New Motion Sensors - Working....but not.

[klebel]

Hey All,

 

The wife picked me up two new motion sensors for Chistmas to add to my network. I have searched and seen a ton of posts on Motion Sensors but none quite like the challenge I am having. I am just trying to do something VERY basic. I have a motion sensor aimed at the door coming in from our attached garage. If it senses movement coming in from the door, it should activate a scene that turns on lights on the first floor of the house for you. If after 30 minutes there is no more motion activity then it should shut those lights off.

 

I am activating the scene through a program.

 

If
       Status  'MS-Garage-Sensor' is On

Then
       Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' On
       Wait  30 minutes 
       Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' Off

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

 

 

I got the motion sensors added in as new devices just fine.

I can check the status of the MS in the admin console and see that it is sensing motion and the current state switches to on.

The lights in the scene I created never come on though!

 

If I manually go into the admin console, right click the program and Run IF, then the scene activates.

 

Any ideas what I am doing wrong here?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Xathros]

While what you have there SHOULD cause the scene to come on at least once, it may never trigger again depending on the configuration of the motion sensor. Try chaing the IF from "Status is On" to "Control is switched On" and see what you get.

 

-Xathros

[klebel]

While what you have there SHOULD cause the scene to come on at least once, it may never trigger again depending on the configuration of the motion sensor. Try chaing the IF from "Status is On" to "Control is switched On" and see what you get.

 

-Xathros

 

Thanks Xathros. The reason I had it based on Status vs Control switched to ON is because of how I have the motion sensor setup. I have it set with the following settings.

 

Timeout: 2 minutes

Sensing Mode: As Motion is Sensed

ON Only Mode: ON/OFF

Night Mode: Always

 

The thought I had, is that I dont want the lights shutting off and then immediately back on. So I thought the combo of the wait statement in the program, the 2 minute timeout and the sensing mode being as motion is sensed, should have covered my bases. I'm I looking at this wrong?

 

Thanks.

[Vyrolan]

Does the Motion Sensor ever actually report Off? Just sit at the admin console and don't let anyone or anything near the motion sensor....does it actually go Off? If so, then have someone trigger it and confirm it switches back to On in your admin console. If so, then go to programs and the summary tab to see the status and last run times of your program. Did it actually run? Is it in true or false state?

 

Edit:

As an aside, I for one am not a fan of the "as motion is sensed" option. I think it makes the motion detectors very spammy and provides little utility. You could just leave that unchecked and make a small tweak to your program. For that matter, you don't really need a program at all here. Simply uncheck the as motion is sensed and make the motion sensor a controller of that scene...and set the motion sensor's timeout to 30 minutes. That way it will turn on the scene instantly (without the delay of the program) and then turn it on after no motion is detected for its timeout (30 minutes). The motion detector has the timeout capabilities; use them instead of trying to reproduce it with programs and the spammy "as motion is sensed" option IMHO.

[oberkc]

The thought I had, is that I dont want the lights shutting off and then immediately back on. So I thought the combo of the wait statement in the program, the 2 minute timeout and the sensing mode being as motion is sensed, should have covered my bases. I'm I looking at this wrong?

 

You may indeed be looking at this wrong. Why would the lights shut off in two minutes? Is the motion sensor defined as a controller of any scene? If not , what program would turn off you lights in two minutes? I believe Xathros is correct, you lights will not go off, and "control" is a better approach if you want to use a program to control you motion lights.

 

Or follow vyrolen suggestions... Not use a program and use the motion sensor as a scene controller based upon the built in funtion.

 

The benefits of using a program are several. You have greater flexibility over time periods. You can introduce other condiotins, such as time, light status. You can make adjustments without having to open the motion sensor.

[Nuttycomputer]

I would follow the already listed suggestions. As for what the problem is, so you can get a greater understanding of programing with the ISY, is the wait statement in your program. Currently when the ISY comes across a Wait or Repeat statement the program is re-evaluated. Knowing this lets go back to your program and break it down. My comments in red:

 

 

If

Status 'MS-Garage-Sensor' is On Program triggers when motion sensor reports status ON

 

Then

Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' On Lights Turn ON

Wait 30 minutes Program told to wait 30 minutes. During this time it re-evaluates IF Statement

Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' Off Lights turned OFF - But due to the wait statement this is only performed if the IF Statement is still true.

 

Else

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

 

As you can see your lights will only turn off after 30 minutes IF the Motion Sensor is still ON, and if it has remained status ON the entire time. With a timeout of 2 minutes the program could be restarting multiple times and never reaching the Turn off phase of your program. Even if it did reach that point it would turn off while someone was moving around in the last two minutes. As you noticed this is not the desired effect.

 

Edit: I thought I would include a sample program I'm using to control my inside holiday lights. My wife wants them to come on whenever it is night and she is in the room so I'm using an existing motion sensor. The motion sensor is set to timeout after 30 minutes.

 

If
       Status  'Main Floor / Motion - Sensor' is On
   And Program 'Night.Define' is True

Then
       Set Scene 'Main Floor / Christmas - Inside' On

Else
       Set Scene 'Main Floor / Christmas - Inside' Off

 

In this case assuming no motion after 30 minutes the status of the sensor will turn to Off, The IF Statement will be FALSE so the ELSE will run turning off the holiday lights.

[klebel]

Lots of great feedback guys. I went through and reread the Motion Sensor wiki page very carefully as well and came up with another combo. Let me know what you think about this. NuttyComputer thanks for the explanation on the IF statement. I didn't realize it reevaluated with the WAIT statement. Here is what I have now. One program to turn the lights on and one to turn them off.

 

This one turns the lights on and also keeps down the chatter to the ISY through a series of conditions:

 

If
       From     5:00:00AM
       To      10:00:00PM (same day)
   And Control 'MS-Garage-Sensor' is switched On
   And Control 'MS-Garage-Sensor' is not switched Off
   And Status  'Sitting Room - Main' is Off

Then
       Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' On

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

 

This one turns the lights off after there has been no motion sensed for more than the given number of minutes. (Or at least I think this is right)

 

If
       Status  'MS-Garage-Sensor' is Off
   And Program 'Motion - Garage Door' is True

Then
       Wait  4 minutes 
       Set Scene 'Motion - Garage' Off

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

 

I used the examples on the wiki page to build these.

 

My big challenge now is that just about ANYTHING seems to be setting off the motion sensor so I need to figure out what sensitivity level I should keep it at.

[oberkc]

I suspect you may have some transition problems around 10pm. The extent depends on the time-out period of your motion sensor.

 

Lets assume that you detect motion at 959pm. Lets assume that 10pm occurs befor the motion sensor sends an "off" command and the first program turns false. Under these conditions, I assume that the light would stay on indefinitely.