Hardwired Motion Detection for Insteon Home Automation System

Hardwired Motion Detection for Insteon Home Automation System

Why did I do this?

The wireless motion detectors for Insteon have worked well over the years, but changing batteries was a pain and the older style units were getting harder to find. The new units just seem so cheaply made and have a subpar mounting system.

The first thing I did was draw a schematic of how I could make this work:

I’ve often said “you can make anything work with a relay” J So once I had a design I went shopping for the parts to make this work.

These 12V DC Motion detectors were China Made Plastic but had the features I wanted such as:

* Working rotation: 180°

* Voltage : DC 12V

* Loaded power: 10W-99W

* Detection distance: up to 12m (40 feet)

* Installation height: 1.5m-2.5m High (I have them between 6 and 8 feet)

* Induction lighting time: 5s-6min adjustable time (6 min is max but works for me)

* LUX setting: 2-2000lux adjustable

* Operating temp: -10℃~+40℃

* Operating humidity: <93%RH

* IP rating: Indoor application IP44 ( But should work outdoors very well, “Controls Face Down”)

* Material: ABS

* Size: (60 x 47 x 156)mm (approx.)

* Color: White

They are cheap, so I have 2 Spares just in case.

Found a nice 12V Power Supply on Amazon:

And it even has a backup battery! (Not included)

Now I need a relay. Only need 3 channels but put in a 4 channel (expansion?)

Some wire and a box to put it in:

And three 2450 I/O Links to communicate to the Insteon System:

First thing to do is test it on the bench:

Notice the plastic stand off’s I also found on Amazon to mount the relay in the box.

OK so it works; now to install it:

I will be installing three of these. One under my deck, one along the front of the house, and one along the back.

But first the motion detectors come with some weird thread size so I will need to adapt them to fit a standard weatherproof box. I did this using a ½” PVC pipe connector and reaming it out with my Dremmel so it fits over the flange on the detector. A little Super Glue and this will work!

So now to install them:

1^St one is under the back deck. It controls the flood light next to the door, and sends me a text and email if it is tripped.

This one is set to be on 24X7.

2^nd one is in the front of the house. Notice the black tape on the face to narrow its field of view to run along the front of the house yet not pick up cars going down the street.

3^rd one is behind the garage looking behind the house. It is programmed to trip both the house deck light as well as the back garage door light.

The controls are mounted in the basement next to the power panel:

My Insteon Home Automation System uses the ISY 994i to control things around the house.

The programming for the Back Motion and the Under Deck Motion

It took a few days to dial in the detectors both sensitivity and direction, but all seems to be working as planned. I did notice the sensors are more sensitive when it gets cold, this makes sense as they are Infra-Red detectors. I kind of split the difference so they are all around doing what is needed.