I thought I’d document my positive experience here because the Everything Smart app doesn’t have a forum page of its own.
I purchased one of the Everything Presence Lite devices here:
It comes fully assembled and professionally constructed. The supplied USB cable is a decent length and good quality.
This guy is behind the project and is a home automation enthusiast so he’s made sure the device works well:
He’s an unapologetic Home Assistant fan boy and all the documentation is specific to Home Assistant but I really wanted a mmWave sensor that could quickly turn the lights on in our kitchen when the ambient light is low - and not turn them off while someone is still present. I saw there was a Homey app, so I decided to go for it:
I’m pleased I did. The device is very responsive. Lights come on quickly even though they are Tuya (internet-based). That means the sensor is triggering very quickly indeed. It has a luminosity sensor that gives a precise indication of light level, so I’ve been able to arrange for the lights to come on only when we need them. Excellent WAF!
The app allows me to determine the distance covered by the sensor.
Installation was very easy, but a bit nerve-wracking because of all the Home Assistant references. But I followed the instructions as if I had HA (including updating the firmware), just ignored the bits referring to HA itself.
I installed the Everything Smart app and the sensor appeared immediately when I used ‘Add device’ in Homey. Job done.
Positioning the sensor was critical. The first place I tried caused the lights to come on as people were passing the door to the kitchen. The sensor was reading movement through the wall/door!
Just a couple of caveats,
The app doesn’t allow you to change the delay time before the ‘no motion’ event is fired. That’s not as critical as it is for a PIR device, because mmWave is really good at detecting presence even if you are standing still. It’s easy to extend the delay using a Homey flow, but I’ve not bothered.
The app doesn’t support zone detection - unsurprising because the UI would be difficult. I don’t need that feature.
I’m happy with my new device and it’s so much better than the PIR-based Switchbot sensor that it replaces.
I have had the same experience (almost… I purchased 5 sensors and 1 out of the 5 would not detect).
Otherwise, as the sensors now come pre-loaded with firmware all you need to do is set up the Wifi connection. No need to re-flash the sensor’s firmware.
I actually prefer the One sensor as the PIR sensor responds much faster than the mmWave sensor and the One sensor allows you to manually set the mmWave sensitivity, distance and on/off latency. But it is almost double the price .
I purchased two of the of these sensors and I am having an issue. Both with a Light and a One, in the Homey app (both on mobile and computer) once I start to scan for a new device to add to Homey it instantly says that there are none to be found. I have all of them on the same network (and SSID), both devices are set up and connected to wifi (following the HA setup)(can see devices connected to my network and ping). Anyone else running into this issue? Thanks!
I’ve started to notice some flaky behavior from these sensors while trying to configure advanced flows for them. The Everything Smart app keeps disappearing and reappearing from my HomeyPro setup leaving me with a ‘? Card unavailable’ message in the Advanced Flow screen.
When this happens the device card goes blank with a red triangle showing ‘Device Unavailable - App Unavailable’. After a minute or so it returns. I don’t think it is the devices themselves as that should not have a bearing on the EST Homey App.
I’ve had to manually reinstall the EST app once as it was gone and I could not add any devices to my Flows.
I’ve also been getting a few phantom triggers of the sensor. I had to modify some of my flows to only trigger at certain times of the day, if I am at Home, or if I’m not in bed so the light doesn’t wake me up.
I’m considering going back to my Hue Motion Sensors with delay as at least I know they are consistent, reliable and don’t trigger on their own. I would rather have the lights on longer than they need to be than have them turning on for no reason at random moments.
Are there any other Presence Sensors that are better supported by Homey? With the ability to modify sensitivity?
EDIT: Looking in the Homey Pro settings, the app is showing that it has crashed with a ‘CPU Warning Limit Reached’ message.
I’ve had enough. The app is crashing so much that 50% of the time the sensors are not triggering the flows to turn on my lights (not great in the middle of the night), and then when they are working they are turning on for no reason. So I’ve gone back to my Hue Motion Sensors.
In the end not a great experience. Hopefully there will be an update to the app that will resolve this issue and I can try them again in the future. Otherwise I’ll either sell them or buy a HA Green just to run my Presence sensor automations.
Confirmed I have the exact same issue with the Lite. Connected it to computer, successfully flashed firmware, successfully connected to wifi. I can see the device on my WiFi with its IP address so I know that it’s there. When I go through add device in Homey app, it instantly says no devices found. Re-installed and restarted the Everything Smart Homey app which made no difference. I suspect the discovery in the Homey app isn’t working properly.
I noticed in the issues in the GitHub repo there are many other users with the exact same issue and no response from the developer for months. Have added my notes to the existing issue there but I’m not holding my breath. Shame.
This developer is sadly just taking money for the hardware but not supporting users or ensuring the software works so this is a waste of money until that changes.
That’s unfair. The hardware developer has produced the device specifically for Home Assistant and makes no other claims. If you look at his videos, his prime motivation is to help people with their HA setups.
FWIW, and I appreciate it might not be much, my device continues to work well using the community-developed app.
Ok that’s a fair point I had not realised that the hardware and the Homey app are developed by two different people.
Based on my experience and the identical experience of several other users who have posted both above and in the Homey app developer’s GitHub to no avail, I do still think it’s important for other prospective Homey users to know that there is a high risk that like me and others you will just waste your money if you buy this device and try to use it with Homey.
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