Help cancelling complex motion

SmartHomeDumbYooser · November 28, 2022, 3:39am

Hey guys,

Looking for help with a complex motion rule I have set up. My dining room is at the front of the house right inside the front door and I have a motion sensor set up so that when I walk through the room, the lights in the dining room and foyer turn on for a preset amount of time, then turn off. The motion conditions work great BUT I'm not sure how to cancel this rule when I want to actually sit in the dining room and eat dinner with my family.

The way the rule is set up, if I turn on the dining room light, the motion sensor triggers the rule and the lights will actually dim and then turn off after the time delay.

Is there a way to add a condition or If/then to this rule so that if I manually turn on the dining room lights, the motion rule will cancel for a certain amount of time?

Sorry if this is confusing, thanks in advance

FriedCheese2006 · November 28, 2022, 3:46am

If the switch reports proper physical events, you could write a second rule to do this:

Trigger: Physical switch on
Action:
Pause "Dining Room/Foyer Motion"
Wait for XX minutes
Resume "Dining Room/Foyer Motion"

velvetfoot · November 28, 2022, 1:57pm

I'm mostly Simple Automation, but I went around the house and arranged it so that 3 upward pushes of the GE switch would toggle motion. My thinking was that I wanted to be able to disable motion with the lights on or off. The 3 pushes was because I was already using 2 pushes somewhere else, plus it's easier to double tap by accident.

The feedback that I've received is that there's no visible way of telling if motion has been turned off.

So, maybe one up push = toggle motion, one down push = toggle motion. So then, it would be intuitive to turn on the switch if you want to turn on the light and keep it on. Turn off the switch would turn off the light and resume motion. Another push off (button) would keep the lights off and toggle motion off, which I think would be a less likely scenario.

Anyway, a delayed return to motion might be another option for me that I hadn't thought of. Thanks.

edit: Plus the physical switch property isn't available in SA, so I might look into that as well. Thanks again.

SmartHomeDumbYooser · November 30, 2022, 5:24am

Thanks, I didn't realize I could use a button press to pause a rule. Going to give this a shot, thanks!

velvetfoot · November 30, 2022, 3:19pm

I am using GE/Jasco switches with @JasonJoel 's driver. It exposes 6 buttons on those switches.

I tried using Rule Machine on something last night to cancel a timed action, but failed, plus it was late. Still mostly a SA guy, but garage doors are not an option in SA.

Anyway, after discussions with my wife, I kept the 3 pushes up (button 3) to toggle motion (maybe there'd be a time I'd like to keep it dark), but I made it so that if she wants to sit motionless at the kitchen counter reading something, she can push the toggle switch up once, and that'll kick off a virtual delay switch of 45 minutes. If she remembers, she can toggle it off and that'll kick the motion rule back in.

This seems to be okay with her, rather than remembering the three pushes and to turn it off. I'm keeping my three pushes up concept to pause motion in other motion controlled switches around the house.