ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Things have been slow lately in the integration forum, so I though I would contribute a discussion about sensors.
Something great about the Gateway is that it serves as a way to integrate various home automation systems with each other -- in addition to the integration with B&O. With this, you can carry the benefits of one automation system over to the other. For example, I am using both Philips Hue and Lutron Radiora 2. With the Gateway, I can use the Radiora 2 wall keypads to control the Philips Hue lights. This provides a very elegant interface -- especially when getting the custom-engraved backlit buttons.
This brings me to a feature of home automation that I recently discovered: Sensors. Sensors are a great way to use occupancy/vacancy to serve as macro triggers. Lutron offers several different types of sensors, including 180-degree wall-mounted sensors, 90-degree corner sensors, hallway sensors, and 360-degree ceiling sensors. I placed wall mounted sensors in my bathrooms. With the MLGW, I was able to easily use the Lutron sensors to trigger the Philips Hue lights in the bathrooms to turn ON when the sensors detect occupancy and to turn OFF after the sensors detect 5 minutes of no movement. This works particularly well with the Philips Hue scenes since the light scheme will match whatever scene you are currently using -- providing a pleasant light hue. With bathrooms where I use more than one Philips Hue bulb (such as having a main light and also a light in the shower), it works best to create a Philips Hue light "Group" to group together the lights in that bathroom to react together to the trigger. The need for a Group is because the Philips Hue does not respond well at all when you try to have a macro control multiple lights -- unless these lights are grouped together in either a Group or a Scene. "Groups" allow for a trigger to act on multiple lights without changing the scene. After a few days of living with sensors, it feels so natural to walk into a room and have the lights automatically turn on and for them to turn off after you have left the room. The 5-minute delay allows for added light to climb back into bed, for example. Other great benefits of sensors could be to have the lights turn on when carrying in groceries or walking into the laundry room with your arms full of laundry. I have not yet added sensors to other rooms -- since my home is a New York Style loft with very high ceilings and walls that do not extend to the ceilings. Therefore, ceiling sensors (which work best at 8 feet in height) are not an option for me.
Radiora 2 still lacks two types of sensors: (1) light level sensors that could turn on lamps when a room becomes dark and turn the lamps off when there is natural daylight and (2) contact sensors that could turn on a light when a door opens.
Philips has recently announced that they will be introducing a variety of dimmers for the Philips Hue within a few months, including wall and contact sensors.
The Nest thermostat also has occupancy/vacancy sensors built-in to the thermostats as well as the Protect smoke alarms. These could serve as great macro triggers if B&O includes them in the forthcoming Nest driver for BLGW. These sensors could also be used in a macro to make all of the lights turn on to full brightness or even to flash if a smoke alarm detects smoke.
With the Gateway, we could also use these sensors to act on our B&O products. For example, when we enter the home, the sensor could detect our presence and turn on the B&O radio as well as the appropriate lights to provide a pathway through the home. The sensors could use lack of motion to send a command to the Gateway to turn off the audio and/or video in a particular room after a period of vacancy. I'm thinking that it could be great to also use the sensing of occupancy in a room to turn on the music in a link room via MasterLink to continue the music that is playing in a master room. However, I'm not sure how it could be achieved to keep the same source that is playing in the master room since B&O uses specific commands of RADIO, A.AUX, CD (for example) and not just a general "audio on" command.
Just some fun home integration ideas to pass along.
Awesome post, Jeff! Thanks!
Even though I don't yet have a gateway (yet), it seems the possibilities are pretty unlimited.