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Devices & Integrations
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Starting to get really tired of waving at the motion sensor to let it know “I am still here”. Have a motion sensor setup in my den (converted dining room) that turns lights on with motion and off after 5 minutes with no movement. Well, sitting at the computer I apparently not dancing around in my chair enough. Getting VERY tiresome having to have the lights go out, especially at night, and I am having to wave for 5 seconds or so to get ST to turn them back on…every 5 minutes.

Aside from extending the no motion delay, anyone have thought of how to work around this issue, such as maybe a virtual switch that prevents motion from turning lights off? IE (“turn lights off when no motion for 5 minutes AND ‘I’m Working’ virtual switch is not on”)

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@jody.albritton

Did you ever come up with a solution you were talking about in this thread?

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Or just set up an ‘I’m working mode’, and set the SmartApp to work in all modes other than that one.

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Yeah. It’s a fairly crude solution. I just have a script running on my local machine that flips a virtual tile on and off based on the screensaver state. My main computer is ubuntu and I have the code if that would help you.

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That is a great idea Scott. I have known about the modes feature, but never thought of a use for it. So simple a solution. It would be nice for ST (and IFTTT) to allow multiple conditions to be applied at some point. But in the interim your idea will work. Thank you.

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This is possible with SmartThings now, but in many cases it involves getting your fingers between the fan blades and creating/modifying a SmartApp. Hopefully we will soon see some form of interface for applying logic using multiple states and events without forcing the user to code it for themselves.

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Motion sensors are not meant to be occupancy sensors. They function differently.

Get a good occupancy sensor and your problems go away.

Otherwise you can always add in geofencing into the equation and a schedule, maybe even light readings.

If motion, turn light on

If presence is true, keep light on

If light level is below x, keep light on (or even turn light up to desired light level)

If after 10pm and no motion, no pressence, turn light off

Automation is hard to program, because we don’t have the ability, yet, to learn our habits or even detect individuals, just trip sensors.

Eventually things will get smarter and start to learn what we want, for now we have to tell it.

Most of my room based automation is based on double tapping a light switch or a macro button (or both) to trigger what I want to happen in the room, based on time of day.

For example, if I’m in the living room, its after sunset, close to my standard bedtime or after and I issue a room off command from my remote, it turns on the lights all the way to the bedroom at 10% and programmatically turns them off behind me as I go to bed.

Same thing for the kitchen late night get ups… I can tap a lightswitch in my bedroom that if after 10pm will light the hallway at 10%, allow me to get to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and after about 15 minutes turn off all the lights once I’m back in bed.

Add motion to these, and based on schedules it can keep the lights on longer, reset timers, etc.

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One method to help determine intent is the state of other devices. For instance, if I am headed upstairs after 10pm, AND my audio amplifiers are off, it is almost a certainty that I am retiring for the night.

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What about just attaching half a Multi to the computer chair itself and using the “turn on when door is opened” command? That might spam the switch with ‘on’ commands and ensure it stays on. Not very elegant, but you don’t have to code either. If that doesn’t work, you could do something similar with the “Washing Machine Done” app, but that has built-in push notifications. ST Multis are pretty sensitive. Then you could use the motion detector somewhere else.

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ibeacon micro location…