Re: Occupancy detection

[ben.parees@xxxxxxxxx]

I'm glad to see this getting attention, because motion activation of
lights is definitely on the top of my list of things i'm not happy w/
about my automation installation.  However, reliability doesn't seem
to be the issue for me, what is an issue is the latency.  Generally I
have to carefully position the sensors so that just walking by the
room (but not into it) doesn't trigger the light to come on, but this
means that you have to take a step or two into the room before you are
detected.  Add to that the delay of the detector picking you up once
you are in range, sending the signal, the tranceiver relaying the
signal to the powerline, my PC picking up the signal, and my PC
broadcasting a "hey turn on the kitchen lights" signal back down, and
it takes at least 1-2 seconds before anything happens.  (I relay
through the PC so i can do more macro control such as only turning on
lights when it's after dark).

Often this means walking into a dark room.  I've actually
subconsciously trained myself to walk into the room more slowly to
ensure the lights have a chance to come on before i get too far and
walk into something i can't see.  I started on HA to make my house
adapt to me, not to adapt myself to my house.

One thing i've considered to help the situation is a product I saw a
while ago (sorry no link handy right now) which acts as a whole-house
radio reciever and connects to your PC directly.  This would eliminate
the "sensors->transceiver->PC" leg of the trip and probably cut the
response time in half.  You still have the latency of being noticed by
the sensor and the PLC lag time though.  Incidentally this product has
a "real" antenna and claims to boost reception ranges significantly.
I'm sure Dave Houston knows what i'm talking about and knows whether
those claims are valid.

I've considered going the route of individual hardwired motion sensor
lightswitches like lutron makes which would no doubt operate faster
than my x10 mechanism, but I really like having a central "brain" to
my house and having the ability to set rules or be able to remotely
control those lights independently if i need/want to.