Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

How best to control closet lights

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #46
    I would just place 2 magnets. for the contact sensor.
    And maybe a motion sensor, somewhere inside the closet

    xiaomi is cheap for those with the jowihue plugin.


    Here, we always close the closet because of our cats. So a door sensor is enough.

    But i do have a closet in a room without a door. This is a tricky one. ( the solution for now is putting a motion sensor upside down , 2-3 feets from the ground, pointing inside the closet.
    So it will open the light when we are really near. and it will close the light if there has been no motion for 1 minutes.

    Comment


      #47
      Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
      As promised a smarter solution for controlling closet light. I documented my setup in Section 14.13 of http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsMQTT.pdf.

      A Sonoff basic is used to control the light based upon sensor input of a microwave radar motion sensor and a door open/close contact switch. The light turns on when the door is opened and remains on as long as there is motion near the closet. After 100 seconds without motion the light turns off. It will turn on again if the door remains open and radar motion sensor detects motion or if the door had been closed and is opened again. While I did not implement a notification, it would be trivial to add message to tell somebody to close the closet door. A standard Tasmota distribution was used in the Sonoff. Rules were used to implement the light control logic.

      Homeseer is aware of what is happening with the closet door & light via MQTT, but it is not normally involved with any of the management. It is all locally handled with the ESP8266 in the Sonoff. I printed a case to hold the sensor and Sonoff, but there is nothing significant about how it was packaged. The radar sensor can be anywhere in or near the closet because it is Omni-directional with range beyond the size of the closet. It is quite sensitive.

      Click image for larger version  Name:	20190306_114327.jpg Views:	1 Size:	101.9 KB ID:	1290500
      Do you happen to have a link to the radar motion sensor that you purchased? Will it work outdoors?


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
      Last edited by The Profit; March 7, 2019, 12:10 PM. Reason: Edit: Apologies, didn't see the link when I first read the post, however I just tried the link and get an error "Failed to load PDF". I've tried it on a couple of devices.
      HS4 4.2.6.0 &HSTouch Designer 3.0.80
      Plugin's:
      BLBackup, BLOccupied, BLShutdown, EasyTrigger, Ecobee, Nest, AK Bond
      EnvisaLink DSC, PHLocation, Pushover, SONOS, Blue Iris, UltraRachio3,
      weatherXML, Jon00 Alexa Helper, Network Monitor, MyQ, Z-Wave

      Comment


        #48
        Sorry about the link. Looks like it aborted last night during the upload. It works now. The RCWL-0516 sensor is widely available at the usual sources such as Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon. They go for about $1 each.

        What is so cool about this device is that it detects people movement from any direction and that it is not sensitive to the light/shade, wind/leaves and perpendicular placement that are problematic with PIR sensors.

        In this same document Section 14.7 I also show one that is designed to control a load (light) that has adjustments for range. I have it installed in laundry room that forms a passage between garage and main part of house. Since it penetrates the wall, it triggers before the door is opened from the garage. I use a piece of aluminum foil on the sides so motion on the adjoining interior rooms does not cause the light to turn on. Only motion that goes through the doorway triggers the laundry room light. If I did not turn down the sensitivity it would trigger from motion across the hallway from the door opening. No micro-controller needed for that install.

        I have a RCWL-0516 and Sonoff installed outside under my shed's eve. It lets me know if there is any motion, from any direction, in my backyard.

        A good evaluation of this and others is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WiJJgIi3W0

        Comment


          #49
          Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
          Sorry about the link. Looks like it aborted last night during the upload. It works now. The RCWL-0516 sensor is widely available at the usual sources such as Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon. They go for about $1 each.

          What is so cool about this device is that it detects people movement from any direction and that it is not sensitive to the light/shade, wind/leaves and perpendicular placement that are problematic with PIR sensors.

          In this same document Section 14.7 I also show one that is designed to control a load (light) that has adjustments for range. I have it installed in laundry room that forms a passage between garage and main part of house. Since it penetrates the wall, it triggers before the door is opened from the garage. I use a piece of aluminum foil on the sides so motion on the adjoining interior rooms does not cause the light to turn on. Only motion that goes through the doorway triggers the laundry room light. If I did not turn down the sensitivity it would trigger from motion across the hallway from the door opening. No micro-controller needed for that install.

          I have a RCWL-0516 and Sonoff installed outside under my shed's eve. It lets me know if there is any motion, from any direction, in my backyard.
          Thanks so much for the information Michael! The board that you mentioned looks like it has a 5M(16Foot) range, have you come across any that would have a longer range? Would like to use one for my driveway. Have you made or know what I could put a board like that in to protect it from the elements? Looks like I couldn’t put this in any metal box obviously but if it goes through walls I assume I could just get some sort of completely sealed plastic box?

          I’m a little surprised that there are so few that make one of these sensors as an off the shelf product. For presence detection they seem to be better. Maybe because they are harder for someone to limit them to a single room?


          Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
          HS4 4.2.6.0 &HSTouch Designer 3.0.80
          Plugin's:
          BLBackup, BLOccupied, BLShutdown, EasyTrigger, Ecobee, Nest, AK Bond
          EnvisaLink DSC, PHLocation, Pushover, SONOS, Blue Iris, UltraRachio3,
          weatherXML, Jon00 Alexa Helper, Network Monitor, MyQ, Z-Wave

          Comment


            #50
            The one I have for my laundry room claims 1 to 10 meter range. There was one in the YouTube video I linked that was 8 meters, 180 degrees.. Driveways are normally done with beam break sensors or the buried ones that use magnetism.

            In my case I use the Dakota 2500 which is PIR technology that does work well. https://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Alert-.../dp/B00436XKXG. I have it mounted about 500 ft from the house and about 8 feet above ground screwed into a tree trunk pointing down at about 45 degree angle. Battery lasts about a year. On the receiver which is inside the house is the chime and it has dry contact outputs to interface with other automation. Reliably picks up cars, elk and deer. Often in the animals case they will loiter so multiple verses of the melody play.

            I also have the low cost Harbor Freight https://www.harborfreight.com/wirele...tem-93068.html mounted along the road closer to the house. The receiver is mounted outside under what looks similar to a birdhouse handing from a tree limb. It is used to notify me of somebody/something on the road when I am in the yard. The only time I have had issues with these is when the plants grow in their field of view to a degree that wind causes the triggering. Easily remedied with a couple time a year weed wacker along the road.

            I think the road is a different problem space than the closet so best not to continue this discussion here so as to not hijack the thread.

            Comment


              #51
              Originally posted by cc4005 View Post
              problem with turning the lights back on after HS turns them off (door left open, timer expires). Have to close and reopen the door. To my mind it's not really automation at that point
              For this problem I usually use 3-state virtual devices i.e. On, Off and "Not Set". So after each change (i.e. On or Off) after short delay it goes to "Not Set" state. So the magority of the time it's in "Not Set" state.

              So irrelative of the current state you can always set the required state. I use it for Google Home commands, i.e. when I say "Ok Google, All lights On" - it doesn't matter if currently it's On or Off:

              Click image for larger version

Name:	Capture.PNG
Views:	94
Size:	9.2 KB
ID:	1290818

              Comment


                #52
                Originally posted by alexbk66 View Post
                For this problem I usually use 3-state virtual devices i.e. On, Off and "Not Set". So after each change (i.e. On or Off) after short delay it goes to "Not Set" state. So the magority of the time it's in "Not Set" state.

                So irrelative of the current state you can always set the required state. I use it for Google Home commands, i.e. when I say "Ok Google, All lights On" - it doesn't matter if currently it's On or Off:

                Click image for larger version

Name:	Capture.PNG
Views:	94
Size:	9.2 KB
ID:	1290818
                I use this technique extensively as well, but unfortunately it doesn't help much in this specific context. I.e., the door still has to be closed and reopened in order to send any sort of signal to turn the light on if it times out with the door still open. Hence the many alternative control suggestions in this thread.
                -Wade

                Comment


                  #53
                  Michael, been trying out the microwave motion detector. However wondering if you had any issues like this. My 5ghz wireless connection in my house gets destroyed no matter where I place this. Wireless starts asking for passwords and is confused until I kill the power on this.
                  Stuart

                  Comment


                    #54
                    I have three radar sensors installed at one location and one at another. No issues of which I am aware. Looks like channel 149 is being used by Ubiquiti AP. Don't know the channel on the Asus at the other location.

                    My 5 GHz clients are typically tablets. All the IOT things are using 2.4 Ghz. In all cases the radar sensor is the furthest outlier from the AP/Router, but walking a tablet beyond it does not affect the connection.

                    I believe that this model operates at 5.8 GHz. I am aware others at 24 GHz and then around 3 GHz.

                    Comment


                      #55
                      MIchael, was able to get to the bottom of this. Seems my wireless hates the microwave detector when set to 802.11 ac, lowered it to 802.11n and all came back to life. figured I'd pass this on this info and hopes it helps anyone that ever gets in this situation.

                      Stuart

                      Comment


                        #56
                        Originally posted by Stuart View Post
                        MIchael, was able to get to the bottom of this. Seems my wireless hates the microwave detector when set to 802.11 ac, lowered it to 802.11n and all came back to life. figured I'd pass this on this info and hopes it helps anyone that ever gets in this situation.

                        Stuart
                        Thanks for the tip.
                        It came in useful as I've tried everything else before and only this did the trick.
                        ____________________________________
                        Alexandra from led lights

                        Comment


                          #57
                          I have an Aqara door/window sensor on the door and a Philips Hue (white only) bulb in the overhead socket. This socket is always on as the pull chain broke, perfect timing. It also ends up being a repeater for some further away zigbee devices.

                          An event in HS4 controls the on/off of the light and a timer shuts off the light if it's on after 5 minutes. The closet is not a walk-in so no need for a motion sensor.

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X