Ok I bought an FP2

I broke down and did it. I bought an FP2. So far, it’s solved my presence issues in the master. Took me a bit to set up and get it into home assistant, but I’m able to set zones and configure in the aqara app and see the entities in HA. The rules were easy to set up in Node-RED with the HA nodes on board. I’ll write something up once I have a few days with it. Would I recommend buying it? In certain use cases, absolutely. It fit mine and the amount of money I’d spent on solutions to perfect things, it was worth every dime. More to come.

3 Likes

What would you say are the main use cases over normal PIR, or PIR mixed with contact or weight sensors?

Me too, but mine is still 800kms away… :frowning: Hopefully I will get to play with it by the end of the week.

From what I’ve read elsewhere the zones feature does sound nice and could replace the use of multiple PIR sensors in larger open-plan spaces. That along with the finer detection of movement when seated in places like a Living / Dining Room or Study, again, for some of the larger spaces this could replace multiple sensors. The fact that it is wired is also nice, though the battery life on my Hue PIR’s is insane, so the pay-off is long…

That said, I still expect there are times where the speed of detecting someone walking into a room using a PIR positioned facing across the doorway (for a typically open door) or a contact sensor detecting the opening of the door, are likely to still be preferable in most situations. So it’s likely a mix of each, using something like a FP2 where it makes the most sense and adds to what PIR / contact / weight sensors can do.

All speculation on my part at this stage…

I would be interested into Fp2 without HA, as a pure NR node. Does anyone ever experienced It ?

I have found in a couple of rooms, a radar sensor is great since I like to be stationary reading for long stretches and pir sensors were failing me.
I call my radar sensors occupancy sensors, and my pir sensors motion sensors to distinguish the usage model. The pir are usually a little faster at detecting me when I enter, where the radar sensors are better when I am stationary.

1 Like

I purchased it for the master bedroom. I base everything on mode and I like the mode to change naturally. I have pressure sensors under the mattress and motions in the corners, but nothing has been 100 reliable. Since out bed is a diy bed, it’s been difficult to find something that will cover every scenario. I have FP1’s in the kitchen/dining, bathroom, and my office and they work very well in small spaces without zones. Where people are generally stationary. It even reads if someone is in the shower behind the curtain. i can see spending $50 for that as it’s worth just knowing that there is presence. And not 100% reliable. I think an FP2 is perfect for an area where positioning will be stationary and will need a more complicated set up. The only place I have that is in the bedroom, but I could also see the need for it on a patio where there’s the grill and seating areas. Or kitchen/dining where you can detect that someone is in the kitchen but not the dining, so we’ll leave the dining off. even though it’s one big room.

My use case doesn’t fit most of those scenarios, but I do need that in the master. I have lights that turn on based on who is in bed and who is not. including the dog. Sweet thing.

The FP1 gets configured in the Aqara app, updated and zoned. Then you can bring it into the HA app where you can use the Home assistant nodes to integrate it with the rest of the house. I’m thankful that you can have them in both places in the end as it would be a huge pain to join, tweak, reset, join integrate.

I have 3 zones set up on the FP2, but it reads 4. Presence for the entire room. that can come in handy for some things, but I’ve stayed away from it.

As you see by the app, there are 4 occupancy sensors and lux. I have 3 zones set up. Jeff, April, Bedroom. There is an interference zone (the fan and curtains). Yes, it detects them. And I cut the door short becase it was leaving a ghost there. It wasn’t seeing me leave the room.

As you can see, there are two zones where the master is and I ran into the problem last night that it couldn’t see one of us in bed. We’ve been married for 18 years. We sleep like starfish, not like spoons. The result was mode changing back and forth from quiet to night and back again whenever someone moved. The mode never changed to home, but I would have preferred this to be a bit more calm out of the box. I still use an iris for motion becauase of the zones. Basically easier to tell the lights to react with it. Over all, I like it, but I’ll need a few more days tweaking to share what I’ve done to make it work for us.

