"Curious though, did you try customizing the daylight automation settings before disabling it?"
Yeah, I messed around with those daylight settings for a bit, but honestly, it felt like more trouble than it was worth. The timing never quite matched my schedule, and tweaking it constantly got old fast. Ended up just grabbing a cheap clamp lamp from IKEA and pointing it at the wall behind my monitor—instant soft lighting without shadows. Sometimes simpler (and cheaper) really is better...
I get the appeal of simplicity, but honestly, daylight automation can be pretty great if you dial it in right. Took me a while to figure out the sweet spot—had to mess with sensor placement and sensitivity settings—but now it's spot-on. I mean, your IKEA hack sounds solid (and cheap!), but once you nail the automation, it's like having your workspace adapt to you instead of the other way around. Worth another shot maybe...or not, haha.
Totally agree that automation can be a game-changer once you get past the initial headaches. Curious though—did you find sensor placement more critical than sensitivity settings, or was it about equal? I've been experimenting with daylight sensors in our studio, but the results have been kinda mixed. Sometimes the lights flicker annoyingly on cloudy days, and other times they're too slow to respond when the sun shifts. Maybe it's just a matter of tweaking more, but I'm starting to wonder if sensor type plays a bigger role than I initially thought. Also, did you have to adjust your lighting fixtures or bulbs to match the automation better, or was it mostly plug-and-play once the sensors were dialed in? Seems like there's always another layer to fine-tune...
In my experience, sensor placement definitely edges out sensitivity settings in terms of importance. I've worked on a few studio setups now, and every single time, getting the sensor location right made a bigger difference than endlessly tweaking sensitivity. If your daylight sensors are flickering or lagging behind, it might be because they're placed somewhere that's either too shaded or too exposed to direct sunlight. Even a slight shift in position can drastically improve performance.
I had a similar issue in a client's workspace last year—lights kept flickering whenever clouds rolled by. After trying to adjust sensitivity settings for days (and nearly pulling my hair out), I finally moved the sensor away from the window and closer to the center of the room. Problem solved almost instantly. It turned out that indirect ambient light gave a much more stable reading than direct sunlight ever could.
As for sensor type, yeah, it does matter more than most people think. Cheaper daylight sensors often struggle with subtle changes in natural lighting conditions, especially on cloudy days or during seasonal shifts. Upgrading to a higher-quality sensor with better calibration options made a noticeable difference for me. They're pricier upfront, but honestly worth every penny if you're serious about automation.
Regarding fixtures and bulbs—it's rarely plug-and-play in my experience. Most standard bulbs aren't designed specifically with automation in mind, so swapping them out for dimmable LEDs or smart bulbs usually helps smooth things out considerably. I resisted this at first (budget concerns and all), but once I bit the bullet and upgraded fixtures to something automation-friendly, everything just clicked into place.
Bottom line: I'd suggest repositioning your sensors first before diving deeper into sensitivity tweaks or bulb replacements. But don't rule out upgrading your sensors entirely if you're still struggling after repositioning them—sometimes it's just the hardware itself that's holding you back...
Interesting points, sensor placement definitely helped me too. But I'm curious—has anyone tried using multiple sensors in one room? Wondering if that helps balance out lighting consistency or just complicates things...
