Smart Lighting (Motion Based Issue - Light Does Not Turn Off Consistently)

SmartApps & Automations
#1

Long story short, I am using the Smart Lighting app to turn OFF and ON a light in my Garage Based on motion. The light comes on without any issues, however when motion STOPs, the light switch is not turned off.

It’s a automation that I have set to do the following:

Control: Garage Light Switch
What to do: Turn ON.

Trigger: Motion
Sensor: Garage Sensor
Turn on when: Motion Starts

Turn off after motion stops: yes
After this number of minutes: 5

More Option
Only if switch: Garage Light Switch is OFF

I have done a simple event logging of the two devices for troubleshooting purposes and as depicted, the light is being turned on, but not off consistently even if motion stops. As an example, this morning it turned on at 5:54:07, went inactive at 5:54:43 and never turned off at 05:59:43 as it was supposed to. The 7:19:38 looks to be a manual turn off.

|12/14/2020 5:54:06|Garage (4-in-1 Sensor)|motion|active|active|12/14/2020|05|
|12/14/2020 5:54:07|Garage (Interior) Light Switch|switch|on|on|12/14/2020|05|
|12/14/2020 5:54:43|Garage (4-in-1 Sensor)|motion|inactive|inactive|12/14/2020|05|
|12/14/2020 7:19:38|Garage (Interior) Light Switch|switch|off|off|12/14/2020|07|
|12/14/2020 9:26:31|Garage (Interior) Light Switch|switch|off|off|12/14/2020|09|
|12/14/2020 9:26:52|Garage (4-in-1 Sensor)|motion|inactive|inactive|12/14/2020|09|
#2

seems like a weird condition to include

#3

I added this condition as an exception so that motion inactivity does not turn off light if I manually turn on the light switch.

This helps if your working in the garage on something and your not near the motion sensor line of sight but don’t want the light to be turned off.

#4

i meant in the context of your issue, maybe you should remove the condition to test.

#5

It is not turning off because of the condition added “Only if switch: Garage Light Switch is OFF”. The condition is not only valid for trigger but later too - ‘5 minutes after motion stopped’ and then the switch is off too, which is not the case. Remove this condition and it will work.
To achieve what you intend, that is differentiating between manually turned on switch and automation, make a webcore piston with variables (google to see examples)

#6

see this as an example piston:

#7

Thank you, I was hoping I could this locally with Smart Lighting for speed purposes, I will take a look at Webcore.

Any ideas on who from SmartThings works on the Smart Lighting app? This would be a good feature request.

#8

I honestly don’t understand how those condition wouldn’t just be limited to the trigger. I wonder if its a bug in the design.

#9

Not true. I use that exact same condition and mine works consistently. Like the OP, I don’t want the light to turn off if I manually turn it on. The automation only checks the condition before it runs, but once it runs, it will go to completion without checking the condition again. Now I’m not sure what the OP’s issue is as it looks correct.

#10

I will try it again tonight and post screenshots…

You have no issues with the light not turning off at all?

#11

No issues at all. The light turns off 5 minutes after no motion unless I turned the switch on myself.