This post is created with the hope of explaining different approaches to motion control as well as differences in motion control devices.
The first thing to consider is how your motion detector works. Motion detectors use Passive Infrared (IR) technology, usually referred to as PIR. They detect motion by recognizing changes in the infrared energy radiated within their field of view (FOV). IR energy of a human or a pet is going to be different than that of surrounding items, so a motion event will be triggered if an animal or human moves within the FOV of the sensor. For the sensor to report motion, there has to be a change in the IR within the FOV of the sensor. A human entering the FOV will trigger motion detection, but if that human becomes stationary within the FOV, the sensor will no longer detect a change in IR and will no longer report motion detection even though the area is still occupied. The sensitivity adjustment of the sensor determines the amount of change in IR energy required to trigger motion detection. This will usually affect how close to the device a human or pet has to be in order to trigger motion. This setting can be via a physical control on the device or with a parameter change within the device in HomeSeer.
All sensors use the same method of detection and will report motion as soon as a human or pet creates sufficient change in the IR "signature" to trigger it. The way they change to "no motion" varies substantially among devices. Most hardwired devices tied into a security panel will report motion as soon as they are triggered and no motion as soon as there are no longer changes detected within their FOV. Many wireless devices have an adjustment for motion timeout. This setting determines how long after there is no longer a change detected by the sensor that it reports no motion. If this setting is 60 seconds and you walk through the FOV of the sensor it will report motion, the 60 seconds later it will report no motion. If you move within the FOV of the sensor it will report motion and you stay within its range and continue to move it will not report no motion until 60 seconds after all motion within range of the sensor has ceased. If you walk through the FOV of the sensor, then 58 seconds later walk through again, the no motion report will be 60 seconds after the second time you pass through. In other words any motion that occurs within the timeout window set for the device will start the timeout clock over.
The way your motion detector behaves needs to be understood and taken into account as you design your motion events. If you're not sure how they work, open up a browser and monitor the device in the HS3 Device Manager and see how it behaves. Create motion then leave the area and see how long it takes to go to no motion. That will tell you the delay. After that you can decide which of the different approaches below are best for your use. To begin with, below is a basic ON by motion event.
Event 1
This event will turn the light on as soon as motion is detected. Using the condition AND IF First Floor Kitchen Kitchen Overhead Light has a value equal to off is just a practice to keep an event from triggering if the light (or other device) is already on.
If you are using a Z-Wave or other motion detector that has a programmable time out you can set this delay to determine how long the lights stay on after all motion has ceased. Below is an event that will turn the light back off when there is no motion reported. With this event you set the timeout on the motion detector to determine how long after motion ceases before the device sends a no motion report. If you set the timeout to 5 minutes, the lights will go out as soon as you leave the room. If you are continually moving in the room the light will stay on. If you are in the room but are not moving enough to trigger the PIR sensor, the lights will go out at the end of the motion timeout you have programmed.
Event 2
The above event will not work with wired PIRs or devices that do not allow you to set an motion off delay.
If you don't want to or cannot set the delay for the lights to turn off in the device itself, another way to have the lights go off after a set period of time is to add a delayed action to turn the lights off in the "On by Motion" event. Below adds a simple delayed action to turn the lights off 5 minutes after they are turned on by trigger.
Event 3
The problem with the above event is that even if you continue to trigger motion by moving within the range of the sensor, the lights will still turn off 5 minutes after the first motion was detected. They will turn back on if you move around, but only after they first turn off.
Below is an event that will start the 5 minute timer over each time motion is detected. You will note that the condition of the light being off had to be removed because it would keep this event from working as planned. With that condition the event would not re-trigger until the light was off.
Event 4
The above event will work perfectly with wired motion detectors or if you are able to set the timeout on your motion detector to 0. Most Z-Wave devices will set as low as 1 second, but they still are often unable to send a motion detected command for up to a minute. This approach can present two different problems
One solution is to move the OFF control to a second event that will trigger whenever the motion detector sends a no motion command.
