How to use "Cancel Motion Sensor Actions"

Devices
#1

Some users have wondered what the action “cancel motion sensor actions” really does. You find this action in the configuration of a switch like the Hue Dimmer Switch.

The action “cancel motion sensor actions” is intended for those situations when you want to temporarily suppress a motion response when there is no movement. In other words so that the lights do not switch off when you walk away from the location of this motion sensor.

Here is an example to explain this further:

Suppose you have a bathroom with a glass shower room inside. A motion sensor does not respond through glass. When you are in the shower, there is no movement for the motion sensor, and the motion sensor will respond to no-motion actions. Those are the actions on the no-motion tab.

When you walk into the shower you do not want the lights to switch off as long as you stay in there. So you program the button of, for example, a hue dimmer switch with the action “cancel motion sensor actions”. When you press that button, the motion sensor will not switch off the lights because the action has been canceled by your button press.

When you stay in the room with the motion sensor in it (so in the bathroom), it will detect movement again and therefore will start carrying out actions again. Walking away from the shower or walking out of the bathroom immediately results in no further actions and the light will stay on.

3 Likes
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#2

Hello Hue essentials team,

This is a really great feature! One thing is not clear to me: from which moment will the motion sensor response again after you press the button (which is programmed to cancel motion actions) on your switch? After a couple of minutes? Or when you press the off-button on your switch?

Greetings, Jac

#3

The motion sensor will respond again when the lights are switched off manually. So that is when you press the off button on a switch.

#4

Hi,

I’m fairly new to this app but I already feel it is much more user friendly than the HUE labs.
I do have question concerning the sensor.

I created a timeslot between 11 PM and 7 AM
Motion => turn on lights “nightlight”
No-motion => turns of lights after 2 minutes.

Say I am looking for something during this timeslot and I turn lights on with a brighter setting.
All good and well but when motion is detected it switches back to “nightlight”.
Is it possible to temporarily disable the sensor while remaining in the room with the motion detector?
Maybe a “timed” disable or “until activated again” action is performed.

Is there a way to get this implemented?

Br,
Jorge

#5

Hello Jorge, that is on the wish list for future development. See: Motion sensor activate /deactivate?

#6

Hi - Thanks! Your case helped solving mine :grinning:

I have a “Good Night” Homekit scene that (1) proactively turns ON the bulbs in the corridor and (2) turn OFF living room TV + Bulbs + Sound system. As the motion sensor usually drives the corridor’s bulbs, they are supposed to be turned off later on when no motion is detected.

The issue: because the corridor bulbs are not turned on by the sensor, the “no motion” action is not triggered and bulbs are staying on.

The temporary solution: The Homekit scene turns on the corridor bulbs with an intensity value different than 100% or 30%, which are the values usually set by the sensor for max and nightlight, so that when a motion is detected after the Homekit scene has turned on the bulbs, the sensor sets the intensity with the relevant value - which is the issue you are having - which implies for me that the “no motion” action will be successfully triggered.

Sorry for interjecting here, but I think that when your problem will be fixed, mine will be too.

Bye for now!

#7

This sounds promising…!
I have a motion sensor in my youngest son’s bedroom, set to turn on a helpful night-light to guide him to the bathroom and to prevent me from stepping on legos in the dark if I go to check on him.

This works super well, but imagine the scene where he’s sick or fell out of bed and I have to… Do Something.

I turn on the lights using the Hue dimmer, but the motion sensor soon overrules me and enforces the super dim guide light scene.

In this case I’d add “cancel motion sensor actions” to the Dimmer Switch, hoping that I can make the motion sensor leave us alone until I manually turn the lights off again.

I’m hoping that’s what we’re talking about?

Cheers
Holm

#8

this sounds like an extremely useful feature. could you please elaborate whether this is a custom implementation by Hue Essentials, or if you are tying in to an existing function in the Hue API? if it’s in the API could you let me know what to look for in the developer docs? I currently have implemented something very similar with a hodgepodge of rules and sensor flags and if Hue added this functionality natively I’d love to update my config to use it instead.

#9

@Jorge @mbolo01 @Hooolm, the feature to activate/deactivate a motion sensor is now available. See for more information:

#10

Hue Essentials uses a CLIPGenericStatus sensor to store the current state of the motion sensor. The “cancel motion sensor actions” action just updates that sensor value to the no motion value. So basically Hue Essentials uses its own rules and sensor to create this behaviour.

#11

Hi, nice app. I set up the toggle motion sensor off if holding the off button on remote. How to turn the sensor back to on automatically after one hour ?