Lewis at Everything Smart Home has worked on this sensor design that combines mmwave, PIR, lux, temp & humidity that he plans to bring to market.
I just scanned through this and while exciting, Iām worried about. IN my experience, motion sensor placement is key to successful light automation. Rarely is that location at the switch. it might pick you up as walk in the room, but will it be pointed in the right direction to continue to track you as you move around?
In my kitchen, a switch-based sensor would turn non when we enter the room and if we site at the island, would continue to sense us, but if we were cooking or washing dishes it would not āseeā us.
In our living room where we use floor lamps, there isnāt even a place to install this (old house).
And to be fair, there are a couple use cases that would work for me.
I wonder if a marketing survey might be helpful.
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I donāt like to just motion controller lighting in every room. I only use it in the bathrooms, which are small enough to sense you pretty much anywhere in there. Itās useful for nighttime bathroom runs to activate dim lights automatically. Itās useful for inactivity trigger to turn off bathroom exhaust fans.
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He had me sold on it until he mentioned his target price. Itāll be almost $100 CAD and thatās before shipping it from the UK. Awesome sensor though and Iāll probably DIY a couple of them.
Youāre right, and I donāt think thereās any āperfectā solution that wonāt ever require a standalone motion sensor to fill in a potential gap. That said, as I sit here typing this and looking around my room, I can see 11 light switches. Itās just a matter of putting all sensors into a single motion group, and as long as 1 of them in the room picks me up then weāre good. I know not all of my rooms have 11 switches in them, but pretty much all of them have at least 2.
Now if someone only puts 1 of these in a room, thereās a much higher chance that their sitting location could make it difficult to be detected (as is my experience with the Aqara FP1). The solution is simple thoughā¦ just replace every switch in the house with a Project Linus switch 
Replacing 11 switches might cost a bit more than 100CAN 
Not heard the price yet but heās planning to offer a DIY version where you buy the board and piece it together yourself.
LOL I see where youāre going there 
This room is a hard one to cover with motion sensors. Right now Iāve got 5 PIR sensors and an FP1 and that really only covers 2/3 of the room. I could use at least 2 more PIR sensors in here. Since most switches in here are in dual gang boxes, Iād probably end up going with 6 Project Linus and 5 blueās (right now all 11 are redās). I think I would still need at least 2 PIR sensors in here unless the mmWave sensor can somehow pull off 7 or 8 meters distance at about a 170 degree angle LOL. I think thatās a little unrealistic to ask.
If that board-only is a decent price I may look at going that route. But I believe the board just has the temp/humidity and LUX built-in. Everything else is plug-in. An ESP32, a BME280 and a BH1750 costs a grand total of $11, so heād have to get that custom board down to around $15 to make it worth-while. Iāve actually got about 20 ESPās on the way with a bunch of different sensors to play with. May order a few mmWave sensors to try his DIY version.
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Are these available for pre order yet?
I wish. We should be receiving a couple different versions of mmWave in October. Weāre not really close on it being ready for pre-orders yet. Trying our best!
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Sounds good, is there somewhere we can get notified when pre orders are available?
Yeah certainly ā I plan on putting a link up when I open the page on the website up (prior to pre-orders). Iāl for sure comment here as well when the page goes live.
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Iām glad I just stumbled upon this thread. Once these are open for pre-order, Iāll have to grab a bunch of them. Iād much rather have a discreet motion sensor on my switches than an eyeball on the ceiling.
Agreed. The other thing is changing batteries. Sure they last a long time, but I donāt want to have to worry about it. People have brought up concerns that a light switch isnāt always the optimal place for a motion sensor, but there are countless places they ARE (bathrooms, hallways, laundry rooms, some garages, some bedrooms, etc.) I can think of at least 10 places I would want these immediately and only 3 rooms in my house where a standalone motion sensor might be better.
I used GE/Jasco switches in a few locations in my last house and they worked great for me, but the wife was NOT happy about the aesthetics of the switch. She wants toggles on all switches in the house to all look/feel similar (and I think she is right.)
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Since coming across this thread, every time I walk around my house Iām eyeballing my current switches to see if it would make sense to have a motion sensor there as well. Surprisingly, theyād work well in most rooms already.
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I understand that you guys have been extremely swamped with everything but was curious if there were any updates on the samples.
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Inovelli was just mentioned in a new Linus Tech Tips video!
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I hope Inovelli has been actively working with LTT to push this switch out ASAP
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Update here: We will be testing a version of the mmWave switch next week. The manufacturer had to do some tweaks to the design and amidst the issues with the Blue Series 2-1 and also their factory having to shut down a couple times for COVID, this kept getting pushed back.
Weāre excited to see what they came back with and to continue to push forward on this one ā super pumped about it!
Funny story, maybe a bit too personal, but here goesā¦ We just moved into a new headquarters and they have these ādumbā motion sensor lights installed. The bathroom situation is terrible and the first place Iām putting one of these lol.
I swear whoever set them up had a sick sense of humor ā I know I take a while in there (catching up on Reddit, TikTok, etc) but thereās nothing quite like the lights shutting off every time Iām on the throne and having to turn on my flashlight just to get out of the bathroom haha.
Exciting! He reached out to me a couple of weeks too ā so the pressure is definitely on!
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