So, I’m about to have some outdoor lighting installed, and rather than it just having a dumb PIR, I’d like to get smartthings to enable smartphone control/rules etc.
For each set of lighting (say, 3 lights at the front and same at the back), I want to be able to smart control of completely off, sensor controlled (via a dumb PIR) and always on.
I’ve ordered the SmartThings starter kit, and now I’m just looking for relays that will do the smart bit. A lot of threads (like this one) refer to the Fibaro FGS-222.
I just wondered if I’m going in the right direction with zwave relays?
Where’s good to purchase relays from? They’re about £50 from Amazon, if this is a decent price?
I have a single security light connected to a dumb pir. The power is supplied via a standard wall plug in my garage. I connected a single node switch between plug and socket. The single node switch detects power change. Thanks to a member in the forums an app was created to detect and notify on power change. So when the pir detects movement the security light comes on, the change in power from 0.5w to 30w triggers an alert from the switch to smartthings app. This is also announced via my sonos speakers. A basic solution that works perfectly. No need for complicating matters with hard to find relays. I could also set the single node switch to power down and up if needed via schedule but i dont feel its necessary as the dumb pir simply sleeps at 0.5w when not in use
Hopefully that link will work. Using phone to hop around so not sure what works . Its the thread in which Cobra creates the app for dumb pir use
It really depends exactly what you want to do.
The app I wrote for @fido was so that he could know when the dumb pir had picked up movement. I did this by sensing the increase in load as registered on the smartplug he has his external pir/light plugged in to. (It then speaks a message through his sonos speaker(s) )
In your case if you want the ability to have more than on/off control then I would probably go with the relay.
This way it could be wired & configured to work with the pir and also a manual switch to be able to turn it off or on regardless of the activation of the Pir.
One thing to be aware of is that you need to get your sparky to make sure there is a neutral where you want to place the relay.
In the UK we don’t normally have neutrals in light switches - just suply and load on the live side.
You will also need a little more complex app to control everything or use webcore.
If you just want to have smartthings react to pir picking up movement and be able to turn it on/off then a smartplug is probably easier.
One a final note… @fido MJ I appreciate the ‘plug’
