Motion sensor can also detect stagnant objects

If you have a motion sensor and it won’t clear I might have your answer for you. We have a motion sensor in our laundry/mud room that picks you up coming in from the garage door into laundry/mud room or from the house going in laundry/mud room and activates wyze bulbs. So if your hands are full when coming home from through the garage you don’t have to worry about looking for a switch or if your hands are full with laundry baskets you don’t have to fiddle with looking for a switch.

I put the motion sensor on a shelf above the dryer. But it wasn’t clearing today. I slid the clothes basket to the washer and it cleared. Then my wife came home and put a paint can on the dryer. Again no clear from motion sensor. I removed it and bam clear. So even though there was no motion if a stagnant object is close to the sensor it won’t clear. I think one fix would be to put a very slight wedge under the bottom so it points up at a slight angle. I’ve not tried it but I think it would work. But for now we just aren’t putting things on the dryer. (Easiest fix Lol) Hope this helps someone down the road.

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That is an odd issue, I figured I would have come across this. I have a young child that cannot quite turn on the light in the bathroom so i put a WYZE bulb in there and just set a motion sensor on the counter so it would see him walk by it. There are items on my counter in view of the sensor and also items on the floor but they don’t keep it from clearing motion.

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I have one in the bathroom to turn on the light. Objects are off to the side. Makeup, toothpaste etc… Not directly underneath. I have no problems in the bathroom.

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Here are some examples.

The motion detector lights the very very back light above the toilet and it’s set on a schedule so it’s only at night so that I can go back to bed before the light goes off it’s on a two minute delay. As you can see there are handicap bars in there because I’m disabled. And I sometimes fall so having the motion sensor and that light have been a great improvement and help to me personally.

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Ok so looks like you are having the issue directly below the sensor, I have a sensor or two I am not using that I can experiment with, I will see if I can recreate this

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I have a motion Sensor on my front porch that trips the porch light when the dog comes back at night from doing her business. But it’s up high enough that it clears.

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Any chance the motion sensor that has trouble clearing only has 1 bar of signal or is one of your older ones? I had an issue like this where a sensor would sometimes get stuck and the next motion it detected would clear it. I put in a new battery in and would still have it happen. Then I moved the bridge closer so I had 2 bars signal and the issue went away.

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It does just have one bar. But the one that is further away has three bars which I don’t understand sometimes how signal strength actually works its bazaar at times. But I am getting another bridge because I have a home theater in the basement and I put in special insulation in the ceiling that I believe is hurting the strength of the bridge. But all my other sensors upstairs are working I even have one outside that has better signal strength And it’s working fine.

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The one on my front porch has one bar but it detects motion and clears every time. I’ve not had to manually shut the light off or move anything or do anything to it at all. I really think it’s just if something is so close to the sensor

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Depending on the material and distance I think close through 2 walls can be far worse than say far through one wall. I wish there was a better scale for the signal strength like numeric or 4-5 bar scale. I think a weak one bar signal may cause some problems especially when it’s cold.

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Well it feels like 24° right now. But even when it was feels like -3° it worked fine except the blowing snow wouldn’t let it clear. So I deleted it out of the app until it quit snowing. And then reloaded it and it’s been fine ever since.

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I agree with what you’re saying. The insulation that I used in my theater is soundproof, fire proof and it’s rock-based not fiberglass based. It is very very dense stuff. I think this has drastically cut down on with the bridge is capable of doing. So I have a second bridge coming to put on the first floor and we will see if that improves signal strength or how everything gets affected by it.

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Hello paindonthurt
Maybe the laundry basket and the paint can disturbed the thermal environment when they were moved. Our eyes cannot detect the heat variations.

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Could be I guess I have no idea. all I know is once they were removed it works fine now.

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FWIW… I have a glowing hot ash bucket sitting in front and below a motion sensor in a 25F degree garage with no problems. The sensor is about 15’ from the bridge, no obstructions, with a full signal.

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Very interesting. Thanks for the info.

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