Hi! These are the Ultimate Sensor and Ultimate Sensor Mini. Two new sensors developed by Dwain, who you might know from Dwain’s dashboard. I’ve had the chance to test them over the past few days and in this video, I’ll show you what these sensors can do and give you my opinion on them. Are they really Ultimate? Let’s find out!

Purchase the sensors here: https://www.smarthomeshop.io

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These are the two new sensors sent to me by Dwain from Smarthomeshop.io. This is the Ultimate Sensor and this is the Ultimate Sensor Mini. Well, when you name your sensors the Ultimate Sensor, my expectations are high. So, I was very curious to see what they can measure.

Unboxing

Let’s first take a look at what’s inside the eco-friendly box. In the box of the Ultimate Sensor, there is a thank-you card and a quick start guide that looks very professional. Additionally, of course, the sensor itself is included. On the outside, you see a PIR sensor and a display that can show several sensor values. This allows you to use the sensor partially standalone without needing Home Assistant. On the back, there is a USB-C connection and an Ethernet port so you can power the sensor via USB or Power over Ethernet. There is also a holder to mount the sensor on the wall, and Smart Home Shop has included a European adapter. This is always nice because I’ve had experiences where no adapters were included. Furthermore, there is a 3-meter long USB-C cable so you can easily place the sensor in different locations. But, you don’t need to use the USB cable if you connect the Ultimate Sensor via PoE. For completeness, there are also some screws in the box to attach the wall-mount to the sensor.

In the box of the Ultimate Sensor Mini, there is also a thank-you card and the quick start guide, which is very similar to the quick start guide of its big brother. The Ultimate Sensor Mini is about two-thirds the height of the Ultimate Sensor and does not contain a PIR sensor or a display. On the back, there is only a USB connection, so the mini cannot be connected via PoE. The mini also comes with a holder to mount it on the wall. And, like its big brother, it comes with a power adapter, a 3-meter long USB-C cable, and a bag of screws.

The casing of both sensors looks sturdy. I don’t find the design particularly sexy, but that doesn’t matter much to me.

Installing the ultimate sensors

Installing these two sensors is really simple. When you power the sensor, it generates a WiFi hotspot. You can then connect to that hotspot with your phone or PC and enter your WiFi SSID and password. This connects the sensor to your WiFi network. For the Ultimate Sensor, there is a firmware upgrade available that allows you to connect the sensor via PoE. However, keep in mind that the WiFi connection will no longer work after this upgrade. So, you have to choose either WiFi or PoE. As I mentioned earlier, the Ultimate Sensor Mini cannot be connected via PoE.

Connecting to Home Assistant

Once you have connected the sensor to your WiFi network, it will immediately be recognized in Home Assistant. Then, it’s just a matter of going to Settings->Devices & Services and clicking on Configure, and your sensor will be added to Home Assistant.

What are the differences between the Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini?

Let’s take a look at what the Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini can do and how they differ.

Motion Detection

Both sensors can detect motion and presence. The Ultimate Sensor has both a PIR sensor and an MMWave sensor, while the Mini only has an MMWave sensor. In my experience, a PIR sensor responds slightly faster than an MMWave sensor, but in practice, the difference is only about a second.

Zones

For both sensors, you can set up 4 zones within which you can detect people. By default, three zones are activated, but you can also activate a fourth zone. For each zone, you can input X and Y coordinates and specify how long it takes to report that no one is in the zone anymore. Additionally, there is a general delay setting to specify how long it takes to report that no one is present in any of the zones. This allows you to create automations that respond to where someone is exactly in your room. Using the custom Plotly graph card, you can show on your dashboard where people are located in your room. I’ll show my complete dashboard later in the video.

I placed the Ultimate Sensor in my living room for a while to see if it would detect my cat, but in my case, the sensor did not detect my cat. That’s positive news!

Color LEDs

The Ultimate Sensor only has a back RGB LED, which is visible in the dark and somewhat visible during the day. The Mini has both a back and a front RGB LED that are visible during the day and night. You can control these via Home Assistant to, for example, turn red if your CO2 levels are too high.

Voice Control

The Mini includes a speaker and a microphone, allowing you to use it as a smart speaker for your Smart Home. To do this, you need to configure the voice assistant in Home Assistant. In this video, I explain how to do that. With the Mini, you can also control your devices via voice commands.

Since the Mini has a speaker, you can also use it as a media player to act as an alarm siren or to play your favorite radio station. The sound is somewhat reminiscent of an old radio, but it is much louder than, for example, an Atom Echo or S3 Box. Note that only the Mini has this functionality. The larger Ultimate Sensor does not support voice commands!

The Sensors

The Ultimate Sensor and Ultimate Sensor Mini are packed with sensors that measure various values. First, there is a light sensor that measures the light intensity in your room, handy for creating automations that should only work when it’s dark in the room.

