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[Dave1947]

I use a timer module to turn my porch lights on and off in the evening. But I also want to turn the porch lights on using a motion sensor when it's dark and the lights are off. The problem I have is that if the motion sensor is activated during the time period the timer has set to keep the lights on, then after the motions sensor's time delay, the lights turn off. Shouldn't the timer have a higher priority and keep the lights on during it's programmed on period and allow the motion sensor to activate, and deactivate the lights only when the timer would have them off? Is there a way to do this?

[MichaelHlubb]

I use a timer module to turn my porch lights on and off in the evening. But I also want to turn the porch lights on using a motion sensor when it's dark and the lights are off. The problem I have is that if the motion sensor is activated during the time period the timer has set to keep the lights on, then after the motions sensor's time delay, the lights turn off. Shouldn't the timer have a higher priority and keep the lights on during it's programmed on period and allow the motion sensor to activate, and deactivate the lights only when the timer would have them off? Is there a way to do this?

The programing logic, in plain English, would then be something like "If after dark, the Porch Light is turned on by motion detection, don't turn the light off until the timer (module) sends the command to turn the porch light off."

So writing this in X-10 commands..... you'd have these. (the house and unit codes are for this example only, Using the 'A' house codes is a bad idea. Using A1 is even worst.)

Porch light = A1
Motion Detector B1 (and by default B2, for the built in Dusk/Dawn detection.)

timer module programing
Porch Light (A1)
Turn ON at Dusk daily (A1 on)
Turn OFF at Dusk + 30 minutes daily (A1 off)

Motion Detector macros (on and off)
Porch light Trigger B1 on (and) conditional it's between dusk and dawn
   Porch light on (A1 on)
    
B1 off (and) conditional it's between dusk and dawn <- not really needed, as it'll need to be on to have any effect.
   Porch light off (A1 off)

Now while this works, the timer and motion detection don't know about each other, which is why we change to using a dummy switch.

Note: House code A is our monitored House code in this example.

As above but with dummy switch added.
Porch light = A1
Porch light dummy switch = A2
Motion Detector B1 (and by default B3, for the built in Dusk/Dawn detection.)

timer module
Porch Light dummy switch (A2)
Turn ON at Dusk daily (A2 on)
Turn OFF at Dusk + 30 minutes daily (A2 off)

Dummy Switch macro Trigger A2 on
Porch Light on (A1 on)
Dummy Switch macro Trigger A2 off
Porch Light off (A1 off)


Motion Detector Macro
Porch light Trigger B1 on (and) conditional it's between dusk and dawn (and) Porch light dummy is off (A2 off)
  Porch light on (A1 on)
    
Porch light trigger B1 off (and) conditional it's between dusk and dawn (and) Porch light dummy is off (A2 off)
  Porch light off (A1 off)


back to  plain English.... at dusk the timer turns on the dummy switch, which the macro sees the on command and turns the porch light on. thirty minutes later the timer turns the porch light off. if the Porch light is already on we don't want the motion detection turning it off, so the addition of the dummy switch allows the motion detection macro to know if the porch light is on or not.

Or in simple terms, if the timer already had the light on, don't turn on via the motion detection.

this can also be done using a Flag and checking to see if the Flag is set or not.

[Puck]

Motion Detector B1 (and by default B3, for the built in Dusk/Dawn detection.)

It doesn't have anything to do with the OP's problem or the solution given, but I want to make a correction here... the Dusk/Dawn detection is Unit Code + 1, so it would be at B2 in the example given.

[MichaelHlubb]

Motion Detector B1 (and by default B3, for the built in Dusk/Dawn detection.)

It doesn't have anything to do with the OP's problem or the solution given, but I want to make a correction here... the Dusk/Dawn detection is Unit Code + 1, so it would be at B2 in the example given.

yep, I just corrected that typo. Thank you!