three, which for the most part were all within the same ballpark for all levels of light. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Qingping is giving false readings as such – it could actually be more accurate perhaps, but if three of the four sensors match up, then it’s probably more likely they’re providing accurate readings. This shouldn’t matter in one sense, as assuming you’d solely use this particular light sensor in a room without another light sensor, you simply adjust your automation to work at the levels the Qingping provides, so it’s a case of adjusting in essence.

COMPARISONS TO THE EVE MOTION

It seems fair to compare this to the only other device with much the same features, namely a device with Thread, and separate motion and light sensors. That would be the Eve Motion of course.

• The Eve is currently priced at US$49.95, which is double the price of the Qingping T, so that can have a lot of bearing on some peoples’ choices.
• They both use Thread, but only Eve can offer a Matter update, which makes it more enticing for users of platforms aside from Apple Home, and those that might run more than one platform.
• Size is a consideration, so if you’re looking for small and discreet, Qingping has that on its side.
• Both can be mounted, but Eve only offers hanging it from a screw or nail in a wall, whilst the Qingping can be stuck anywhere, whilst also offering adjustable angles.
• Eve offers an IPX3 rating, which isn’t totally outdoor/weatherproof, but does offer a measure of water resistance that Qingping doesn’t.
• Finally, Eve has options to adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection, which isn’t offered by Qingping.

As you can see, both have their positives and negatives.

IN DAY-TO-DAY USE

I’ve had two Qingping motion sensors running in my home for a while now, and initially, I did have two instances where one went offline. I never got to the bottom of the reason why. I did move the motion sensor around the apartment a fair bit, so losing connection to the Thread Border Router it may have initially been connected to could be the reason, but now they’re both in a regular location and thankfully this has not been an issue since, for either of them.

Personally, I prefer the design over the Eve motion, partly due to the size, and ease of mounting it at different angles. Having it Matter compatible is low on my list of priorities, even though I think this is ultimately the way things should be going, so in HomeKit it has performed well enough, with no hint of lag normally associated with Bluetooth-based sensors. I didn’t have the previous Bluetooth version of this sensor, as it wasn’t HomeKit compatible, so it’s hard to measure the change, but let’s be honest; Bluetooth has never been up to the job when it came to speedy response times, so I have no doubt it’s an improvement.

I like their app, even if I don’t use it too often, although it does come in handy with my Qingping Air Monitor Lite (video HERE, review HERE), as I like to keep tabs on both PM2.5 and CO², which using this app can be an eye opener, especially with the latter. Having not had these long enough to see how well battery life is, I can’t tell you if it’s good or bad, but I am a little surprised to see it use two of the larger CR2450 batteries, although I’m equally happy they didn’t go for the CR2430 which seems to be harder to buy in shops than the CR2450.

All in all, it has been fine for my use cases, and even though the Aqara FP2 has highlighted the shortcomings of PIR sensors like this one, they do still function well for basic tasks.

The post Qingping Motion and Light Sensor w/ Thread (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

The Qingping and Eve offerings both come with Motion detection and ambient light sensor capabilities, and although both also utilise Thread, only the Eve Motion now offers an update to Matter over Thread, allowing it to work with other platforms, like Google, Amazon, and SmartThings, which wasn’t possible with Eve products prior to Matter.

Qingping has been non-commital as to when or if a Matter update will be issued for their products, which also includes their Temperature and RH sensor T, which we did a video review of recently.

In its defence, the Qingping is a lot smaller and comes with a pretty decent magnetic mounting option, with the main sensor being magnetic all by itself, meaning it can be attached to most metallic surfaces, or even with the use of a provided double-sided sticker.

Both products include batteries, with the Eve Motion using two AA batteries, and the Qingping using two CR2450 batteries, with the latter claiming a two-year battery life.

The post Qingping’s Thread Motion Sensor Available in the US appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Another day and another Aqara device is released (in Mainland China), and on this occasion, it’s the Aqara Motion Sensor P1. This completes the company’s trio of sensors that were announced at last year’s Aqara annual showcase event, which includes the P1 Contact sensor, and the TVOC sensor.

The new model works with HomeKit, as expected, and whilst it may look quite similar to the original model, this version has a much larger ‘chin’ for want of a better description, the reason for which is that the P1 uses two CR2450 coin batteries, which in turn gives you five years between battery changes.

Additionally, the P1 has the ability to set custom timeouts between detections, with a setting as low as 3 seconds along with three different detection distances, which is handy if you’re getting too many false triggers in the distance, and want a shorter detection range.

Of course, the question on most peoples’ lips is when will it be available internationally? Whilst there’s no official word on if or when it’ll be released in other territories, chances are high that both the P1 contact sensor and motion sensor will be released in the near future.

