The wife wants to use physical switches to control our bathroom lights. Go figure!
Can you guys help me with this?
Here’s the situation: There’s a SmartThings motion sensor in the bathroom that triggers our bathroom lighting (on Casesta switches). The ceiling cans are LED, so I don’t care how long they stay on, but the vanity fixtures are 300 watts of halogen, so I have them set to turn off after 3 minutes of no motion.
My wife wants to be able to adjust the light level from the automatic level at times (using the dimmer), but it doesn’t stay set. I’m thinking its probably when she adjusts the lighting and then goes to toilet with her phone and the vanity lights time out/turn off, and then she moves again, and the default program kicks in.
I was wondering there’s a way to say that once the physical switch has been adjusted to suspend the auto off and auto on functions until the switch is turned off (or X minutes has passed X > 15).
What smartapp do you have the automation setup in? One option is to include the switch being off in the condition for the Automation to turn on the light.
That works for the ceiling LED lights which have longer automatic shut off time.
But I’d like the 300 watt vanity light to auto shut off just 2minutes of no motion (which is a separate smart lighting app) . So If I use your helpful suggestion to only turn on and set their level if the switch is off, is there a way to defeat the auto 0ff if the switch has been manually adjusted?
I use a door sensor in conjunction with motion. If the door is closed I assume occupied and set a 30 min countdown (shower), if motion is detected it resets to 30 mins. If door is opened I go to a 3 min countdown then turn off the lights.
@JDRoberts@jkp Is there a way in Smart Lighting to equal a “stays” where it monitors state instead of just a simple shut off after 30 mins?
Edit: If you aren’t worried about switching between the 3 min timer and 30 min timer then you could just set an off after 30 mins from my above automation but in SL.
The few dollars a year saved is not worth ruining your marriage over… Set the timeout to 10 minutes and call it a day. Let her win this one!
In all seriousness, though… Can you use multiple motion detectors to create a ‘motion zone’, and then use that as the trigger for the vanity lighting? I have two motion detectors in our bathroom, one which trips as you pass through the threshold into the bathroom, and the other in the shower. If either are active, the vanity lights stay on, even though the doorway sensor is the only one that can turn the light on. The Shower sensor turns on the shower overhead light and the exhaust fan if someone stays in the shower for more than 2 minutes.
I’m more concerned about saving the planet (carbon) than saving dollars.
However, I think I figured it out:
Create 2 simulated switches: SimMotionTriggered and SimSwitchTriggered
Motion triggered smart lighting app sets SimMotionTriggered switch On, and turns on vanity light.
Automation triggered by Vanity light switch being turned on checks SimMotionTriggered. If SimMotionTriggered is off, then it sets SimSwitchTriggered On
Auto Vanity off also checks the SimSwitchTriggered is off before turning off the vanity light.
Automation triggered by vanity light switch being turned off (by other smart light app or switch) sets SimSwitchTriggered and SimMotionTriggered off.
and the vanity lights time out/turn off, and then she moves again, and the default program kicks in.
Set the timeout to 10 minutes and call it a day. Let her win this one!