Second, there is a NOx index sensor that shows changes in nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide concentrations. These are substances emitted by combustion engines like cars, trucks, ships, airplanes, and industries.

Third, several particulate matter sensors measure the values of small particles in the air. The sensors can measure particles smaller than 0.5 microns to 4 microns. The particulate matter sensor cleans itself periodically and has an expected lifetime of over 10 years. In heavily polluted countries, people can lose more than ten years of their life expectancy due to air pollution, so these values should be as low as possible! The sensor also shows the average particle diameter of the particles in the air, giving you an idea of the air pollution.

Fourth, there is of course a CO2 sensor. High CO2 levels can cause headaches and signal that it’s time to open a window. By creating a smart automation in Home Assistant, you can make the LED on the Ultimate Sensor or Ultimate Sensor Mini blink, letting you know to open a window. On the Ultimate Sensor Mini, you can even play a message or alarm to ensure you are timely warned.

VOC Index

Fifth, the Ultimate sensors can also measure Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). These are emitted by printers, detergents, cleansers, aerosol sprays, paint & varnish, burning food, and so on. The Ultimate Sensor and Ultimate Sensor Mini show an index value of VOCs. If you observe spikes throughout the day and can identify the source, you can try to reduce these chemicals.

Temperature & Humidity

And of course, these sensors can also measure temperature and humidity.

Dashboard

You can create a dashboard like this in Home Assistant to view the results from the Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini. Dwain is currently working on developing a custom card in HACS that will allow you to view all the values at a glance. You can download the code for this dashboard via the link found in the description of this video.

The disadvantages

And now, the disadvantages…

What I notice is that the values from the Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini differ. They are not major differences, but they are differences nonetheless. This seems odd to me because both sensors come from the same supplier, and you would expect them to show the same values. I’m not sure why this is, but I suspect it might be due to differences in the casing and placement of components. I only have one of each sensor, so I couldn’t check if the same values would be displayed if I placed two identical Ultimate Sensors side by side.

A few weeks ago, I made a video about the AirGradient One, which measures the same values as the Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini. The AirGradient One shows different values than the Ultimate Sensors. These values also differ slightly, but it’s noticeable that each sensor shows its own results and they do not perfectly match. If you have any ideas on why this might be, please let me know in the comments.

Additionally, I had some difficulty getting the voice functionality on the Ultimate Sensor Mini to work smoothly. I had extensive contact with Dwain about this. It turns out that the latest update of Home Assistant and ESPHome has harmed the voice functionality of the Ultimate Sensor Mini. Dwain has sent me some updates in the meantime, which allowed me to use the Ultimate Sensor Mini reasonably well as a voice assistant, and I expect this will only improve in the coming days. Furthermore, Dwain is working on developing a local voice assistant function for the Ultimate Sensor Mini that should work much faster than the integration with Home Assistant.

Where to buy?

The Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini are available for purchase on the SmartHomeShop.io website. The Ultimate Sensor, including the wall mount, costs €142.50, while the Ultimate Sensor Mini, including the wall mount, costs €127. You can also choose to buy the sensors without the particulate matter sensor and wall mount, which makes them a bit cheaper. See the links in the video description for where to purchase these sensors.

My conclusion

And now, it’s time for my conclusion. The Ultimate Sensor and the Ultimate Sensor Mini are a combination of the well-known Everything Presence sensors and the AirGradient One. I find it very exciting and brave to see that Dwain, whom we know from Dwain’s Dashboard, is now focusing on creating smart hardware solutions for smart homes. Both sensors are a great addition to my smart home. The fact that you can measure both air quality and detect presence simultaneously is unique to me. I haven’t seen that in another product before. In that regard, Dwain can truly call these sensors Ultimate.

Since the Ultimate Sensor Mini includes a microphone and speaker, it works well as a smart speaker, but also as a complete alarm solution.

The slight differences in values between the sensors are, in my opinion, not a major issue. The discrepancies are not very significant, and for my purposes, it’s sufficient to indicate air quality. If you need highly accurate measurements, you would likely need to look for a professional solution, which will probably be much more expensive. I appreciate seeing people like Dwain developing products out of enthusiasm and showing that not only large companies can contribute to our smart homes. Dwain told me that he is also working hard on future software updates that can be updated/installed with just one click, adding all kinds of new features.
And, last but not least, these sensors are fully local, so your data is not stored in the cloud. This is also a big plus.

Thank you for watching! If my video has helped you in any way, you can support the channel by becoming a sponsor, just like these people have. Thanks to you, I can continue to make tutorials and reviews. Thank you. You’ll find links to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and how to become a paid member of my channel in the video description. Don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already.

I’ll see you soon in my next video.

Bye Bye!