How To Use Motion Sensors Correctly In Home Assistant

Detecting motion can be tricky if you have multiple motion sensors in the same room or if motion sensors have a certain dependency on each other. In this Home Assistant tutorial, I explain how you can best set up motion sensors and make automations based on a number of use cases so that they work perfectly for every use case.

⭐ INCLUDING DUTCH AND ENGLISH CAPTIONS! ⭐

⭐ Extra Use Cases: ⭐
Use Case 4: Turn off the lights if someone approached the house and decides not to go in.
Currently, in Use Case 2, if someone approaches the house, the lights outside and inside turn on. If he decides not to enter the house,
only the outside light will turn off. To fix this use case, we have to add a Helper Group of type binary sensor to Home Assistant. Let's call the Helper Group "all motion sensors hall". Add the motion sensor for the hall outside and the motion sensor for the hall inside to this group. Leave the setting "All entities" to off.

Use Case 5: Turn off the lights if someone only enters the boiler room, does not enter the garage, and goes back upstairs.
Currently, in Use Case 3, if someone enters the boiler room, the lights in the staircase, boiler room, and garage turn on. If he decides not to enter the garage, only the light in the boiler room and staircase will turn off. The light in the garage will stay turned on. To fix this use case, we have to add a Helper Group of type binary sensor to Home Assistant. Let's call the Helper Group "all motion sensors". Add the motion sensor for the staircase, the boiler room, and the garage to this group. Leave the setting "All entities" to off.

⭐ Links used in this video: ⭐


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00:00 Introduction
01:19 Use Case 1: One room with One Lamp and One Motion Sensor
01:40 Use Case 2: Two rooms with One Lamp and One Motion Sensor for each room
02:43 Use Case 3: Two rooms with One Lamp and One Motion Sensor for each room
03:50 The Automations
03:53 Automation Use Case 1
05:48 Automation Use Case 2
09:42 Automation Use Case 3

#homeassistant #homeautomation #motionsensor #motionsensorlight #motiondetector

[SmartHomeJunkie]

I've added two new Use Cases to my Github page that turn off all the lights in the hallway, stairway, boiler room, and garage if no motion has been detected in all of these rooms.
What kind of motion sensors do you use? And what are the best ones in your opinion?

[philipadam]

It's really great to have concrete examples, thank you

[justinc]

So many ways to skin the cat in Home Assistant, and I was struggling to get a basic motion to work, some people recommended multiple automations, which causes strange race conditions, and complexity. Others recommend built in blueprints, which were problematic. This was the right way. Thanks!

[papperme]

Very good tutorial. I like. Now I have to study your content. Thanks for sharing. Many thumbs up.

[TEverlith]

Another outstanding video! Implemented this one too! Thank you...

[stevejohns]

Thank you for your clear instructions. I was able to get a relay to be remotely controlled by a PIR sensor connected to an ESP32 C3 board, both working in Home Assistant. I’ve just bought you a coffee. Cheers!

[javadnasserifar]

Thanks for sharing the use cases and clear description. In my case I was able to run the automation (Use case 1 tested) with Tuya integration sensors/lights and HA automation. so far so good!

[MopHad]

I'm new and only just started setting up home assistant, I have the lights only setup so far but was able to use this principle to auto lights off without a sensor after a period of time when the kids leave lights on in walk in storage cupboards.

[sotaehyung]

I don't have HA, but thanks for the tutorial. Great video... I love learning about smart home stuff👍

[ThePros-sk]

Thanks for the content. Wanted to mention a possible gotcha on using the if-else constructs. I used your Use Case 1 to replace a simple detect -> condition -> action with delay automation. My automation used a time condition so I used the time condition in the If portion. So when my automation got triggered outside of the time period, it turned off my lights instead of turning them on. Since the else can't have a condition tied to it, any trigger will take the else, when the if condition is not met. Will be trying the Choose construct next.

[skm]

Outstanding tutorial. Keep up the great work. Thank you!

[quirinus_online]

Dankjewel man, je legt het echt super goed uit. Beter dan ieder ander die het doet.

[karlOFuchs]

Your tutorials are awesome. I am learning something new each time. I am going to replace my complex node-red code with HA automations. The new 2022.9 release has improved the UI tremendously.

[jackypeng]

this is great video and covers most of my senior want to ask for help on automation when i only turn on the light if there is continues motion detected and not at once motion is detected some as using a motion sensor to act as occupancy

[adiands]

Thanks for the great video! Is it possible in ZHA to have it so that the automation only applies during the night time, e.g. 12pm to 6am?

[paulatkinson]

Awesome tutorial!! Thankyou! 👍🙂
What is the best way to operate 3 motion sensors from 1 large room? Would a ZigBee group or HA group work best for this?

[kevinlegobrickmaster]

This was really helpful for a school project I'm doing dropped a like and a sub for the channel, might stay tuned as I'm really interested in home assistant now

[waltervos]

Helpful video for me because I was looking for an automation solution for putting on (and of course off) the light in 2 rooms with sensors! I also apreciate the dutch translation! Thanks

[jimbo]

Thank you for your videos Ed, using the Trigger IDs have enabled me to get my automation's running a lot more reliably. I have only used the Sonoff movement sensors, so can't give an opinion on other manufacturers.

[riaangrobler]

Great Video, Would love to see this in Node Red.