there is a LED light? how do i turn it on? i did not think there was a setting for it…
I’m pretty sure that thing on the bottom is an LED light? It’s also a pull-out plug to disable the switch, but if it’s clear I’m assuming it also lights up.
It’s called an air gap, and just because it is clear does NOT mean it is also an LED. An air gap is NOT there to disable the switch. It is there to cut the power to the radio to reset it/ include it into your network.
Do you know for sure there’s not an LED behind it?
I know in every other Jasco/GE switch the LED is next to the air gap. The airgap is a plastic insulator that when pulled breaks the connection to the radio. You can actually take it completely out to change color.
I would assume making it clear is a cost cutting measure so they only have to include 1 instead of 3 different colored ones with every switch. Make it easier to identify for people that didn’t know what it was, where to find it.
Well, hopefully it’s an LED. I like LEDs.
There is a blue light that flashes when you make functional changes to the switch.
But I’m not sure there is a way to make it stay on. Its inside the middle of the switch where the motion sensor is located.
So it is probably like the " dumb " switches for bathrooms and stairwells that glow at night when turned off . I’ve had problems with those dumb switches before because the light in the paddle bled just enough power through to make the LED bulbs attached to the switch to flicker when the switch was off.
I created a device handler for the dimmer switch, should not be too hard to make one for the regular switch - Jasco/GE Motion Dimmer Switch 26933
Good start. I think i will wait a little bit with more reviews before i buy them.
Could you comment on the sensor itself? how wide does it detect?
The sensitivity on the sensor is really good. I think what sets these apart from other motion sensors is that they are hardwired so they are very fast to react to motion. Since there are 3 sensitivity levels you can probably get it to detect exactly what you need. At the highest setting it can detect my arm movement from about 10’ away, but the height keeps it from detecting my pets (med dog, large cat). My pets tend to trip other sensors.
I would say the sensitivity of the motion sensor is just “ok”. I haven’t actually spent time measuring the angle from the switch when motion is tripped - but I’ve found there’s really no point in setting the sensitivity to anything other than “high”.
For one of my applications, the switch is in a room that has an entry immediately next to the switch/sensor. I definitely have to pass well through the door for the switch to detect motion - so I would say that immediate lateral detection is not very good. Unfortunately, both of the switches I have are placed in rooms where I can’t walk toward them from a distance - so I can’t comment specifically on range.
Now all this said, I’m still fairly pleased with the switches overall. For my applications they accomplish most of what I was hoping for. The DTH @mlebaugh created is a good start to isolating the motion sensor from the switch itself - I’m hoping that eventually the illuminance sensor can be isolated as well (though I’m not confident it can be).
I do not think isolating the light sensor is possible. It was one of my initial hopes as well.
That’s unfortunate. I’ve found that the baked-in illuminance settings seem to consider anything outside of full sun-exposure “dim enough” to warrant turning the light on. I’ve got one switch in an office with a large South-facing window - and motion triggers the switch 24/7 with the light sensor enabled.
With the DTH you created, I ended up creating specific times that motion would trigger the light. Considering there is an on-board light sensor, it’s not ideal (changes in sunset time/daylight savings) - but it’s definitely workable. The DTH seems to be working well, and it’s very simple/straightforward (a good thing). Kudos and thank you.
If you are using CoRE (and the dimmer version) I just added the ability to toggle the mode there so you could set it to use the onboard occupancy only during certain times. You could also trigger that based on another lux sensor too.
My range is about 10-12 yards, could be more. My dogs very commonly set mine off, but I have mine set for 5s on time, so no big deal.
I have both set on highest sensitivity, and while it was initially “ok,” something happened (the settings I made finally took hold?) and now they’re both incredibly sensitive.
Bear in mind the set up sheet for sensitivity says “high” means “high amount of motion,” while “low” means “low level of motion,” so for high sensitivity you actually want it set to “low.” At least that was my interpretation and that’s what’s giving me the highest level of sensitivity.
This is interesting, and I’m going to have to try it out. I’ll admit I didn’t read into the settings past learning how to set the sensitivity to “high” - assuming that “high” referred to a high-level of sensitivity, as opposed to a high-level of motion to trigger the sensor (if I’m reading your statement correctly). It could explain my experience with the sensor as being “just ok”.
Seems to be a confusing way of adjusting the settings - but then I’m the one who didn’t take the time to read the instructions fully. I’ll have to see how this goes - thanks.
Yep, you read me right, and it’s entirely counterintuitive.
Like I said, you may have to give it a day or two (or maybe set it in the new dth and configure?), because mine was just “ok” for a day or two, then was hair trigger.
Given it several days now, and for me - I’m finding that overall sensitivity hasn’t changed much between low/high. The first couple of days, I tested out the “low” setting using the DTH that’s been released - little effect. Thinking that the DTH may have been written with an eye toward the layman understanding of “high sensitivity” (vs. the counterintuitive way the switch is programmed), I changed the setting at the switch. 3 days of that, and I’m still able to walk directly past the switch (2 feet in front of it), before it turns on after I’ve passed it by about 3 feet (at a normal pace).
What’s worse is that 1 of my switches is in a room where the door has to remain shut. I can’t seem to manually turn the lights off, open the door, leave the room and close the door without the motion triggering the lights to turn back on again. All told I can accomplish this in less than 5 seconds. I tried setting the “refresh cycle” in the DTH to 30 seconds - but I’m thinking this must not be a refresh to look for new motion events? Any ideas how to solve this?
I like the idea of a hardwired motion sensor (no battery changing) to run smart-routines - but I’m just not convinced the sensor & switch are ready for prime-time together.
One problem that I’ve noticed - don’t know if this is anyway related to your findings, is that the switch doesn’t fit very well in the standard decora opening and I’ve had to adjust it a bit to get it working right.
Another thing - do you have it set to take luminance into account or no? Of the two I have, the one with luminance control disabled is very sensitive; the one with it enabled is less so - it only triggers when dark or when you cast a shadow over the switch.
In all honesty, I love them. They barely even need to be paired with smartthings they’re working so well.