Hi,

 

I have Insteon 2420M motion sensors driving some lighting programs based on examples from www.handymanhowto.com. They work fine, but only if I have the Motion Sensor set to send an "Off" signal.

 

To get more flexibility in the timing of switching the light off, and maybe to get extended battery life, I want to put the motion sensors in "On Only" mode via the DIP switch. But when I do this my lights stay on all night because I can't figure out how to clear the "On" status so the program keeps triggering. I can't use "Set" because the RF device isn't listening and "Query" doesn't force the status to "Off" when it can't communicate ... so how is this done?? (I've seen hints that this "On Only" mode is intended to be used with ISY controllers)

 

All help gratefully received. Thanks!

Simon

Make sure you Programs trigger based on CONTROL and not STATUS. If based on CONTROL, they will trigger any time the Motion Sensor sends an ON command (no matter what the ISY thinks the current status is).

Mike's right, Simon. The ISY will pick up the "ON" command if you set it as the CONTROL trigger for your program.

 

The thing about this arrangement is that your motion sensor will not broadcast the "ON" command again until its internal timeout has been reached. Additionally, according to my testing, this timeout resets each time the sensor detects movement, which means that the motion sensor will not send another "ON" command unless it doesn't detect any motion for the duration of the countdown.

 

In this scenario, the ISY can potentially turn off your lights while there is still a person in the room as it isn't aware that the motion sensor keeps getting tripped. Re-enabling the "OFF" command (removing the jumper) keeps this from happening as the sensor will reset the countdown each time it sees something/someone.

 

Is there any way to set things up so that the ISY is aware of continued motion sensor trips so that it can reset the ISY program's timeout? This would allow more flexible with the timer, save 9-volt batteries, and prevent leaving someone in the dark.

 

I've seen some posts about this, and the program examples all refer to the motion sensor state, but as Simon indicates, this state never changes when the sensor is in "on-only" mode.

 

Thanks!