Home Automation Domotica Forum Europe, Bwired Forum

Hi,

I'm just getting my feet wet with HA and it's quickly becoming clear that I'd like to do a lot with motion/occupancy detection (primarily to control lighting, heating, etc., security would be more of a bonus).

I currently just have an MS13 and I'm not convinced that this would be the right choice for reliably detecting occupancy; it appears to be rather slow (ofcourse partly due to RF->X10 conversion) and sometimes just plain blind - especially if you move around slowly and off-axis from the sensor.

Are the Visonic or different X10 sensors any better? How about pets? I have two cats. For these sensors, do I need the corresponding controller from the start to program them or can I start out with an RFXCOM receiver?

Thanks in advance,
Rick

The visonic with rfxcom would work faster, i think the visonic is also pet friendly (although some say you can just place your pir's upside down) Speaking of price, i think visonic would be cheaper too. But you can also get the u.s. version of ms13 which is cheaper depending if you have the correct receiver for that on your rfxcom. I have a ms13 aswell, although i think its big and stupid it does its job well (if you disregard the timings) but it also depends on the home automation you use. Using ms13 + lights should take less then 1 second in a correcty configured environment (i would think more or less) just my 2 cents here.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Thanks Erik,

About the delay, I don't think it's fully due to the software/configuration, I think it's mainly the MS13's internal delay that's bothering me, sometimes it just takes too long for my tastes before the MS13 sees you and flashes it's red LED, and transmits an X10 message.

But apart from that I'm mostly concerned about the range/sensitivity: From my current experiences, I think I'd need at least 2 per room, and more for spaces like the living room to reliably detect occupancy - which is a little different from detecting motion - I'm not only interested in turning a light on if someone crosses the room, I'm also interested in _not_ turning the light off if the room is occupied - even if the occupants are in "couch potato" mode

In regard to using US versions.. do you guys get hit with custom duties and stuff a lot when ordering these?

Thanks again,
Rick

I dont know alot about the duties, but i know pieter (from bwired) has done this trick. He could give you an answer.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Hi
Check out this topic about ordering Home automation stuff outside of Europe.
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?T ... erms=taxes

BTW: I have a lot of new American X10 motion sensors (MS10A, RMS18, MS16a, DS10a, MS14a, SS13a, HR12a, KR10a) for sale also an W800rf for receiving the signals on 310MHz (American standard).
Regards Pieter