How would you do this? Simple setup.

[DcN484]

Hey guys new here. I have a buddy that pointed me here.

Simple setup. In this house, I don't currently have any HA setup with lights, mostly just inside A/V stuff. It's a newer house, built in '07.

I have 3 exterior lights on the front, controlled by one single switch inside, near the front door. I want to do a couple things with these lights. I want them to come on automatically at dusk, at a dimmed level. Like half power maybe. Then, I want to setup a couple small remote located motion sensors in various spots. When these motion sensors are tripped (only at night), I want them to turn the 3 lights up to full brightness. Say for 3 minutes or so.

That is pretty much it. The switch for these lights are located in a 2 gang panel. It has another switch for an interior light. I would prefer to leave this normal. If I have to swap in a paddle switch to match, that's fine.

In the future, I may want to do a similar setup, but using a switch that's in the garage, with one light on the side of the garage, and perhaps yet another one with the back. Both of these are controlled by a single switch for each. I don't really care if all the systems are linked or not, I just want them to turn on via their own set of motion sensors, and also on and off manually. The front 3 lights are the only ones I want to come on at dusk at half brightness.

I've researched products. Looked at Zwave stuff, and obviously the Smarthome stuff. X10 has some small battery powered motion sensors that appear that they would work, but I don't know if they would work with a dimmer, and full brightness? I like a lot of the Leviton products.

How would you guys set this up? Which specific products etc. Aside from what is mentioned above, I don't feel that I will ever want any more lighting automation, inside or outside the house.

 

[briankelly63]

You could put up a few of these.... read the description of how they work together.. they could also be controlled from a desktop controller or keypad from inside...

https://www.discounthomeautomation.com/cgi-...mart-Floodlight

http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_inf...products_id=426

 

[IVB]

Is there a hangup with just using the regular $50 motion sensor lights from HomeDepot? I have mine to come on at a low level at dusk, then full bright during motion. The motion range is adjustable, and the sensor is also pointable.

 

[DcN484]

You could put up a few of these.... read the description of how they work together.. they could also be controlled from a desktop controller or keypad from inside...

https://www.discounthomeautomation.com/cgi-...mart-Floodlight

http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_inf...products_id=426

One of those would work on the side, and maybe the back. I forgot to mention that the light housings out front are decorative and match the house. If I can avoid changing the actual light housings, that would be best.

Here is what I was initially thinking about going with.

One of these at the switch. http://www.smarthome.com/2486DWH6/KeypadLi...er-White/p.aspx

Then a couple of these for specific locations I have picked out. http://www.smarthome.com/4087/EagleEye-Wir...ck-MS14A/p.aspx

The part I don't know about is how to setup the half power at dusk, and full power on motion, then off at sunrise. The motion sensors can detect if it's light or dark outside, but I just don't know how I would set it up with that scene switch. I think when you enable that option, it will only sense motion when it's dark, not necessarily send a signal when it's dark, that I could program into the switch.

If there was a similar dimmer switch that I could simply program to come on and off during a certain time, and also receive signal from the X10 motion sensors, that might work. I could program a dimmed level to just always be on at night, then program another 'scene' that was full brightness from the sensors.

 

[DcN484]

Is there a hangup with just using the regular $50 motion sensor lights from HomeDepot? I have mine to come on at a low level at dusk, then full bright during motion. The motion range is adjustable, and the sensor is also pointable.

I have one of those right now on the side of the house.

I was looking to avoid that for a couple reasons. I don't really want motion/flood type lights right on the front of my house. The lights I'm looking to control are the decorative ones you see on the fronts of houses. I was hoping to be able to do the controlling at the switch, and just leave the lights as they are. Another reason is because I was wanting to put motion sensors in semi remote locations.

 

[PaulD]

Sounds to me like you want to use a combinations of sensors and rules to make decisions about lighting levels. That may be hard to do without going ahead and investing in some HA system. The HA system can control your lights based on time and you can add a motion sensor to support decisions as to when to change lighting levels.

 

[DcN484]

Sounds to me like you want to use a combinations of sensors and rules to make decisions about lighting levels. That may be hard to do without going ahead and investing in some HA system. The HA system can control your lights based on time and you can add a motion sensor to support decisions as to when to change lighting levels.

Okay, that sounds great. I'm not against implementing some HA at all. It won't be a large scale system by any means, which is fine.

What products should I look at? All I need is the ability to turn on one set of lights, at a dimmed level, at a certain time. Then be able to turn that same set of lights all the way on with some outdoor motion sensors.

 

[Steve]

Here is 1 option that is totally hardware controlled and based on UPB. This should work in theory but I've never done it.

I am using SAI parts as an example, but you can use PCS products as well (and maybe recommended especially if your powerline has noise on it)

1. You would need to replace your light switches where you want control with automated switches like the US1140 or US240
2. Use the UCS Timer Module. This will allow your lights to come on as dusk or any pre-programmed time.
3. Use a WGL 572 to receive motion inputs from x10 based wireless motion detectors like the Hawkeye.

So the UCS would control the normal timed on/off of the switches and then the 572 could override it based on motion. I'm not 100% sure how the 'brighten to 100% to x minutes would work', perhaps the UCS could receive a link then send the link to do that. But I'm pretty sure with those components you can achieve what you want. You'd had to read thru the manuals to be sure.

The other alternative would be if you have a pc on 24x7 you can use some free software and you would just need the hardware bits for motion (probably still the 572) then the software could see the motion and perform the proper logic.

 

[cruggiero]

I'm looking to do this too and just installed the Omnipro II with UPB and motion detectors. My next step was to investigate how to program this into the system. Could someone point me in the right direction on the lines of code for doing this?

 

[DcN484]

Here is 1 option that is totally hardware controlled and based on UPB. This should work in theory but I've never done it.

I am using SAI parts as an example, but you can use PCS products as well (and maybe recommended especially if your powerline has noise on it)

1. You would need to replace your light switches where you want control with automated switches like the US1140 or US240
2. Use the UCS Timer Module. This will allow your lights to come on as dusk or any pre-programmed time.
3. Use a WGL 572 to receive motion inputs from x10 based wireless motion detectors like the Hawkeye.

So the UCS would control the normal timed on/off of the switches and then the 572 could override it based on motion. I'm not 100% sure how the 'brighten to 100% to x minutes would work', perhaps the UCS could receive a link then send the link to do that. But I'm pretty sure with those components you can achieve what you want. You'd had to read thru the manuals to be sure.

The other alternative would be if you have a pc on 24x7 you can use some free software and you would just need the hardware bits for motion (probably still the 572) then the software could see the motion and perform the proper logic.

Thanks Steve! We're on the right track. I like the UCS idea, but I also think that if I'm going to do that, maybe having it on a PC interface with software would be better? What about the Smarthome 'dumb' controllers that you can program via a PC, then it remembers the commands, and the PC can be turned off.

I don't currently have a PC that I must have running 27/7, and I like it. However, I've also been thinking about getting a low power drawing laptop to run a few other home controls on...... so maybe an option there.

Or what about the X10 Active Home Pro product? Or am I asking for trouble there?