HomeSeer & Motion/Occupancy detectors

[rsisson]

I have a quandry...

I have Pets, and and I have some areas I want to monitor for Occupancy to control lights and such.

I have Both the extremely Dumb Haweyes and the better MS10A supervised secure motion detectors.

I am slowly replacing the Haweyes as they just aren't relyable and in high activity areas eat batteries and don't tell you when they are dying.

The MS10's are much more reliable, last longer, but still don't tell you when the batteries are going dead....

I want to go WIRED but have some issues...

#1 I need a Contact-Closure >> USB >> HomeSeer device that has more than 2-3 inputs. I am trying to get rid of my powerflashes as well... and the 8-channel powerflash looked good, but I am slowly going to UPB.

#2 I have an Ademco Vista 20 panel, but it is limited it what it will send out, again it is X10...

#3 I want some "pet immune" motions, preferably dual technology as I am tiered of reading the paper and having the lights go out...

#4 ..is there such a thing as a Pet imune OCCUPANCY detector, that uses IR/Microwave Motion to trigger initially and then uses ultrasonic to KEEP triggering..but sound won't START the cycle, only maintain it?

I guess I am looking for a small, very simple alarm panel that has good communication with HomeSeer via USB/serial/Enet and is relatively inexpensive...

Thoughts PLEASE

Bob
66 total devices, 37- X10 devices, 37 Events, Home Made RFID for the car, directional driveway sensors, Net Cams, Winamp controls, Ademco interface, and more...

[completelyhis]

I accomplished what you're talking about with standard PIR motions and a secu16 i/o. if you don't have that though it may be cheaper to go with a cheap panel like DSC or something. There are powerflash equivilent upb devices, but they are quite spendy, and if you were willing to spend that much $ i'd recommend the ocelot + secu16 i/o

Ian

[rmasonjr]

I have a lot of hawkeyes and 2 cats. Finding the perfect placement is definitely a challenge with pets. I find that only detecting motion during 'awake' hours works well for me, because the cats will roam the house at night and thats when I dont want lights coming on

I have to mount my detectors at 'human level' which then moves into the WAF factor since she doesnt want them to be visible. Some of my detectors have black tape on the inside of the 'eye' to isolate motion more accurately. Even with all of this work, the cats still sometimes trip a sensor. We have learned to work around it.

[Uncle Michael]

Depending on the type of pet you have, it may be difficult to find a truly pet immune detector. I found that a moderate sized cat climbing on a counter or piece of furniture in front of a "pet immune" PIR would trip it, no matter how carefully it was adjusted. I guess a small warm body moving close to a detector is difficult to distinguish from a large warm body further away.

I eventually found that carefully chosen conditions on when motion detect can turn on a light was an effective solution for us.