Motion sensor update.
Two days ago my wife and I were sitting in the living room when Alexa blurted “Alert, movement in the garage”.
We both stared at one another for a few seconds before getting up to check the garage. I opened the door to find a bird flying out of the garage. Seems someone left a half eaten pack a crackers on the bench near the motion sensor.
At first I was disappointed, something as small as a bird would trigger the sensor but after further investigation I found it wasn’t the birds movement. Leaving the crackers in place, I grabbed a security camera. Time to catch this thief in action.
Turns out the bird’s motion didn’t trigger the sensor. It was the movement of the sensor that caused the trigger. In the pic below you can see the test setup is not secured. The sensor is suspended above the Esp using only the two boards and nothing is glued or zip tied.
The lesson learned, when the sensor moves it triggers. I verified this using a piece of string, tied around one of the dupont connectors and pulling just enough to cause a slight movement to the sensor. Looking back through some of the doc’s it was noted, movement of the sensor would cause a trigger.
For anyone planning to use this as part of a security system, I hope you find this helpful. Another tip, while looking back over doc’s, I seen where someone used a plastic SD card case as a sensor housing. A small cutout for the wires was the only modification needed.
Also, this is week 5 and still working good!