Do you use a PIR sensor? How do you hide it?

[htilburgs]

I made a 8 mm hole on the backside and a 2 mm hole on the frontside.
Removed the cap from the motion sensor and placed it in the 8 mm hole.
Works great and you can hardly see the 2 mm hole.

Backside:

Frontside:

[boblazer]

Nice pic, thanks for showing us how it actually looks.

It still bugs me though. Looking at yours I wonder if putting a power light (or something light) next to the PIR hole would make the PIR hole look like less of a forced design choice. You know, it could even be a chiche looking light that blends into the wood and lights up in such a way that it doesn’t make the mirror look tacky and also doesn’t give you the feeling that it’s like a monitor power light.

I don’t know what that would look like. Not super bright. Maybe kind of dull but not so dull that it looks weak. Maybe a good complimentary color to the wood. Maybe not a circle or a rectangle but a cool shape like a rhombus. Maybe you could put a logo or text of some sort on the face of the mirror and hide the hole there and it wouldn’t look out of place.

[htilburgs]

I still have to paint the frame, thinking of a kind of ‘white-wash’ so you keep seeing the wood grains. Maybe it’s less ‘obvious’.
But you know and I know, but most visitors I’ve had didn’t even see it or looking for it 🤔

[BluP]

@htilburgs

[BluP]

@BluP said in Do you use a PIR sensor? How do you hide it?:

@htilburgs

You May also think of some different solution: I‘m using a Hue Motion detector which is in my corridor anyway and controls the MM via MM-remotecontrol using the Http get requests through HomeKit and homebridge

[onkelbobby]

I did not use PIR sensor because it needs to “see” through the frame. After a little research I found an microwave based motion sensor called
RWCL-0516. This tiny PCB works super reliable even though ma 20mm thick wooden frame.

[htilburgs]

@onkelbobby, seems nice for my next mirror ;-)
How let you this interact with the Pi and MagicMirror? Is there a module, or do you use a Python script?

[MadScientist]

The microwave sensor is compatible with the MMM-PIR-sensor module.

[boblazer]

@onkelbobby It works through 20mm of wood for $3.59!? This seems too good to be true! I ordered one. Might be a week or two before I have a chance to test it out. …Actually shipping on that item is super slow (about a month). Still, I’m holding off on drilling the PIR hole until I can try it out the RWCL-0516.

Edit - Found it here for $1. Shipping times are still brutal though unless you pay about $30 for air mail. btw dimensions of the little fella are 35.9 X 17.3mm/1.41 X 0.68inch

[MadScientist]

I could use mine because it worked through the prick wall behind the mirror.

[cyberphox]

Hide it? Why it goes in it’s own enclosure of course? :)

[onkelbobby]

@htilburgs
mine is connected to an Arduino micro 3.3V version and this one is controlling a simple relais switching the monitor inside the mirror. But as @MadScientist already mentioned you can also hook it up to the Raspberry Pi since It works perfectly with MMM-PIR-Sensor.

[audreyspency]

Yeah, that’s my understanding. I can’t find the post but it was here on this site. A guy did some experiments to find the smallest size hole his PIR sensor actually required. He tried 1mm, 2mm and 4mm(?). He said it worked just fine with a 2mm hole.

[gismet181]

Hi, I’ve been busy with this problem for a long time until I found the solution. And it’s called RCWL-0516 Microwave Radar Sensor. Guys, forget PIR sensor, the RCWL-0516 you can completely obstruct in the frame behind the mirror. It works perfectly with paviro / MMM PIR sensor. You get 5 pieces for 8 € on Amazon. I hope I could help you. And forgive me my bad English. Regards