Hello, is there any way to make a motion sensor invective for a period of time without taking the battery out? My motion sensor battery just died in a couple of months because it is in a high traffic area and for most of the day I don’t need it to be working. Thank you!
I don’t think so, unfortunately.
You could wire up a DC power supply … which you could even plug into a smart outlet, but, then, you really wouldn’t need to turn it off since it’s not a battery!
This is an unusual request; though it make sense.
What brand / model of motion sensor? I have a PEQ (old Centralite / SmartThings / Iris), and it’s battery lasts just fine.
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Brand and model of the sensor?
There may be some parameters you can change that will help extend battery life.
Also, if it is right on the edge of range to the nearest repeater, you may have to send multiple messages, which can use up battery life.
One option that some people use this just to put a cover over it. You can get fancy and automate this, although that usually tends to be more money then people want to spend. Or you can just do it manually.
But first we need to know the exact model to see what’s possible. 
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Thanks for the reply, I have the iris one!
Is there a way to write a code and make it invective?
ZigBee and Z-Wave devices all have various unique sets of configuration “clusters” that can be sent to them in custom Device Handlers.
An example cluster that some models of sensors support, is a setting for how frequently Temperature is reported, or how much of a change before Battery level is reported, or how soon after motion activity is reported that it will reset and report “activity stopped”.
The availability of these is up to each manufacturer.
I’ve never seen a configuration cluster that “disables motion reporting until turned on again”. Maybe some device offers this feature, but… It would be very hard to find one.
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You may need to up your timeout for motion reporting. If your timeout is very low, it’s going to report Active/Inactive back to SmartThings like crazy, gobbling up a lot of juice. But if you set the timeout to something like 5 minutes, that means that it won’t report back Inactive until it’s been inactive for 5 minutes. Greatly reducing the number of reports to SmartThings and lowering battery consumption.
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Thanks for the reply, sorry how this may sound but how do I do that with the iris motion? Is there an specific code? Thanks
Hmmm, I have Iris Motion Sensors all over the house and in high traffic areas as well. 2 months seems very short for that sensor.
The last battery change for my kitchen motion was in 11/2017 and it still has 78%. Might have been a bad battery…
Here’s typical traffic on the kitchen sensor:
In my experience “some” iris sensors can go through batteries alot. Also location can be an issue.
I never figured out why but my upstairs bathroom motion sensor would burn through batteries. I tried different sensors same result. I think it’s radio noise, but never isolated it. Ive also had iris sensor that just eat batteries. For those and the one in the bathroom I put a DC to DC converter and wired it to constant power.
Doesn’t help you, just some personal experience.
Thanks its good to know that may not be isolated just to me!
Thanks you, mine is at the stairs… It could be just a bad battery.