I would like to be able to activate a Motion Zone, using the built in Zone Motion Controllers App, using a single motion sensor. The idea here is to have a Motion Zone which remains inactive on the first trip of a single motion sensor, but would become active when a second (or third, fourth, etc) trip of the same motion sensor occurs...within the activation window.
Anyone have any ideas of whether this can be done using the built in app? I'm current using RM as a alternative but I imagine it could be cleaner using a built in hub capability.
I don't think ZMC would be able to handle this--it's really meant to handle combining multiple sensors somehow, either in a "zone active if any active" or "zone active if more than x active" kind of situation (with a third type that will do something like this only if another thing happens first). For fun, I did try that third type with the same sensor specified as both "trigger" and the (only) one that would activate the zone, but it still activated the zone (just in case it would maybe not consider activating it until after that trigger happened for the first time).
A few other ideas:
Your rule might really be the cleanest way to do this, then, but if you think the rule is messy, feel free to post it and ask for feedback
I'm not sure what your end goal is with using the sensor in this way, but if you aren't sure if this is really the best way to accomplish that goal, feel free to ask about that as well
If you're going for false motion reduction and were drawn to ZMC for that reason, adding a second motion sensor to that room would be a way to use ZMC, avoid any of the above issues, and probably get results sooner (most motion sensors have a timeout period of 30-60 seconds, sometimes longer, before they'll go inactive and register motion again), though this obviously costs a bit more money than either of the above
Thanks for your feedback Bertabcd. My application is a home brew security system. I have redundant motion sensors in the same room along the same lines as your third idea. That probably is adequate and maybe I'm going overboard, but I thought if a single motion sensor was activated more than once within a given time window, that would also be a good false motion reduction algorithm, in the event that only a single motion sensor was available, in range or operating for some reason. My RM rule approach works OK but I'm concerned about overhead on HE and the number of scripts that need to be maintained. Using built in features is always appealing for those reasons.
Understandable! I have a couple zones set up (outside--I need more than one to reduce false motion from shifting sunlight, reflections from cars, and whatever else the sensors think might be people; and in entry spaces where I use the sensors for HSM and don't want something similar during the day tripping the "alarm" unnecessarily). I'm also worried about one getting "stuck" and the best solution I have right now is using Device Watchdog, a fantastic community app, to make sure the sensors have "checked in" within a reasonably recent timeframe. (I use it with the activity-monitoring feature; there is also one that can look at battery level, but if you haven't found that to be unreliable yet, you probably will soon.)
I only have Device Watchdog check my things once a day at a time when I'm usually home. Therefore, it won't necessarily immediately catch something that "falls off" or stops working during the day (my notification comes in the evening), for example. But it's good enough for me and I don't see any easy way to solve that problem unless I use a short interval and multiple checks per day, a bit more effort than I wanted to go through. I have several "child apps" set up with different intervals depending on how long I'm willing to wait without device activity before I think there's a problem (most of my Zigbee motion sensors also do temperature and therefore tend to report in at least every hour or two, so I have the interval for those set to just a few hours; some Z-Wave devices I have don't report anything unless they're used, so their interval is a couple days--you have to have a feel for your devices and your comfort level and tolerance for false positives.) Anyway, something worth checking out if you haven't yet!
Bertabcd..Thanks Ill check device watchdog out. Definately would be a big plus with all the devices I have.
aaiyar....My system has 10 of the Ecolink Pet Immune PIR Zwave sensors. They work pretty well but like all PIR sensors can occasionally provide false alarm thanks to bugs and heater drafts. I've been able to reduce false alarm rate to near zero by using motion zones.
