Monition sensors and lights issue

Hi All,

Just thought I’d ask the forum for the answer to this as I’ll be waiting for support far too long.

Question: I have an AeonLabs 6 multisensor and a ST power outlet which is plugged into a lamp. When the multisensor detects monition it switches on the outlet (providing its after sunset) and all works perfectly. BUT after 10 minutes (the amount of time I set for the outlet to remain on) it switches off, you then have to do a dance to get it back on again.

Is there no way for ST to keep resetting the 10 minute timer every time it detections motion. Rather than counting down to 0 then waiting for motion again? Its a bit annoying but if there is a way I could turn the timer down to just a couple of minutes so that the lamp goes off sooner after we leave the room.

Kraeg

Email support@smartthings.co.uk - they can help UK customers and are not quite as delayed as the .com team. Also, they are better looking.

There has been a bug in Smart Lighting that may be causing this. You could use Rule Machine to do this automation, and it doesn’t have that bug.

The Condition would be motion-active; the Actions for True would be turn-on-outlet; the Actions for False would be turn-off-outlet after x minute delay, cancellable.

Typically, you shouldn’t need more than about 5 minutes to keep the lights on from motion, in many rooms only 2 minutes does it. Sort of depends on the room and the position of the motion sensor.

Hey @bravenel, what’s the “cancellable” part of the action?

I’ve been using Rule Machine for most of my rules, but NOT for my lights that turn on with motion and off after x minutes. That’s because the SmartApp I use for that has a nice feature: if the light is toggled off and on while the countdown timer is active then the countdown timer is stopped.

Just wondering if that is what “cancellable” would do?

“Cancellable” means that the timer will be killed if that rule changes truth state before it’s run out. So you can use this for a simple motion-on/off lighting automation:

condition: motion active; rule: motion active; action for true: turn on light; action for false: turn off light delayed 3 minutes pending cancellation.

What happens is that when motion begins, the light turns on. When motion stops, the rule becomes false, and the timer to turn of the lights starts counting. But if motion starts again before 3 minutes, the rule becomes true, so the timer is cancelled. The next time motion stops, the whole cycle starts over again, with the timer starting. Eventually the timer makes it to 3 minutes without any motion, and the lights turn off. As one would want it to work.

I just got a Fibaro motion detector. I have RM setup and it turns the lights on fine. I’m following exactly what you said here to turn the lights off after 3 minutes, but they never turn off. If I set the Action for False to turn the lights off without the “Delay These Actions” parameter, they go off immediately. I have Cancel on truth change on. Any thoughts what might be preventing the lights from going off?

@rpittser has this been happening for the past 48 hours? Or longer?

Only reason I ask is SmartThings seems to be having issues at the moment so that might be why its happening.

Kraeg

Yes, past 24 hours. Perhaps that is the reason. I’m trying to just let it “settle in” today and see how it works when I get home tonight.