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Electronic Theatre Controls Inc

Occupancy Sensor Timing in Echoflex Systems

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Overview

Echoflex sensors operate a bit differently than other systems. This article aims to collect all the information on them together so it can be more easily understood. PIR (passive infrared) sensors use the controller's timer no matter what, but dual-technology sensors have their own timer that dictates how long audio sensing will be enabled.

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If they are linked to both a switch and sensor, Echoflex controllers do not have occupancy control enabled  by default. To enable occupancy control in this situation, please see this article.

Nomenclature

  • Audio enabled timer — a non-configurable 60-minute timer that defines how long audio sensing is enabled on a dual-tech sensor. This is only reset by a PIR action.
  • Sensor occupancy timer — a configurable timer that determines how long the sensor will wait after the last PIR action before sending a vacancy signal.
  • Controller occupancy timer — a configurable timer that determines how long the sensor will wait after the last occupied signal before opening the relay.
  • Grace period — a 40-second non-configurable timer that begins after a vacancy message is sent. During this period, audio is still active, and an occupant

PIR Operation

If the sensor has audio disabled (i.e. it it only using PIR to detect occupancy), the sensor will use the controller's timer. Once that timer expires, there is a 40-second grace period for an occupant to move and turn the lights back on, resetting the timer.

Dual-Technology Operation

If the sensor has audio enabled, all 4 timers listed above become relevant. Once an occupant comes into the room, PIR detection will set the sensor state to occupied and begin counting down on ALL timers. Once the longest occupancy timer expires, the controller will turn the lights off, and the 40-second grace period will begin. If audio or motion is detected in this period, the lights will come back on. If the lights were reactivated using audio, the audio enabled timer does not reset, but the controller and sensor timers are. If the audio-enabled timer expires while either occupancy timer is still active, the next reactivation of lights must be via PIR.

If the sensor occupancy timer and controller occupancy timer are not the same length, which is the case by default, there is a 5-minute gap between the sensor timer expiring and the controller timer expiring, leading to a 5-minute period where the lights can be turned back on via audio. This can be resolved by setting the controller timer to 0 and adjusting the occupancy timeout from the sensor only.