Activating your RS40 Occupancy & Motion Sensor

This article describes how to activate your RS40 Occupancy Sensor.

Prerequisites:

Activating the RS40 Occupancy Sensor

To setup the RS40, first make sure it is nearby (within 50 feet) of the Cascade-500W. Pull the tab on the battery.  The sensor lens should light up red for ~1 second and then turn off.   It will then blink red any time it detect movement.

 

The RS40 will provision to the Gateway when it powers on, it will appear in your IoT Central application and start passing occupancy data. Now, you can setup a visual dashboard and create alerts with the RS-40 Occupancy sensor

Placing the RS40 Occupancy Sensor

Placement and Installation of the RS40 occupancy sensor is very important in order to get good occupancy data.  This sensor uses Passive Infrared technology to detect the motion of heat.  It is line of sight, any opaque object will block the sensor's view and limit coverage.  Similarly, windows will also block line of sight and limit coverage.  The effective range is up to 6 meters (19ft) and 135 degrees field of view.

Depending on your desired application you may want to place the RS40 in different locations. Once you pick a location it is recommended to test out the coverage by moving around the desired area.  The sensor will blink red whenever it detects movement, the max rate of detection is about 1Hz so give it a second after blinking before testing a new location.

Presence

To use the RS40 occupancy sensor to detect presence of a location such as a room or hallway it is recommended to place the sensor on the ceiling to give it the largest unobstructed view of the desired area.  Alternatively you can place it above doorways or on a wall, it is suggested to place it high out of hand reach to give an unobstructed view and prevent easy tampering with the sensor.

Traffic counting

For use of the RS40 occupancy sensor as a traffic counter for an entry way or thoroughfare it is recommended to place the sensor near a choke point pointed directly at the location.  Placing the sensor close to these areas and limiting the view of surrounding areas will give the most accurate count and prevent double counting the same person in an area.  Placement along the side or top of an archway or doorway pointed directly at the center is ideal for this application.

Using the RS40 Adhesive

The RS40 occupancy sensor comes with double sided adhesive pre-applied that makes it simple to stick to any surface. Simply peel the back cover to expose the adhesive surface and press to adhere. This adhesive is meant to be semi-permanent, be aware that removing the sensor may damage soft surfaces such as paint or drywall.

 

Next up: Adding a RS40 Occupancy Sensor to an IoT Central Dashboard.