Program not turning lights off / bad range for motion sensor

[jgorm]

Hi, 1st post. I setup a 7 switch, 4 motion sensor insteon setup. It seems that one of my programs is not turning the lights off as it should.

If
       Status  'Front door motion sensor 2' is On
   And From    Sunset  + 30 minutes
       To      Sunrise - 30 minutes (next day)

Then
       Set 'Driveway house lights' On
       Set 'Front door light' Fast On
       Set 'Front door light' 250 (Beep Duration)
       Set 'Driveway house lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
       Set 'MB Heat Lamp' 1 (Beep Duration)
       Wait  10 minutes 
       Set 'Driveway house lights' Fast Off
       Wait  5 minutes 
       Set 'Front door light' Fast Off

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

I have 3 dual band switches, 2 on one side of my front door, and one on the other side. The motion sensor that is ~10' from the switch on the other side of the stucco wall works fine, but the one at the end of my garage doesn't work at all. It's maybe 30' from the front door, but slightly around the corner of the garage. I know that going through walls at an angle will kill the signal. I was thinking about adding a insteon access point to the garage. The garage has a appliance module, but I dont think those are dual band. The outdoor plug in module is dual band and is only $50 compared to the access point at $40 that doesn't provide any other functionality. Would these extend the range as well as the access point? I have a fountain that I could plug one into that is on the back side of my back yard and that should give me great coverage on that side of the house. I figure I could just plug one in the garage on the wall near the door and other motion sensors and just leave it unused, and maybe plug the christmas lights into it during that time of year.

 

As a side note I did setup a cool program to beep all the switches in my house when someone walks up to the front door. The beep duration parameter doesn't make any difference.

If
       Status  'Front door motion sensor 2' is On

Then
       Repeat 1 times
          Set 'Bar Lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Front door light' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway house lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway street lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'MB Heat Lamp' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Porch light inside.1' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Office fan' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Wait  5 seconds
          Set 'Driveway street lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Front door light' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway house lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Bar Lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Office fan' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'MB Heat Lamp' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Porch light inside.1' 1 (Beep Duration)

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

[LeeG]

How is Motion Sensor 2 configured?

 

If the Motion Sensor times out before the Wait time expires the change in Sensor node status will retrigger the Program. The If will now be False driving the Else clause so the statements after the Wait to turn Off the devices will never execute. One solution is to split the Program into two. The current If is in Program 1 that invokes Program 2 in the Then clause. Program 2 contains the current Then statements. That way when the Motion Sensor times out it does not affect Program 2.

 

The current device firmware does not honor the duration. Perhaps someday the devices will be updated to react to duration. For now Beep duration has no affect.

[jgorm]

I'm not sure how it's configured, but I think i set the timeout to be 0.5 seconds. I assumed incorrectly that once the then statement was triggered it would fully execute. How does this look?

front door motion 1 trigger

If
       Status  'Front door motion sensor 1' is On
   And From    Sunset  + 30 minutes
       To      Sunrise - 30 minutes (next day)
Then
       Run Program 'Front door motion 1 action' (Then Path)
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Front door motion 1 action

If
  - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition')

Then
       Set 'Driveway house lights' On
       Set 'Front door light' Fast On
       Run Program 'Front door motion beeps' (Then Path)
       Wait  10 minutes 
       Set 'Driveway house lights' Fast Off
       Wait  5 minutes 
       Set 'Front door light' Fast Off

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Front door motion beeps

If
       Status  'Front door motion sensor 2' is On

Then
       Repeat 1 times
          Set 'Bar Lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Front door light' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway house lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway street lights' 250 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'MB Heat Lamp' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Porch light inside.1' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Office fan' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Wait  5 seconds
          Set 'Driveway street lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Front door light' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Driveway house lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Bar Lights' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Office fan' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'MB Heat Lamp' 1 (Beep Duration)
          Set 'Porch light inside.1' 1 (Beep Duration)

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

What about using the outdoor plug module instead of an access point?

[LeeG]

The two program structure looks fine. Wait and Repeat statements allow the If to be reevaluated if something the If is checking changes.

 

I have not used the On/Off Outdoor module. Have no experience with its range. Keep it vertical for antenna orientation and water out of the outlet.

 

A Stucco exterior is applied over a metal mesh (I think). That could degrade the ability to get the RF through a Stucco wall. I would be worried about depending on RF through the exterior wall at a distance.

[IndyMike]

Depending on your location, many areas also specify foil backed foam panels between the garage and heated areas of the Home.

 

I have this in my garage (Northern Indiana) and have powerline only in the garage as a result.