Multiple Motion Sensors for Same Lighting Setup

[j.rieff]

I have a rather large driveway and parking area outside my garage. I currently have a single Motion Sensor (MS 1) controller the driveway floodlights. The detection pattern does not cover the entire driveway/parking area, so I was thinking about adding another Motion Sensor (MS 1) in order to increase detection coverage area. Can I add another Motion Sensor to the Scene essentially in an OR condition to manage the lights or will I need to create a program with the OR condition as part of the IF statement?

For my outdoor applications and where there might be lots of detection traffic, I prefer the MS 1 over the MS 2 because of the battery longevity. The 9V in the MS 1 will usually give be about 9 months of power while the 123 battery in the MS 2 might give me 2-4 weeks of power. I really do not enjoy climbing up on the ladder once a month to change the batteries. 

Thanks for your inputs. 

[Techman]

You can put both MS in a scene as controllers along with your lights. When either sensor activates the scene will turn on the lights.

[paulbates]

To add to techmans comment, It's much more responsive when you put the sensor in the scene with lights. 

If you haven't already, change the settings so it's "on only", no off messages- so it cuts down on transmits. Also extend the amount of time it waits to retransmit, make it close to the time you have it stay on... this also cuts down on transmits and extends battery life.

To get it to turn off, I have the scene turn the lights on, and than an ISY program "wait" x minutes and turn it back off.

I sold my last house recently with the MS1s turning on the driveway lights, they were at least 5 years old.

One down side of adding existing MSs to a scene is that you'll have to get to them and press the set button to get it to work.

[j.rieff]

@paulbates

@Techman

Thanks for the inputs. I will probably integrate the second MS1 into the existing scene. I will experiment with your suggestion of a program for the OFF while the MS1's would transmit the ON signal. I did see the ON Only selection in the Options setup. Of source, I really have not been having any problems with battery life with the MS1. In fact, I have a series of programs monitoring the battery life in all my MS1's. It sends me a text when the battery is low. I will probably setup the new configuration probably after the predicted storms this weekend since I need to take down the existing sensor in order to press that magic button in the battery case on both MS1's. 

I have one of the first MS2 sensors. When I installed it the ISY firmware had not been updated for the MS2. So, it is actually defined as a MS1 in my network. Battery life is similar to 9V in the MS1. This is in a hallway that gets quite a bit of traffic. Timer is set for 30 seconds. All of this is in the MS setup and scene. No program. 

I have another MS2 in a similar hallway. It was installed after the ISY firmware update so it is defined as a true MS2. Lot more options available in its definition. I tried the ON Only suggestion from above. I never saw an OFF status reported. Not sure if there were some additional options that needed to be set. I then set it to report ON and OFF. That appeared to work, but that is what I originally had in the setup with the scene and not long battery life. I wrote a simple program:

       If {motion sensor} Status in ON

          Then

              SET {light scene - since it is a 2-way configuration} To ON

               Wait 30 seconds

                SET (light scene} to OFF

 

Looks simple. However, the OFF never occurs. 

 

 

Not sure what I did wrong. 

 

I am currently running with eisy with 5.8.x firmware and IoTx.

[Techman]

If the motion sensor status changes to off before the 30 seconds in the THEN clause completes then the ELSE clause would run and the scene wouldn't turn off.

Try also putting the "SET (light scene) off" in the ELSE statement.