Event 5
The above simple OFF event will work just fine, except it provides no means of resetting the delayed off action if it is triggered again. Just like the ON event above in Event 4 we can add a an action to cancel the delayed device action each time the event runs, then create a fresh delayed device action for 5 minutes later. You would couple it with a simple ON event triggered by motion. The ON event also removes any Delayed Device actions in case you manually turn the light off and reenter the room before a delayed OFF action has triggered. The two events below are practically universal. They will work regardless of the type of motion detector, with or without delayed off setting. Each event will re-trigger with a change in value of the motion detector. Fresh motion in the room will remove the delayed Off action. Re-triggering the "OFF by Motion" sets a fresh delayed device action to turn the light off.
Event 6a & b
Any of the ON events can be set to only trigger at night by adding a condition "IF The Time is Nighttime". There is no need to add that condition to the OFF events. The reason you wouldn't want to add the condition to the OFF event is that in all likelihood you want the lights to go out as soon as the room is vacant regardless of the time of day. Additionally it is possible that the light may be triggered on at nighttime and the off trigger could come at daytime, if you triggered motion early in the morning.
Event 1
[b]
The above descriptions have presented three different approaches to automatically control lights by motion. The goal is to get you to think about the best approach based upon the type of motion detector you use and what your goals are for the type of motion that will take place in the zone.
The sad thing is there is nothing you can do to have the lights stay on if the room is occupied, but there is not enough motion to keep resetting the delay timer. As a means of remedying that problem I put together a post using Events 6a & 6b along with some other events to illustrate a motion controlled lighting system that can be defeated for times when you want the lights to stay on or not be triggered on by motion. That thread is here.
The first thing to consider is how your motion detector works. Motion detectors use Passive Infrared (IR) technology, usually referred to as PIR. They detect motion by recognizing changes in the infrared energy radiated within their field of view (FOV). IR energy of a human or a pet is going to be different than that of surrounding items, so a motion event will be triggered if an animal or human moves within the FOV of the sensor. For the sensor to report motion, there has to be a change in the IR within the FOV of the sensor. A human entering the FOV will trigger motion detection, but if that human becomes stationary within the FOV, the sensor will no longer detect a change in IR and will no longer report motion detection even though the area is still occupied. The sensitivity adjustment of the sensor determines the amount of change in IR energy required to trigger motion detection. This will usually affect how close to the device a human or pet has to be in order to trigger motion. This setting can be via a physical control on the device or with a parameter change within the device in HomeSeer.
All sensors use the same method of detection and will report motion as soon as a human or pet creates sufficient change in the IR "signature" to trigger it. The way they change to "no motion" varies substantially among devices. Most hardwired devices tied into a security panel will report motion as soon as they are triggered and no motion as soon as there are no longer changes detected within their FOV. Many wireless devices have an adjustment for motion timeout. This setting determines how long after there is no longer a change detected by the sensor that it reports no motion. If this setting is 60 seconds and you walk through the FOV of the sensor it will report motion, the 60 seconds later it will report no motion. If you move within the FOV of the sensor it will report motion and you stay within its range and continue to move it will not report no motion until 60 seconds after all motion within range of the sensor has ceased. If you walk through the FOV of the sensor, then 58 seconds later walk through again, the no motion report will be 60 seconds after the second time you pass through. In other words any motion that occurs within the timeout window set for the device will start the timeout clock over.
The way your motion detector behaves needs to be understood and taken into account as you design your motion events. If you're not sure how they work, open up a browser and monitor the device in the HS3 Device Manager and see how it behaves. Create motion then leave the area and see how long it takes to go to no motion. That will tell you the delay. After that you can decide which of the different approaches below are best for your use. To begin with, below is a basic ON by motion event.
Event 1
This event will turn the light on as soon as motion is detected. Using the condition AND IF First Floor Kitchen Kitchen Overhead Light has a value equal to off is just a practice to keep an event from triggering if the light (or other device) is already on.
