Before buying my first motion sensor..
Is it possible to control the dim level of a light by proximity to a sensor?
ie when getting closer to a light, it dims up?
if possible without 3rd party software outside hubitat
Maybe presence sensors have that capability?
any special specs to look for when considering buying?
You will need something that measures distance along with presence. Not a lot of devices that meet that criteria.
Aqara FP1E has "targetDistance". The Moes/Linptec sensors also have distance.
The trouble will be in determining "closer to light", as it is just linier distance away from the sensor. So it is really an arc of distance, anywhere around the sensor. It could be 2m away to the left, or 2m away to the right.
If the light is straight out from the sensor in the front or back of the room, that may be enough to use the distance attribute to change the light level. If the light is right under the sensor, you will get distance from the light from all angles right from targetDistance. If the light is in the back, you would have to calculate lampDistance-sensorDistance to get how close you are to the lamp.
Something with Zones would make more sense, like the FP2. Then you could figure out if you are in the zone with the lamp, or in a zone near the lamp, or far away from the lamp. Those FP2s don't integrate directly with Hubitat, though. I have been thinking of adding one to HA and using the HA bridge app to add it, but there are other methods if you search for posts about it.
Edit: you could use a dedicated distance sensor mounted at the light, or even use a second presence sensor that you only use for distance mounted at the light, or double up on presence to get more of an area.
Actually, Hubitat’s C8-Pro hub now includes support to act as a HomeKit Controller. This allows the Aqara FP2 to be directly paired with the C8-Pro hub.
Yup, I guess that could be called direct on the C8-pro, I was thinking of that when I said "other methods" but I didn't bother with details, especially since it is a C8-pro only method.
Download the Hubitat app
