Lights dim up when someone is there, dims down when no motion

I’ve been trying to setup the following situation with SmartLight and the SmartThings app but with no luck. So I need some community help:

When the house enters Night Mode, I want to kitchen lights to be at 10% light output, but when someone enters the kitchen and the motion sensor sees it, the lights should go up to 60%.

But the lights should go back to 10% when there is no action in the kitchen. And it’s the last part I can’t make happen. I can have the lights turn on at 10%, go to 60% when action, but I can’t see a option to go back to 10% when there’s no motion. My only option is turning them off entirely.

Is there a smarter way to do this?

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There is an option in Smart Lighting to do this. Just do separate rules

turn on and set level with motion - End rule

Turn on and set level with no motion after this many minutes - end rule

I hadn’t thought about doing this before but I like the idea a lot!

If that doesn’t work (which for me it didn’t) you can create a new mode called Night Action, set by a routine which would bring your lights to 60% when “Things Start Happening”. Then another routine to put your home back in Night Mode, when “Things Quiet Down.” It is more work to set up, but it has been working flawlessly for me…

I’ll try both options out!

SmartThings doesn’t support gradual movement from 60% to 10% light right? The jump can feel a bit drastic, so going there step by step would be better.

I don’t think there is a option for “Turn On after X Minutes of No Motion”. There’s only a “Motion Stops” which is immediate.

Sorry, but I do have the option

BIG, BIG caution on using this! I tried it on Saturday and things went crazy afterwards with all of my lights. It could just be pure coincidence, but I wouldn’t venture trying it at least for now until poltergeist is caught…

I love this idea. Wonder why I never thought of it before. I am going to try this in my house tonight as well.

Ashutosh! My friend! You sure you want to invite the poltergeist to your house?

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LOL!! Why not… Life’s been very boring lately… Time to spice it up a little …:smile:

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Do you really want to jeopardize your SAF? LOL, try the routine way, more work to set it up, but no poltergeist potential…

It was. I’ve been using this for a long time with no poltergeists.

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I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now so I am excited to see I will not have to write any custom code. My scenario is a bit more complicated:

My front door lights turn on dimmed at 10% (2 x 120W LED PAR38) at sunset and turn off at sunrise using the new Lighting Automation. I installed an AEON MultiSensor Gen 5 pointing down at my front door to capture motion. The idea was to set the lights to 100% when motion is detected and then back to whatever the dim level was once X minutes have passed (or no motion).

One issue is that the sensor chugged through the batteries in a day or two which may be connected to AEON stating that motion has to be disabled if this sensor is installed outside… I also have a Fibaro sensor but the bracket to install it is so flimsy I am not sure I want to install it outside in the heat/cold using it. I also need to find a way to make the sensor less sensitive to plants moving due to wind in case it is triggering the sensor (I believe regular PIR sensors are not triggered by moving plants but I am unsure about these latter two sensors).

I am not using any Routines at this time.

Any ideas on how I can tell ST to increase lights to 100% if motion is detected and dim them back to previous dim setting when motion stops or X minutes pass without motion - IF - the lights are on in the first place?

@aruffell, I do something very similar in my kitchen using 3 different Smart Lighting Automations:

  1. Turn ON lights and set level to 10% when mode changes to Home - Night (you could do this at sunset)
  2. Turn ON lights and set level to 100% when motion STARTS
  3. Turn ON lights and set level to 10% when motion STOPS +1 minute

My lights all turn off when the “Good Night!” routine runs, but since you aren’t running routines you could add a fourth automation to turn the light off at sunrise.

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What hardware I need beside smart switch in order to motion trigger to dim up and/or dim down. Do I need smart switch AND a motion sensor ? I got Lutron dimmable light switch currently installed

Thanks
Moe