Occupancy Sensor configuration - am I crazy?

[Brucelan]

I have three rooms (1 bathroom, 2 closets) that each have a RA3 switch (RRST-8ANS-XX) and an occupancy sensor (LRF2-OCR2B-P-WH).

My desired goal is to have the occupancy sensor turn the lights on when it detects movement but turn the lights off quickly once movement stops. I thus set the local configuration on the sensor to 1 minute.

If I am still in the room and moving, rather than turning the light off, the light should remain on until movement stops and then 1 minute after the last detected movement the lights should go off.

But that isn't what happens.

When I first walk into the room, the light comes on (as it should) but 1 minute later the light goes off even if I am still in the room and moving around and the only way to turn it back on is to go to the wall switch (which is actually right outside the room).

I don't want to set the timeout to five minutes, because most of the time I am only in the room for a moment or so.

I checked the programming in the designer app and in each case the occupied tab is set to turn the switch on with zero fade and zero delay. The unoccupied tab is set to turn the switch off with zero fade and zero delay.

One strange thing: I have one other room with the same configuration in Designer and it seems to work as I would expect. I don't see any difference at all between that one and the other three.

Am I doing something wrong?

I called Lutron tech support and got someone who was only vaguely familiar with occupancy sensors and he basically said, "I don't know, I think that is the way it is supposed to work".

Any thoughts or guidance on this issue would be very appreciated.

bruce

[wkearney99]

My desired goal is to have the occupancy sensor turn the lights on when it detects movement but turn the lights off quickly once movement stops. I thus set the local configuration on the sensor to 1 minute.

If I am still in the room and moving, rather than turning the light off, the light should remain on until movement stops and then 1 minute after the last detected movement the lights should go off.

But that isn't what happens.

When I first walk into the room, the light comes on (as it should) but 1 minute later the light goes off even if I am still in the room and moving around and the only way to turn it back on is to go to the wall switch (which is actually right outside the room).

I don't want to set the timeout to five minutes, because most of the time I am only in the room for a moment or so.

I checked the programming in the designer app and in each case the occupied tab is set to turn the switch on with zero fade and zero delay. The unoccupied tab is set to turn the switch off with zero fade and zero delay.

One strange thing: I have one other room with the same configuration in Designer and it seems to work as I would expect. I don't see any difference at all between that one and the other three.

Am I doing something wrong?

I called Lutron tech support and got someone who was only vaguely familiar with occupancy sensors and he basically said, "I don't know, I think that is the way it is supposed to work".

Any thoughts or guidance on this issue would be very appreciated.

Personal experience says don't use such a short timeout. You end up annoyed more often than you'd first guess. Especially not for an area where you might be even remotely still. The sensors are pretty good at detecting entry quickly but sometimes trip vacancy sooner than you want. Then you run into what I think is a safeguard timer to avoid sudden re-activating. You tend not to notice this when there's a 5 minute timeout.

It's important that the sensor can really see you. I have a workshop with a sensor and there's one corner with a cabinet that if I'm next to it the sensor loses sight of me and the timeout kicks in. I have to step back and wave my arms to get it to reactivate. It's annoying, but not often enough to merit "doing something about it".

It may be that the sensor in the 'unexpected' room is either defective or being influenced by other factors in the room. To test that it's working ok it might be worth swapping it out for the one that's known to work as expected. If the problem follows the sensor then get it replaced. But if it's specific to the room I'd wonder what else is going on that might be causing the trouble for the sensor.