This is the brand new Everything Presence Lite that has been developed by Lewis from Everything Smart Home. And it has an amazing option that makes it stand out from the crowd. Let’s dive into this!
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The manual on how to install and use the blueprint for the Everything Presence Lite can be found here: https://www.smarthomejunkie.net/everything-presence-lite-blueprints-manual/
Remember this presence detection device? This was the Everything Presence One that Lewis from Everything Smart Home Released a while back. I have used it since it came out. In my opinion, it’s one of the best presence sensors that you can buy. With a price tag of around €79, some people were complaining that it was too expensive for them. But, Lewis developed a new presence sensor: the Everything Presence Lite!
This presence sensor is smaller in size than the Everything Presence One and has fewer options, but it also has new functionalities that make this new sensor awesome. I’ll show you what these are and how to use them in a moment…
What’s in the box?
Lewis sent me the Everything Presence Lite together with a case and a white right-angle USB-C cable so that the cable will have minimal impact on how you can position the Everything Presence Lite. It’s just a matter of pushing the main board in the casing and pushing the mmwave sensor in the main board and you’re ready to go.
The Everything Presence Lite came with the HiLink LD2450 mmwave sensor, but you can select various mmwave sensors that fit the Everything Presence Lite Mainboard. The mmwave sensors currently supported are the DFRobot SEN0395, HiLink LD2410C, HiLink LD2450, HiLink 1115h, Seeed 24ghz Lite, and the Seeed 60ghz. There will be more sensors added to this list as soon as the Everything Presence Lite is released. The great thing about mmwave sensors is that they can even detect movement when you are sitting very still, so your light does not go out when, for example, you are sitting quietly on the couch reading a book or when you are sitting on the toilet.
Comparing the Everything Presence 1 with the Everything Presence Lite
Now let’s compare the Everything Presence Lite with the Everything Presence One. I will refer to the Everything Presence Lite as the EPL and for the Everything Presence One I will refer to it as EP1.
Size
Size matters! The EP1 is bigger in size than the EPL because of the fact that the EPL does not have a PIR Sensor on board. The EPL only has a mmwave sensor but is very responsive, so personally, I don’t miss the PIR sensor when it comes to speed.
RANGE
The range of the EP1 is larger than the range of the EPL. The maximum detection of the EP1 is 12 meters via the PIR, The maximum range of the mmWave sensor in the EP1 is 8 to 9 meters. The maximum range for the EPL is 5-6 meters via the mmWave sensor. If you need to detect motion in a large room, the EP1 would be the better choice, but in my case, the EPL more than meets my needs.
Sensitivity
You cannot set the sensitivity for the EPL, so it might be a challenge to filter small objects. I must say, my cat is quite big but was not detected by the EPL, so I think the EPL is pet-friendly. Let me know in the comments what your experiences are with motion sensors detecting your pets, and how you solved them.
Illuminance, Humidity & temperature
Both sensors can measure illuminance, but the EPL cannot measure humidity and temperature while the EP1 can.
Determining the target
The EP1 has more features overall, but lacks one key thing. That is determining where the target is in the room. And this is what makes the Everything Presence Lite unique. You can see the position of three different targets in the room. For each target, you can find the following parameters as entities:
- The angle at which the target is relative to the EPL.
- The distance from the target to the EPL.
- The target resolution…
- The speed at which the target moves through the room.
- The X position of the target relative to the EPL.
- The Y position of the target relative to the EPL.
This means that we can now define zones in our room and detect the presence in each zone. Lewis is currently still working on the final firmware for the EPL to make this possible, but I already created this Blueprint. With this Blueprint you can create an automation that can detect presence in four zones in your room.
How does the Blueprint work?
It works really simple. If one or more people enter a zone, a selected light or light group turns on. And if nobody is detected in the room anymore, the light turns off after a delay time that you can also enter in the blueprint. The only thing that you need to enter in the Blueprint for each zone is the X and Y values for the top left and bottom right positions of the zone and you’ll be fine. It works best if you define a light group Helper for each zone and refer to that light group in the Blueprint. Writing this Blueprint took quite some time and it can be downloaded for the price of a cup of coffee via the link in the description below. Using the Blueprint will save you a lot of time and frustration, and in the meantime, you help me to keep my channel alive. Furthermore, you get free lifetime updates for this blueprint.
Installing the Blueprint is easy. Just copy it to your /config/automation/smarthomejunkie folder and you can start creating automations without having to use any code.
Pricing of the Everything Presence Lite
The Everything Presenlite is cheaper than the Everything Presence One. While the Everything Presence One including housing costs about 89 euros, the Everything Presence Lite costs about 28 to 29 euros. The final price is not known yet, but Lewis told me this will be the target price. The sensor will become available in the upcoming weeks and you can order it through shop.everythingsmart.io. You can find the link in the description below.
My experience
I tested the Everything Presence Lite for over a week and I must say that it worked very well for me. This sensor is very sensitive and the fact that you can define zones makes it awesome. In my living room, I had one issue and that is that it kept detecting motion in the first zone. I suspect that the reflection of my lamp is the cause of this and reported it to Lewis already. I’m sure this will be fixed in one of the future firmware releases.
Furthermore, positioning the sensor at an angle so that it detects the whole room is key. If you stand at too small an angle to the sensor, the sensor will not detect you. I had to reposition the Everything Presence Lite a couple of times before I found the perfect spot in my room.
I really like this sensor because it supports zones and has a lower price compared to the Everything Presence One. This sensor will be released to the public in a couple of days. I’ll write a post about it as soon as it’s available, so make sure you subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss it.
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