BroadLink Smart Motion Sensor, PIR for Home Automation, Works with IFTTT and Alexa Routines. Wireless Trigger Smart Home Devices and Scenes, Occupancy Lighting, Notification, Requires S3 Hub

My application for this Broadlink Motion Sensor is a bit unique and fun: turn on cat water fountain when my kitty enters the area where the fountain is located, then turn the fountain off after kitty leaves, thereby significantly decreasing wear and tear on the pump in the water fountain. It actually works! I positioned the motion sensor at “cat height” pointed at the fountain from the opposite side of the room so that my kitty, who is approximately 12 lbs, will be detected. The cat water fountain is plugged into a Broadlink smart switch and the whole system can be controlled via Alexa. I have an additional Alexa routine which turns on the smart switch for 5 minutes every 4 hours to provide some recirculation and aeration of the water.Setup of the Broadlink S3 hub and the motion sensor is easy using the Broadlink app… just follow the instructions provided. You’ll need the hub for your first motion sensor, but you can add additional sensors off that hub. The hub is powered from a USB power supply which is not included, although a short USB-to-Micro USB cable comes with the kit. You can also power the hub off a USB port on any device you’ll leave on all the time, such as an Echo Flex. If for some reason the motion sensor becomes unpaired with the hub (for example, you deleted the motion sensor from the app setup) realize that the light on the sensor is also a button… press and hold it for a few seconds and the sensor will reset to pairing mode, and you can now reconnect to it in the Broadlink app.In Alexa, you’ll need the Broadlink skill loaded and linked with your Broadlink account for the motion sensor to be discoverable. The motion sensor shows up as two “devices:” the motion sensor trigger itself (with the default name “Somebody”) and a motion sensor tampering alert (with the default name “Tamper”). These names can be changed to whatever you’d like in the Broadlink app or in Alexa. I would suggest changing them in the Broadlink app so that what they're referred to in both apps will be consistent.I initially experienced a problem where the Alexa routines that I created to turn on and off the smart switch for the cat water fountain when the motion sensor triggered and untriggered would not work, even though I could see the status of the motion sensor change in the Alexa app on my iPad. To fix this problem, I logged out of the Broadlink app and logged back in again, then disabled the Broadlink skill in the Alexa app and re-enabled it, and my routines were up and running! I have no idea why this worked; perhaps it forced things to re-synchronize. Regardless, it’s a helpful trick which I wanted to pass along to other users. Within the Broadlink ecosystem, you can accomplish some automation tasks (such as my application) using the Broadlink app itself, e.g. a Broadlink motion sensor can turn on a Broadlink smart switch or a Broadlink smart light bulb. There’s also IFTTT integration support, but I have not yet tried this.I cannot comment on how long the battery in the motion sensor lasts, as my installation is new. Broadlink’s literature claims it should be good for approximately 1 year. Note that there is no direct way to power the motion sensor from a USB power supply.In summary, I’m very pleased with the Broadlink S3 hub and motion sensor kit. It functions as advertised, once you realize how to make it fully functional with Alexa, and it’s relatively straightforward to set up.

This sensor performed well for some time and then one day it just quit. I assumed it was the battery but that didn’t fix it. The bun no longer recognizes the device and there is no way to get it to reconnect! I have tried everything and now it’s just another piece of useless junk.

This motion sensor does its job that it can detect the presence of a nearby human. So I put it in my bathroom to detect it's occupancy. When my family member is there, in 15 seconds, it detects and triggers the routines by turning on a signal light. The trigger works very well within the Broadlink system if you own a Broadlink RM/ RM Pro which can emulate the remote controls of your appliances, which, even are not of Smart Devices. So it can trigger a lot of things if you have it. It triggers the routines of Alexa as well. I find it no problem to turn smart plugs on/off with Alexa. There major downside is that my motion sensor has a 2-min lag to detect nobody. So, when a person leaves a room, it takes about 2 minutes to respond. My bathroom signal light turns off after two minutes.

Usually worked fine but had occasional issues with not activating when motion detection and sometimes activated over and over when no motion was detected. Most of the time worked fine but I guess it depends on what uses you have in mind. Also uses a non standard battery which you'll need to order somewhere since no local stores sell them.

The sensors work with Alexa once you figure out the trick. I almost returned everything before that.Initially routines would not triggerAlexa routine will start to trigger after disabling and re-enabling the skill. Weird but does the trick.To setup buttons/motion sensor1. phone WiFi to your2.4hhz WiFi not 5G2. Turn cell radio off3. Start BroadLink app4. Add sensor with QR code5. Confirm6. Pick hub (8 devices max per hub)7. Reset sensor by long press of reset button on side until light flash before next stage8. Button is detected, assign room and button names9. Create routine in Alexa for each button, darting from each button10. For Alexa to actually execute a routine, deactivate and relink/reactivate the BroadLink skill ( otherwise routine is not run by Alexa, this is probably due to bug in the skill and some permissions are missing, just a guess)

I got the motion detector + hub and one plug (outlet). The hub set up according to the instructions very quickly. Setting up the plug and motion detector took me a while. I was and still am a little confused about the networking but it's working. My wi-fi router is 5ghz only and this system works only on 2.4ghz so I went through the setup many times before I stumbled on the proper sequence. I still don't know exactly what I did right/wrong. Somehow the hub is on my 5ghz wifi and the Broadlink equipment is connected via the hub to my phone via its own 2.4ghz. Whatever.Pretty impressive stuff for not much money. The low price allowed me to buy these things even though there's not one review or question. This review is the first for this specific product. Maybe there's more for other Broadlink products.

I bought a previous unit long time ago, which worked just fine but suddenly (I believe there was an update or something) It started giving false detections.I assumed the unit had reached its cycle so I bought this second unit, to turn on a light in the hallway, but same problem, this one was defective from the beginning so the light I planned to work with, was turning on over and over for every 2 minutes. Contacted the manufacturer and said it was probably the battery running low (what? the unit was new) so I bought a new battery (since I have already spent money) and the problem wasn't solved either.In short, I ended up with two not working units plus a battery so I don't recommend this anymore.