motion detection - Elk and Insteon
- Thread starter tisserda
- Start date
DEL,
as always, thanks for all the feedback and responses! You keep prompting to peel back another layer, which I really appreciate.
My initial thought was to use motion detection only in the kitchen (central hub of the house) to trigger events based on time of day and other events. For instance:
I usually leave before sunrise in the morning, so I wanted it to turn on the under-cabinet lights so I don't stub a toe or step on a kids toy.
I want it to turn on all the lights when the wife walks in from the garage with a full arms of groceries.
I want all the lights on if one of the kids is grabbing a midnight snack.
From a security point, it would be just adding an additional layer to know if someone is in the house at a time no is supposed to be. Tieing into security is definitely an afterthought.
as always, thanks for all the feedback and responses! You keep prompting to peel back another layer, which I really appreciate.
My initial thought was to use motion detection only in the kitchen (central hub of the house) to trigger events based on time of day and other events. For instance:
I usually leave before sunrise in the morning, so I wanted it to turn on the under-cabinet lights so I don't stub a toe or step on a kids toy.
I want it to turn on all the lights when the wife walks in from the garage with a full arms of groceries.
I want all the lights on if one of the kids is grabbing a midnight snack.
From a security point, it would be just adding an additional layer to know if someone is in the house at a time no is supposed to be. Tieing into security is definitely an afterthought.
I'd do the garage aspect from a security system trigger, the garage door opening.
Without knowing the layout of the house, I would say the performance of a security based sensor would not achieve what you want for internal occupancy sensing.
You could, however trigger the undercabinet based on time or day/sunrise to turn on UC lights for a short period/window of time. As far as snack time, that would be determined or driven from another event, or leave as is.
Without knowing the layout of the house, I would say the performance of a security based sensor would not achieve what you want for internal occupancy sensing.
You could, however trigger the undercabinet based on time or day/sunrise to turn on UC lights for a short period/window of time. As far as snack time, that would be determined or driven from another event, or leave as is.
tmbrown97
Senior Member
I do some similar type stuff to what you asked about.
1. When entering the house, if the system is armed, the action of opening the door lights a path from the door you entered into our kitchen... it's the central part of the house with a huge island in the middle, so that's where we set whatever we're carrying.
2. If the kids get up in the middle of the night, it lights up a path for them - to the bathrooms though, not the kitchen - and alerts us in the bedroom (younger kids) - this is driven by contact sensors on their doors.
3. For the times in the morning when you leave, that's a simple timer - probably turn on at a certain time, turn off either when sunrise happens or when a certain time comes.
If you want to tie in with motion sensors, there's a couple considerations - if you ever want to use it for security, it needs to be a security motion sensor. The ISY should be able to detect those just fine. That said, they'll have a slightly longer delay. So - putting one that picks you up as you hit a staircase might not turn the lights on until you're 3 steps down - but if you put it far enough away, that 1.5 second delay can turn things on earlier.
I also use scenes to do a lot of this - I have a Snack Run scene that dimly lights the path all the way to the kitchen/pantry.
1. When entering the house, if the system is armed, the action of opening the door lights a path from the door you entered into our kitchen... it's the central part of the house with a huge island in the middle, so that's where we set whatever we're carrying.
2. If the kids get up in the middle of the night, it lights up a path for them - to the bathrooms though, not the kitchen - and alerts us in the bedroom (younger kids) - this is driven by contact sensors on their doors.
3. For the times in the morning when you leave, that's a simple timer - probably turn on at a certain time, turn off either when sunrise happens or when a certain time comes.
If you want to tie in with motion sensors, there's a couple considerations - if you ever want to use it for security, it needs to be a security motion sensor. The ISY should be able to detect those just fine. That said, they'll have a slightly longer delay. So - putting one that picks you up as you hit a staircase might not turn the lights on until you're 3 steps down - but if you put it far enough away, that 1.5 second delay can turn things on earlier.
I also use scenes to do a lot of this - I have a Snack Run scene that dimly lights the path all the way to the kitchen/pantry.
I use 2 types of motion sensors throughout the house. All my security sensors are quad technology and they are placed according to the alarm system design. In addition I have one or two cheaper PIR sensors in every room that are configured to the high sensitivity and are set as auxiliary zones in the HA controller. All my lighting rules are in the controller, so I have no noticeable delay. I use both types to determine the occupancy in each room and the whole house, but the aux sensors are primarily the ones responsible for lighting control. It's actually a lot easier to turn the lights on based on motion than to reliably detect the non-occupancy and turn them off. I had to add a few additional wireless sensors to the "dead zones".
