I have been requested to "turn off" (or "disable") a motion sensor between two times. That is, the motion sensor is not report any motion between those two times.
I'm not talking about setting a flag so that it's not involved in any rules between those two times, I mean that the motion sensor is not to report motion between those two times.
(I have also been asked to do the same for a door/window sensor.)
Does anyone know how to do this? (without physically taking out the battery, or putting a cloth in front of the sensor, etc.) Is this possible to be done via a rule?
Physically disabling a sensor is generally impractical unless you have a powered sensor you can cut power to. It's not possible to software disable them without unbinding them. What's your use case that you need to do this?
Perhaps one option would be to setup a virtual motion sensor and keep the two in sync when you want to have motion detected, then outside of that time, keep the virtual one off. The Virtual motion sensor would then become what you use to trigger your motion activated rules.
There may also be some options in either the motion lighting app or perhaps simple automations app.
No, it's not a request from a teenager, but rather from a client for religious purposes.
@sburke781
I'm not sure what exactly you're proposing.
I've got a motion sensor, and I'm trying to "disable" it for some time.
I didn't think that it was possible, but I thought perhaps, if I could change the driver via a rule, and then change it back, but I didn't think that was possible.
Ahh ... for Shabat. Boy, that's a toughie. Does this client also turn off their refrigerator for those hours?
A different approach might be to turn off their Hubitat hubs during those hours. Because that way, we don't know if the motion sensor is working or not, because it definitely is not transmitting any information to the Hubitat.
@rocketwiz is right that it would be difficult to physically disable the device periodically and if it is a built-in driver, it would need to be an update to the driver code by HE staff I would expect, so you could request it.
In terms of what I was proposing, it was two rules, one that is triggered on motion detection in the physical device, which results in an update to a virtual motion sensor device, but only during a certain time window each day (or whatever conditions you want to place on the motion detection).
The second rule or set of rules would be whatever rules you want to have triggered by motion, but in place of the physical device, you use the virtual one maintained in the rule above.
I get what you're suggesting - however, in this solution the real motion sensor is still working during those hours (and recording events on the hub). If the clients in question are Orthodox Jews, then events being recorded during the Shabat would be considered as work. And unfortunately that would not be acceptable.
Would POE be an option? As a way to turn off the hub and back on again....? Perhaps more expensive than it's worth, if the client can simply do it themselves.
If it's acceptable to shut down the entire hub, then an approach would be as @aaiyar suggests. I could get a wifi plug outlet, and turn off the entire hub for that length of time.
Yes, that would be the consideration for a smart plug, or POE for that matter, whatever solution for powering down the hub, would need to be handled outside of the HE hub in some way. You would probably want to schedule (if it can be done) a graceful shutdown, rather than just pulling power. But would still need external control to turn it back on.
There's an idea, can you schedule turning on/off the Zigbee / Z-Wave radios? Perhaps trumped by @aaiyar 's last comment.
Question. Do these motion sensors flash a light (LED) on the sensor every time motion is detected? That will not be acceptable during Shabat. So, the LED will ahve to be disabled. Or use motion sensors that do not flash an LED.
I don’t know what happens when you check the box to disable the device in the device screen… but that can be done programmatically witching rule machine.. I would image the device will still send the commands, but I don’t think the hub interprets them.
I don’t know if this will best said requirements
If that's the case shouldn't the hub also not be allowed to function during the Sabbath? I have no idea what the rules are in regards to what constitutes work in a modern day setting.
