I’m considering hard-wired hybrid motion detector / glass break sensors, such as the DSC BV-502GB, as part of a new IQ Pro installation. I like the hybrid sensors because they minimize the number of devices on the walls/ceilings overall. Could I also use the motion detectors to trigger scenes in my smart home system? For example, if there was no motion in a room after a certain amount of time, could I automatically turn off the Lutron-controlled lights?
I haven’t used the Alarm.com automations much, but if they didn’t offer sufficient functionality, I’d consider third-party integrations with Homebridge or Home Assistant. I realize this might be difficult in practice, but is it even possible in theory?
Could I also use the motion detectors to trigger scenes in my smart home system? For example, if there was no motion in a room after a certain amount of time, could I automatically turn off the Lutron-controlled lights?
The sensor activity could be used to trigger rules, but sensor activity cannot trigger Alarm.com scenes currently. You can instead create rules to control lights, shades, thermostat based on sensor activity.
The logic would be reversed for your example of no motion. There aren’t occupancy rules like that looking for a lack of activity, but you could have it set up so that during a certain time frame whenever the motion detector is tripped the light comes on, then it turns off at a selected amount of time later.
The light would be triggered by the activity at the motion detector and turn off on a timer after the activity stops.
Using Home Assistant with the Qolsys Gateway integration would give you more granular control if Alarm.com’s automation rules aren’t enough.
Alternatively, doing things like this is why I’m working on IQ Mate, a lighter weight tool than Home Assistant that just helps you do more advanced automations & integrations with Qolsys & Alarm.com, without being a full system on it’s own.
With IQ Mate you could trigger flows based on motion sensor activity and then trigger an Alarm.com event-triggered rule to control the lights. It would require an additional alarm sensor to trigger the Alarm.com rule.
I’m currently experimenting with adding a Z-Wave USB stick to it to find out what’s possible. If I can get it act as a scene controller (not sure yet if that’s possible) then you could run scenes directly from it without an Alarm.com event-triggered rule.
