Question

Does anyone have one of the Homeseer Floodlight Sensors? I'm thinking about replacing 2 of the floodlights on my shop with these, but I have a question. I assume that they work like a normal sensor, on motion, it will stay on for a set amount of time. But, if I turn on via Z-wave, does it override the timer, and just stay on until I shut it off? Also, being hard wired, I'm assuming it acts as a repeater.  
https://shop.homeseer.com/products/...ysbf4

Answer 1

I have 2 and will be buying a third when they are back in stock. They work great with very few false detections. You can use it as a traditional flood motion sensor but if you connect it through zwave I’d recommend only using it as a smart sensor, otherwise they tend to conflict with each other. I setup the scheduling and timing using a combination of webCoRE and Smart Lighting Apps and I even added a dimmer so I can have it stay on at 50% in the evening and go to 100% if motion is detected. Works perfectly

Comments

@inviolate8632 my thing was to be able to control them via a switch to turn on (zwave), but also have them function as a normal motion security light. The lights shine on to the kids playset and trampoline, but have no way to control them and keep them on when they are out there.  

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Yes you can definitely do that using virtual switches and WebCore. If switch is on, keep light on. If switch is off, control light based on timer/motion

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@inviolate8632 I actually have a physical zwave switch controlling patio lights that I planned to have control these floods. When turned on via switch, it bypasses any timers in the photocell, right?  

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You can turn off the functionality of the traditional timer/photocell portion of the sensor and force it to only be controlled by smartthings via the zwave motion/lux/switch devices within the sensor. I found this the be the most reliable way to control the light for my application. Keep in mind that turning off your physical zwave switch will turn off power to the light & motion sensor and take it offline. You can wire your physical zwave switch in parallel with the motion sensor so that it doesnt kill the power. That’s exactly what I did with my dimmers to work with these motion sensors. The wall switch basically becomes a Zwave button because it has no load to control. The light ends up being controlled by the motion sensor through Smarthings based on events sent by the switch.  

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@inviolate8632 the switch itself isn't wired to the floodlights. They are always on power and planning to use the zwave switch that wired to the patio lights to also (via Zwave) flip the flood lights on.  

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That should work without any issue. Sounds like it will be a nice setup.  

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I currently have 4 in use and 2 more I will install when it gets warmer. I have been using them for a year now and have automatons set up with webCoRE so that when one triggers they all go on. I also have buttons on action tiles that I can use to turn them on manually and leave them on until I turn them off and the ability to disable the motion activation so that if am sitting out at night they don't keep turning on.  

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I had to modify the DTH to expose all of the functionality as Homeseer didnt do that in their standard DTH.  

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YES! I completely forgot about this. I had to modify the DTH to enable full hub control. The Homeseer code didn’t allow this

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@inviolate8632 can you guys shed some light on how and what to modify?  

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If I recall correctly I had to update the code so that I could set the “Lux Value to Disable Sensor” to 0 in the app. This allows you to disable the traditional on/off motion sensor functionality and have it controlled 100% by Smartthings. The code from Homeseer only allowed a min value of 30.  

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@inviolate8632 so does that make the motion sensing not work? My goal was to have the ability for both motion sensing and zwave control.  

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It basically has dual functionality - both as a smart motion sensor and as a “dumb” photocell/motion sensor. By setting it to 0 you disable the “dumb” sensor side and force it to only act like a normal smart motion sensor. If you don’t do this it will turn the light on/off based on the dial settings on the unit itself (like traditional flood motion sensors) and also be controlled by smartthings.  

Answer 2

I’m wanting to try one but they show as out of stock!  

Comments

@dye yea, they've been out for a while.  

Answer 3

I have one. Worked great after I found the right device handler.  

Answer 4

I have one, works great and easy to wire in. Definitely recommended.