If you are using a Z-Wave or other motion detector that has a programmable time out you can set this delay to determine how long the lights stay on after all motion has ceased. Below is an event that will turn the light back off when there is no motion reported. With this event you set the timeout on the motion detector to determine how long after motion ceases before the device sends a no motion report. If you set the timeout to 5 minutes, the lights will go out as soon as you leave the room. If you are continually moving in the room the light will stay on. If you are in the room but are not moving enough to trigger the PIR sensor, the lights will go out at the end of the motion timeout you have programmed.
Event 2
The above event will not work with wired PIRs or devices that do not allow you to set an motion off delay.
If you don't want to or cannot set the delay for the lights to turn off in the device itself, another way to have the lights go off after a set period of time is to add a delayed action to turn the lights off in the "On by Motion" event. Below adds a simple delayed action to turn the lights off 5 minutes after they are turned on by trigger.
Event 3
The problem with the above event is that even if you continue to trigger motion by moving within the range of the sensor, the lights will still turn off 5 minutes after the first motion was detected. They will turn back on if you move around, but only after they first turn off.
Below is an event that will start the 5 minute timer over each time motion is detected. You will note that the condition of the light being off had to be removed because it would keep this event from working as planned. With that condition the event would not re-trigger until the light was off.
Event 4
The above event will work perfectly with wired motion detectors or if you are able to set the timeout on your motion detector to 0. Most Z-Wave devices will set as low as 1 second, but they still are often unable to send a motion detected command for up to a minute. This approach can present two different problems
- If you have a long timeout on your motion detector, it becomes problematic. Let's say you have the timeout set for 2 minutes and the off delay at 5 minutes, you must trigger motion again AFTER 2 minutes and BEFORE 5 minutes or the lights will go off with you in the room. If your motion doesn't fall within those narrow constraints the lights may go out while you are in the room.
- This event is also problematic if you are continually moving in the room and you have any timeout at all on the motion sensor. It may never go to no motion, which means it will never re-trigger the event, resetting the delayed off timer. The end result is that the lights will go off on you while you are moving around in the room.
One solution is to move the OFF control to a second event that will trigger whenever the motion detector sends a no motion command.
Event 5
The above simple OFF event will work just fine, except it provides no means of resetting the delayed off action if it is triggered again. Just like the ON event above in Event 4 we can add a an action to cancel the delayed device action each time the event runs, then create a fresh delayed device action for 5 minutes later. You would couple it with a simple ON event triggered by motion. The ON event also removes any Delayed Device actions in case you manually turn the light off and reenter the room before a delayed OFF action has triggered. The two events below are practically universal. They will work regardless of the type of motion detector, with or without delayed off setting. Each event will re-trigger with a change in value of the motion detector. Fresh motion in the room will remove the delayed Off action. Re-triggering the "OFF by Motion" sets a fresh delayed device action to turn the light off.
Event 6a & b
Any of the ON events can be set to only trigger at night by adding a condition "IF The Time is Nighttime". There is no need to add that condition to the OFF events. The reason you wouldn't want to add the condition to the OFF event is that in all likelihood you want the lights to go out as soon as the room is vacant regardless of the time of day. Additionally it is possible that the light may be triggered on at nighttime and the off trigger could come at daytime, if you triggered motion early in the morning.
Event 1
[b]
The above descriptions have presented three different approaches to automatically control lights by motion. The goal is to get you to think about the best approach based upon the type of motion detector you use and what your goals are for the type of motion that will take place in the zone.
The sad thing is there is nothing you can do to have the lights stay on if the room is occupied, but there is not enough motion to keep resetting the delay timer. As a means of remedying that problem I put together a post using Events 6a & 6b along with some other events to illustrate a motion controlled lighting system that can be defeated for times when you want the lights to stay on or not be triggered on by motion. That thread is here.
Comment