Thanks for the comments so far. There are intelligent PIR sensors which don’t rely on location but instead use some kind of pattern detection (Presumably because the way a cat or dog moves is a lot different to the way a human moves). The only socket I have on the landing is near the floor so that’s the only location I can put it because
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As previously mentioned we can’t make any major changes to the structure of the building. In the UK and particularly with my letting agency you can’t do much more than put up pictures without permission. Sometimes you even need permission for that. To give you an idea it was in our letting agreement “You must not make an alteration to the location of your washing line without first contacting your landlord through the Letting agency”. I kid you not.
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My wife wouldn’t be happy with my locating it in too visible a locatoin anyhow. It’d have to look pretty.
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Also there’s a surface overlooking the stairs that my cat can easily jump on so the different height wouldn’t always stop a false positive.
I guess I may have to take a different tack with this and try to find a few PIRs that come closest to fitting what I want and then make inquiries on these forums as tp whether OpenHAB has any fully-fledged bindings for them.
So for example
Yale Locks HSA6021 Alarm Accessory - Pet Friendly PIR
Was one option I was looking at. Thing is the words “Can be added at time of installation” on Yale’s website makes me think it’s not an option for me…
That and the fact that it’s supposed to be part of an alarm system and I don’t want to set alarms. I want to trigger the landing light automatically. The plan being to have a LifX on the landing. Have OpenHAB set a low level lighting for the lightbulb at night-time and a brighter one when it’s the waking hours but when it’s still dark outside (which I’ll have to do by time of day and time of year because outside light sensors would also be problematic for a rental) then have the bulb only on when the PIR is triggered.
Things will be so much simpler when we have an actual home of our own but I don’t want to put my hobby and all the usefulness that goes with it until then.
:Looking around it looks like what i want isn’t out there yet. The closest I can get is a cheap plug=in nightligjht that has no network connectivity. So no way to get it to control any of the main lights or any fun automation. I could envisage multiple uses for a PIR tthat I could connect to OpenHAB.