Aqara Launches New HomeKit-Compatible Presence Sensor

Why do companies continue to do this crap. Matter and thread is supposed to improve the smart home, yet some devices still require a hub, and so many lack thread.

Why?

Needs the Aqara Hub.

Can Matter remove the need for a hub from each and every brand?

Siri has been sucking so bad lately I fear a light sensor in my laundry room will cause my garage door to open.

If you want to have a light come on in the laundry room when you go inside, for example, you need a HomeKit-compatible sensor.

So for applications like this, I find it's more effective to get a cheaper alternative like the Lutron Maestro Motion Sensor Switch ('https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WM3C42'). Specifically for a laundry room, and other rooms like closets, the garage, my workshop, and storage room in the basement, it's great because I don't need smart control over those rooms in the sense of being able to control them with my phone or voice. They are more contained and dark spaces that I just need a basic IR sensor that can detect when I enter the room. You don't always need an expensive connected setup!

I have them set for different deactivation intervals depending on the room. The laundry room and walk in closet are small so it will always pick up on motion, and it's great for when you're carrying a basket in and don't have the hand available to turn on the switch, so I have it set to 1 minute delay before it turns off after it stops detecting motion for those rooms. For my garage, it is larger and sometimes if I'm in the corner getting something off a shelf behind the car it might turn off so I set it to a 5 minute delay, which works great with the high powered LEDs that I installed that make my high ceiling garage really bright. Same 5 minute timer for the storage room, which have a lot of lights that turn on including an LED bar that I wired in over our deep freezer. Then for my workshop, I put a 15 minute timer, as my workshop is a bit sprawling so if I'm in the back around the corner looking for something in storage or looking through my wood stock, I don't want it to go off. It works very well since I'm usually in the main section working 99% of the time where the sensor can see me.

My main problem with them is that you can't set an exact light level at which they will activate, so it might not be the best for some rooms, but I heard that if you turn them off shortly after they auto turn on, it's supposed to pick up on that and be less sensitive after a while. But the biggest problem is I wish that there was a way to easily deactivate the motion sensing, or have the motion sensing only work on a set schedule. That's where something like this would be more useful. After my wife shut down her daycare business last year, I have been slowly working towards repurposing that space for a movie room downstairs and have been planning out everything. A smart sensor like this would be great because I could hook it into scenes to make it not activate while watching a movie. I could setup automations such that if the Apple TV downstairs is playing, it could activate movie mode and only turn on the ambient backlight behind the TV and disable the motion sensors so it won't turn on any of the other lighting.

So while this is useful, I don't see the point in using it for simple spaces like laundry rooms, but I do see the application in some shared living spaces or bedrooms where you want to keep the motion sensors from activating at night but still want smart control.

All my blinds and curtains are controlled by Aqara devices, never had a single issue with their products. All hooked up to homekit, homebridge and home assistant.

Now we just need a Homekit-enabled toilet-lid motor.