ahwman Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I have motion sensors in each of my bathroom's linked to an Insteon SwitchLinc dimmer. For the most part they work very well, however every once in a while the "off" command doesn't trigger (I suspect RF interference is the culprit). When this occurs, I can see that the offending motion sensor status shows as "On" well after the timeout period which confirms that the ISY never received the updated status. That said, the light stays on indefinitely in that situation. I've been trying to write a simple program to monitor the status of the light/motion sensor which would turn the light off when this situation occurs. So far, none of my efforts have proven successful. Any ideas? Chuck Link to comment
paulbates Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Chuck I have my motion sensors set to "send on commands only". I keep the sensor and switches linked. Then I have ISY programs that watch for the "On", wait the right amount of time, then send the off. It never misses the off If ms switches on Then Wait xx Minutes Set scene light off, etc Else Paul Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 Chuck I have my motion sensors set to "send on commands only". I keep the sensor and switches linked. Then I have ISY programs that watch for the "On", wait the right amount of time, then send the off. It never misses the off If ms switches on Then Wait xx Minutes Set scene light off, etc Else Paul Paul, Using this strategy, does this turn off the light even if a new motion event is sensed before the timeout? What I want to avoid is a static timer which turns off the light at a predefined time once motion is sensed for the first time. Rather, I want to mimic the behavior of the motion sensor whereby it will only turn off the light if no new motion is sensed before the timeout period. Chuck Link to comment
paulbates Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Paul, Using this strategy, does this turn off the light even if a new motion event is sensed before the timeout? What I want to avoid is a static timer which turns off the light at a predefined time once motion is sensed for the first time. Rather, I want to mimic the behavior of the motion sensor whereby it will only turn off the light if no new motion is sensed before the timeout period. Chuck Chuck The light stays on until xx minutes after the last sensed movement. The program starts anew with each sensed motion. My yard lights over my driveway work this way. Paul Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 Chuck The light stays on until xx minutes after the last sensed movement. The program starts anew with each sensed motion. My yard lights over my driveway work this way. Paul That's exactly what I'm looking for. Will this still work if my motion sensors send both on/off commands or must I disable off commands being sent? Thanks again, Chuck Link to comment
paulbates Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 That's exactly what I'm looking for. Will this still work if my motion sensors send both on/off commands or must I disable off commands being sent? Thanks again, Chuck Chuck You could probably leave it in on/off, but then 2 things will be sending offs.,. not sure how it will behave. I believe that it saves batteries as well, not sending the off. Also, motion devices are associated with the dreaded all on/off. I figure less is more in both cases. Paul Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 Chuck You could probably leave it in on/off, but then 2 things will be sending offs.,. not sure how it will behave. I believe that it saves batteries as well, not sending the off. Also, motion devices are associated with the dreaded all on/off. I figure less is more in both cases. Paul Makes sense Paul. I'll play with it tomorrow. Thanks so much! Chuck Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Hey everyone, I've been playing around with this for quite a while and haven't found a solution that works for me. I have two questions: • I really don't want to pu my motion sensors into sending only "On" commands as they serve double duty with my security system. That said, I fail to understand why my motion sensors never seem to fail to trigger the "On" command to the SwitchLinc's they are linked to, yet every once in a while they don't receive the "Off" command and the light stays on indefinitely. If the command is getting lost due to WIFI interference or something along those lines, why does it only happen with then"Off" command • I'm considering putting the motion sensors into Chuck I have my motion sensors set to "send on commands only". I keep the sensor and switches linked. Then I have ISY programs that watch for the "On", wait the right amount of time, then send the off. It never misses the off If ms switches on Then Wait xx Minutes Set scene light off, etc Else Paul Hey Paul, I finally got around to trying this method and though it works, there appears to be one major caveat at least the way I'm using it. I have motion sensors in my bathrooms linked a SwitchLinc and as you suggested, set the MS to only send "On" commands using a 30 second timeout. The issue is that I'm finding that the light will go out even as I continue to move about and see that the MS is sensing motion. I then have to wait until the timeout has expired than new movement will once again trigger the light/program to restart. It's almost as if I have to time my movement properly so that the program timer resets after the MS timeout has expired but before the ISY program timer expires. I thought that the motion sensor would continue to reset the timeout as motion was sensed thus causing the program timer to reset and keep the light on. I hope I'm making sense... Chuck Here's my program: If Control 'Master Bathroom / (MBA) Motion Sensor' is switched On Then Wait 1 minute Set 'Master Bathroom / (MBA) Wall Light' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Link to comment
stusviews Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Try checking "As motion is sensed" in Options Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Try checking "As motion is sensed" in Options I thought about doing this, however my concern is that this will greatly diminish battery life... Link to comment
paulbates Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Chuck I see what you're saying. This method has worked fairly well for an outside driveway floodlights. Here are 2 things to try with the MS - Up the wait time in the program a little, 15 seconds at a time and see if that helps. - If changing the wait didn't help, reset the MS. I know my MSs get fussy if I've been doing a lot of setting changes, or if the battery goes low. I would try a factory reset, and then restore device (and make sure the battery is good) Paul Link to comment
stusviews Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Save the battery and flail every 30 seconds is the other choice Link to comment
paulbates Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 I think Stu is right, didn't think about "as motion is sensed". I use this on mine. I have a number of links in the MS, and its outside all year. I change batteries at the beginning of fall and late in the spring. Paul Link to comment
ahwman Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Yeah, turning on "as motion is sensed" seemed to do the trick. Thanks guys for all your help! Chuck Link to comment
larryllix Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 With my X10 system I always used a time of about 4 minutes in the MS units. My programs would be set to cut this time short to 30 seconds, 1 minutes, or 2 minutes, always faster, The X10 Off in the MS (not avoidable) would act as a backup signal to insure the device turned off. The programs just shortened the time based on logic conditions. Of course, and I still do it with Insteon as well, I have a 4:00 am program that shuts everything off for the just-in-case scenario. Link to comment
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