Insteon Motion Sensor 2

Recently picked up an insteon motion sensor II


A bit unclear on how to set a couple parameters within indigo.

I have been able to add the device no problem.
I have also been able to add the device I want it to control - an Insteon light switch (via Manage Links, once the device has been created)

Questions I have.
1) can I control the sensitivity of the motion sensor
2) how do I set the duration that my selected device stays active after motion has been detected. I must be missing something on this step as it only stays on for a few seconds.

As always, your helps is appreciated.

dave

[matt (support)]

There doesn't appear to be any type of sensitivity that can be changed from Indigo (or any other apps) for the Motion Sensor 2.

Inside the device settings for the motion sensor there are options that let you specify how long Indigo considers the motion to be activated before the device state should toggle OFF. I believe you want the 2nd radio button option. Note that you will then create Triggers using the Device State Changed type for the motion sensor. That is because Indigo will manually be setting the state to OFF after the duration you specify, thus you want to trigger off of Indigo's device state changes and not the incoming Insteon commands.

Thank Matt...

some trial and error with functionality got me there...

as you noted, it seems easiest to let the indigo trigger control the device once set up.

process I used,
set up motion sensor (use immediate off)
set up a trigger, choose an action (turn on light), and in this case I used the "auto-off after" setting to choose my delay

so far it's working as i was hoping:)

ended up plugging in my old insteon hub to figure out how the device works. There are actually a number of useful configuration items in there and I ended up setting a couple of them directly through there.

Motion LED (on/off)
Night Only (on/off)
Motion Countdown (time)
Light Sensitivity (percentage)
On Only Mode

descriptions for each can be found in the Motion Sensor II manual http://cache.insteon.com/documentation/2844-222-en.pdf

[jay (support)]

There are actually a number of useful configuration items in there and I ended up setting a couple of them directly through there.

Motion LED (on/off)
Night Only (on/off)
Motion Countdown (time)
Light Sensitivity (percentage)
On Only Mode

Some of those are available on the Insteon menu. Those not specifically in the UI can sometimes be set using the Execute Raw INSTEON Command menu item on that same menu.

Thank Jay...

I keep forgetting to look there, that would have been super easy!

Looks like those commands do not apply to the motion sensor II (I'm guessing the original one).

Either way, thanx for the input guys, always appreciate your help!!!

dave

[jay (support)]

The ones that work on the MSII should work. As Matt pointed out, there are things the MSII doesn't support that the original did.

Regarding manipulating the settings on the newer Motion Sensor II? I have an old Insteon Hub and changed the 'Motion LED ON/OFF' settings by linking it to the Hub and using the Insteon Mobile App.. I'd prefer that my motion sensors don't flash all the time and just hide out on a shelf or inconspicuous corner. The LED On/OFF setting did work for me as long as the Motion Sensor II power was USB. However, when I switched to battery power I get periodic green flashing. Doesn't always seem to be related to motion. The batteries are not NEW but a few years old as they came with the sensor - so I'm gonna try out some fresh batteries.

Guess the flashing 'may' be trying to tell me something besides motion but I am not sure - Indigo doesn't seem to be logging any output when these flashes occur. Does anyone have a similar experience with the MS2 and know what the various LED flashings mean (outside of motion detected)?

Hello everyone!

I'm facing the same situation.... Luckily I also have the Insteon Hub to be able to control those configuration parameters... I'm fairly new to Insteon so I'm not sure how this work, my guess is all those parameters are configured on the device and not on the controller... under those circumstances I think it could do the trick:

IMG_3004CA832A49-1.jpeg (304.11 KiB) Viewed 4106 times

But I can only change one parameter from Indigo:

2020-09-02_09-58-22.jpg (18.21 KiB) Viewed 4106 times

2020-09-02_10-04-39 2.jpg (19.05 KiB) Viewed 4106 times

2020-09-02_10-05-29 3.jpg (18.61 KiB) Viewed 4106 times

Any chance either Hub or Motion Sensor II support will be added in the near future?

Cheers!

