I set up a simple test with a Lutron wall switch and a Philips motion sensor. The motion sensor triggers the light on, and the light turns off after a period of inactivity, Easy.
Now if I physically turn the switch off, then try to trigger the motion again, the sensor inactivity delay is still running (I assume), so the motion will not trigger again until after that time.
I've tried Basic Rules and Room Controller apps, but could not figure it out. Also read the docs and many community forum posts.
Is this doable in one of the dedicated apps, or do I need to use Rule Machine?
(Once I get this working, I will be working on a way to keep the lights on, ignoring the motion sensor, ideally using a "press and hold" event from a Pico switch or the main switch.)
Did you verify if the motion sensor is actually reporting motion in the failure case? I would suspect it is in a cool down period and not sending a motion report. This is hardware related, and may be configurable for the motion sensor itself.
After I turn of the switch physically and initiate motion again, yes, the log says that the motion was detected, and the inactivity delay was re-triggered. This is using Room Lighting app. I think I need some way to cancel the motion inactivity timer. To make it as if motion was never detected.
That said, yes there is a 5 or 10 second period after motion was triggered during which the motion sensor is not sending events (this is between the time when motion is detected and inactivity is first detected). Maybe that's what you're referring to. I'm referring to the time after the sensor first reports inactive, when the inactivity period has started.
Can you share screenshots of this log entry and your Room Lighting setup? It should be able to work the way you want (if your sensor is imdeed reporting inactivity that fast and ready to detect activity again), so something may be not set as needed in the configuration.
It looks like the motion inactivity is being accounted for fine. What is happening, based on your logs, is that Room Lighting is not re-activating your setup because it thinks it is already activated. There are two things you could do to address this, and either one alone might help.
First, I'm not sure you really need "Basement Stairs Main Lights" under "Switches that turn off"--that is the light that is already turned on and off by this automation, and having it there as something that "deactivates" this setup when it turns off, where the deactivation is also just turning off this light, might be confusing it.
Second--and this should help regardless, though there may be other reasons you don't want it (your lights always report accurately and you don't want the extra network traffic? Lutron should handle this pretty well; Z-Wave, for example, might not...)--you can turn in the "Activate even if already partially activated" option. This is under Means to Activate Lights > Activate Lights Options.
One more setting that can be useful is "Switches that determine all lights are off". This will "deactivate" the RL instance when all of the selected lights are off. I am using this in a similar motion situation so that if people turn the switch off it reset the RL so it is ready to activate again.
I also always turn on "Activate even if already partially activated" be default, unless I have a specific reason not to.
Great, I had that question, and was going to ask what that setting was for. I had tried this, but didn't help with the not turning on problem. So, "deactivating" the RL instance does not necessarily deactivate the light, correct? I think that's what I saw, I will test that again.
In all cases that I use "Switches that determine all lights are off", the lights are already off by the time it triggers, but I think it is just supposed to deactivate the RL only and not turn the devices off. That's why it is handy in motion setups to "reset" the RL if someone turns off the light manually.
Here is my most simple motion setup... has a backup 30 min timer as well and ignore the part about the Shark, that's so the light stays on for the robot vacuum to be able to see.
Backup timer is in case the light gets turned on somehow without motion activation. Could be Alexa or hitting the switch without entering the room. It’s not really necessary but I hate when people leave the bathroom light on with no one in there.
