Timers on Motion and ST Automatons Engine Broken?

Hello Everyone,

I set up a simple automation in my office with the built in ST Automations Engine in the ST phone App.

My Office

  • If Motion detected by ST Motion device
  • Then Turn on LIFX Bulb 1 and LIFX Bulb 2.
  • Turn off after 10 minutes.

Working at my desk, my lights go off after 10 minutes. Wait, what?!?

From what I can tell, if I have constant motion for 10 minutes, the built in ST Automation engine doesn’t keep resetting the timer if that motion constantly persists throughout the timer. It has to stop detecting motion and then re-detect for the timer to continue. I would expect the engine to recognize motion and reset the timer even if motion is constantly detected.

I quickly tested this by setting the timer to 10 seconds and waving my had in front of the motion sensor for 12 seconds. The light turned off even with constant motion. The timer starts and only resets after motion goes away and then restarts.

With webcore, I can expect for the light to stay on once it’s triggered, even if motion is constantly detected with me in my office.

Why can’t the ST Automation engine do this?

Here is what I find:

Webcore:
Pro: complex automations for lighting (LIFX), etc
Con: LIFX lights come on in series and slow between lights

ST Automations (built into ST App on phone)
Pro: Easy to use and lights turn on pretty much all together (LIFX)
Con: Only simple rules and triggers (See above) need much better then this as a community

Smart Lighting SmartApp
Pro: easier to use, with slightly more options
Cons: Has a lot of latency and turns on lights in series (like webcore).

It’s been a constant struggle between need and program-ability. I wish there was more development efforts to think of these little things to make the basic native functionality a little more user friendly.

Is there a way to add the “reset the timer if constant motion is detected” to the ST Automations Engine?

Thanks,
-Lutra

I think this is a duplicate topic…

Yes, this is a cross post in the automations section. I think I posted originally in the incorrect section. Link to my somewhat similar post: Timers on Motion and ST Automatons Broken?!

I also added more context of the different engines and my experiences with them.

I am just at the end of my rope here with what I stated in the other post. I can’t seem to find a balanced solution or approach. Apologies if I broke community rules.

Clearly, I invested a lot of money into something that isn’t quite ready yet. Sigh.

-Lutra