I am trying to use the sensor to turn on my living room lights when the room gets dark. I have no idea what I am doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can’t even get the sensor to refresh and tell me the illuminance.
Have you contacted Aeotec to get the latest firmware updates for it? Always a good place to start.
I might need to return this because I have no idea on how to do that. I found the file from aeotec, put it into device firmware updater app and I’m stumped.
When you Join the MS7 to your Hub, are you seeing Current State values?
Great, the Motion sensor is working and sending Motion Active as well as Temp readings. Are those appearing in the Current States?
(This is my slightly different Sensor, but the idea is accurate.)
When you are controlling lighting, there are a number of ways to do it.
You can have lights come on whenever motion is detected. If you want, that action can be restricted to specific times of day. For example, my master bathroom light come on an stay on for 10 minutes anytime motion is detected between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. Between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am, I rely on a night light. I do not want bright light coming on if I get up in the middle of the night.
You can have lights come on between sunset and sunup the next morning if motion is detected. That is how I have the lights set up in my living room.
You can also have the lights come on if motion is detected and the illuminance is below a certain level in the room. I assume that is what you want.
I suspect you can enable this using the Room Lighting App. However, I have not tried using that. I tend to do things either in Basic Rules or Rule Machine, depending upon the complexity. You could set up your lighting using Basic Rules.
If Basic Rules app is not already installed, install it from the Built-in apps list.
Open Basic Rules and Create a New Rule.
When a (select Motion Sensor from the dropdown list) and then select the Living Room motion sensor.
Senses that : (select motion is active from the dropdown list)
Do this action: (select Turn On from dropdown list)
Select switches to turn on: (select any and all applicable from dropdown list)
Go to Add optional restrictions the limit when this rule runs.
Locate dialog box for Only when illuminence is:
Select the appropriate illuminence sensor.
Select is equal or lower from dropdown box.
Enter a specific illuminence level. You might need to adjust the level up or down until it is to your liking.
Now it is time to tell the rule when to turn the lights off.
Then wait until a (select Motion sensor).
Select the appropriate motion sensor
Senses that (select Motion has stopped and remained inactive)
for (set the desired time, I suggest 10 minutes minimum to prevent lights turning on and off rapidly)
Add another action (select Turn off)
Select switches to turn off from dropdown list
Click Done.
This is how the rule will be described.
When Living room multi activates ...
Turn on Living Room lights
Wait until Living Room multi motion stops and stays inactive for 10 minutes, then ...
Turn off Living Room lights
Rule and pending actions can run ...
- Only when illuminance of Living Room multi is equal or lower than 50*
This is a fairly simply way of doing this, but if the lights are RGB bulbs and you want to adjust colors, then you might need Rule Machine or Room Lighting App.
Thank you both. I think I didn’t realize it would need to be plugged in for it do to the correct reporting. (Maybe) here is a screen shot of what I did. I don’t know if this is correct but does the sensor only report when there is motion?
The way you currently have it set up, the lights will come on between 3:00 pm and 9:00 pm if the illuminance is 40 or below. This will occur whether or not there is anyone in the room. Is that what you intended?
Also, once the lights turn on, there is no provision for turning them off. The lights will not automatically go off at 9:00 pm unless you create an action to do that. As it is, the lights will turn on sometime after 3:00 pm when the illuminance is 40 or below and will remain on until someone turns them off manually. I doubt this is what you want.
I think I want it this way because I’m tired of the lights coming on at sunset. I want them to come on before sunset if it is dark outside (cloudy, rainy). Also I like to have the lights on whenever for my dogs. I know I seem kind of picky. Haha I also picked between 3pm and 9pm because no mater what time I want them to come on at a certain darkness. I also use Alexa so when I go to bed I just say “Alexa good night” and she turns off anything that is on. Also I am wondering what this warning is on the live log.
