It would help if you would describe in more detail precisely what you want to have happen that you can’t make happen.
Modes are one way to do things like this, not the only way. I would offer the observation that if there are two different things you want to happen (lights on with motion then off after no motion, and lights stay on), there will have to be some manual intervention to cause the change. That can be a switch. Obviously, code written to suppress motion BEFORE it has triggered won’t work. So what manual thing do you want to do to push the system into its second form?
I had a house guest (with two babies), who wanted to prevent a hall light from going on with motion, so as to not have the light awaken the babies. Simple app allowed this: if the light was turned off with the switch, it would stay off until it was on again and allowed to turn off from the no-motion turn-off. That was a variation on a theme. Sounds like you need another variation on the same theme.
I’m new to the Community. I have a related question that I’m sure is a stupid one, but I can’t find an answer on previous posts. I’m looking for a functional Vacancy Sensor. To be clear, I differentiate this from an Occupancy Sensor, as follows: An occupancy sensor detects motion and turns on a light (or whatever), and then turns it off if no motion is detected after a set period of time. A vacancy sensor does not turn on the light when motion is detected the first time, but if the light is manually turned on, it will automatically turn off if no motion is detected after a period of time.
I’m currently using SmartLighting to do this, which works correctly, as described above, if I only enable the “turn light off when motion is not detected” options. What is missing is a way to re-trigger the light to turn back on if it incorrectly turns off when I’m still in the room. With a standard “non-smart” Vacancy Sensor light switch, there is a short period of time after the light automatically turns off, when you can wave your arms around, and it turns back on. I can’t figure out how to make this happen with SmartThings.
To clarify, if I set a light to both automatically turn on with motion, and off when motion stops (a classic Occupancy Sensor function), then the problem I described above is fixed (i.e. if the light turns off, leaving me in the dark, I can wave my arms and the motion is detected and turns the lights back on). So, the problem is not a lag in my system or my sensors. It’s just that the app doesn’t allow for this short time to re-trigger the lights when it accidentally turns off.
I can’t believe I’m the first person to want this function, but I can’t find it. Can you help?