Aqara FP300 Testing

Aqara Products
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So, the FP300 arrived yesterday and I’ve installed it via Matter in the main bedroom.

Obviously early days in testing but initial impressions and observations:

Pros:

  • Smaller unit than expected. (Approx 5 x 4 cms)
  • Battery as opposed to mains power so can be placed in areas with no socket. (Note: See first con below)

Cons:

  • Expected USB charging but it uses replaceable CR battery instead
  • No manual/instructions available which would have been helpful for pre-release to aid testing
  • Errors received when trying to install using Zigbee (not sure if this is only because I initially installed using Matter)
  • Unsure of field of detection. Up to now the FP2 had a wider field of detection I think.
  • Can take quite a few seconds to identify presence. I encountered delays of around 4-5 seconds before the app picked me up. This was on all sensitivity settings.
  • Installs as a motion sensor, not presence sensor.
  • App just shows text to identify “Absence” or “Presence”. No room map to identify zones or where people are within a room like with the FP2. (This may be because of being installed via Matter instead of Zigbee but as it won’t let me change to Zigbee I don’t know)

Obviously very early days so I will see how it performs over the next few days/weeks and feedback here.

It would be good if someone from Aqara could help us out with a manual and how to overcome the issue with the error (see image below) when trying to swap install from Matter to Zigbee.

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Interesting, I don’t have one yet to test but I will certainly keep track of this thread. There are other threads starting to pop up and there seems to be some Thread & Zigbee firmware issues. I’m guessing we will see software updates soon for the FP300 which will address lots of the stuff being talked about.

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I set up an automation for push notifications on presence/absence and noticed these seem to be more rapid in response than the main display in the app.

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FP300 is a single zone sensor. You won’t have a map like FP2.

Performance should be on par or better than FP2. Check your settings and enable Dual Presence mode if you have not already.

You can only change the protocol if you remove the device an re-pair it. Do this in the Aqara app and it will guide you to choose protcols. It will need to download the alternate firmware, so make sure your connection is good as the error message indicates.

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Thanks @coletti.robert

I didn’t realise it was a single zone sensor but that makes sense according to what I see in the app. However I don’t see an option for Dual Presence in the settings?

To update on my earlier post, Manual is available in the app, so that’s good.

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Can take quite a few seconds to identify presence. I encountered delays of around 4-5 seconds before the app picked me up. This was on all sensitivity settings.

The presence detection of FP300 is generally at the millisecond level. The specific trigger time can be referred to based on the speed of the automated trigger.

The home page of the device will automatically refresh once after entering the page. All subsequent status changes are passively refreshed based on the push service.

If you want to see the latest changes and the exact time points when there are changes or not, it is recommended to check on the log page or pull down to refresh.

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Hello, the user manual is on the edge of the box. Please take a look. There is a QR code inside to view the electronic instruction manual in multiple languages.

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An update on my testing and experiences with the FP300.

Yes, I found the instructions/manual, eventually, hiding in the app. They were of some use in helping me with setting up the device further.

Having initially set the unit up with Matter, I found the number of tweakable settings was rather limited so I have now reinstalled via Zigbee which gives the user a lot more control.

Field of view/detection, according to the manual, is 6 metres and 120° which is on par with the FP2.

After having been installed for a few days, and quite a lot of changes to sensitivity to try and tune it as best as possible for the environment and many AI Spatial Learning ‘lessons’ on the device (available via the app) I have seen an improvement in presence detection when simply walking in/out of the room. However, as I originally stated, this FP300 has been placed in my main bedroom and I have found it constantly drops presence detection when we are in bed sleeping.

Below is an excerpt from last night’s log and, as you can see, in the middle of the night, with two of us in bed, it recorded a lot more absence than presence. In the roughly 90 minutes recorded in the log excerpt below it only records approximately 26 minutes presence. Dual Presence detection is turned on which should give the best accuracy and High sensitivity.

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Hopefully this will be ironed out in a future firmware update but, as it is I can only currently use it as a motion sensor rather than its intended purpose as a presence sensor.

There’s a lot to like about the FP300, even more so hopefully once the kinks are ironed out.

*EDIT - One last thing, there are 3 settings in Zigbee mode, that require you to press the button on the device, therefore you cannot do this remotely. These settings are Changing the detection range, AI Spatial Learning and restarting the device. This is a pain so hopefully this will also be sorted in a future firmware update. The FP2 does not require physical access to the device to carry out these same tasks.

I also like the fact it has climate sensors which is great if you want to place the FP300 somewhere like a bathroom, which is now possible as it is battery powered.

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Did you happen to integrate the sensor into Apple Home, like I did?

For testing purposes, I disabled the humidity and temperature sensors in the Aqara app, but I still get the values ​​displayed in Apple Home.

Of course, I’ve already restarted the devices several times.

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Yes, I managed to get it into Apple Home and Home Assistant pretty easily.

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Please make a test an deactivate as i said and report me if the sensors are shown in Homekit. Thank U

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Yes they’re still showing in HomeKit but that’s behaviour I would expect to see anyway.

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Thank U. I though that when you deactivate them in the Aqara App to safe battery they would be dead and not sending a Signal in the background to an other Ökosystem, u know :man_shrugging:t2:

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