Hello, I need some clarification about the Philips motion sensor “no movement” behavior as I’m not sure I get it, or something is not working as expected.
I have configured a motion sensor, driving two bulbs, to turn them off after 2 minutes with no motion detected, this works well as long as the on/off process is fully controlled by the motion sensor. Let me explain:
I sometime need to anticipate the motion sensor and turn the bulbs on with the app or part of some automation. When doing that, I noticed that the motion sensor seems to be deactivated as the “no motion” action is not triggered. Is it the case when the motion sensor is not the “turn bulbs on” initiator?
I though that “return to the previous state” was the way to keep a bulb on when turned on by something other than the motion sensor prior to a motion detection?
The No motion actions will only activate after the motion sensor detects motion and activates the Motion actions. So if you switch on your lights using a different method, the motion sensor should not turn them off.
Yes, that is what the Return to previous state action does. However, please keep in mind that when you switch on your lights, the motion sensor will not override them because it thinks it is too bright (because the lights are on). In order to fix this, change the Daylight sensitivity of the motion sensor so it also triggers when the lights are on. This will also cause the motion sensor to switch on the lights when it is bright, so you could use time frames so the motion sensor does not trigger when day.
Before knowing the details you mentioned, I managed to solve my problem. To summarize it, I was looking for a way to turn on bulbs without the motion sensor, and to have them turned off by the motion sensor. I thought that I found a solution by setting the light intensity through the scene to a value different than the sensor sets for the different periods of the day, so that the sensor would detect this difference and would set to the correct value … but your answer makes me now understand that the sensor daylight sensitivity is what really helps me here combined with the intensity I set through the scene, i have been lucky and it makes perfect sense to me now.
and it makes perfect sense to me now.