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

[boblazer]

I’ve read that a PIR sensor can work out of a 2mm hole. So if you just drill out a cavity for the sensor to sit in and then drill a 2mm hole out the front of the frame that would work.

Except there is that small problem (pun not intended) of the 2mm hole in the middle of your frame. I guess it would look a lot like the holes you see at the top of some laptop monitors. Then if you stain the wood with a dark color the hole might not be too noticeable.

But I’ve also heard people talking about putting a pinhole camera or (I think it was) a radar module “behind the glass”. How on earth do you do that? I mean, the monitor is behind the glass so unless you leave a sizable gap between the acrylic and the monitor there’s no way anything will fit back there.

Sadly, the pinhole option seems like the best to me. But do you know of any better way to do it?

[sdetweil]

@boblazer i haven’t done mine yet… but to put behind the glass you need additional space around the screen of course…

then mount on some wood/etc, with black cardboard or whatever and have the pinhole there, or whatever the sensor needs… nothing magic…

some sensors don’t work behind…

my PIR board looks like it needs a little over 1/4 in for the sensor hole, measured at 8mm,
maybe you only need 2mm of that to make the sensor work…

[boblazer]

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

maybe you only need 2mm of that to make the sensor work…

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.

[yawns]

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

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

maybe you only need 2mm of that to make the sensor work…

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.

You are referring to this one: https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/557/pir-sensor-behind-glass/33

[qu1que]

I’ve made an 8 mm hole, as you can see here:

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/7263/my-first-smart-mirror-in-a-frame-of-40-x-30-cm-with-raspberry-pi-zero-w/2

[boblazer]

@yawns Yes! Thanks.

[boblazer]

@qu1que Having other lights there like you do makes it fit in a little better. That’s something to think about. Maybe I’m trying to make mine look too old-fashioned.

[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.