Distinguish switch press event from HS3 setting the switch

[jayph]

My outside lights use a PIR motion sensor and HS light switch controlled through HS3. Automatic turning on and off was working fine thanks to information I gained from these forums. I recently noticed that if I manually turned on the lights they would automatically turn off due to no motion. My thought is if the lights are manually turned on, they should stay on, so I wrote some events to do this.

I found that the event which gets fired when I manually operate the switch also gets fired when HS3 activates the switch. There doesn't seem to be a way to distinguish between manual activation and HS3 activation of a switch, unless I am missing something. Any ideas?

I read some posts by Randy which uses a double tap on the switch and I could take that approach. I want to explore (and learn) all options first.

[randy]

You can incorporate the HS Central Scene to get around this or you can trick the motion sensor. Can you post screenshots of the Events that are involved so I can offer suggestions. I do this:


The second action sets the motion sensor's last change time to now, so that the Off Event starts over

[sparkman]

You could use a virtual device that is changed from the same event that controls the device. This virtual device does not change if controlled locally so then you could use the status of the virtual device as a condition for further events. When the switch becomes off (for whatever reason), you'd need an event to reset the virtual device. I use this approach for fans in bathrooms (turned on locally or by HS due to high humidity).

[jayph]

Thanks for the help Randy. Memory is fuzzy from last night. I want to test again before I post details, but contractors are flipping circuit breakers right now (unrelated to HA). I need to wait until they leave before I can reliably test. I'll post the details tonight.

[randy]

Thanks for the help Randy. Memory is fuzzy from last night. I want to test again before I post details, but contractors are flipping circuit breakers right now (unrelated to HA). I need to wait until they leave before I can reliably test. I'll post the details tonight.

Also Al's suggestion is a good one for general use in that it lets you determine that a device is controlled locally by virtue of knowing it was NOT set by an Event. The best use can be determined by how you are controlling the Off action. When you stated "I recently noticed that if I manually turned on the lights they would automatically turn off due to no motion", I was guessing that you are turning them Off when the PIR has been at "No Motion" for at least (or exactly) Xm, Xs.

[jayph]

Tried Sparkman's approach and it works exactly as I wanted. Thanks to both of you for your ideas.