Z-Wave motion sensors are not exactly cheap, are they? While the sensors from Fibaro and Aeotec are great products which are very reliable, the costs do add up when you need more than a few of them. That’s where the Neo Coolcam Z-Wave Motion Sensor comes in.
Neo Coolcam has recently started competing aggressively with the established players and their main selling point is the super-attractive price. But have corners been cut? Are they reliable? Is the battery life any good? Let’s find out in this hands-on review.
What gear do you need to use this motion sensor?
This motion sensor is based on Z-Wave technology and intended to work with a Z-Wave based smart home hub.
So you need a Z-Wave hub/controller such as a Vera Plus or HomeSeer HomeTroller Sel that acts as the smart hub to use this sensor. This is the right way of building a smart home that you can upgrade and enhance as you wish, instead of getting stuck with things that work only with the manufacturer’s other devices or an internet-reliant smart speaker like Alexa.
Unboxing
Just like the Neo Coolcam Door/Window sensor we reviewed recently, the Neo Coolcam Motion Sensor also comes in a smart package with a modern design. The Z-Wave Plus logo is once again prominently featured at the top left.
The back of the box lists the main specifications of the motion sensor.
Opening the box, we find the following:
- Motion sensor with 1xCR2-3V battery pre-installed
- Motion sensor holder
- User manual
- Screws and rawl plugs
- 3M stickers
Neo Coolcam Motion Sensor Manual
The included user manual is high-quality and unusually for Chinese products, has good quality English. Here’s a link in case you want to check it out before buying.
Specifications
| Device Type | Motion sensor & Light level measurement |
| Sensors | Open/Closed (Binary) and Light Intensity (lux) |
| Color | White |
| Dimensions | 45 x 45 x 48 mm |
| Weight | 15.8 grams |
| Battery Type | 1 * CR123A |
| Battery life | 1 year |
| Standby current | 16µA |
| Detection range | 7 metres |
| Detection angle | 110 degrees |
| Wireless range | 50m outdoor, 30m indoor |
| Operation temperature | 0-40° C |
| Storage temperature | 0-60° C |
| Firmware Updatable | Updatable by Manufacturer |
Design & Features
The Neo Coolcam Motion sensor reminds me of the Fibaro motion sensor we reviewed recently. The design is very similar with a spherical main body and a holder that cradles the sensor smugly. It’s a very good design and one that lets you orient the sensor in any direction you want.
Grip the bottom half of the sensor and turn it to open the sensor. A CR123A battery is pre-installed and pulling the plastic tab activates the sensor.
The battery provided is an unbranded one, but has a good energy capacity of 1500mAh.
The black ‘code’ button is also found here. This button has a few different functions: waking up the sensor so that you can configure it, putting the sensor in inclusion/exclusion mode and for restoring factory defaults.
Installation
As with the Neo Coolcam Door Sensor, I found the whole Z-Wave inclusion or pairing process easy and pretty straight-forward.
Its always best to perform a factory default on a new Z-Wave device before including it in your Z-Wave network. I have found that this one step usually solves any problem I am having with including a new Z-Wave device.
So these are the steps I took to set up the sensor with my HomeSeer Z-Wave hub:
- I removed the back cover of the sensor’s main body.
- I pulled the paper tab to turn on the device as the battery comes pre-installed.
- I put HomeSeer into inclusion mode.
- I pressed the code button on the Coolcam sensor thrice very quickly (it needs three presses within 1.5 seconds).
- The red LED flashed 5 times.
- After a few seconds, HomeSeer reported that the sensor had been successfully included and the child devices had been created.
Performance
There are 4 main criteria that define how good a motion sensor is:
- Sensitivity of motion detection
- Response time
- Reliability
- Z-Wave wireless range
- Battery life
I tested the Coolcam motion sensor extensively for over 3 months and these are my findings.
Sensitivity of motion detection: Very good
Response time: Excellent
Reliability: Excellent
Z-Wave wireless range: Very good
Battery life: Excellent so far, testing underway
Verdict
The Neo Coolcam Z-Wave Plus Motion sensor is a budget-friendly sensor that is actually reliable. Once again, we were impressed by the performance and reliability of the Coolcam family of Z-Wave products.
Nice review indeed. And I do agree with your conclusions. I’m most happy with the link to the manual. I purchased this device and it came with a twenty times fold manual to the size of a big stamp and text in a 6 points font. But there is one tiny thing I do mis in your review: the possibilities of the light sensor. For me that’s really important because I was intended to use this sensor to turn on the light(s)at sunset and off at sunrise. At this time I didn’t manage it to make that feature work. (Vera Edge). Anyone suggestions?
(Sorry for my bad English: I’m Dutch)
I am currently using the light sensor to trigger lights using HomeSeer HS4. I am in the process of migrating to Home Assistant, so I will probably write a tutorial on how to achieve this with this sensor. If the Vera Edge is able to detect the lux sensor you should be able to create an automation using that sensor as the trigger.
Thanks for the review!
How is the device working for you since then?
Are you happy with it?
What about the battery life?
Thanks!
Yes I am very happy with it, hasn’t skipped a beat. As good as my Fibaro and Aeotec motion sensors.