Lights ON w/ Motion - Different Dim Levels for Time of Day

[randy]

If I believe that the future will be more automation (AI) not less and if a modern home is built without CAT cables in place I don't know what is So not to confuse the topic at hand, I think you could use the the double tap feature to call upon other events not lights oriented. I could be wrong but hey, there is no such thing as one size fits all.

It's just my prerogative


Eman.

Of course the scenes on a HomeSeer switch or dimmer can trigger any Event, so the sky's the limit with what you can do with 12 scenes available on HS-Wx200 series devices. We use multiple taps to put the house to sleep, wake it up, control power and change lighting scenes.

In most homes CAT cabling will be a thing of the past soon. It will all be RF.

[Alex_W]

In most homes CAT cabling will be a thing of the past soon. It will all be RF.

RF is certainly becoming the preferred method of data transmission for many applications, despite its many shortcomings. Lennar Homes is abandoning traditional structured wiring for a "mostly" DIY RF solution. But they are using Cat 6a cable to wire up to three Ruckus access points, one for a video doorbell and another to an electronics closet. There will still be RG6 coax run to primary TV locations. The primary reason for the change is to eliminate the need for a "custom installer". Obviously the folks at CEDIA are none too thrilled about this turn of events (ask Walt Zerbe), but DIY solutions are more than adequate for most users and professional custom installers have had very little success penetrating the mid-priced housing market anyway. Physical connection is still far superior to RF in terms of performance,reliability and security. Physical media has far greater bandwidth, fewer failure points, and it can be easily isolated. For these and other reasons I think cabling will be around for a long time, especially at the high-end of the market. In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote part of the TIA/EIA standard for residential low-voltage wiring.

My personal rule is to use cable where I can and RF where I must. My surveillance system is isolated on a separate subnet from the rest of my devices and all IP cameras are hard-wired. The wireless devices I do use are not able to access the Internet (LAN only). The Android devices I use as touchscreens have no SIM cards installed. The two mobile phone I have are old flip-phones with no data or text capability. They are kept in our cars for emergency use and stored in stainless steel cocktail shakers (Faraday cages) in the cupholders. My home phones are hardwired to a VoIP hub.

Wireless is a sucking chest wound when it comes to security. When I taught data security, we used to say that one of the primary defenses against data breach was having nothing worth stealing. This is no longer the case. By implementing strategies that can lock users out of their own data it is no longer a matter of what the data is worth on the open market, but rather what the data is worth to the victim. Brilliant!

I believe that the popularity of wireless communication is partly a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of its vulnerabilities. But what do I know?

[mylestec]

.....With HomeSeer scene capable switches......

I tried using those switches for scenes. The problem I couldn't get past, even with HS tech support, was to minimize the lag between the last multi-tap and the actuation of the scene. I wound up replacing them with Quad WallMotes. Although they are less intuitive for someone whom hasn't seen them before, they serve the purpose and also have a relatively high WAF. I understand there is a drawback if HS goes down and/or the WallMotes loose their charge. However, one of the things automation helps us solve is the elimination of large clusters of wall switches. This house was originally built in '53 and was poorly electrically renovated in the 70's. They added clusters of 3 way switches EVERYWHERE! The WallMotes and associated in-box devices clean up the walls and look like we've finally brought the house into the 21st century.

Alex... not sure I subscribe to your belief that automation devalues a property. I've recently rented our previous single family residence which we had put a Wink hub with connected bulbs, Lutron Caseta switches, and a few smart outlets into. The fact we had some sort of automation system drove a few rental offers according to our real estate agent. That said, the HS system in my current residence is turning into something much more complicated. The trick will be maintaining some type of backup functionality for the day when either the HS SEL, or the Deconz Raspberry Pi dies.

Thanks again for all of your help guys.... Randy... I'll have a look at your posts to see if there is something I can adapt to disable and re-enable motion control. I have a Honeywell (Jasco) dimmer which isn't scene capable in that room. Not sure if a manual activation of the up/on button could be set to disable motion and vice-versa, a bottom tap of the down/off button could be set to re-enable it, But for now.... onto non-automation things like baseboards and trim ugh!

-brandon

[Alex_W]

I tried using those switches for scenes. The problem I couldn't get past, even with HS tech support, was to minimize the lag between the last multi-tap and the actuation of the scene. I wound up replacing them with Quad WallMotes. Although they are less intuitive for someone whom hasn't seen them before, they serve the purpose and also have a relatively high WAF. I understand there is a drawback if HS goes down and/or the WallMotes loose their charge. However, one of the things automation helps us solve is the elimination of large clusters of wall switches. This house was originally built in '53 and was poorly electrically renovated in the 70's. They added clusters of 3 way switches EVERYWHERE! The WallMotes and associated in-box devices clean up the walls and look like we've finally brought the house into the 21st century.

Alex... not sure I subscribe to your belief that automation devalues a property. I've recently rented our previous single family residence which we had put a Wink hub with connected bulbs, Lutron Caseta switches, and a few smart outlets into. The fact we had some sort of automation system drove a few rental offers according to our real estate agent. That said, the HS system in my current residence is turning into something much more complicated. The trick will be maintaining some type of backup functionality for the day when either the HS SEL, or the Deconz Raspberry Pi dies.

Thanks again for all of your help guys.... Randy... I'll have a look at your posts to see if there is something I can adapt to disable and re-enable motion control. I have a Honeywell (Jasco) dimmer which isn't scene capable in that room. Not sure if a manual activation of the up/on button could be set to disable motion and vice-versa, a bottom tap of the down/off button could be set to re-enable it, But for now.... onto non-automation things like baseboards and trim ugh!

-brandon

I feel your pain regarding the 1970's wiring. Many people don't realize that the NEC was different then and that a neutral wire was not required in every lighting switch box. Given that there are five ways to wire a 3-way switch and eight ways to wire a 4-way switch (many of which do not provide a neutral in the switch box) retrofitting smart device can be quite a challenge.

I suppose attitudes are changing regarding automation as more and more younger buyers enter the housing market. I suspect it depends on the area of the country in which one lives and the sophistication of the market. One of my near-term goals is upgrading my device to allow associations to function with or without HS. Fortunately, I only have a few areas where that is an issue.

FWIW, I've used non-scene capable Jasco switches in virtual 3-way circuits and the results were marginal. The devices would usually function eventually, but there was often a significant lag.

Good luck. Let us know how you work it out.

[randy]

I tried using those switches for scenes. The problem I couldn't get past, even with HS tech support, was to minimize the lag between the last multi-tap and the actuation of the scene.

I don’t know what you’re expecting, but the switches need about 1-2 seconds to determine the tap count. Our Events trigger immediately once the scene is reported to HS, so the lag is only 1-2 seconds from the last button push. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the lag and we have dozens of scenes triggered by multi tap and press and hold.

[mylestec]

I don’t know what you’re expecting, but the switches need about 1-2 seconds to determine the tap count. Our Events trigger immediately once the scene is reported to HS, so the lag is only 1-2 seconds from the last button push. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the lag and we have dozens of scenes triggered by multi tap and press and hold.

Yea.... my wife complained immediately... kind of a bummer because I had plans to use those multi-color LEDs for indications. The WallMotes are nearly instantaneous except for my kitchen lights, but I think that is because they have dated 120v - 12v transformers that take a while to provide the voltage to the LED replacement lights.