Wall mounted occupancy sensor

[Gordon Shumway]

I am looking for a wall mounted occupancy sensor to control the lights in the hallway in our home. There are three switches (two 3-way and one 4-way) that control these lights. I want to replace only one of the 3-way switches with a motion sensor to automatically turn the lights on and off. I also want the remaining switches to function as usual.

I have checked with Pass & Seymour and Leviton and they have nothing that will meet those demands. Lutron has an Occupancy Sensor switch (MS-OPS5MH) that I tried but after installation only the sensor functions. If either of the two remaining manual switches are operated the lights won't come on at all. After calling their tech support I am told I need to replace the two other manual switches with their "companion" (MA-AS) switches.

The sensor is not solid state and is rather loud when it changes state and I am not too sure I want to invest more in components that I won't be pleased with.

Does anybody know of any other manufacturers that I haven't mentioned that have what I'm looking for?

[trader4]

That is correct. Those Lutron devices will operate with up to ten of their companion switches, but they will not operate using ordinary switches.

What you have is a Maestro SWITCH. I'm not familiar with those. But I think what you probably mean is that the SWITCH is not solid state and is loud when it changes state. The sensor itself surely must be solid state. I'm guessing it then works a mechanical relay or similar to turn the lights on/off and that is what you are hearing.

Lutron has what you are looking for. It's their very similar Maestro DIMMER. I have them installed, they are fully electronic and completely silent. They make one which is a switch and motion sensor, which I have looked at for a potential application here too, but have not bought one. But I am sure it will function as a 4-way switch with one being a motion sensor. You just set the dimmer to full on if you like and it will work like a switch.

They are really nice products. One neat feature is that from any of the switches you can easily set a timed delay off. Instead of just tapping the bottom of the paddle to turn it off, you hold it in. A vertical series of little LEDs start blinking and increasing, showing the delay until turn-off. The longer you hold it, the more delay. So, you can set it to keep the lights on for say 30 secs, while you exit.

To do what you want you need:

Maestro dimmer with occupancy sensor, MS-OP600M-WH

plus 2 companion dimmers, MA-R-WH

Those are the gloss white versions. They come in colors, satin too.

They are a bit pricey, but if you shop around you can find them from a variety of sources, including Ebay.

I'm sure you had lots of fun trying to figure all this out. The Lutron stuff gets fairly complicated and with all the options can get very confusing. The Lutron product descriptions, ordering options are not explained well on their website and catalogs either.

[Gordon Shumway]

You are absolutely correct about the switch not being solid state and being loud -- not the sensor.

The switch that I have, MS-OPS5MH, has the option of varying the timeout period of either 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes.

There is also the option to set the sensitivity to either "High" or "Low." So far the "Low" setting seems to be about the same as "High." At this point that is my biggest complaint.

You are also right about me having a lot of fun figuring all this out! It was starting to frustrate me to say the least.

I'll definitely look into their MS-OP600M and companions that you recommended.