Motion sensor detects motion immediately but takes about 5 minutes to send updated state back that there's no more motion

I have a GE ZW6302 motion sensor and it works great when it detects motion (i.e. the “Burglar” sensor changes to “8” when motion is detected). But it takes 5 minutes after motion came and went to show state of “0” or sometimes it goes to “254”, when it does show “254” it eventually goes away within 5 minutes back to “0”, I’ve tried updating the wake up interval on it but it always stays at 3600 no matter what I do. The sensor has an option for constant power instead of battery and that’s how I’ve got it setup, I’d like it to update state back to no motion quicker than 5 minutes. Is this possible? What am I missing? Is the wake interval even the right thing to try?

The wakeup interval is how often the sensor will wake up and “call home” if you will. What you want is just below that in the configuration parameters - PIR Timeout Setting. After applying your desired setting, press the button on the back of the sensor to force a wakeup and retrieve your new config setting.

Many of the PIR sensors work this way. Some have internal jumpers to set this time; and some are programable.

Look to see if yours supports “test” mode which will mean it goes on and off immediately with motion/no motion.

Then you can debounce that on the automation side to get the behavior you want. delay_off in a binary sensor works well for this.

Thanks for the info, but in the “config parameter” section under the “set wakeup” it’s grey and I can’t select anything.

Hmmm… that’s odd. I have the same sensor and am able to use those settings. What version of HA are you running?

When I’ve had things odd happen with Z-Wave devices in the past, sometimes a remove/re-add helps; might be worth a shot. I think you can use the Add Node Secure option with these sensors too; could be something to try if you didn’t use that before.

Just got back from the garage (where the sensor is located) and found the papers there, it does have a test mode! I can’t believe I didn’t know about this… only about 2.5 years into HA and you made my day. Thanks man

Might be worth noting that these particular sensors will only stay in test mode for 10 minutes though and then revert back to the factory default timeout setting.

oh, didn’t know that. I’ll try removing it and adding it again via secure like you mentioned and see if I can get those settings changed.

ok I’ve got it re-added using the secure but the PIR will only let me choose between 1 or 0 and nothing else. From the way it reads it looks like putting in “255” would make it work every 5 seconds?

I think 255 effectively puts it in test mode - not sure if the 10 minute limit applies when it’s set this way vs. pressing the button or not; could be worth a shot! I have to give an obligatory warning on battery life impacts of doing so. I have mine set to 1 minute and got about 8 months out of the battery on High sensitivity; changing to 5 seconds is likely to reduce that further.

I have mine powered via USB cable so I don’t care about batteries. I’m wondering if not being able to change the setting has to do with it being asleep while I’m doing so? (Dumb question probably here… how do I wake it up so I can change the setting?)

Good point! I forgot you mentioned the USB power use. I’ve never used that option, but am surprised that it still goes to sleep when it’s powered like that.

After hitting the Set Config Parameter in HA, wait a few seconds and then press the button on the sensor to force a wakeup and pull the new config setting. This has worked for me in the past at least.

Reboot HA when done? Or can I just restart Z wave or something different required to make it take affect?

I’ve never had to restart anything, usually just press the button on the sensor and it’s good. Might have to refresh the page to see the new value, but that’s been the extent of it for me.

You can also view the logs at the bottom of the page to see any messages exchanged with the device.

Well I’ve got it changed to 255 but the behavior is still 4 minutes (I found in the manual where they call this the “reset time” and it defaults to 4 minutes). Not sure what’s wrong. I wish it just had a jumper inside I could force it to test mode full time.

Maybe the 10 minute limit does apply still then. Have you tried using a value of 1 to see if it changes to 1 minute?

I’ve got it working with setting at 1 and it’s working at 1 minute instead of the old 4 or 5 that it was doing, strange that I can’t get it to do the 255. I need to play around with it more later tonight or this weekend and see if there’s something I’ve missed.

btw did you ever get this working? :slight_smile:

I gave up on this GE sensor trying to make it work more often, if I could put it in Test Mode all the time it’d work perfectly… so I just deal with the delay with my automations now.