I’ve been struggling with setting up motion-activated lights in my 3-storey house and could use some advice. The main issue is that when the lights are ON and detect movement again, the timer doesn’t extend – they just turn off after the initial time and I have to move again to turn them back ON.
What I really want is:
When the lights are ON and detect another movement, extend the timer by 3 minutes.
I already have another automation that turns the lights OFF if no movement is detected after 3 minutes.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure this out but I’m not sure how to achieve it. Any suggestions or examples would be greatly appreciated!
Have you tried the automation you were linked to? It does what you need. Make sure you disable any previous attempts at turning the light off.
This is already provided by the automation given.
I do not see how automation modes relate to your problem.The automation that was shown runs so short it is almost impossible to trigger it while running.
You do not show your automtion so it is hard to tell, but from what you describe your problem is that you start timing when motion is detected, instead of when motion stops - as you should.
If you do use an actual timer, you need to cancel the timer yourself. But the example given does not need a timer helper. Because if new motion is detected withing the given time, the given time is never reached until motion stops again.
There’s really no timer involved. [No motion detected for 3 minutes] is just as much a triggering event as [No motion detected]. If it doesn’t happen, the lights don’t turn off.
