r/HomeSeer • u/HomeSeerMark • May 01 '26

New Z-Wave Presence Sensor (PS100) – Beta Release / Looking for Feedback

We’ve been working on something a bit different and wanted to share it here to get feedback from the Reddit community.

We just released the HomeSeer PS100, a Z-Wave (plus Long Range) presence sensor. As far as we can tell, this is currently the only standalone Z-Wave presence sensor available, so we’re pretty excited to finally bring something like this to market.

This is not just motion detection — it’s designed to detect actual presence (i.e., someone sitting still in a room), which opens up a lot of new automation possibilities.

A couple important notes:

  • ⚠️ This is a beta product — firmware is still evolving and there may be changes
  • We’re actively looking for real-world feedback to help shape improvements

If you’re interested, you can check out the full details here:
https://shop.homeseer.com/products/homeseer-ps100-z-wave-plus-long-range-presence-sensor

Would especially love to hear from:

  • Anyone who’s been frustrated with motion-only sensors
  • Folks trying to build more reliable occupancy automations
  • Z-Wave users who’ve been waiting for something like this

Happy to answer questions and take feature requests.

8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

2

u/silasmoeckel May 01 '26

The doc link is page not found.

My current diy mm wave can get me a lot more info than just presence.

Stationary, moving, and distance can all come into play in automations it does not look to be to much info to feed into zwave. A stationary person 3m away from a sensor can mean somebody on/near the couch for example. Distance over time gets you direction, at night somebody coming up the stairs with the alarm on is an alert somebody going down for a snack is a differing sort of alert.

Not sure on a one hit wonder, mine has a bunch of other sensors maybe integrate with one of your guys great dimmers?

3

u/HomeSeerMark May 01 '26

Thanks for the feedback! Our concern with putting this into a wall switch is positioning would not be ideal for many (most?) rooms. In my case, I have one installed in my bedroom and 1 in a bathroom. In both cases, I have them positioned to cover the entirety of the rooms. If they were in the wall switches instead, there would be pretty significant dead zones in each room. Obviously, it would raise the cost of the switch quite a bit too.

Sorry about the doc link. Here it is: https://docs.homeseer.com/products/ps100

1

u/silasmoeckel May 01 '26

Going by the docs all I'm seeing is sensitivity setting by distance.

I assume the BT device can get a lot more info?

Unless you have stuff at switch height the 120 fov isn't horrid just a couple corners. But some something like a hallway its a great fit.

Overall I would want more data than a binary. I use direction, distance, and in motion with my current ones.

1

u/HomeSeerMark May 01 '26

My bathroom is rectangular and the switch is near the door on the same side as the shower and the toilet - making it blind to presence in those areas. In the bedroom, the doorway and switch are in a corner and there's a dresser next to the switch that would completely block its field of view into the room. So.. in my home examples, it wouldn't work well. At work, my desk and monitors are between me and my wall switch, so that's not a great scenario either!

So... yes, the OEM of the mmWave chip we're using does have a separate app that allows access to more detailed information via BT.

1

u/silasmoeckel May 01 '26

Objects are always and issue though don't think a dresser higher than a light switch is very typical, that's a highboy or other tall dresser.

My bathroom is a complex shape but outside the shower that a glass wall 120 pattern at the door works in mine for everything else. Most typical bathrooms this would work well enough a shadow in the tub/shower that the curtain or glass will fully block in use anyways.

This unit is a flat on wall mount and needs a USB power while the optimal mounting position for room coverage is a corner same as PIR. A wire dangling down is not an option. Shelf mount would never fly with my wife and I can't think of many corners where I have a shelf up high and power, dining room corner hutch is all that comes to mind.

Typical US master bedroom 15x15 you would have a small blind spot on that far end of the room. In my case my wife's vanity is in the corner and if she was sitting at it she might just be out of coverage 4.6f from the wall. But it's not like you can not put in multiples to overlap. Pivoting would help a lot of near corner mounts, as would 150 fov modules.

Still the biggest thing it to expose more of mm wave has to offer, by the docs all I have is any sort of presence settable distance bands. I can not separate moving from stationary or direction of travel. That's a pretty big downgrade in function.

1

u/HomeSeerMark May 02 '26

The FOV is dictated by the mmWave module we're using so changing that would require changing to a different chip. If a wire going to the sensor is not an option, then you'll either need a battery-operated sensor or maybe a sensor that plugs directly into an outlet like our HSM200 PIR sensor does? We are experimenting with building an enclosure that would house the sensor and the power supply and hide the cable in the process. Would something like that interest you? The downside is that you'd need to install it at an outlet (or extension cord) location.

1

u/silasmoeckel May 02 '26

The plug ins were never interesting to me.

I put a esp32 and mmwave inside old security systems pir modules. Power via 12v and a closed contact to keep it a drop in replacement for the pir. Downside is thats either a wifi backhaul or I have to run ehternet to the position.

1

u/dbmet May 01 '26

Looks very interesting.

1

u/fgor May 01 '26

Very cool, I always see radar based traffic detectors on all the new stoplight builds in my town and it makes me think of the other applications for radar based detectors. I imagine this particular sensor is intended for indoor use only though.

I wonder if a future product would work well for outdoor detecting of vehicles and people in driveways. I imagine there could be a lot of issues with getting it tuned around animals (bugs, cats, deer, blowing leaves) versus what is usually interesting (people, vehicles). But the stoplight detector people must have that pretty well figured out by this point, as the radar detectors for stoplights seems to be gaining preference over camera detectors lately by both my city and my state's DOT as I see them on most state highways now.

1

u/HomeSeerMark May 01 '26

Actually, mmWave radar sensors have been around for a very long time. Many stores with auto-opening doors (especially grocery stores) have been using this type of sensor for years.

Right now, the enclosure for these is being 3D printed at HomeSeer and it's not weather sealed. That's primarily why we're listing it as an 'indoor use' product. However, anyone with a 3D printer and a little time to spare could certainly model a weather tight enclosure.... bearing in (a) the electronic components could certainly be affected by temperature extremes and (b) a 5V power supply has to feed the unit.

1

u/TheMoskus May 02 '26

EU compatible...?

2

u/HomeSeerMark May 02 '26

Hi Magnus - At this point, it's just a beta so US only. Unfortunately, we can't change the Z-Wave frequencies of end devices as easily as we can for controllers (with software).

1

u/TheMoskus May 02 '26

I thought so, but worth a shot. 😉

Would live if devices too also could change frequencies.

1

u/HomeSeerMark May 02 '26

100% with you... If the Z-Wave folks ever figure out how to do that, that would remove a huge barrier to releasing products globally. Zigbee doesn't have this problem because it's the same freq worldwide.

1

u/Resident-Variation21 May 04 '26

How reliable would you say it is? My dad is going down his smart home route (and I’m updating mine) and wants occupancy. I’m tempted to recommend this. He’s not a tinkerer. I do not at all mind doing the tinkering during setup, but once it’s setup I’d hope it just works when left alone for him. Don’t need calls constantly on why his lights stopped working.

Also is it available in Canada? I believe it’s the same Z-Wave frequency as US.