Future Consideration Motion and Lights - "Off Means Off"
Future Consideration Motion and Lights - "Off Means Off"
I currently have a Group with six (soon to be eight) KL135 bulbs and two ES20M switches.
The two switches are wired for power, but are not wired to a load, as I don't want them actually removing power from the KL135 bulbs or attempting to Dim them like standard bulbs.
After a lot of struggling through the app UI to figure out how to get motion sensing from the Switches to turn on the Lights using a combination of Smart Control and Smart Actions, I'm finding that on-with-Motion always works, and by that I mean ALWAYS - even after I've explicitly turned the lights Off.
The use case:
- When I have turned the lights On, I want them to stay On as long as the room is occupied (Motion recently sensed at the Switch).
- After some period of time without occupancy/Motion at the Switch, the lights should turn themselves Off.
- If the room becomes occuped again, the lights should turn themselves On again.
- There are times when I want to be in the room, but do NOT want the lights On, so I turn the lights Off (using either the Switch Power button, the app, or voice control). This might be to meditate or take a nap, for example.
What I expect:
- The lights remain Off until I explicitly turn them On again, after which they resume using Motion to dictate their state.
What happens:
- After some period of time, apparently dictated by the Manual Off Buffer, if the sensor on the Switch detects any Motion, the lights turn themselves On again, disturbing my rest.
If the Manual Off Buffer feature is indeed what is breaking this use case, recommend adding an option beyond 5-60 seconds (like "Never" or an infinity symbol), that will keep the light Off indefinitely until either the user explicitly turns the Switch On again, or the next Scheduled event that sets some other state.
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Riley_S wrote
I am actually preparing a survey for our motion light switches and dimmers to see what features everyone would find the most useful and how they would like to see the Smart Actions for the device implemented. Keep an eye out for the survey's official announcement over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, are there any specific features or questions that you think should be added to the survey? Currently, most questions revolve around what Smart Actions and Rules you would like to see added, and which you use most often.
I'm sure others could weigh in here, too. Probably should - it's been a while since I (unfortunately) had to switch out the KL135's due to some of the issues I was having with being unable to control them the way I wanted to. That said, I still have them, so it would be easy enough to set some up in a room for further testing.
I can definitely say that, as this thread started, having some way to be able to specify the behavior in response to a user-initiated "Off" command would be helpful (e.g., continue current Off behavior that keeps Motion enabled, disable Motion entirely until an explicit "On" or non-zero Brightness command, etc.).
Not sure how much of this might already be available due to any recent changes in the app or firmware, but other things that come to mind include:
- Making Motion / Occupancy and any button press available as a trigger for any Smart events, actions, or controls on any Kasa/Tapo devices (including other wall controls, like your switches, dimmers, and fan controllers)
- Ensuring Motion / Occupancy is exposed in device capabilities when queried, so third-party controls can discover, configure, and use Motion for other purposes
- Ensuring motion / occupancy events are broadcast when they occur (so they are asynchronous and do not have to be manually queried)
- Option to use Motion switch buttons (like Dim + / Dim -) as smart control of Kasa / Tapo lights or switches, instead of just altering the power output like a standard dimmer. This doesn't have to be limited to Dimming / Brightness; Dim + / - might also be assigned to adjust Color Temperature, scroll through Presets, trigger recording on one or more cameras, etc.
- Double-taps (or even Double- and Triple-taps) for any button, including the Power button, to add additional adjustments for dimmable or smart lights, or anything else that could be assigned to Smart actions or devices.
- Blue Sky suggestion: Ability to assign third-party control protocols to Fan switches, so using the fan switch isn't limited to physical control of a fan via power line, but actual API control of fans. There are several ceiling fans now that have such control, or will soon have that by way of their own Matter integrations.
That's all off the top of my head, but I'll keep pondering on it!
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Hi all, I would love to see the ability in the app to disable the motion sensor in the switch with a scene/smart action. I use many of these motion switches in my garage. When I'm working in there or having a get together I would love to be able to run a scene that would disable the motion sensor so that with another scene (or manually) I can turn on/off the lights. They will then stay on/off continuously until I turn the motion sensor back on with a scene/smart action. At present I have to individually turn off each device's Smart Control to diable motion sensing. I know they are motion sensors, that's why I bought them and they do work great but having the ability to disable that function once and a while I believe would be beneficial in my case. Thanks
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@Bryfry73, @Vapian @Paradox52525, @RojasNet2, @LearnTO, @lidowave , @Smarterhome, @Hank99
Thank you to everyone who has provided your feedback throughout the forums. Your feedback has been passed previously but will be formally passed to our R&D team, along with the results from the ongoing feedback survey.
Due to the number of similar requests, we have prepared a Survey to gather feedback on the Smart Rules and Functions of Motion Switches and Dimmers.
The Forum Post for the Survey can be found here: https://community.tp-link.com/us/smart-home/forum/topic/618506
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@Vapian this is an amazing feature we beed
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I second this request. I see that these requests were not implemented for a while now.
The best solution is to add more smart actions which the app is already capable of but currently with limited actions. For example, I should be able to do things like: WHEN motion is triggered, THEN disable motion sensor for 30 min - 2 hours. Also, I should be able to disable the motion sensor using Alexa\google voice commands.
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Helpful: 8
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Replies: 17
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