What could complicate matters, however, is that Aqara has already announced their intention to release Thread versions of both the aforementioned P1 series sensors, so it remains to be seen if Aqara will be offering both Zigbee and Thread based options to the international market.

The P1 Motion Sensor is currently on sale in China for RMB309, which converts to roughly US$49 – a much higher price than the current model, although the P1 uses Zigbee 3.0.

Thanks to Eric and Arthur for the headsup

The post Aqara P1 Motion Sensor Launches in China appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Radio waves in this band have wavelengths from ten to one millimetre, so it is also called the millimetre band and radiation in this band is called millimetre waves, sometimes abbreviated MMW or mmWave.

The result of this is that the sensor is able to detect humans with far more accuracy than a standard PIR (Passive InfraRed) sensor, which relies on measuring infrared light radiating from objects in its field of view. This, according to Aqara’s blurb can truly solve whether there really is someone in the room or not, even when that person is pretty much motionless (i.e. sleeping). Through the use of 60GHz millimetre wave technology, along with a horizontal angle of 120º, and radial detection of real-time dynamics within a 5-metre radius, the homeowner is given a more much accurate picture in terms of occupancy.

With the upcoming release of a refreshed Aqara Home app interface, the FP1 will get different ways to utilize its presence detection capabilities; for example, you get standard presence detection in its simplest form, without specific preconditions, real-time tracking of people or pets in specific locations, motion detection based on direction (i.e. left, right), and even detection based on distance. As this is an Aqara device, it will use Zigbee 3.0 for connectivity, and as such will almost certainly only work with the company’s newer Zigbee 3.0 hubs, although even with the device now listed in the Aqara Home app (set to the China server), it isn’t supported within the app at this time.

You also get options for mapping a region or a room as well as adding objects to the map like TVs sofas and tables etc, if you are aware of specific motion you can’t alter, but don’t need to be informed of at certain times, as well as eliminating specific areas totally, and even different modes, as outlined previously.

The use of the FP1 would in theory ramp up the use-cases for motion detection in areas like bathrooms, where you want to turn off lights when not in use, but don’t want them to turn off if you’re lying motionless in a hot relaxing bath, or in a living room, where there’s potentially a lot more activity, but where lights do need to turn off when the room’s truly not in use, but not when you’re watching a movie with just a couple of mood lights in use.

Looking at the images above, you can see that the same stand design that’s used in the Aqara Camera Hub G2H is deployed here, so mounting on a wall or ceiling is possible, and as is the case with the G2H, there’s a power cable attached to the sensor, which due to the nature of its method of detection, requires power that wouldn’t be sufficient with batteries.

And just like the Aqara G2H, the stand can rotate to give you the best position possible, as well as offering both a magnetic plate to hold the FP in place, which can be screwed into place, or attached with the provided adhesive patch.

As with nearly all Aqara products to date, the FP1 will be HomeKit compatible, although according to the Aqara website, compatibility will not arrive until late January 2022. This doesn’t mean, however, that the sensor can’t be used in the Aqara app once it is supported there, where it will be able to function as intended regardless of HomeKit. The one question remaining is how differently will it work within the restrictions of HomeKit, if at all, as at present, the details on blind detection periods may no longer apply.

The price currently listed in Mainland China is RMB399, which roughly works out at US$63.00, UK£47.00, or €56.00, so not as cheap as their current sensor lineup, and there’s also no word on if or when this will be released internationally, but then this really is a “horse of a different colour” so to speak!

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Thanks in equal part to Mariusz, Stian, and Arthur for all tipping me off at the same time!

The post Aqara Prepare Launch of Next Gen Occupancy Sensor appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

image credits: Brother Lin Shi via Weibo

Before you get too excited however, Aqara has informed us that this product will be a b2b (Business to Business) product only, and is unlikely to be available for sale to the general public in China, let alone internationally. The OP described this as a body sensor which he claims is not only able to detect motion as standard, but can even detect people even when they’re sitting still, reading a book or having a bath, for example.

According to some FAQs that also surfaced a while ago, the sensor comes with the option for three levels of sensitivity, and due to its shape, can even be mounted into the ceiling, much like a downlight…only without the light part.

As with virtually all of Aqara’s products, it will support Zigbee (we assume Zigbee 3.0 at this point) and will be compatible with Apple HomeKit, although given that it’s a b2b product for Chinese companies only, it’s unlikely to be certified to work with Amazon Alexa or Hey Google.