[matt (support)]

Unfortunately, they removed the capability to change the motion sensor sensitivity and LED brightness in the firmware of the Motion Sensor II. We haven't added UI yet for the other settings, but I'm curious which ones you think are priority (most interesting) to have control over?

We will not be adding support for the Insteon Hub as a controller.

I used to use an ISY994 for HA before switching to Indigo, and I know that UDI tried repeatedly to get info from Smartlabs for this device and were flatly ignored. UDI tried their best to reverse engineer it, but it turns out the firmware is flawed anyway, with no ability to send on only or trigger on with repeated motion, and temperature and light level sensors that won’t update or are just plain wrong. IMHO, it’s a POS from the Joe Dada era that could have been great but isn’t worth wasting time with. They really missed the boat with this one.


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I used to use an ISY994 for HA before switching to Indigo, and I know that UDI tried repeatedly to get info from Smartlabs for this device and were flatly ignored. UDI tried their best to reverse engineer it, but it turns out the firmware is flawed anyway, with no ability to send on only or trigger on with repeated motion, and temperature and light level sensors that won’t update or are just plain wrong. IMHO, it’s a POS from the Joe Dada era that could have been great but isn’t worth wasting time with. They really missed the boat with this one.

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Thanks for the heads up... It appears to work with ISY.. trouble is, the ISY plugin on Indigo won't recognize it... actually the Indigo ISY plugin only recognizes the ON/Off device (from the few I have)... I am extremely new to Insteon world... Just learning mostly for the fun of it... oh and for the keypads... those seems to be very good!

I use another HA software together with Indigo and that support the Insteon Hub... I bought an ISY994i just to try to understand why is it soo popular... anyway, this is what I can get from ISY regarding that sensor:

2020-09-09_17-49-46 (1).jpg (96.29 KiB) Viewed 3996 times

I'll keep testing... I just want it to work either directly or perhaps through ISY...

Cheers!

That screenshot looks right. As I said, don’t put too much faith in those temp/lux readings. You may have better luck powering it from AC, I saw no difference. The motion part works, I just don’t like not having the ability to disable the off being sent. Too bad that Insteon devices can’t update FW in the field.
Not to slam Smartlabs, but one of their other newer devices, the dual on/off outlet is a fine piece of hardware (still no power reporting, boo), so they are capable of doing better.

The ISY994i is a great HA box once you wrap your head around their state machine style of programming. I switched to Indigo because of tighter integration with my all-Apple household (Homebridge rocks!), but I may revisit the ISY once they ditch that god-awful Java UI for HTML5. ISY is still somewhat a work in progress, but there’s a lot of potential on tap.


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For faster response (too much time lag when using the Indigo timeout with triggers), I have some Insteon MS2's (2844-222) directly linked to 2477S switches and would like to set the them to a longer timeout. Short of purchasing an Insteon hub, is there a way to send raw insteon commands through Indigo for timeout control? If so, please provide procedure / parameters.

[matt (support)]

Indigo should be able to set the timeout for the MS2 (2844) via the Interfaces->Insteon->Set Motion Sensor Timeout... menu item. Note you'll need to wake the motion sensor right before you have Indigo send the command.

I had a chance to experiment with the MS2, and found the following:

1. The “set timeout” command does not work on the MS2, at least when linking the MS2 directly with 2477S (MS2 sends off at the 30 second default).
2. I subsequently purchased an Insteon Hub (2245-222) to program a custom timeout value via the (marginally functional) Insteon iPhone app. That does not work either, as the MS2 lost its ability to connect directly with 2477S while under control of the hub (even if the hub is turned off). I actually needed to do a factory reset on MS2 in order to get it to perform with Indigo or directly with 2477S.

All in all, as mentioned by other users, it appears that while the actual MS2 sensor is an improvement over the original, it’s implementation is half-baked at best. Moreover, the requirement to purchase a hub (and leaving Indigo in the dark as to its documentation) in order to program the MS2 reeks of a shifty business model.

I would welcome the prospect of replacing all of my Insteon motion sensors with Z-wave, but haven’t found way to extend the range over our 5000+ sf home. In this respect, Insteon’s dual band protocol has proven to be reasonably reliable.

Additional thoughts would be welcomed.

Merrill