A job in a 1970s condo building made me rethink wireless sensor placement

Had a motion detector fail because the owner put a new metal bookcase right in front of it, blocking the signal completely. Do you guys always hardwire when you can, or trust that clients won't rearrange furniture?

3 comments

3 Comments

flores.tessa3mo ago

Oh man, that's the worst. I had a client mount a sensor above their fridge, and then they got one of those giant stainless steel toasters that basically made a faraday cage. Signal dropped for a week before we figured it out. I always hardwire the important stuff now if the place allows it, because you just can't trust that furniture will stay put. People redecorate, and they never think about the tech.

ivan_fisher993mo ago

But what if hardwiring just makes things harder to move later?

the_nina1mo ago

Has anybody thought about how hardwiring can actually create bigger problems if the wiring itself gets damaged? I've seen a case where a wire got pinched behind a new couch and shorted out, taking down the whole system until someone pulled the couch back. You fix one issue with signal loss, but now you've got a different kind of headache if furniture shifts again.