Philips Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor - Works with Alexa

No complaints about this PIR sensor which introduces a whole new level of control to sensors. If it had issues in the past the one I bought is having no such issues. I have excellent control over 2 outside Hue lights with this.Standard PIR’s fitted to normal lights can be temperamental or simply a pain with sensitivity or figuring out how much light will trigger it. This takes the guesswork out of that.,You can choose on your phone what light you want it to go on in, or the sensitivity, which has been an issue in the past with those attached to lamps.This is pricey, no doubt but it is good and very controllable. Fitting is easy and the corner fitting shows a good degree of awareness from Phillips of the best place to site a sensor. Very easy to fit - one drill hole was all it took.

These sensors were very easy to install, requiring no wires - you just push a button on the back and connect them via the Hue app then fix them to the wall using a screw. The adjustments for light and motion sensitivity are also working just fine, unlike other reviewers posting here.One point to note is that you cannot use these sensors as an input using IFTTT to control other devices - this control needs to happen inside the Philips Hue application. What this means is that the sensors are only able to control Philips Hue devices (e.g. bulbs, or the Philips Hue plug), or Zigbee-enabled plugs from within the Hue app.I have got two of these set up - one at the front of my house controlling a lamp that contains a Hue bulb, and another at the rear that controls a set of fairly lights connected via an Innr Zigbee Smart Plug (until I get around to installing the proper Hue outside light I also purchased).

For this to sensor work with Alexa (and to work at all, you need both Hue devices), you need...1) Phillips bridge (it plugs into your router)2) A Hue compatible bulb (even if you don’t want it)3) An Alexa dot or similarUnfortunately, stupidly, you cannot just use the sensor on its own to have Alexa tell you when, for example, someone has walked up your garden path. You must have a Hue bulb set up too. Later you can unplug it I’ve found.It’s as fiddly as sowing a button on a shirt cuff whilst you are wearing it to get it all working. With wonky errors where Alexa says the sensor is not compatible and between the Alexa app and Phillips app they appear to be in competition to hide the set up from you. But with enough tapping and cursing once it’s been installed and you’ve had Alexa recognise all the devices by first setting it up in the Phillips Hue app, and given it all some time to settle, it does all work.My example:- I don’t use the bulb but stupidly you need it to set things up- Without the bulb the Hue app and Alexa apps don’t properly recognise the sensor, it’s pretty stupid and not intuitive at all.- When someone triggers my sensor, my Alexas in my house all tell me someone has triggered it.That’s what I wanted it for.- It’s an expensive way of finding out if someone is on your property but it works pretty well. And the Hue sensor itself is lovely quality. I expected it to be huge after reading the reviews, but it’s a nice compact size, about the size of a two packs of playing cards stuck together of and squared off - it’s small and chunky.Tips:- Set it up first in the Phillips app, once you can see its sensing movement go to Alexa and search for new devices - I seem to remember mine found three - the sensor, bridge and bulb.- When I tried to create a Routine in Alexas app, Alexa initially said the sensor was incompatible. But I think I restarted the app, again pressed the setup button on the sensor, and eventually Alexa allowed me to include it in a Routine.- If you want to still receive alerts in the daylight you need to increase the daylight sensitivity all the way up to the + symbol in the Phillips app.- Leave it in place before modifying any other settings, because I’ve found in some light conditions it sets off false positives so I am currently tweaking the overall movement detection gradually.- The Phillips app set up of the sensor is a total puzzle, ie: the set up of what it does when just don’t make any sense and there’s no explanation in the app. Best I’ve found so far is to set the timeouts both to 1 minute and set it to “do nothing” after triggering. It’s a pretty bad design. Of course I haven’t read the manual yet ;-)Good luck.

For the last twenty years, we have had an outdoor motion sensor that at dusk would activate one of two outside lights, on dim (25%), and when any motion was detected would activate both at 100% for 5 minutes, before returning to just one at 25%. The motion sensor started to play up, so I looked to buy a replacement that did the same. I couldn't find one. I came across this Smart motion sensor, and after some research, found that you could replicate exactly what my old motion sensor could do .... but with the added benefit of operating the lights by voice (Alexa) if you so wanted. Not that I needed or wantedto use it. I purchased a Hue starter kit (hub and two lights) for compatibility. Works extremely well.Come spring/summer, I'll be looking to upgrade another motion sensor on the patio with one of these. Follow the instructions and there are no problems in setting up.