So my apologies, first of all. This is my first automation attempt, so I wanted to start simple but for whatever reason it doesn’t seem to be working.
The goal is to get lights to turn on or off based on movement / not detecting movement.
My automation.yaml is as follows:
- alias: 'Lights Off'
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.hallway_motion
from: 'On'
to: 'Off'
action:
service: homeassistant.turn_off
entity_id: light.level_2
- alias: 'Lights On'
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.hallway_motion
from: 'Off'
to: 'On'
action:
service: light.turn_on
entity_id: light.level_2
It’s paired with Monoprice 4-1 multisensor which I have configured using a template (thanks to the help of someone else; still don’t understand templating). Whenever I walk by it, I see it detect me, see it’s state change in HA, but the automation doesn’t trigger. What am I missing?
I plan on making them more complex (light level based on time of day, etc.) at some point.
Do you by chance know how to get the motion detector (monoprice multi-sensor) to detect motion more frequently? I just tested the “on” automation and I had to walk around a bit near the sensor before it detected me.
No worries. Happens to me too and sometimes you just need a second set of eyes.
Which component is it? I don’t see a Monoprice one. If it’s polling, you can sometimes set a scan_interval in the config. The issue with a lot of low power sensors is they don’t communicate too often in order to save the battery.
Yeah I think it’s what you said - low power to conserve battery. I know the manual stated it won’t communicate with the controller (HA in this case) unless it detected a significant change in one of its sensors. I was hoping there was a way to change the sensitivity or the sensor or something like that.
There is no component for it, which is why I had to use a template to convert it into a binary sensor - I will try scan_interval though and see what happens.
@Coolie1101 Yeah I saw that one but wasn’t sure what to do with it. So would that entity work with the binary_sensor component documentation? Or, what’s the benefit to using that entity over the one that I’ve made using the template?
If it already creates a binary sensor, it should be more efficient to use that one in your automation than creating a new one with the template binary_sensor. Try it out and see if that solves the latency issue.
Another question re the sensor: I can’t seem to get two of it’s states (alarm type and something else I can’t recall right now) hidden from my front end. I have the entities correct in my customize.yaml but they don’t disappear like the rest of the various sensors did. Any experience with that?
@TortiousTortoise The way I do it is use a default_view in my groups and then list the entities I want to display rather than hiding the ones I don’t want to.
@Jer78 That makes more sense than the way I’m doing it, especially as I get more devices connected. Thanks again. I appreciate all the input and the advice.
You absolutely can adjust the sensitivity on this device, if it’s the same one I’m using (and I think it is).
Go to the Configuration tab in Home Assistant, select Z-Wave, and then scroll down to Z-Wave Node Management. There’s a drop-down list of all of your z-wave nodes, so select your multisensor (mine shows up as “Vision ZP3111 Multisensor 4in1”).
Then scroll down some more to “Node config options” and in the drop-down list where it says “Config parameter,” select “6: Motion Sensor Sensitivity Adjustment.” Then in the box below, enter a number from 1 to 7 (1 is most sensitive, and I have mine set to 2) and click on “SET CONFIG PARAMETER.”
Another dumb question: after I set the parameter and go to a different one, and then reopen the last parameter, it still shows up as what it was originally. Is that just default, or am I not properly updating the device? I made sure to wake it up by walking in front of it.
For example, I went to re-set the sensitivity to 2. I left that parameter, went to the re-trigger duration and set that, then went back to the sensitivity and it was back to it’s original “4” level. Am I doing something wrong?
Sounds good. I just wrote another automation that I can’t seem to figure out what went wrong
- alias: 'Lights On'
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.vision_zp3111_multisensor_4in1_sensor
from: 'off'
to: 'on'
condition:
condition: and
conditions:
- condition: sun
after: sunset
- condition: time
after: '18:00:00'
before: '22:00:00'
action:
- service: light.turn_on
data:
entity_id: light.level_2
brightness_pct: 100
Any thoughts? I’m trying to have the light come on upon motion at a certain brightness if it’s between 6pm and 10pm. I have a separate automation for between 10pm and 7am at a different brightness.
@miguelromao Thanks for pointing that out. I honestly don’t know why the extra spaces got added.
@anon43302295 they used to work without an initial_state when I didn’t have the more complex automations. When it was solely based on motion, both the on and the off automations worked.
