SONOFF SNZB-03 ZigBee wireless motion sensor

SONOFF SNZB-03 ZigBee wireless motion sensor is the fourth step in our smart home project. It will provide great possibilities to automate different rooms…e.g. night lights management, entry reactions, etc.

What’s in the box, what do you need to know?

The SNZB-03 ZigBee wireless motion sensor is a tiny 3.5*3.9*2.8 cm plastic box with a hemispherical bump on one side. It will not be the device that distracts you from your home environment 🙂

The box itself comes with the SNZB-03 ZigBee wireless motion sensor, installation instructions and a 3M sticker to place it anywhere. Personally, I’ve mounted it on a door case that monitors the front door/ hallway and performs simple automation in case of movement.

It can detect movement at an angle of 110 degrees and at a distance of 6 metres. This should be enough for most applications. eWeLink app allows you to support a whole range of automations and to look back 3 months of history if needed.

What is Zigbee?

Zigbee is a communication solution specifically designed for low-power devices where high data bandwidth is not required, but where it is important to minimise the time delay. Zigbee is a good choice for battery-powered sensors, for example, where the uptime is several times that of WiFi. Zigbee devices are capable (under certain conditions) of mesh networking and can reach huge distances between two endpoints.

The Zigbee sensors cannot be used on their own, they need a Zigbee hub to connect them to your home/office network. One per system is sufficient, taking advantage of the above options.

What it can be used for, automation ideas

With the SNZB-03 ZigBee wireless motion sensor, we are able to create simple but unique conditional automations thanks to its unique functionality.

Many people don’t understand this part at first so I’ll describe how to interpret it in the attached picture.

1. Motion detected by SNZB-03 triggering the rule you set
2. As long as it detects any movement, it will not do anything, it will call it continuous motion detection
3. If there is no one around and it hasn’t detected anything for ONE minute, it will NOW say no movement!
4. Once the one minute “zero” state has elapsed, you are again able to trigger/activate the motion-sensing rules

But let’s look at an example. I’d like the hall light to come on automatically in the evening and then turn off when it’s no longer needed….I know, laziness, but that’s a luxury everyone can afford 😉

1. Click the Scene button in the eWeLink app and then click add
2. For IF / HA trigger, select SNZB-03 motion sensor from the smart device section and then Motion detected
3. You can also specify sunrise/sunset or sunrise/sunset timing, as it’s redundant in daylight – choose sunset of course…
4. And for the action, select Smart device / device and in the list look for the smart relay that controls the lights (e.g. the ZBMINI or similar relay that can be hidden behind a switch)
5. Here you have the option to select ON or switch it on.
6. Then create another line like this DE motion not detected should be the condition, or nothing detected and the action should be OFF.

With these simple rules, we have an on switch for motion detection at sunset and a switch off when we have been out of the room for 1 minute.

Installation

1. Launch your eWelink or Smart Life app where the Zigbee hub is already active and ready for battle (in my case I use Sonoff’s ZBBridge-P hub. You can read more about it here: HERE )
2. Find your hub, then within that find the add button and click here
3. Remove the back of the sensor, check that the battery is not protected, then remove it
4. There is a small slot at the bottom of the device for the RST (reset) button. Push it in with a pin and hold it there for a few seconds (you’ll feel the click, no need to poke the poor thing…).
5. After a few seconds, it will flash red on the front, indicating that it is in Pairing mode
6. They find each other in 5-15 seconds and your phone screen will display the relevant information

That’s it 🙂

Product data sheet

🆓 – I was interested in the product, I received it for testing from SONOFF
💵 – I got it for free, 100% my own opinion