Using the Motion Sensor 360 - Volt Free with Control4
The Faradite Motion Sensor 360 range is compatible with several Home Automation systems including Control4. In this blog we take a detailed look at integrating our Motion Sensor 360 - Volt Free with Control4.
The Faradite Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free has a silent volt free relay which closes for the duration of motion plus ~1second when motion is sensed. When connected to a contact closure on a Control4 system the signal can be utilised in Control4 Composer to provide a great range of automation functionality.
We have 2 varieties of our Motion Sensor 360 range: The Volt Free variety that has just a motion detector and the 0-10V variety which has a motion sensor with an integrated brightness sensor. Connecting the brightness sensor requires extra hardware / drivers so we recommend using the Volt Free variety with Control4 systems. We are only looking at the Volt Free variety in this blog.
Wiring the Sensors
Whether the Control4 system you are using has the Control4 EA-1, EA-3 or EA-5 controller at its core, you will be able to connect the Faradite Motion Sensor 360 – Volt Free. If you are using an EA-3 or a EA-5 processor then they have integrated contact closures, but the EA-1 requires an IO Extender or other IO device to be able to connect a sensor, the list below shows all the options in this case.
Control4 refer to contact closures in many ways, such as contact sensors, contact closures, contact inputs or just contact. For the remainder of this blog we will refer to these generically as “contact closures”.
We recommend using a CAT cable either CAT5 / CAT6 / CAT7 for connecting our sensors to a Control4 system, but you can also use stranded cable. If stranded cable is used then you will need to insert the supplied sim card remover tool into the motion sensor connector before inserting the wire, inserting this tool simply opens the spring-loaded connector and prevents the cable from rucking up.
The Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free provides a normally open contact which should be connected to a contact closure on the Control4 system. There are a number of contact closures available on a Control4 system below we list the Control4 devices to which the Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free can be connected:
- Control4 EA-3 Entertainment and Automation Controller – C4-EA3
- Control4 EA-5 Entertainment and Automation Controller – C4-EA5
- Control4 IO Extender – CF-IOXV2
- Control4 Dry Contact Input Module – C4-DCIM4
(this will also require the Control4 Bus Ethernet Gateway – C4-DIN-BEG-V2 and the Control4 Bus Power Supply – C4-DIN-BPS48) - Control4® ZigBee IO - C4-Z2IO, C4-Z2IO-5PK
First we will look at how to connect the Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free to the Control4 IO Extender (C4-IOXV2) / EA-3 / EA-5 as these all have the same connection.
Power the motion sensor by connecting the ‘+’ and ‘-’ terminals on the sensor to the ‘+12v’ and ‘GND’ terminals respectively on the C4-IOXV2 / EA-3 / EA-5. We connect each side of the motion sensor volt free output to the ‘+12v’ and ‘SIG’ terminals on the Control4 IO Extender / Entertainment and Automation Controller.
If the motion sensor is being connected to the Control4 Dry Contact Module (C4-DCIM4) then we use the ‘12V’ and ‘GND’ output fly lead to power the Motion Sensor 360 – Volt Free via the ‘+’ and ‘-’ terminals respectively. *In Composer you will need to check the ‘12V power output’ box in the advanced settings of the DCIM4 module.
We can then connect the volt free output of the Motion Sensor 360 – Volt Free across the ‘COM’ and ‘1’ fly leads on the C4-DCIM4 module. Up to 4 * Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free devices can be connected to each C4-DCIM4 using inputs 1, 2, 3 and 4. The 12V power supply in the C4-DCIM4 module can supply enough current to power all 4 sensors.
Please note that the C4-DCIM4 is larger than the 35mm hole required for the Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free, we would therefore recommend mounting it in a central location and running a cable to the sensor location.
If connecting to the Control4 Zigbee IO C4-Z2IO (remote wireless connection) take your power from a 5V-24V external supply. The provided USB power supply will power the C4-Z2IO module, but does not provide any power on the PWR and Cm terminals. We therefore recommend not using the supplied USB power and instead provide power to the sensor and C4-Z2IO module from an external supply. Connect the motion sensors volt free output to the ‘Cm’ and ‘1’ fly leads. (if connecting more than one Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free use ‘2’ and ‘Cm’, ‘3’ and ‘Cm’ and ‘4’ and ‘Cm’). In Control4 composer ensure that the module is configured with the correct configuration as the outputs can be set to relays as well as contacts.
