Insteon 2842-222 Wireless Motion Sensor

That these units, when they work, function fairly well. Some examples:1. Master Bedroom ClosetWe have 1 mounted above the door, on the bottom of a shelf, facing down about 2-3 feet into the closet entry. Once we walk into the closet, it registers and activates the light switch to turn on - then off upon a few moments after our departure. This particular location has worked about 90% +/- of the time, requiring resyncing with the light switch 2 or 3 times in the one year since installation.2. Laundry RoomWe have another, mounted about 5ft off the floor, on the wall, looking horizontal across the rooms door entrance. Upon entering the laundry room, it suppose to activate and turn on the light. While inside, doing laundry, moving around, etc...expectations are that it remains on/active, until it detects that we've exited. In the same year, just a few feet away from the switch, this unit (and we've tried one other), dont seem to work correctly, every single time...possibly about 70-80% of the time, it functions as expected.3. Maintenance Room4. Garage DoorAnd several other locations throughout our residence...we have about 12 of these installed.2 have needed to be returned, failing right out of the box upon arrival. 2-3 others have needed to be returned, after failing to sync/connect up with other devices, for whatever reason.For our deployments, the short distances, and its purpose for development, sale and installation - we'd expect better.We're discouraged from buying more....Had they worked better, we'd own another 15-20 units, especially for our space reserved for guests/in-laws, as the technology is ideal for such a space affording lighting control as necessary to save money (they forget to turn lights off, specially daytime).other things worth mentioning...1. the alkaline batteries last about 8-12 months, for as little use as they get (few times a week, if that), they draw quite a lot of power killing batteries too fast in our opinion.2. upon power outages, we've found that most units require "resynching" with their respective light switches, possibly due to the light switches since they are hard wired, and the sensor is not...nonetheless, going around every few months re-establishing connectivity with these motion sensor units post power failures is becoming problematic. So much so, that thoughts of reverting to old school ways in these areas is cropping up more and more - which is unfortunate!

Using two in a Insteon network (small @ 30+ devices) for about 2 months, I find setup was easy and reliable once setup. The range of detection is about as good if not better than the hawkeye's from x10, however transmit range seems to be better than the x10 depending on location of your receivers such as a dualband or coupler devices. Seting up a Insteon network does rely on good communications between devices and will improve as more dualband devices or couplers are installed, which seems to solve most issues. I like the sensor and the reporting to the PLM. I use HS2 software/W2K server OS with a PLM 2413U and Mark S. plugin. So far no issues. Shipping from Amazon as always very goood, the only complaint would be the cost per unit, don't think they should cost over 20 USD. Otherwise happy with my purhcase.Edit: May 13, 2013, now nearly a year of useing these motion sensors and still working well, I noticed the model change from the 2420M to 2842-222, but they apear to be the same product. I will know soon as I'm looking at buying 3 more at least for further coverage and replaceing my old hawkeyes (still running a mix bag of Insteon and X10), have also installed 2 more keypadlinks along with a couple of standard switchlinks and a few open close sensors to my system.

I now have 4 of these. I love them.I have a mixed X10 and Insteon system in my home. These come with a mounting 'swiveling stand off' that I feel helps with the Radio Signal by giving some space between the unit and the mounting surface, especially if mounting on a metal surface. The internal antenna is not up against your metal siding as the old X10 units were.There is a variety of jumpers that set various things and all can be externally programmed by a computer EXCEPT the sensitivity setting. Default is high and you can lower it 33% if it triggers too much. One of mine is set to actually trigger at body movement 'across the street' while another is above the door and looking down to turn on light. At night it turns on a light if there is movement around my car. As with all products go to Smarthome website (or just search) and download the PDF file that has a full set of instructions. You get a single 'quick start' sheet in the box but I like all the details. Remember to save those PDFs somewhere you can find later 'on your computer'.I use the HouseLinc (now free) program to set what it links to but once that's done you don't need the computer unless you really want to do some fancy programming with complex settings. The battery operated PIRs are RF and not power line operated. They send all their signals to and from the PIR over the air and not the power line so they need to be in range of an access point. It is true that the more Insteon devices (the power line devices) you have the better because they retransmit the signals. I can't encourage people enough to use one of the free computer programs to program and monitor your units, it makes life so much easier than going to each device and you don't have to dismount the device.They are easy to paint to make them stand out or hide them. I put a strip of electrical tape around the seams and stick in a small bag of 'silica gel' in a open apace under the battery, but that's just me doing over kill again.I am so very pleased with all the Insteon products. I can't wait to see how the handle the Winter.

This motion sensor is good if you always want to control your lights through motion, it makes the $60 worth switch useless.I know people will start talking about programming these thing, but when I spend $40 on a motion sensor + $60 on switch + $150 on the hub, I expect all the basic functionality to be there out of the box instead of using software or additional expensive hardware which costs over $400.Flaws I found:1. Night mode - If enabled, will turn on/off the lights during night time whenever a motion is detected. You will also lose motion alerts during day time and you will have to end up installing two motion sensors, one for motion alerts and second for controlling the lights.2. You manually turned on the switch/lights and later motion sensor detects a motion. It will then signal the switch to turn on and off after 30 seconds (whatever time you have set) to turn off. In short it will turn off the switch/lights, which it shouldn't since the switch was manually turned on.Yes, you can set the motion sensor to not send off signal to the switch but in that case every time motion sensor detect a motion it will turn on the switch/lights and you will have to manually turn them off.These two features show have been inbuilt into the motion sensor, switch and the hub, but they are not which is kind of disappointing.

Good product

Happy with the item