Published October 16, 2025 © MIT

Building a Home Motion Detection System: A DIY Guide

Detect motion using PIR sensor & ESP32 with instant alerts on Serial or Web dashboard. Smart Security made simple by YaranaIoT Guru!

BeginnerFull instructions provided8 hours67

Building a Home Motion Detection System: A DIY Guide

Things used in this project

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Story

Satyam was tired of unexpected visitors triggering false alarms. One day, he learned from YaranaIoT Guru how to use an ESP32 + PIR sensor to detect motion accurately.He set it up near his front door — now, whenever someone enters, the system instantly alerts him via web notification.

“No expensive hardware — just smart coding and IoT power!”

“No expensive hardware — just smart coding and IoT power!”

💻 Code Example

/*
  Home Motion Detection System with ESP32 and PIR Sensor
  Author: YaranaIoT Guru
*/

#include <WiFi.h>
#include <WebServer.h>

#define PIR_PIN 14
#define LED_PIN 27

const char* ssid = "YourWiFiName";
const char* password = "YourWiFiPassword";

WebServer server(80);
bool motionDetected = false;

void handleRoot() {
  String html = "<html><head><meta http-equiv='refresh' content='3'>";
  html += "<style>body{font-family:Arial;text-align:center;}</style>";
  html += "<h2>ESP32 Motion Detection</h2>";
  html += "<p>Status: ";
  html += (motionDetected ? "<b style='color:red;'>Motion Detected!</b>" : "<b style='color:green;'>No Motion</b>");
  html += "</p><p><small>by YaranaIoT Guru</small></p></html>";
  server.send(200, "text/html", html);
}

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(PIR_PIN, INPUT);
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);

  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  Serial.print("Connecting to WiFi");
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  Serial.println("\nWiFi connected! IP: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

  server.on("/", handleRoot);
  server.begin();
}

void loop() {
  int motion = digitalRead(PIR_PIN);

  if (motion == HIGH) {
    motionDetected = true;
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
    Serial.println("⚠️ Motion Detected!");
  } else {
    motionDetected = false;
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  }

  server.handleClient();
  delay(200);
}