I’ve had an Aqara FP1E movement/presense sensor for some time and for some reason, only checked movement sensing.Today I plugged the unit in and Home Assistant remembered it perfectly from my last tests ages ago.This time I went to my Zigbee2MQTT panel which I get to from Home Assistant, found the sensor and went to the column EXPOSES.
Here it is: All looks good – and the panel items accurately show movement when I move – as it should be.The only problem is the presence detection.I’ve set limits at around 3m as you’ll see in these images.
The device is showing Presense as TRUE – which you’d expect with me sitting in front of the sensor in my office, moving or not.So, off I went into the kitchen – at least 5m away, closing the door to my office – windows closed – no vibration outside – with no-one in – not even a cat, no insects at this time of year, nothing.While in the kitchen I made a cup of coffee including boiling the kettle and taking a few sips.
I had my phone with me so I could monitor live the EXPOSES column, which had changed (movement) back when I was in the office, depending on whether I moved or sat perfectly still – so no worries about chaching or updating.Movement was accurately showing no_movement.But… throughout all of this, the presence reading stayed at TRUE.
Not stunningly impressed.I wanted to use this device to turn off my office lights when I’m not there – I currently use a Switchbot sensor which detects movement – set to remain set for 15 minutes after I move.That works GREAT but it’s amazing how EASY it is to sit perfectly still for more than 15 minutes when engrossed in a YouTube video… I’m open to ideas, is this scenario with Zigbee2MQTT and the FP1E common knowledge – am I missing something? Any advise welcome and anything that solves my problem will end up back in here.
For anyone new to this device – it runs from USB so not a battery issue – and though not shown, the device temperature as available in the panel is 25c.Spacial learning is turned OFF.My office is part of a cavehome and so there is no-one next door who’s presence might have an effect.
This one has me beaten, for now….one last thing – on the menu is motion sensitivity.I’ve not touched that and options are low, medium and high – you’d think it would show one of these options as the current sensitivity state – but no.
I’m pinging this entry to Aqara in case anyone there has any ideas.
