Need a solution to Motion Sensor flaw

[TCassio]

I've come to the conclusion that the motion sensors that are sold today has a major flaw. If you locate them in a busy area they virtually flood the air wave with there RF signals that stiffel other RF devices that are present.

Example: I have a motion sensor in my bed room that turns on a lamp, I also have an alarm door/window sensor on my closet door that when is opened it turns on the closet lite. As long as there is motion in that room or any other room that has a motion sensor the door/window sensor's signal gets clobbered and does not work.

I can limit the powerline traffic through logic, but I have no way of controlling the RF signals. (I use the WGL W800 so the RF signals never make it to the powerline after the first signal is sent).

Are there any Motion sensors that allow you to control the output of the RF signals? Are there any mods that can be done to accomplish this?

Thanks,
T

 

[Rupp]

Odd because I have 17 motion sensors in use in and outside of my home. I have 4 in the bathroom where I have one of them that turns on the light in the closet and I have never witnessed any signals being "clobbered". Your not retransmitting the signals to the power line are you?

 

[rocco]

If you locate them in a busy area they virtually flood the air wave with there RF signals that stiffel other RF devices that are present.

Maybe you have some defective motion sensors? Under continuous motion, the Hawk-Eagle-Active-Eye motion sensors only transmit once every ten seconds (roughly).

 

[Treetop]

A couple things come to mind...

as rocco said, possibly a defective sensor.

I know that when the batteries get low, my sensors defaulted back to A1 and kept sending out the signal (cant remember if they were continous, but it sure was a lot of em).
My work around for that, was to learn the event code sent for each sensor on A1. Now when one reverts to the default, Im alerted as to which one via TTS and email.

Also, you can try reposition the motion sensors. Maybe on the ceiling by the door, facing straight down. Alternatively, you can take the plastic cover off and use tape to narrow the field of view.

 

[TCassio]

Rupp,
I only allow the first trip of the motion sensor get to the powerline, I use a 45 second delay befor it transmitts another command on the powerline.

Rocco,
The RF signals being sent can range anywhere between 6 and 16 seconds.

I have them in three high traffic areas and the door/window sensors seem to be the only RF signals that get stepped on, I guess because they only transmit 1 time.

Rupp,
You have 17 Motion Sensors? Do you use any other RF devices? You have never seen this problem?

Thanks for your responses,
T.

 

[Rupp]

Rupp,
You have 17 Motion Sensors? Do you use any other RF devices? You have never seen this problem?

Thanks for your responses,
T.

I now have 18 but who's counting. I also have 7 door and window sensors scattered throughout the house and shed and never have witnessed a problem like this. The motion sensors signal shouldn't take more than a second. Do you have debugging on all the time? This may slow down the processing of the signals. I can open my closet door and about a second later the light comes on so I know the processing from the W800 to the PC and then to HS is about a second. I'm wondering if your having some other RF interference from another source that may be impeding your signals.

 

[rocco]

The RF signals being sent can range anywhere between 6 and 16 seconds.

Yep, that's what I mean by "roughly". X10 was never much good a keeping time.

 

[TonyNo]

This variation is not due to anything X10. I would guess that it is a result of them trying to keep the costs down on the circuit to do the timing.

 

[rocco]

Absolutely, Tony. It doesn't have to do with X10 the protocol, what I meant was that it has to do with X10 the company.

It's from that cheap internal RC oscillator that they use to clock the microcontroller. It appears to have more than a +/-100% variation from unit to unit, and almost that much over temperature and battery voltage.

You will notice that products from SmartHome, ACT, PCS, Leviton or Lutron don't have these wide variations between units.

 

[TonyNo]

Still, I have not had any reliability issues with their RF devices, besides that the batteries eventually die.

 

[kwilcox]

I've had the occasional clobber on my 10 sensor system too. It's not often though. It seems that the W800RF can only handle one RF signal at a time and won't queue them. In my case, when someone's in the bathroom, a lot of traffic gets generated and makes the problem more likely to occur. The reason for the traffic is that I have two sensors there so I can keep the light's off timeout down to 2 minutes. So when someone's in there it makes it more likely that something like a bedroom or office sensor trip will be missed with the result being the lights don't come on when you enter the room. Again, this doesn't happen often; maybe once every two weeks or so.

Perhaps there's some ideosyncracy in the timing of your bedroom sensors based on routine movements. Ie: If you are going to open the closet door is it generally because you have just entered the room or is there something about your routine that delays using the closet door for the length of that sensor's on-trip timeout?