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Setting up the Aqara FP300 presence sensor for an open-plan room

An mmWave sensor also sees people sitting still on the sofa. How to set up the Aqara FP300 over Zigbee2MQTT and combine it with motion sensors.

Published
Reading time
3 min read
Level
Intermediate
Tested on HA
2026.10
Lees in het Nederlands

You are sitting quietly with a book and after four minutes the light goes out. That is not a bad setting, because an ordinary motion sensor genuinely cannot see you: a PIR responds to movement, and reading is not movement. A presence sensor with mmWave radar picks up your breathing and keeps reporting "occupied" as long as you are in the room. The Aqara FP300 pairs a PIR with 60 GHz radar and runs on two CR2450 coin cells, so you do not have to keep a socket free for it.

Pairing

The FP300 speaks both Zigbee and Thread, and for Zigbee2MQTT it has to be in Zigbee mode. Pair it and give it a proper name straight away, something like woonkamer/aanwezigheidssensor. You get, among other things:

  • a binary_sensor for presence;
  • a light sensor, handy for only switching lights on in the dark;
  • temperature and humidity;
  • settings for sensitivity, detection distance and detection mode (mmWave, PIR or both).

Placement

  • Mount it so it sees the seating, not the hallway or the door to another room.
  • Set the detection distance so it stops just short of the adjoining room.
  • Disable sensors you do not use, such as the light sensor in a toilet. Every sensor that reports costs battery.
  • Start on medium sensitivity. If it reports "occupied" in an empty room, lower it or check whether a fan or a plant is moving within range. Radar sees those too.

Open-plan: think in one room

A living room, dining area and kitchen in one open space are a single room to the people living there, no matter how you have divided it up in Home Assistant. So do not let the living room go dark while someone is at the dining table. Combine the sensors into one group:

binary_sensor:
  - platform: group
    name: Begane grond bezet
    device_class: occupancy
    entities:
      - binary_sensor.woonkamer_aanwezigheidssensor_presence
      - binary_sensor.eetkamer_aanwezigheidssensor_presence
      - binary_sensor.keuken_beweging_occupancy

Then use the per-room sensor to dim, and the group to only switch off once the whole space is empty. How to build that is covered in dimming instead of switching off.

Useful for your alarm too

A presence sensor makes a good final check before your house sets itself to "away". If someone is home without a phone, like a babysitter or a guest just out of the bathroom, the sensor is the only thing that knows.

Frequently asked questions

How long do the batteries last? Aqara quotes up to three years in Zigbee mode and up to two in Thread mode. The more often the sensor reports and the more sensors you leave enabled, the shorter that gets.

Can I use the FP300 over Thread or Matter instead? You can, but you give up settings. Over Zigbee2MQTT you can reach every option, such as detection mode and distance, and those are exactly the ones you need to get it right.

Does it see through glass or walls? mmWave radar partly penetrates thin materials, and that is more often a drawback than a feature: you start getting triggers from the room next door. So limit the detection distance.

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