Lighting automation ST v3 and hive lights problem, please help!

Hi All,
I am at the end of my tether and about to send all smartthings back… Here is the situation
I have a number of Hive spot lights and bulbs, not the colourful ones, and I have connected them directly to the ST hub, latest, version 3 purchased about 2 weeks ago. They are all detected as a generic GRB… bulbs and in the controls they have the colour control which I guess is due to the generic device handler. May be this is the problem… but…
I also have ST motion sensors, purchased also at the same time. So here is what I have tried so far.

I have various automations and they all seem to have the same behaviour.

Automation X, based on motion
Between hours of X and Y, turn lights on at 50%. Between X and Y turn on at 80%, etc…
I have another automation based on no motion
If not motion is detected after 3 min, turn lights off.

The problem
If I sit in the area of detection and keep moving but pause to, say, put my shoes on, and then start moving again, at some points the lights will turn off. I suspect it’s due to motion stopped and the 3 minute counter starts. This is fine but then I would expect that as soon as I move again, the lights will come on. Unfortunately this is not the case. No matter how much I wave at the sensor, the lights would not come on. If, however, I move away from the sensor detection areas for a significant time, say something like 10 seconds or more, and then show myself at the sensor again, the lights would turn on. This exact same behaviour happens if I put this automation directly in the lights, so rather than using automations I do the above logic at the lights…
So I lost my patience and decided to go to the lighting SmartApp… that is even weirder than the above. I setup everything to mirror the above automations and … waiving at the sensors does nothing. I try with time restrictions, days of the week, nothing. Lights just don’t come one. But… I decided to add a TP link smart plug to the SmartApp, so when motion is detected, turn lights on and the TP link plug. And boom! Lights come one. I remove the plug, lights don’t come on.

WT*!!!

I am at the end of my tether and am considering returning the ST hub and sensors but thought I’d ask the community. Anyone any idea? I don’t have any other smart lights to try this with… may be it’s the hive lights or the DH for the hive lights? Or…

Please help!
Many thanks

I have some Iris V2 sensors that perform in a similar fashion. If I am in the area standing still and the lights go out there is a delay before they will show activity again. I can wave at them and nothing will happen for about 10 or so seconds. That being said if the automation is working correctly once you start moving if the lights are still on then the three minute timer should be resetting and starting over. I keep my inactivity timers at around 5 minutes. So maybe increasing that time will help some.
I don’t use the new app automations I use webcore, so I can’t really say for sure the new automations work for these type of scenarios.

Perhaps if you posted a screen shot of one of your automations someone can see something you are missing.

@dnedeltchev, first of all regarding the RGB bulb recognition, you want to check this topic.

Then you want to change the DH for the bulb to Zigbee Dimmer, the you will not have the color control showed anymore.

Can you please provide some details that which model is it actually? A link or a correct model number would be good. But is it dimmable only or can you change white color temperature too?

What you are explaining in the first part, it is probably due to the motion sensor. These motion sensors are PIR sensors, they detect heat radiation (Passive InfraRed), actually the change in heat signatures. All these devices just to reduce battery consumption they tend to have blind periods after detecting motion. So you might see the effect of PIR, as the heat signature hasn’t change too much and the blind period too. You can check in the app what and when the sensor detects as motion, in the device page.

The second half of your issue is a good question, but I have a guess, as I have seen some similar complaints.

So when you defined the rules for the Hive Spotlight, you defined that you want to set brightness and turn on in the Smart Lighting SmartApp. Try to define a scene first with those settings and add the Scene only to the Smart Lighting rule, does it work that way? If yes, then there might be a bug in Smart Lighting.

(Are you using the new or the Classic app? I guess the new as a new v3 owner.)

Hi Mike,
Thank you for your reply. I did consider increasing the time out but then I’d simply revert back to manually turning lights on and off which seems to be more efficient from an energy saving point of view. But it’s something that I would try. However if you experience the same thing with other sensors then something else is wrong. Here is a picture of the automation where the timeout is in the actual automation, i.e. it will turn lights off rather than relying on a sensor trigger (no motion) to turn them off which would have been ideal. But doing it with a sensor trigger (no motion) or in the automation, makes no difference.

Hello Gabor,
Thank you for your reply.
I have seen that thread and this is why I started playing with different device handlers. I did try the Dimmer one and it does work but then I don’t have control over the colour temperature. The model of the bulbs is Hive Light Cool to Warm White smart GU10 bulb. But just for the sake of experimenting, I will try a different handler to see if it makes a difference.
I was actually thinking of using scenes in the Smart Lighting SmartApp but wasn’t sure if it would work. But I will try that too.
And yes, I am using the new app, not the classic one.
I was also thinking of getting some other smart spots just for testing to see if they will behave differently. I will try that next. But in general I think these are basic automations that should work. I wonder what will happen when I start to create complex stuff!
And thank you for the explanation regarding sensors. I suppose some basic sonoff sensor would probably do better, rather than the ST ones with temperature and so on?

There isn’t any Sonoff integration at the moment, only the new zigbee switch module. Any other Sonoff devices can be connected with flashed new firmwares and custom DHs.
The SmartThings motion sensor is one of the better ones.
For other spot lights you can try the IKEA ones they are quite cheap. The motion sensor is cheap too, but it has a 3 minutes blind period.
As you are mentioning the SmartThings motion sensor, that is quite quick and accurate, so your issue might be how PIR is working. If you stay still it would might not recognize easily your movement. They are mostly designed for reacting on people moving into the detection area.

Try the Zigbee White Color Temperature DH. That should give you white temperatures and dimming capabilities. It should be in the list.