MI HOME: light management in the bathroom

4 min read
For the first look, it is a very simple task: automatic light management in the home bathroom. But in practice you will faced with a many thin details...
For the first look, it is a very simple task: automatic light management in the home bathroom.You can put a motion sensor - and the problem is solved: "motion detected" - turn on the light, "no movement for 1 minute" - turn off the light.
Xiaomi motion sensor in bathroom
But, for example, if you shave or brush your teeth for more than a minute, stand almost still, or take a bath - the light will turn off in a minute, and you probably won't like it. You can turn off the light after 5 minutes of no movement, but this means that every time the light will turn on "in vain" for 5 minutes when there is no one in the room, and even this does not guarantee that the light will not be turned off when it is needed.
Light management scenario for the bathroom
How to be? An additional wireless door sensor will help. It turns out, for example, like this:
  • If the door is opened and the light is off (this can be determined by the light sensor in the motion sensor, or according to the state of the light bulb - "off"; you can also use the script on/off, but this is undesirable because such script will work through the cloud) - turn on the light
  • If the door is opened and the light is on then off the light.
The motion sensor is still useful, both for determining the level of light, and for "emergency" turning on the light if for some reason the light is off, but someone is in the bathroom.
And everything would be fine, but... when you go into the bathroom to wash your hands or take something - do you always close the door? What will happen in this case with our scenarious? When you enter without closing the door, the light will turn on. But when you go out and close the door, the light will remain on.
What to do? One option is to use turn off the scenes.
Let's add a scenario (call it scenario1): "If the door is closed, turn off the light, and deactivate scenario1 (itself)
And now add the new scene: "If the door was open, then wait for 15 seconds and turn on scene 1.
What will happen? If the door opens and did not close within 15 seconds after opening, when the bathroom door is closed - the light will turn off.
It would seem what it is possible to add the last scenario to those already added above, but you shouldn’t do this: a scene that turns on and off another scene, will be saved to the cloud, and we try to avoid this wherever possible.
Of course, in reality, everything will turn out to be even more complicated, but as a starting point for controlling the light in the bathroom, the above scenarios are quite can be used. For example, turning on the light can be duplicated several times for each such scene, with different the operating time (one in the morning, another in the afternoon, the third at night), they will differ in the mode of turning on the bulbs: during the day you can turn on the brightest light, in the evening and in the morning - "soft" and at night - as muffled as possible.
You can further complicate the control of the light by installing another motion sensor that will "see" only the doorway. And then, if this sensor detects movement and the light is already on, turn off the light. The light will effectively turn off at the moment you leave the bathroom, even if you didn't close the door.
You also need to pay special attention to the location of the motion sensor relative to the light bulbs and mirrors in the bathroom. If this is not taken into attention, the sensor can perceive a smooth turning off of the light as a new movement. Accordingly, when it trying to turn off the light, scene will turn on the light again and again. One way to avoid such "side effects" is to "double" turn off: turn off the light, wait 5-7 seconds and turn off the light again. The motion sensor will not detect repeated movement after a too-short time interval.

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