ONE WAY TRIP TO THE JUNGLE. $17, TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY INCLUDED
LinknLink eMotion Air • Home Assistant • Bluetooth/BTHome • Zigbee
Quick Take: The LinknLink eMotion Air is a roughly $17 battery-powered presence sensor with temperature, humidity, light sensing, a physical button, and your choice of Bluetooth or Zigbee. It is not the fastest presence sensor in the shed, but that turned out not to be the interesting part. The button is the hidden gem. In my garage it became a tiny control panel for lights and music, while the rest of the sensor keeps doing useful sensor stuff in the background. It even earned the garage an entrance song.
The LinknLink eMotion Air looked like another inexpensive presence sensor when I opened the box. It runs on three AAA batteries, which I wish had been included, and combines presence, illuminance, temperature, humidity, and a physical button on the front.
Then there is one other interesting trick. You can run it over Bluetooth or Zigbee.
Not both at the same time, but you get to choose. I like choices.
Maybe you already have great Zigbee coverage. Maybe you do not use Zigbee at all. Maybe Bluetooth is everywhere in your house. Maybe Bluetooth is terrible where you want to put it.
Or maybe you do what I did and discover that one works better after you actually install the thing.
For around $17, I like having that option.
First, I Tested the Sensor Part
I started with Bluetooth/BTHome in my office. Home Assistant discovered the eMotion Air almost immediately and gave me motion, illuminance, temperature, humidity, battery information, and the button.
The sensor worked.
Presence detection was generally a little slower than the fastest sensor already in my office, sometimes by a second or three. It was not disastrous, but I noticed it when moving quickly through an open doorway.
Once I was in the room, presence was solid. I did not see any obvious Bluetooth connectivity problems during several days of testing.
Temperature and humidity also looked pretty good once I had a few days of history to compare. I later moved the eMotion Air outside to my covered patio, where its temperature generally stayed within roughly a degree of another sensor and humidity tracked closely too, even with daytime temperatures around 100°F.
The illuminance reading was more questionable as an absolute measurement. Its readings were much lower than those from another light sensor in my office. LinknLink told me the light sensor sits inside the casing and takes in light through the small opening in the upper-right corner, which may help explain the lower absolute readings. Settings inside their app allow adjusting levels for bright, normal, and dim.
So the thing still knows when it is dark. For home automation, that can be enough.
I do not need a laboratory light meter to decide whether the garage light should come on. I need a sensor capable of saying, more or less, “Dude, it is dark in here.”
The eMotion Air can do that.
At that point I thought I understood the product. It was an inexpensive collection of useful sensors with decent Bluetooth performance and another protocol available if I wanted it.
Fine.
Then I moved it to the garage.
The Button Is the Gem
A button on the front of a presence sensor sounds like one more item for the feature list.
In the right room, it changes the product.
The eMotion Air gives me single, double, triple, and long button presses in Home Assistant. That means the little sensor on the wall can also be a switch, remote or trigger.
The trick is putting it somewhere you can reach it.
Presence sensors usually get mounted for the best view of a room. Buttons get mounted for humans. Those two locations are rarely the same.
The garage turned out to be close enough.
I mounted the eMotion Air around shoulder height above the light switch. It still catches me reliably when I enter, and the button is right there when I want it.
This is when the little thing started to tickle me.
My garage was already smart, technically.
Home Assistant knew whether the garage door was open. The light was controllable. There was already a speaker out there.
I could see things. I could automate things.
But the garage itself did not feel particularly alive. I was at the mercy of the automations.
The eMotion Air gave me a way to tie those pieces together and gave me some control back. I like choices.
The entry door contact sensor helps identify an arrival. The eMotion Air handles ongoing presence and tells Home Assistant whether it is dark. The speaker handles music. The button gives me physical control when I am standing there.
Now when I enter a dark garage, the light comes on.
When the garage becomes occupied, music can start or resume.
If the garage door has just opened and then the eMotion Air sees me, Home Assistant knows this is a fresh arrival.
That gets one special treatment. It's a big deal. A grand entrance that makes me feel like a rockstar every single time. Taking the stage to start whatever project I have tucked away in the garage.
Welcome to the Jungle.
I wanna, I wanna hear you scream.
It only gets the entrance song once. I am not trying to restart Guns N' Roses every time I move my arm.
After that, the button takes over.
A single press handles play and pause. A double press skips the track. A triple press rotates through different music choices. A long press groups or ungroups the garage speaker with the rest of the house, and the lights do a little dance because they can.
This fixed something I did not really realize needed fixing.
If I walk into the garage and whatever is already playing is a jam, the garage joins the jam.
If it is not what I want, no problem. The button is right there.
No phone. No dashboard. No “OK Google” while trying to control a Home Assistant media player.
Suddenly the garage feels way more fun.
Bluetooth Won the Garage
I did not stay on Bluetooth the entire time.
After the office test, I switched the eMotion Air to Zigbee and used it for several days on the patio. Zigbee worked very well there. Signal quality became strong and the device was generally stable.
Then I moved it into the garage.
The garage is farther from my Zigbee coordinator, and there are no nearby Zigbee routers helping it out. Signal quality fell substantially. Button presses became less reliable, and eventually the Zigbee connection dropped.
That helped make the decision for me.
I switched the eMotion Air back to BTHome and changed the garage automation to use the Bluetooth motion, light, and button entities.
Problem solved.
That is not an argument that Bluetooth is better than Zigbee.
It is an argument for having a choice.
My patio liked Zigbee. My garage seems to like Bluetooth.
Your house gets a vote too.
I like choices.
The LinknLink app was a struggle at first. Home Assistant found the sensor easily, but adjusting sensitivity and timeout requires connecting directly through the app over Bluetooth.
Once configured, though, I have very little reason to live in the app. Home Assistant is where this device becomes interesting.
Where It Ended Up
The eMotion Air is not the fastest presence sensor I have tested, and I would not use its lux reading as a precision light meter.
But neither of those things is what made it stay on the garage wall.
For about $17, I have presence, light level, temperature, humidity, Bluetooth or Zigbee, and a button that gives me actual control over what happens when I take center stage.
Groupies not included.
That combination is the hidden gem.
I thought I was adding another sensor to the garage.
Instead, I made the garage more fun. Turns out all it needed was a little stage presence.
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