A:AnswerYou’ll need the hub. The hub detects when the sensor comes back in range to mark it “Present” and “Not Present” once it loses contact (sensor goes out of range). The sensor does not have any built in location reporting capability.
A:AnswerThis will work with that hub, but this sensor does not tell you when a door opens, it only trips when it is within a set distance from the hub indicating a person has returned home so you can use in a routine to turn on lights or turn up/down thermostat.
A:AnswerMine is set up to turn my lights and TV on as soon as I'm near my house, a motion sensor could also do that but only if you enter from a specific point. But the motion sensor can be anywhere inside for different things, where the arrival sensor can only trigger once when you first get near the house or leave. Basically they're both for 2 different purposes
A:AnswerThe better option would be the contact sensor by smartthings. I have that in my mailbox so when it opens I get a notification "You've got mail" I have this running through my Hubitat home automation. All the presence sensor is going to do is announce when someone leaves with it or come back home with it, but if it's staying at the house in your mailbox, how would it know that mail arrived if it's always "present"
A:AnswerI'm not sure how you would use it with Alexa. It can be used with SmartThings, which can be connected to Alexa... But, all of the events and modifications I use this device for have been through SmartThings.
I have SmartThings, Phillips Hue, Logitech Harmony, and Alexa... and use them to control lights, entertainment center, etc...
Alexa can be used to control each of those devices verbally, but the presence sensor is only used (in my setup) as a marker for SmartThings to run events (when "x" arrives or leaves)...
A:AnswerI don't think any piece of technology should be considered 100% reliable but having overlapping systems is a way to make up for that.
A easy solution for your driveway sensor would be to set up a wifi connected outdoor camera with motion sensing and smart phone alerts. Set the camera's field of view to only cover your driveway and have it send alerts to your phone whenever there is motion detected. The two camera's linked below should do the trick, though I don't know the specific differences between the two.
A:AnswerNo, this just gives you a notification on your phone or iPad, that someone (when setting up, you attach a name to the sensor so you know who is home) has arrived. You would need the Samsung Hub to make this work. Also, if you want a photo, you would have to purchase the Camera from Samsung (nice one).
