After we originally reported on the existence of the Meross presence sensor back in April of this year, the company has now announced preorders are available for this 3-in-1 device – the MS600 – via their online store.
The reason for the 3-in-1 description is in reference to the three distinct sensors contained within the MS600; a presence sensor, much like Aqara’s original Presence Sensor FP1, a light sensor, as you’d also find in the Aqara Presence Sensor FP2, and a standard PIR motion sensor.
The first of these uses the now popular use of millimetre wave technology, commonly referred to mmWave which in laypersons terms is much like radar, where it detects objects in its field of view, regardless of whether they’re moving or not, which is very different to a standard PIR sensor. The inclusion of a light sensor pits it against the admittedly more powerful and feature-rich Aqara FP2, which allows its detection area to be split into up to 30 separate zones, each of which is exposed to Apple Home as separate presence sensors. With the light sensor, you can set up additional conditions for when, for example, automations involving the motion or presence sensor are triggered;
If presence is detected in the living room…
but only when brightness in the room is below 50lm
Turn on the living room lights
Just to note, it’s not entirely clear if all three sensors are exposed to Apple Home via Matter.
Additionally, the MS600 has the ability to detect whether the presence of a person is approaching or moving away, which again is something both Aqara devices have the ability to do, albeit only within the Aqara ecosystem. Meross also claim that due to the complex algorithms within the devices hardware, it has ‘pet-proof triggering’ which we take to mean whilst the MS600 will detect a human presence, it will disregard the presence of pets. This is in fact achieved with the assistance an included ‘Pet-proof Shield’ that effectively blocks the sensor’s detection range below a certain height. Whether this will also affect small children is a possibility too of course.
One differentiating factor between the MS600 and the aforementioned Aqara FP2 is that whilst both use WiFi, only the former is a Matter over WiFi device. So whilst both can connect to the standard ecosystems that support Matter (Apple, Alexa, Google etc) only the MS600 can be added to Matter platforms directly, which mean local connectivity, although Apple Home has always been local of course, so this is of most benefit to Google and Alexa users.
Preorders are available now, with an estimated shipping date of August 20th 2024.
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