So I'm trying to use the room lighting to automate my basement lights.
I'm running into an issue where if the motion sensor are not activated then it never triggers the "all motion sensor inactive"
So what is the best way to get the desired behavior of if motion sensor are inactive for X minutes turn off the lights.
You need a trigger event. So the sensor needs to go from active to inactive. It sounds like you want some sort of vacancy rule where if the light is turned on in some way other than the sensor then the lights will go off after an elapsed time. Here is how I have a RL app set up for motion on/off and off if the light is turned on other than the motion sensor :
Please post a screenshot of your current setup.
If the RL app is not activating how are the lights being turned on?
Here is my motion lights in a bathroom with a backup timer, in case they are turned on without motion somehow. Similar to what @bill.d is doing.
The light is activated via a contact sensor, but that doesn't give any information on when to turn off the lights. I want the lights to turn on when someone opens the door, but off when the room is empty.
This seems similar to my problem, I want the Lights to come on by wall switch, but turn off after 1 minute, if no motion is detected. This works just fine as long as the Motion Sensors detect motion, but if they don´t (because no one entered the room) the light stays on. I added an Elapsed Time on Last Event but now it turns off even if a motion sensor was active. So I guess the Motion Sensor doesn´t count as "Last Event" since it is not among the Activation Means.
I am new to Hubitat, so it is likely that I do not understand things correctly or missed some option in the settings.
This is what the automation looks on my end. When I check the log I only see that the Lights will be turned off in 1 minute, but this doesn´t reset when a Motion Sensor is triggered again.
OK so people open the door but dont set off the motion sensor, then the lights stay on I assume?
Does the door typically get closed after? Or would there be a case in which the door is closed AND there is no motion that you would not want the lights off? That could provide one way to switch off.
Another way would be how I have done it above. You do a backup timer as I call it, but restrict the turn off when there is active motion.
These are the two things you would need for that:
This will start a timer every time the activation happens. So if there is motion in the room it will keep resetting the timer and never turn off. Also the (2) option prevents it from turning off with the timer during active motion. As a backup to that, if there is active motion that means it will eventually become inactive, which then will trigger your other turn off method!
I have been using this in a few rooms and never find the lights left on.
Brilliant, that should also work in my case... I am off to test it 
I do tend to set higher timers in my cases because usually the motion triggers it. I would rather have the light be on for an extra 20 minutes than someone complaining they got left in the dark!
But feel free to set the timer to whatever you want.
Well, this seems to be working, the time period is for testing purposes right now, I will extend it depending on how good it works. I also ordered an Tuya mmwave Sensor, in hopes of having more reliable presence detection. I have since then discovered that those Tuya devices are a little finicky to use in Hubitat (or mostly everywhere but Tuya), but let´s cross that bridge when we (I) get to it.
For now I am very happy and thankful for your help!
Cheers, Jens
Could someone elaborate a little on what "Activated even if partially Active" and "Turn off if partially off" does?
The RL app instance will have two possible states, active or inactive. This does not always directly correlate to the state of the devices. If the RL is "active" and another activation is triggered, normally it will ignore it (and log that its already active). This cuts down on excessive traffic/commands. With that setting on, it will do whatever action is shown in the table for each device again, every activation. If you have a motion sensor that flops active and inactive a lot this can cause a lot of extra traffic.
Same goes for the off option, just applies to Means to turn off.
Ok, so this is something that should only be activated when absolutely necessary, I guess. Will try removing that for now.
Yeah ideally, I tend to use it a lot as it makes it more reliable with a cost.
If you have proper Means to turn off, the RL should go inactive when the lights are off, and then it should not be needed.
Thank you, setting up the turn off after elapsed time, but ignored when motion is active.
I am still having some issues:
when switching on the lights via wall switch, the main light "Küche Licht" will come on instantly, but the Spots will lag behind (I guess this is normal since the Spots are only activated after Küche Licht is on). The problem is, if I turn off "Küche Licht" immediately after turning on, the Spots will turn on but not off again.
it seems that if motion is active, even the wall switch is not able to turn off the Spots, but it turns off the main light (I think that is because the wall switch is hardwired to the switch module). I don´t mind that the main light is turned off, that is the desired behaviour, but want the spots to follow suit.
Is there a way to remedy that?
Post a screenshot of the RL setup.
How is the light and spot integrated? Zwave, Zigbee, Wifi, etc..?
Realistically how often are you going to turn the light on then off again right away?
Remove the "motion active" limitation from means to turn off. The possible side effect is that if there is constant motion (where the motion sensor never reports motion inactive or active) for the entire duration of the backup timer, the lights would go off.
thx for your response!
This is the RL setup, all components are Zwave. I myself won´t turn the switch on and directly off again. But my wife, daughters and maybe some guests might push the wrong wall switch and immediately try to rectify their error.
Isn´t the "motion active limitation" necessary here, because otherwise the Status of the Motion Sensors won´t be checked and the lights will always turn off after the backup timer has ended? That was my initial problem with this setup.
You could try adding the "Turn off even if partially off option" to see if that helps with iris-v1
Because your backup timer is so short. If it was a longer time it would be more likely, to have another activation in there and reset the timer.
Another way around it would be to create a separate rule in RM that turns the Room Lights off when you turn the switch off. When doing it from a rule it should bypass any restrictions. In RM there is a new(ish) option in the same section where you can control other rules, but for Room Lighting.
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