Hi everyone,
I’ve been testing two Aqara FP300 sensors with Home Assistant, one in a bedroom and another in the living room.
Unfortunately, I’m having significant problems with presence detection. Both sensors can detect me when I pass directly in front of them, especially at very close range, but detection becomes unreliable when I’m farther away or enter the room outside their main detection area.
Once presence has been detected, they can sometimes maintain it while I remain relatively still, but the initial detection is the main problem. I’ve tested different positions and even swapped the two sensors between rooms to rule out a faulty unit.
I’m very interested in the new FP400 because I’d like reliable room-presence detection for Home Assistant automations, particularly for lighting and air conditioning.
Has anyone testing the FP400 been able to compare its mmWave presence detection with the FP300? In particular, I’d be interested in:
• detection when entering from an angle rather than directly in front of the sensor
• detection at several metres distance
• maintaining presence when someone is sitting or lying completely still
• reliability and response time with Home Assistant
Thanks!
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Anyone who has been testing FP400 would be under NDA. You’ll likely need to wait for the Forum Early Access to get started before anyone would start sharing specific testing scenarios.
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Thanks, that makes sense. I hadn’t considered the NDA. I’ll keep an eye on the Forum Early Access then, as I’m particularly interested in seeing whether the FP400 improves the initial detection issues I’m experiencing with the FP300
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Mine is genuinely perfect most of the time, with us sitting on the sofa (still) for a long time in the evenings and the lamp stays on (i.e. presence is continuously detected) and turns on and off immediately upon entering and exiting the room.
Perhaps you should keep trying with positioning and trying different settings!
I also use it in Zigbee mode with HA
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Interested as well what this will give as I’m looking for presence sensors.
Quick question: have you tried adjusting tue sensitivity of the fp300’s? Ad they are mmwave, they might detect things through walls or have interference front the second device.
Does the setup work well with one device?
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Thanks so much for the photo! Your room and sensor placement are actually surprisingly similar to mine, which makes your experience even more interesting.
I also tested two different FP300 units and swapped them between rooms, with very similar results. Once presence was detected they could sometimes maintain it quite well, but initial detection was unreliable unless I was very close to the sensor or crossed directly in front of it.
Since yours is working so well, could you tell me which sensitivity and detection settings you’re using? I’d really like to try your configuration before giving up on the FP300.
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Thanks! Yes, I tried different sensitivity settings, including high sensitivity.
I also tested the sensors individually and swapped the two FP300s between rooms to rule out both a faulty unit and possible interference between them. Interestingly, both sensors worked much better in the bedroom, while both struggled in the living room.
The main issue in the living room was initial detection: once presence was acquired, they could sometimes maintain it quite well, but they often wouldn’t detect me entering or moving around unless I passed very close to, and directly in front of, the sensor.
That’s why I’m now wondering whether positioning or some specific setting is the key. Another user here has a very similar room and says theirs works perfectly, so I’m going to compare their settings with mine before giving up on the FP300.
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I’m using it with Zigbee MQTT in Home Assistant.
One other thing I would also try is clicking the spacial learning on it (having left the room first) and possibly also reducing some of those detection areas, which you can do in Z2M or whatever you use.
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That list covers the right symptoms. One comparison that could make FP300-versus-FP400 results easier to interpret is to keep placement constant and record initial-detection latency separately from stationary-presence dropouts at several distances and entry angles.
I’d also test zone-boundary accuracy and whether the same attributes appear consistently through M3, M100, M200, Matter, and Home Assistant. That should help distinguish improvements in sensing from differences caused by placement or the integration path.
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