The post New Aqara ‘Body Sensor’ Surfaces Online appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

For example, I set up an automation to have my bedroom lights turn on to my nighttime scene whenever the door was opened between 5:30 and 9:45 PM. It worked as expected but in the cases where I changed the setting of my lights and the door was opened again, it would reset them to the nighttime scene. I needed a way to fix this so I immediately thought of editing the automation to only run when the lights in my bedroom were off.

The Apple Home app doesn’t allow for these types of conditions so I needed an alternative. That’s where the Eve for HomeKit app comes in. Using the Eve app allows for more powerful triggers and conditions for HomeKit automations, and below’s video shows you exactly how I took advantage of the Eve App to create these condition-based automations.

The post Using Eve Home to Create Condition-Based Automations appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

This sensor combo can be great for a lot of smart home setups, but I think it’s particularly useful in a home server closet…here’s how…

The post The iHome 5 in 1 Smart Monitor – inside my home server closet! appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Starting with the box itself, given that this device has a display, you want a bit of protection, and this package has more than enough of that, coming in a nice thick cardboard carton. The box itself tells you everything you need to know right on the front of the box, which while a bit too much in some ways, guarantees that the person knows exactly what they’re getting. The device is on the front, and displayed at ‘actual size’ according to the small print. It displays the 5 different sensors that it contains, which we’ll get to soon, and it even has one of their recommended products listed on the bottom to be used as a companion piece for the sensor, the iSP6X Smart Plug. Most importantly, it display the ‘Works with Apple Homekit’ marque on the front. The big thing to note with most of iHome’s smart devices is that they work with possibly the widest range of smart home ecosystems – Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings, Wink, Nest and even IFTTT. All good so far. The rear is more of the same, with some extra specs and a few use cases on how to use this with automations.

On opening the device, everything you need is there right in front of you; The 5-in-1 sensor, the mini USB power cable, and the USB based, branded power supply. Everything is all packed in nice and safely, so no qualms at all with iHome’s commitment to protecting the device.

The device itself is quite light but not unnervingly so, coming in at 145g/5.1oz. It stands at around 107mm/4.2″ high and is designed to be stood up and placed somewhere you can see the screen, if that’s what you want. The front has a large motion sensor, as well as the display screen, and what appears to be either a sound or humidity sensor on the top. On the rear of the device you have the input for the micro USB cable as well as the HomeKit code and a couple or vents. This device connects to mains electricity via the provided cable and power supply, but there’s no internal battery, so if you unplug it, the device stops dead. There are also two physical buttons, one of which controls the brightness of the display, which can be set to high, medium, low and off, or automatic, which in tandem with the ambient light sensor, adjusts the brightness of the screen accordingly. The other button is simply for resetting the device. The device itself connects to your home network via wi-fi.

The display itself is nice enough, with the main upper part displaying the temperature, with a wi-fi symbol to confirm connection to your network. The lower 3rd of the display shows the humidity level, along with icons for motion and sound detection. There’s no symbol or information regarding the ambient light sensor. The display has a blue tint, and it’s clear from a reasonable distance and being LCD, it’s quite sharp too. As this is mains powered, you are limited to placing it where you have a power outlet, but in my experience, this is a device that just stays put, so I’ve had no problem with it being rooted to one location, and if I do want it somewhere else, it’s really not a big deal to unplug it.

As you can see in the screenshot above, four of the sensors have their own tiles; Ambient light, Humidity, Motion and Temperature, with the sound sensor the only one absent. Of these four sensors, only the motion sensor is available for automation, although the other sensors are available for automations and triggers in 3rd party apps and the iHome app.

In iHome’s own app, there are a series of settings for the device, although you do need to set up an iHome account that then allows the monitor to connect with their cloud service, which in turn allows for adjustments. As with any fully fledged HomeKit app, you can see all your other HomeKit devices via this app, although I do prefer to use the standard Home app for day-to-day control of things. out of the five sensors, three of them can have their sensitivity levels adjusted – motion, sound and ambient light, so for this reason, I tend to keep the iHome app to hand.

I’ve had this 5-in-1 sensor for a while now, and while all the sensors work well enough, at the time, I purchase this for just the motion sensor and unfortunately, it’s extremely slow to respond, to the point where I can be standing directly in its field of view, in daylight, waving my arms about and it only finally responds after maybe 4-5 seconds, which is staggeringly slow. Since then I’ve ended up with more motion sensors that I know what to do with, so I now don’t even have to rely on this particular sensor, and so it’s nice to have it as a quick reference display for temperature and humidity. I didn’t pay very much for the device thankfully, so I can live with this one shortcoming and use the other sensors as well.

If you want something that has data that can be read without having to pull you iPhone out, then this is a great product, especially if you can find it for around US$30 like I did, but if you want to rely on it as a motion sensor then I would save your money and buy a dedicated sensor.

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