I saw the announcement for FP3 and was curious about everyone’s experiences with FP2. What did you like? What needs improvement?
3 Likes
I too would love to know. I want to use a presence sensor to turn my lights on and off when I walk in a room. I’ve used a motion sensor but it doesn’t work well and I’ve heard a presence sensor is best.
1 Like
I have quite a few motion and presence sensors in my house from multiple manufacturers, including two Aqara FP2. I would buy more FP2s if the price comes down and/or there is a battery power option.
— The FP2 excels at partitioning the room into detection zones. The range is good but large rooms will need more than one FP2 for full coverage.
— The FP2 is very reliable at detection. With all the other presence sensors I need to use a combination of those and motion sensors with appropriate Home Assistant helper groups and automations to have reliable detection. The FP2 works fine on its own.
— Owing to the geometry of my staircase, I have it covered within the detection areas of two FP2s. This provides me with reliable zones for about every two steps.
— Placement of the FP2 in a room is a significant factor, especially when there are obstacles or unusually reflective surfaces. I have had the best luck mounting it about 4 feet off the ground scanning horizontally and a ceiling mount locking more or less straight down.
— Setting up detection zones is straight forward once you get the hang of it. I walked around and made note of which zones went on in different areas of the room. Then I used a Home Assistant floor plan card make sense of it all. The ability to define regions that combine detection zones if very useful.
— Depending on room layout, size and obstacles, a lot of tweaking of detection sensitivity is required.
— It can take weeks for the FP2 to to calibrate itself and for things to stabilize, so patience is a virtue.
Good luck!
1 Like