Motion sensors

[wwat]

Hi,

 

MikeB: I believe you will find that the Motion Sensor will send additional ON commands after the timeout period (1 minute I believe). It will not send the command at every motion. The only difference in this mode is that an OFF command will never be sent (so the ISY will always show a state of ON).

 

Thanks to MikeB's recents comments I was able to write a new more efficient method for my motion sensors and switchlinks.

 

The main objective was to have the motion sensor switch the light on, and if the paddle was pressed in any way take control away from the motion sensor. Otherwise the light would turn off at the specified amount of time, in my case that is 4 minutes.

 

For this to work you have to close jumper 4 (put box on both pins), that disables the countdown 'Off' timer. The motion sensor will still send the 'On' command after the timeout period.

 

Regards,

Wayne

 

ps. if you find any problems please post them here.

 

 

Motion Sensor On Enable program

If
       Control 'Main Bath MS - Sensor' is switched On
   And Status  'Main Bath SL - Light' is Off

Then
       Run Program 'Motion Sensor Off' (If)

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

 

Motion Sensor Off Enable program

If
       Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched On
   And Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched Off
   And Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched Fast On
   And Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched Fast Off
   And Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched Fade Up
   And Control 'Main Bath SL - Light' is not switched Fade Down

Then
       Set 'Main Bath SL - Light' 65%
       Wait  4 minutes 
       Set 'Main Bath SL - Light' Off

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

[Sub-Routine]

Great tip Wayne!

 

I set this up to use in our kitchen today (three-way setup)

 

I disabled the Off and set the Delay to 30 seconds. I still have the MS linked to the lights so they snap on with no program delay. I removed the line that checks the light status so whenever movement is detected it restarts the countdown timer. Then my timeout only needs to be >30 seconds.

 

I only check for an On press, but I may change that.

 

When home and awake we like to keep the lights on low, thus the Kitchen Low On. I have different schedules on folders to sort this out. Here are the evening programs.

 

KMotion On Evening

If
       Control 'Kitchen Motion Sensor 1-Senso' is switched On

Then
       Run Program 'KMotion Off Evening' (If)

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

 

KMotion Off Evening

If
       Control 'Kitchen Ceiling Light' is not switched On
   And Control 'Kitchen South' is not switched On

Then
       Wait  1 minute 
       Set Scene 'Kitchen Low' On

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

 

Thanks again!

Rand

[Algorithm]

Hi Guys,

 

The difficulty I see with Wayne's programs, though, is that once motion has turned the light on (and assuming there are no manual button presses), the light will always turn off in exactly four minutes, regardless of whether there is further motion. Was that the intent, Wayne?

 

With Rand's programs, a motion sense turns the light on full (direct link), and then after one minute (again assuming no manual button presses) the light is turned on low (where someone else might have it turning off). If another motion on command is received, the timer will re-trigger.

 

The problem, though, is that if there is continuous motion, the motion sensor will not send another on command, because the motion is causing its internal 30 second countdown timer to re-trigger. Therefore the programs will turn the light low or off after one minute even though there is continuous motion. The only way the ISY's timer will be re-triggered is if there is a 30 second period of no motion to allow the sensor's timer to time out, followed by new motion within the remaining 30 seconds of the ISY's one minute interval.

[wwat]

Very good comments. Didn't know that the MS could be set to anything less than a minute.

 

Darrell pointed out that a 'no motion' period is required for the 'ON' command to be resent. With this in mind I think this was my original reason for setting a fixed time period. This fixed time period was a bit of a guestimate of the time period that light would be required in a particlar area of the the house. The ensuite is set to 2 minutes and the main bathroom is set to 4 minutes. Knowing this if we think we will overshoot that time we just hit the 'ON' paddle and the sensor is effectively disabled. Not the ideal solution I know but it does seem to work, even for guests. The guests are unlikely to spend more than 4 minutes in the main bathroom so that is usually covered and no one else uses the ensuite.

I would really like to find a solution that enables the lights to turn on instantly without the current delay and Nand seems to have found a solution for that but I have to think about how to incorporate that into my solution. The amount of light is very important because I rearly turn lights on full, after 11.30 pm they only ever come on at 30%, so if the desired percentage can't be achieved through a direct connect then that approach cant be used.

 

Appreciate the comments from both of you, I'll try a few things based on these comments and post back.

 

-Wayne.

[gregoryx]

a thought on the low level / variable level thing and speed to turn on: perhaps a compromise with a slow ramp rate triggered directly so SOME light starts quickly followed by the program kicking in before it's finished ramping up?

[wwat]

Rands approach of a direct link to get the lights to response faster (almost instantly) on MS triggering worked to some extent. I even tried scenes in place of a direct link and that was also faster than the current program only approach. The problem with both of these methods is that control of lighting levels are lost to the device/scene after the MS countdown timer has ended and the MS sends another 'ON' command.

 

One of our requirements is to allow for manual control of the lights and this is where the problem arises. If the light is manually set via the paddle, once the MS sends the next 'ON' command it changes the lighting level to the default of the device/scene causing confusion for the occupant. As far as I can see the only way around this would be to place the current lighting level in a variable and pass that onto the scene so when activated it wont be noticed because the level will be the same as the current level. Unfortunately we dont have variables.

 

Hopefully there is some resolution that I'm not seeing at the moment..

 

Thanks,

Wayne

[gregoryx]

Unfortunately we dont have variables.

 

... exactly what I was thinking as reading... no way to say "use the default level" or "read current level" or such... perhaps some day!