2 Likes

Mine turned up today, pretty impressed I must say, both in terms of the product performance and a slick setup process:

  • Plug it in
  • Install the app on my phone
  • Detect / Add the sensor to the app
  • Allow the FP2 onto the network in my router setup and assign an IP address
  • Do some configuration in the app, such as zones
  • Open HA on Core and add the FP2 device that has already been detected
  • Any other configuration you may choose to include…

Two very minor inconveniences were:

  • I changed the IP address of the FP2 in my router after HA had detected it, so it came up with an error when trying to actually add (pair) it to HA. I eventually ignored the prompt in HA, but could not find a way to get it back. In the end I just needed to restart the FP2 for HA to prompt me again. I chose to unplug the USB cable and plug it back in again to initiate this.

  • I was very impressed overall with the Aqara App (I might need to steal take inspiration for some of my own projects). The text, however, when viewed on my phone was a little hard to read when there were instructions displayed.

I haven’t spent enough time with it to start using it in automations, but can imagine the more rapid transitions between states may also be a benefit, even when compared to my already rapid cool-down period for my Hue PIR motion sensors. Under my current setup (without the FP2) I can still have the odd occasion where manually switching the lights off with a smart switch / button and then re-entering a room shortly after can still result in no lights coming on.

I have a gun-barrel living, dining and kitchen area (think of a long rectangle), which I have tried to cater for by placing the FP2 on one of the long sides of the rectangle. I suspect I may need to fork out for a second sensor to cover the two areas more easily and consistently, but I still need to play some more before making the final call. I also wonder about the depth the sensor can adequately reach (I have about a 15 metre long area to cover). Plus the 120 degree angle coverage may still miss some parts in my space, or be obstructed by furniture, depending on exactly where I place it.

Still, plenty of fun to be had with a new toy :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hi Simon/April

What firmware did your unit arrive with and has it updated since to a current v 1.1.9 version?
People seem to report that later configuration tweaks cause more issues than the first out of the box setup experience … ghosts etc.

I have one here I’m about to try … it’s on 1.1.7

I can’t say what version mine came with, but I did choose to upgrade to 1.1 9. I did see ghosts during the zone setup but I am pretty sure that was before applying the firmware update. I can’t say I have used it enough to comment either way on whether the latest firmware is better or worse.

I upgraded mine out of the box, so i wouldn’t be able to compare. What I read was the opposite. I’m not experiencing ghosts, but I get a lot of floating causing issues. I’d advise to set up with current original firmware and see if you have issues.

I do have to say that my fan created a “ghost” but I included it in as an interference zone and it stopped doing that. This thing even sees my 65 lb dog! And it is having trouble differentiating the number of people in zones. It loses one of us in the smaller zones. I can’t figure out how to remedy this within the device. I’ll likely need to include other sensors into the mix

It would make sense if it has trouble with people walking in front of each other… Hopefully they can fix this and some of the other issues over time with software updates.

My disappointment was apparent this morning as I was in peaceful slumber with the entire bed to myself when the dog walked in and BANG! the lights turned on. What the? I’m still in effing bed! Never left. Not ok Aqara. Not ok. Time for some coffee and some solutions.

Close the door? :slightly_smiling_face:

That or a combination of pressure sensor and the fp2?

I get up several times in the night, so a door won’t work. I haven’t pulled the pressure sensors. I think Maybe I’ll integrate them into the flow. It’s disappointing that the device forgets that you’re in the room. I hope another firmware update will make it more reliable.

Yeah, I guess if it’s not going to work as you would like during the night and you need the pressure sensors still, it’s just an expensive pir sensor at that point.

Maybe positioning of the sensor higher up pointing down (if that’s not what you have done already) may help in detecting presence while you are asleep.

Currently, it’s on the opposite wall as the bed above the closet door in the center of the room. Today, I’ll move it to the same wall as the bed (although the room is only 15x15, so this shouldn’t be necessary.) I’ll see what results this renders for me. I was wise and secured it with painter’s tape until everything can be worked out. I’m no opposed to running a line to the attic and fixing it to the ceiling!

1 Like

I haven’t played with this myself, but I did notice some settings on each zone for things like the type of Attribute to report, what types of events to detect and a sensitivity setting. These may be worth a look.

I hadn’t considered that possibility. I had “assumed” that it was purely informational. I’ve made the changes. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I’ll check it out now. Maybe that’ll take care of the tracking loss and floating.

1 Like

I can only assume they are trying to emulate geofencing in a smaller area, but not sure what each of the settings are for at the moment, just a guess. One day I’ll read the manual :slight_smile: