I've noticed that when the mode changes, the Motion Lighting apps do not evaluate the current state of the motion sensor and turn the lights on or off accordingly. I'm not sure if this is because the app isn't triggered upon mode change, or if it simply doesn't look at the state (active vs inactive) of the motion sensor upon the mode change. Could there be some kind of checkbox to enable this?
For example, if I had my front porch light on before the mode changed to night, then it will stay on all night unless somebody trips the motion sensor. I'd like it to immediately evaluate the state of the motion sensor upon the mode changing to night and turn off if the motion sensor is inactive, or leave it on if it is active and turn it off once it becomes inactive.
Right now, I'm working around this by having the rule machine do that for me upon mode change with one rule for each mode, but it would be nice if I could just have that all done in one place.
Please note: I just deleted all of my motion activation rules in rule machine because they were getting very convoluted in order to do what I wanted to do. For example, the motion app makes it trivial to override the current state (on/off) by tapping the switch while also having other conditions that the rule machine checks for. Doing even something as simple as this in the rule machine is super clunky and convoluted, and making changes to it after the fact is even more annoying to the point that I just delete the rule and create a new one.
By the way, here's what I'm making my lighting do:
Between 9PM and 5AM, the porch lights are only motion activated. Outside of those hours, it turns on and stays on if the light sensor has a luminance level below 100. No matter what time of the day it is, the current light state can be overridden by tapping the light switch on or off (it's a GE Enbrighten switch.)
Even though the automations are present and it's a smart home and all that, I would still like the lights to behave like normal lights would at any time that it is needed, without needing to reach for a computer, smartphone, remote, or some such. (Philosophically, I like a smart home to be fully operable by anybody who doesn't even know that they're walking into a smart home.)
BTW, I don't want to use the API sunset/sunrise as it tends to vary too much from the actual light outside for my personal preference. I achieved this by creating a virtual motion sensor that is active from dusk to dawn and inactive during the day (set with a single rule in the rule machine,) and using the motion lighting app to trigger from that during my morning and evening modes. It's so much easier to manage this way than to use the rule machine alone while also allowing the intended override behavior above. Would be nice if that kind of trigger could be baked in as well (currently the motion lighting app supports luminance, but not as a trigger, only as an override) but I would understand if it's out of the scope of the app.
