Re: Pir Probe update

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "David Amphlett" <dave_yahoo@a...>
wrote:
>
> PIR's are great unless people sit down (in lounges at least).

Just a thought about this. As this sort of follows on from the "who
left the lights on" type discussion and the fact that lights went
out unexpectidly how about gently "nudging" the occupant of the
room
to take some action.

Franks idea about an IR detector is a good one because most people
will use a remote in most rooms and many people already have or are
planning IR distribution systems (watch out for more FirM sales
Frank!)

If you are using HA for controlling the lights in your lounge there
are two distinctly different but equally annoying things that can
occur...

1. You want to watch a movie in the dark but you jiffle in your
armchair and the light come on.

2. You are reading a book or watching TV sitting perfectly still and
the lights go out unexpectedly.

What about this for an idea... an occupancy timer that runs for
"x"
minutes (eg 15mins) after being triggered and each retriggering
resets the time to that value. The current problem is that when it
reaches 0 the light go out.

How about a "warning" about a minute beforehand. This could take
the
form of a discreet "beep" or the flash of a lamp thereby warning
the
occupant that the timer was running out. The occupant can then move
about or press an IR button to reset the timer with feedback of a
succesful timer reset being a "beep beep" or double flash of the
lamp etc.

This same methodology could be used to prevent the lights coming on
whilst watching a movie by having the HA system recognise that you
had chosen "Movie Mode" and disabling auto switch on of lighting
whilst the occupancy timer was running or you manually (by remote
control obviously!) turn the lights on

Not a totally automated solution but required minimal hardware and
providing the person is still awake/in the room would work.
Obviously if no response was detected after the "nudge" then the
timer would expire and do its business.

Regards

Keith