I have a light which is turned on by the motion sensor (not a z-wave device, it is attached on cable), with the time delay to OFF state controlled by the sensor.
I want to steer this light additionally by the z-wave switch, that it can be turned on or off regardless of the commands from PIR sensor.
The first part (turning on) seems to be easy - I can mount the switch in the circuit in the way that PIR sensor is attached as an regular 2-way switch, so I can turn light on regardless of the state of the PIR sensor.
The only question there is what will happen if the PIR sensor detect a motion afterwards (switching to ON position) then turn it OFF - will the light go OFF after that?
The second part (keeping the light off, regardless of the PIR state) seems to be more tricky. If I will turn the switch off from VERA it will turn on every time it will get an “ON” signal from the PIR.
The solution I worked out so far is installing double switch, one channel controlling the light, and the other controlling the PIR sensor. This way I can “cut off” the PIR every time I want light to ignore its state.
But maybe there is some simpler way to achieve that?
I thought about some virtual variable telling me if the switch was turned on or off by the PIR or from VERA, but in this case won’t I end up with at least momentary “blinking” light? (like: the switch is turned OFF, then signal from PIR is turning light ON, then Vera runs the scene recognizing that it should be OFF, and turning it OFF again - so I have some “blink” between OFF-ON-OFF state))?
I am currently running something similar and it is difficult to get right. First do not try to used a Qubino dimmer or switch. That only supports a toggle switch, so if you turn the light on or off from the controller when the state is opposite based on the sensor it will swap the senor function, i.e. on will become off and visa versa.
I am using a Fibaro switch with the sensor switch attached to the S1 switch input and the input configured as switch. On an off event of the Fibaro switch, I check a second item and turn the switch back on if I want to, irrespective of the sensor state (so it is a on-off-on sequence). Most of the time you do not see the light blink. I do not know if you would see the same on your off-on-off sequence, I guess you just need to try. But realize the controller may be busy with some other z-wave device communication so the result will vary.
What you also will need to do is some periodic check to make sure the light is in the state you expect and things did not go out of wack. I am still polishing on that part. Right now it works fine if I am the only one at home, but it goes wrong on the WAF test ;D.
With the price difference between single and double contact z-wave, I reckon you may as well do as you suggested yourself.
“The solution I worked out so far is installing double switch, one channel controlling the light, and the other controlling the PIR sensor. This way I can “cut off” the PIR every time I want light to ignore its state.”
The one channel is overide on and the other chanel is overide off. No channels active means operate as normal.
Yes, I think it will be probably the most efficient solution. Since I need to put some z-wave switch there anyway, it is not a big difference between 2 channel or 1 channel.
The only thing that bothers me with this solution is that I have two switches in Vera to operate one device. Saying “simpler” I probably should use “more elegant” way in the meaning that you have only one switch.
But since you have three states of the whole setup (normal PIR operation, ignore PIR and ON, ignore PIR and OFF) I don’t see the possibility to handle that with only one “ON/OFF” switch, even if supported with coding.
Maybe it is possible to create some kind of virtual switch with three states, controlling the two? Then I could simply hide them.
The Homeseer paddle switch is capable of giving you more information through the central scene class: single/double/triple tap, plus long tap. But I’m not sure if Vera supports central scene yet. If it does, then you can get more states from a single switch.
According to the Qubino manual you can choose if the switch is momentary (monostable) or toggle (bistable) type.
Fibaro has a nice configuration option to use toggle switch defined the way that the ON is only when the circuit is closed so no swapping of the switch function, but if the relay was switched on from the controller you have to turn the switch state twice to make it act properly).
I thought about this a bit and have two possible solutions for relays which don’t have such configuration settings:
Set “momentary” switch type in the relay and for the PIR as minimum time it is “ON” as possible - it will then act as a push buton. Then you can configure a scene to turn the light off after defined period of time, or set apropriate parameter in the relay itself (most have configurable OFF timer)
Set “toggle” switch type and remember that before you turn ON or OFF the light itself from the controller, first you have to switch off the circuit to which the PIR is attached. And before switching it back you have to switch off the light.
This way you will never encounter the case when the PIR ON/OFF function will be swapped.
In this case probably some kind of virtual switch would be usefull triggering the scenes like below:
first virtual switch for the case when you want the light to be ON regardless of the PIR state
ON = “turn PIR off, then turn light ON”
OFF = “turn light OFF then turn PIR ON”
second virtual switch for the case when you want the light to be OFF regardless of the PIR state
ON = “turn PIR off, then turn light OFF”
OFF = “turn PIR ON”
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