Now the motion sensors are connected to the Control4 system lets take a look at how to commission them in Composer.
Configuring the Motion Sensor 360 – Volt Free in Composer
Faradite sensors provide a normally open output with a 1 second timeout.
The signal / trigger from the PIR can be used for countless applications in a Control4 system but in this blog we are going to focus on the most common application of turning a light on and then turning the light off after it has been vacant for a period of time.
The settings we apply in Composer are used to ensure the lights turn on automatically and stay on for the appropriate amount of time before turning off.
If it is a new project, start by connecting to Director, creating your controller(s) and adding the various modules that you have connected to the system, such as the IO Extender, Zigbee modules, Bus Ethernet Gateway and Dry Contact Input Modules.
In this example we are going to assume you have a bathroom with some switched lights that are connected to the Control4 system via a wireless dimmer light. We have connected the Faradite Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free to the contact closure on an EA-5 as per the wiring above.
We want to create programming, so the lights automatically come on when someone enters the room and will automatically switch off after no motion is sensed for 5 minutes.
Let’s get started in Composer
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Add the Control4 standard Motion Sensor Driver
First we are going to add the ‘Motion Sensor’ Driver in the ‘System design’ view, this driver is provided by Control4 as part of Composer so you will find it under the “My Drivers” tab. We grab the Motion Sensor Driver and drag it into our Bathroom. Be sure to invert the input, to invert the input simply click on the “Invert Sensor” tick box in the properties window.
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Make connections to the contact closures on the EA5
In this example our Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free is wired to the contact closure 1 on the EA-5 controller. The first step is to tell Composer what contact closure the sensor is connected to. First we select the ‘Connections’ view, then we select the Motion Sensor driver under the Bathroom. This will then show the “Control and Audio Video Connections” window, clicking on the “Contact Sensor” will show the available “Contact closures” in the window at the bottom. To connect the Motion Sensor driver to the contact closure drag the “Contact Sensor” onto the correct contact closure in this case CONTACT 1.
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Create a timer agent for the bathroom
To create a timer agent, we select the ‘Agents’ view. If the timer Agent is not already added then add it using the Add button at the top. Once added we need to define some timers. Select timers, then click ‘Add’ - Name the timer for the room / function in which it will be used – In this example the “Bathroom – Motion Sensor”, this allows us to identify it later in programming. Next we set the time out (Interval) we want before the lights are automatically switched off, we are going to program Composer so this timer starts when motion ends in the room.
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Program the “Motion sensor senses motion” event
Now it's time to start putting together the programming – Select the ‘Programming’ tab and select the Motion Sensor driver under the bathroom. We will start with the ‘When motion sensor senses motion’, the actions we want when this happens are ‘Turn on the bathroom – Keypad dimmer light” and ‘Stop Timer’ from the timer agent. These commands can be accessed using the Action menu on the right-hand side. Stopping the timer seems an odd thing to do when the motion sensor senses motion, but this is an essential step as we don’t want a previously started timer expiring (and turning off the lights) while there is still motion in the room.
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Program the “Motion sensor stops senses motion” event
When the motion sensor stops sensing motion we want to “reset timer” and then the “start timer”. Ensure that the right timer is selected from the drop-down box in the timer actions window.
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Program the “When Timer Expires” event
When the timer expires, we simply want to turn the light off using the “Turn off the bathroom – keypad dimmer light” action.
*Important Note*
Do not use the ‘Delay’ function programming control in the Script pane as this is not the correct way to create a delay before switching lights off and can will cause the control4 processor to ‘sleep’ during the delay time and will not perform as expected.
There you have it – a working example of motion-based lighting with automatic switch off timeouts.
We hope this explains using the Faradite Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free to automate lighting in your Control4 project.
Motion sensing can be used to trigger many things in a Control4 Smart Home. Whilst the most common examples are for lighting, it is possible to use the motion sensor to trigger many different actions across the system.
We would love to see examples what you have used the Faradite Motion Sensor 360 Volt Free to automate in a Control4 system.
Why not share an Instagram story (@FARADITE) with us of what you have automated using our sensors…?
The Faradite Team