Help with office light and motion

[me23]

I thought it would be cool for my wife as she walks into her office the lights would slowly dim up.  Easy enough, however the workout room is next to her office and every time I walk past to go to work out the office lights come on.  The  motion came with the security system so it just either senses motion or doesn't.  Anyway to put in a delay in programming and not have it turn on if it senses motion only for a couple of seconds?

[turls]

Might be a better way to do it but have a variable that increments every time motion is sensed and it only triggers the light if the value is high enough...and reset the variable after so long with no motion.

One problem being security sensors are probably not ideal for this as they are only going to detect every so often especially if it is battery powered.

[eddy.trochez]

You can do it with a 2-second timer.

When motion is sensed
start timer
When timer expires
If motion is sensed
  turn on lights.

This way if motion is not sensed after the timer expires, it won't turn on the lights. The problem is that it will take 2 seconds for the light to come on when you walk into the office, and that might be a long time.

The other way is to cover the part of the lens that detects the hallway. 

[VINCELdUB]

The smartest thing to do would be to determine how sensitive the motion sensor is.

In composer I would go to the agents tab and create a new number variable and then in programming go to the motion sensor and select when starts detecting motion then on right side go to variable and select increment plus one and before you drag it into the center, right click on your existing programming that turns on the lights in that room and copy. Then delete all, then drag the green arrow into the center.

-Next in programming, on the right side select programing control and then set a delay amount that you will have to tweak, but I would start with two seconds. Then drag the green arrow into the center.

-Next, in programming on the left side, select variable and then on right side select variable as well and then select the conditionals tab. Then under the conditionals tab select equals to or greater than 2 then drag ? Into the centre.

-Now right click in the centre and paste. This will now take your programming from your lighting and place it there for you next, make sure you take each of the green arrows for the programming previous, and starting with the top one drag to the? Equals two or greater than 2.

-Next, on the right side select the variable then select the actions tab and select set variable to 0 and drag it to the bottom of the center.

Your programming script in the centre should look something like this;

When variable -> Office motion state changes.

-> Delay two seconds

? If office motion equal to or greater than 2

->ramp office light to 100% over 4 seconds

-> set variable office motion = 0

I know this is been long-winded, and a video or some screenshots would've been faster. But I hope this helps! Good luck, and happy automating!

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[VINCELdUB]

If you find that the responsiveness of the programming I mentioned above in previous post, is not to your satisfaction. Another thing to do would be to let the light turn on as you walk by but then program to the light so that if it turns on and then no additional motion is detected for 10 seconds or even less, to turn the light back off. To do this you will need to create a timer under the agents tab and call it something that makes sense to you. I recommend "office initial motion" and set the timer for let's say 10 seconds.

-Then in programming, on the left side go to the office light or lighting scene depending on what you have set up already with the motion. And then select either when lighting scene is invoked or when light turns on. Then on right side select the timer "Office initial motion" and start timer and drag green arrow into the center.

-next, go to the timer on the left side and select when timer expires. Then go to light or lighting scene and select turn off light or deactivate lighting scene and then drag the green arrow into the center.

When timer -> Office initial Motion expires.

->Turn off light or deactivate lighting scene

-Next, we need to disable the auto turn off if motion is detected a second time in the initial 10 seconds. To do this, we will stop the timer. To do this we need to go to the office motion sensor on the left side and then select when detect motion then on the right side select timer and then select stop timer and drag the green arrow on to the bottom of your existing programming.

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[me23]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I tried all of them, but come to realization it wont work.  The sensor is sensing for 5 seconds.  So no matter what I do 5 seconds is too long, my wife could have hit the switch and almost sit down at her desk in that time.  I guess I will leave it like it is or get a another motion that I can plug in and control occupancy hold time.

[VINCELdUB]

Please read my last post.

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[VINCELdUB]

With post #5 the light turns on Even when you walk by. But turns off if no motion after wards.

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[South Africa C4 user]

I would simply put a separate card access motion sensor in for this and position it vertically above the door so that it only picks up motion as someone walks in... Security sensors are rarely placed conveniently for light control.

[VINCELdUB]

@ South Africa C4 user. I agree. Just requires a purchase is all.

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[South Africa C4 user]

6 hours ago, VINCELdUB said:

@ South Africa C4 user. I agree. Just requires a purchase is all.

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Indeed.. Sometimes a little extra dosh on an expensive system is the right answer... Albeit I am a bad example as I always want the latest and greatest 

[me23]

Not a fan of it turning off with no motion. It's an office with my wife sitting not moving around a bunch for a motion to detect. 

Might just have to get another sensor, but it will use a lot of battery and the security  one installed is not on battery.  Oh well

[eddy.trochez]

You will have the same problem with another sensor? Lights will go off when not sensing motion. Unless you program to only turn on. 

[me23]

Yep I would program it to only turn on. She can hit the light switch on the way out

[Elvis]

I use a cheap Lutron occupancy light switch for this. It works great and I think it was $20 at Home Depot or Lowes. Occasionally if I'm sitting still watching a long video, the lights will go off. But sitting still for 5 minutes (I think I could have set it to 15) is rare. No C4 control so this might not work for you. I put these in our closets and utility room -- places where you might enter a room with your hands full, scored me points with the wife.

[VINCELdUB]

Just to clarify, it would only be the first time with the programming that I mentioned in my second post. It would turn itself off on me the first time. If there's no motion in the initial 10 seconds

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[me23]

Ok Vince I see what you mean. I must have missed that part.  I'll have another look. 

[Matt Lowe]

really the best thing would be to reorient, tune, or block the sensor from seeing the areas you don't want it to. 

if you can get it a contact sensor you could tie that in so that the motion does not work unless the door is open or something to that point.

[South Africa C4 user]

On May 25, 2016 at 0:17 AM, me23 said:

Not a fan of it turning off with no motion. It's an office with my wife sitting not moving around a bunch for a motion to detect. 

Might just have to get another sensor, but it will use a lot of battery and the security  one installed is not on battery.  Oh well

The batteries on my card access motion sensors are still at 70% and the sensors were installed over a year ago... Almost 2 years ago. So you should get 2 or 3 years out of the battery.

A useful trick that I've found is to use the card access sensor (situated vertically above the door) to turn on the lights and then either sensor (security or card access) to keep the lights on. This gives much more coverage and it becomes very unlikely that someone will sit dead still for 15 minutes...