Like I’m sure a lot of people here, I love presence sensors. They’re one of my must have products in a smart home. So naturally, I was very excited when the FP400 was announced and got my hands on one as soon as I possibly could.
Safe to say, I was not disappointed!
For my setup, I replaced an old FP1 that had been running my bedroom automations for a long time and definitely needed an upgrade.
Setup
If you’re familiar with the FP2, you’ll be aware of the physical setup for this device. Find where you want to put it on the wall, place the sticker or the magnetic plate, and then just press the sensor onto it.
Then you just need to add it to the app (or chosen smart home platform) either by Zigbee or Thread.
Simple!
Once it’s set up, you’ll have options to run the AI on the room. This then learns your space and helps to lower false positives - or in my case alert you when the dog has decided to steal the bed!
Automations
For myself, I’ve used the FP400 to turn on lights when I need them, and not when I don’t.
Here’s a quick rundown of how it works.
- Turn the lights on only when the FP400’s illumination sensor shows that the room is dark.
- If a person enters the room and it’s before 10:30pm, turn on the main light. If they’ve been sat in bed for more than 3 minutes, switch to the bedside lamp.
- If the house is in Night Mode (set in Home Assistant) and someone leaves the bedroom and goes to the bathroom, don’t turn on lights other than the under-bed strip light.
If you have any other suggestions for automations, I’d love to hear your ideas! Can never have too many in the house.
Overall Thoughts
Having used a lot of Aqara’s presence sensors (FP1, FP2, FP300) I can safely say that the FP400 is the most accurate of the bunch in my experience. I’ve found there being less false positives, better tracking of the dog, illumination only setting off automations when it’s dark in the room. Everything you could really need a presence sensor for!
Is it worth the upgrade? I think it depends on the space. If you’re only using it for a hallway, or a w/c, probably not since they only really need a motion sensor or something like the FP1E. But if it’s a room where you need to know where in the room you are, how many people are in there, and somewhere the pets will go on occasion, definitely!
If you’ve tried the FP400, what do you think of it? What have you done with automations so far?