/neo-coolcam-pir-esp-now

This is work in progress, but should work. At the moment do not expect too much support from me with it. Maybe in the future....

Primary LanguageC++

Neo Coolcam PIR

This is Work In Progress firmware of Neo Coolcam PIR (WiFi version) that uses ESP-NOW messages instead of WiFi to send events.

ESP-NOW messages can be received with petslane/esp-now-gateway that publishes received events in MQTT.

Flash

This project uses PlatformIO. Change build_flags in platformio.ini before uploading.

First upload must be done using serial programmer, but next uploads can be done using OTA over WiFi if PIR is set to AP/STA mode with button next to battery. After OTA upload, PIR restarts in normal mode - ESP-NOW mode.

Battery life

This firmware was created to:

  • remove need for PIR sensor to know anything about WiFi network or MQTT server
  • have better battery life by keeping ESP8266 run time shorter using ESP-NOW communication instead of connecting to WiFi network and MQTT server to send messages
  • have full control of device and not relay on external services

Original manual stated that battery lasts for “2500 times trigger”, this probably means 1 trigger time is 1 event for movement detected and another event about minute later for movement stop. So total of 5000 events/ESP8266 wakeups.

Using this firmware and placing PIR somewhere with lot of movement (in average 284 events or 142 new movement detections per day) I managed to get total of 24428 events within 3 months until battery died. It's about 5 times more events/movements that original firmware promised. Original firmware would have probably lasted less than a month in similar environment with constant movements.