MS14A (motion sensor) question

[Mr Spock]

This is my first use of a motion sensor, the well known X10 brand MS14A device. This is pretty basic stuff so I hope someone has experienced a workaround. I'm not using any motion plug-ins.

Goal:
Use this sensor to turn a hallway light on when someone walks by between certain hours. I want to turn the light off 30 seconds after activity has stopped. If activity continues for a long period of time (as in >30 seconds) or if someone walks through several times only turn the light off 30 seconds after the last trigger.

Current attempt:
To window the activation to be between certain hours I need to have a dedicated event, I can't use MS14's built-in light sensor. I have setup a device code for the sensor and another for the light. As can be seen in the event Action screen below, when the sensor triggers (using device status changed to on) it turns the light on, waits 30 seconds, and then turns it off. The problem is with re-triggering. The 30 second wait needs to re-trigger each time the MS14A transmits. It does not.

So I end up with the light flashing on and off with continuous activity. The MS14A retransmits on every 10 seconds (eventually starting several instances of the event) and the 30 second waits turn it off. Naturally this fills up the log file.

What is the right way to do this?

[Wadenut]

I'd use the "Device Status Change" trigger with status "Changed to Any" and any additional time of day conditions you want. In the action, run a script to perform the actions you want.. ie. If MS on then light on/If MS off then light off.
Using "Device Status Change", the event won't trigger unless your MS actually changes status Off-->On, or On-->Off.
Unfortunately however, I think the minimum on time for the MS14 is 60 seconds.

[Stuart]

I do the same thing in my cellar. one event turns on the light triggered by the motion. the second event turns off the light if it has been on 3 minutes. But I use the hs.setdevicetime "a16",0 when I turn on the light. As long as the time is reset before 3 minutes I dont get the on off on off etc... As Wadenut said it looks like 1 minute is the shortest time.

Stuart

[Mr Spock]

Wadenut
Your basically using the MS14 as the on/off controller as windowed by the time range I put in the trigger. The off control timing is limited by the times available within the MS14. As you mentioned though, 1 minute is the minimum. If the MS14 had an option for no off command issuance it would make this easier.

Stuart
Your using 2 events; one for on and another for off. This gives greater flexibility; the off time can be set by HS instead of the MS14. But it requires 2 events, something I'm trying to avoid if possible.

Is it possible to use a single event that would allow HS control of the off time? Can I control the re-triggering? Do I need a fancy script?

Thanks.

[Stuart]

try this as one event.

triggered by your motion (motion one code, light a separate code)
also my computer room light is q26 (zwave). motion is x10.


And you have the control of seconds this way.


Run script: &hs.removedelayedevent "q26",""
Device Command: computer Room light On
Run script: &hs.setdevicetime "q26", 0
Device Command: computer Room light Off Delay: 00:02:00

Thanks for asking as I think I may change a lot of my 2 event setups to
use one event now.

Stuart

[Tcassio]

Simple soultion

This is what I do woth no scripts. Very simple.

[Mr Spock]

Very nice guys. I've learned a new command: RemoveDelayedEvent. Note this does not work with the Wait command (as I had above), only with the delay function in Device Action.

So I'm trying to put it in one single script so I can control the log entries a bit better.

Do you know what the script command is for:

Device Command: computer Room light Off Delay: 00:02:00

Thanks.