Xiaomi Smart Body Sensor: Motion Detector Test

Today, we will introduce you to an accessory called Smart Body Sensor compatible with the Xiaomi Smart Home Gateway. Is it effective?

Prices and specifications

The accessory I'm going to test today comes directly from China. To use it, you must have at least the Xiaomi Smart Home gateway tested in our columns. This will allow you via the Mi Home application to define the behavior of the Smart Body Sensor. The big advantage of this motion sensor is, of course, its price. It is currently displayed at 8.56 € at the time of writing.

As always, the Chinese manufacturer pulls prices down while maintaining an excellent level of quality. By the way, my first surprise when opening the packaging (very basic) is the small size of the detector: 150 x 100 x 50 mm. I was expecting something bigger. As you can see below, it is the same size as a small figure.

Like the Smart Temperature, the Smart Body Sensor attaches to almost any surface thanks to an adhesive under the base. Choose its location because once fixed, it will not take off without the risk of breaking everything. With a detection angle of 170 °, the small device can be placed almost in any configuration. For my part, he ended up in the hallway to turn on the light when someone approaches the doorbell. The integrated infrared cell seems good quality, I failed to fault it during my tests.

Like any connected object, the Smart Body Sensor must bind to the gateway. This is the Zigbee protocol that is used. The range is not exceptional, especially if there are obstacles. Covering a large home can be difficult with a single gangway. The sensor can detect movements up to 7 meters away, so you can largely cover a large room. And of course, nothing prevents you from taking multiple copies for a single gateway. In short, for its price, the Smart Body Sensor is an excellent complement to the Xiaomi Gateway as we will see in the next paragraph.

In order to use the motion sensor, you will need to own the Xiaomi Smart Home Gateway and install the Mi Home application. Once done, the pairing is childishly simple: the Smart Body Sensor is detected automatically by the application. Just validate and let go. It's hard to make it simpler! However, if the sensor is not detected, simply reset it and start a manual search, which does not take much longer. When everything is ready, the new equipment is listed in the "Device" category of the Mi Home application.