Rule with non-alerting sensor

I’m trying to create a rule to bring on the outside lights based on a motion sensor activity.
This works fine with sensors that are setup on the Qolsys in a “standard” motion sensor group, like “20 - Away-Delay Motion”.
This outside sensor should however not trigger an alarm, so I’ve set it up in group “25 - Safety Motion”.

Activity Monitoring on ADC is enabled for that sensor, but its type is listed as “Door/Window or Motion - Chime Only”
Unfortunately that then also results in the rule setup thinking this is a door sensor, offering “close/ open” states instead of “activates” as the sensor activity for the rule.

Is there any workaround for this?

This is due to how the panel reports signals from sensor group 25. Does the sensor report “open/close” in your history or does it report “activated?”

Sorry for the delay. I had to re-setup the sensor since someone in support changed the group definition, triggering unexpected alarms.

The sensor reports as ‘activated’ in the history.

Is there no way around this? How are others addressing the task of motion-sensor light triggering?

I guess I could use door sensors for the front gate. But since the gate is offset from the street a bit I would ideally like to have something bring the lights on sooner when someone in the family comes home.
Geo-fencing is something else I will be trying, but with a 1 mile radius it is not very granular. And it requires everyone to carry a phone with the app.

We may need more clarification. You should not have trouble setting up rules to turn on lights based on motion. What issue are you running into exactly, or what work-around are you referring to? A motion detector programmed as a local, non-alarm motion in group 25 should report as activated.

If you are using a wireless motion detector, keep in mind that there will be a power-save delay period of a few minutes between local activations, and that the status will typically report activated on Alarm.com for 30 minutes or more. Testing locally once the rule is set up will tell you much more than checking status on Alarm.com with regard to a motion detector and automation.