This sensor works well, is a good value and was delivered quickly. I used it to trigger an Arduino with a sound shield. It works with the Arduino very well and although other people have had issues with it, I had none. I used the Arduino pinMode(INPUT_PULLUP) that uses the internal 20K pull up resistor so you do not need any external resistor. The project I used this for was a pumpkin that made sounds as people approached. It was a hit.

RED is POSITIVE WHITE is NEGATIVE Black is signal

I murdered this the second use after I forgot this convention. It did operate correctly the first use although requiring a pull-up resistor was strange in my opinion. I can't complain too much as I destroyed it for not following clear instructions.

I've been using these sensors for a bit now. Yes the wiring colors are CONFUSING just be careful.

My deal is that at 5 VDC these sensors will work - until they don't. We ran one for a long time at 5 VDC on one location, worked great. In another location, it would have bursts of false triggers about every 2 minutes. Why? I have no idea. Slightly different ambient temperature? The worst kind of failures are the intermittent kind.

Switched to 9 VDC and so far they work like a charm.

So if you are just messing around, sure 5 VDC will work just to play with, probably. If you really want some reliability, go to 9 VDC.

Be careful, the wire colors vary. I bought two from Sparkfun and on one of them them the Alarm wire color is white and on the other one it is black.

http://i.imgur.com/i1OJext.jpg

Well maybe I just don't know how to use this thing. But it seems to be a real pain to use. First off is the black wire is the "alarm". Maybe because it is an open collector that is a reasonable color choice. I forgot at least once that it was an open collector and had to rewire. Once I got it detecting it did fine signalling someone entered the room. But I could not figure out a way to find out once someone entered if they left. I have a complicated filter and state machine in code to try and remove the invalid blurps. It looks like after so much inactive time it sends a pulse on the alarm.
I think I will give up and search for something else, maybe buy some motion activated night lights and use them in my project.

(1) Signal wire is black, ground wire is white.

These should be reversed. I might have killed two of my sensors because the wire colors don't match up to expectations.

(2) The manual says that there should be a 10k pullup resistor on the arduino, why can't this be built into the electronic itself? The power rail is right there.

There are other PIR sensors on the market. Stay away from this one.

I wired this up with an Arduino Micro. There are a lot of example programs using timers and delays. I wanted to make this interrupt driven. I had had to resolve a few self-induced logic errors in my code. Eventually, it worked. I've discovered the PIR is a little unstable at 5 volts, but works really well with 9 volts. It also seems to have a greater range at the higher voltage. I'll try 12 volts next.

I bought 3 of these to replace another sensor with a similar form-factor. The original sensor had no trouble sensing a moving person 4 meters away, but these don't. They work if I wave my hand from about 2 meters, which is not acceptable for my application. I'm running at 12 V.

Also, there is almost no data available. The SE-10 datasheet looks mostly like a copy of the data for the raw sensor. Where's the electrical (output lo voltage) and optical specs (sense angle)?

The sensor works exactly as described in the the documentation and meets my expectations for use in my application.

Works well for what I'm using it for and great price.

Anyone have a link for a 3d printed case for this?

This device works exactly as I thought it would. Using it to activate an animal watering dish, and the range and width of the detection works perfectly. I just wish there was a cover available for it.

I had trouble getting this to work correctly. It would trip regularly for no apparent reason. The description says it needs 1-2 seconds to calibrate. The hookup guide says 15 seconds. It didn't seem to matter either way. It doesn't seem to have any sensitivity adjustments; perhaps that would have helped. I ended up selecting a different sensor type that proved far more reliable for my project.

I bought this because it was the one PIR I could find that went low on motion detection. It works well, I do notice a lag, but I'm not confident that is on account of the PIR and not some other component. I did have to order a replacement after frying the first one. Despite reading the hookup instructions and the other comments on the unusual wire colors, I still managed to fry it because the JST connector I hooked it up to had a different wire color order. Stupid mistake, but I guess that's why you should triple check everything before hitting the on button.

Paired this sensor with a Photon from Particle to enable my outdoor cat to request entry. Motion sensitivity is great, but position is everything. Except for the occasional leaves blowing in the garage, not many false positive triggers at all and a very effective door bell trigger for my cat. Thanks guys!

Had to borrow a spare PIR sensor from a friend after mine arrived dead in the mail. Almost got screwed over on a school project.

i had it hooked up to an LED and it was flashing like crazy whether there was motion or not. Then I found this site http://bildr.org/2011/06/pir_arduino/ and added the resistor and the code from the site. It stlill didn't work, there was no output on the screen saying "motion detected" I am using an Arduino uno, any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance. I've loved all the other products I've ordered from you including the Drum kit Kit ai - I got that working without any problem.

This isn't just a review of the PIR Motion Sensor. I ordered this with the Termistor and Load Sensor for class....got billed for all three however only the motion sensor came. Of course I only opened it when it was required for class so now I'm behind.

Thanks SparkFun!

Thanks for reminding me that it has awkward color coding for the cables. It is something that definitely can be/should be fixed for a sensor priced at $10 dollars. The cable should not be advertised as a new feature until the color coding is fixed.

I bought two sensors. The sensors work but it can be more consistent and sensitive. Sometimes it would recognize a hand quickly, sometimes its totally ignored. I am not sure if its picking up the reflection of IR in the room so when a hand is placed closely to the front of the sensor, it still would not register a "change".

This motion sensor's detection distance is horrible. I connected it to my Arduino and it only senses it if I'm touching it or like 1 millimeter away...

Working good so far! I'll let you know how it goes... ;-)

Does what it needs to.

Like other users have said mine came wired with the red for alarm and the black for power. This is not like the directions say it should be. Also no matter how hard I have tried I can not get it to work for my Raspberry Pi 2. Good luck to anyone else who tries this.