How to use Weather Virtual Devices in Conditionals?

[SeattleGirl5122]

I have "Current Temp" stored as Device "\53" and stored in the Database. As you can see in the attached screen shot.

It shows up as "Forecast Current Temperature" in Homeseer Status screen as shown below.

That part works OK.

The problem is when I try to use a conditional statement like:

"Temperature Forecast Current Temperature value is in the range FROM 0 TO 70"

To turn on a fan, nothing happens. What is wrong?

[Michael McSharry]

mcsTemperature does not have a conditional evalution. It does have a Temperature Trigger than supports ranges and limits and it does have a Temperature control device action that will control a device based upon a temperature limit.

[SeattleGirl5122]

OK, this is where I get confused.

When I chose "Current Trigger Type" as "Temperature Controls", none of the choices for "Sensor on which to Trigger" are the virtual devices created in "Store Forecast Data in Devices and Database".

The only choices it give me are the sensors coming in from RFXCOM.

[Michael McSharry]

There are two scenarios that typcially occur. One is open loop control where the action occurs based upon something external and the result of the action will not have any effect on the external trigger.

The other is closed loop control where the device being controlled will change the input trigger. A thermostat is typical closed loop control where the temperature of the room controls the thermostat decision and the decision will turn on or off the heat/cool source which then affects the temperature and the loop repeats.

For the closed loop control the following it typcially done:

If you want to control a fan so it is on or off based upon a temperature then the easiest way to handle this is with a Temperature Action. This way you can set it up once and it will run forever turning on and off the fan as the temperature changes.

Define an event that will contain this Temperature Action. The trigger will normally be manual and it will be triggered only once. Once triggered it will keep running and will restart itself when HS restarts. There are other options available, but this is the most common scenario.

For the Action tab select Temperature Action.

For the first "Turn Device" selection choose the device that controls the fan. Typically this will be an appliance module or equivalent.

For the first "On When" then select the device (your temperature input)

For the first "Off When" then again select the same temperature input device

If the fan warms the area being monitored and you want to control the temperature between 70 and 75 degrees then for the first "Is" select Below LL (Lower Limit)

For the 4th "Is" select Above UL (Upper Limit)

For the first "And Continue" select forever

For the first "LL" select 70

For the first "UL" select 75

The mcsTempearure manual shows how the Temperature Action was presented to the user under HS 1.x and the layout made sense there. Without such a guide the layout under HS 2.x if hard to understand. It was designed so three controls could be setup with a single event. As it evolved only the first of the three carries full functionality so only use the first. I would like to change this, but in doing so I would break existing user's events so I just left it alone.

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For the open loop case then you will use a Temperature Trigger. In this case an event is created and the Trigger tab selection is "Temperature Controls"

In your case the "Sensor on which to trigger" is \53

You will have no entry for "Sensor for Delta Comparison or Averaging", "And Conditions" or "Changes at rate of"

Assume you want the fan on whenever the temperature is below 70 then enter 70 for "Lower Limit", blank for upper limit and checkbox "Decreases to Lower limit"

The remaining two text entries can be left blank.

This will turn the fan ON whenever the \53 device goes below 70. What it does not do is turn it OFF. If you want both ON and OFF control (which is typical) then the Temperature Action can be setup with a single event while two events are needed if the logic is based on a trigger.

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In your case I would setup the temperature action so the fan is turned ON when below 70 and turned off at some temperature such as 72. The two degree delta is a deadband so the fan does not turn on and off as the temperature wiggles around 70.

A status device will also be created for Temperature Actions. You will not see this device until the temperature transitions into the control band and the fan needs to be turned on or off.

Another feature that is often used is to create a thermostat device from the mcsTemperature Devices/Files tab. When you have this device created then it will present a GUI pulldown to change the temperature setup point. Rather than using 70 explicitly in the control you would use the device code of the thermostat device for one limit and something like 2+%52 for the other limit where %52 is the thermostat device. If you have a fixed 70 degrree limit then this flexibilty is not needed.

mcsTemperature uses the DeviceString to obtain the values used for the control. If the DeviceString is blank then it will usually get the number from the DeviceValue. It will strip HTML from the DeviceString so icons can be included with the formatting and not disturb the abilty to use the data.

[SeattleGirl5122]

In your case the "Sensor on which to trigger" is \53

OK, this is going to appear really stupid because I must be missing something obvious.

For "Sensor on which to trigger" I get a drop list menu. I can't enter values directly. "\53" is not an option on this list.

How do I get it appear in this list? That is what has me stumped. It seems like it should be there, but it ain't. I must have not done a step someplace.

If you look in the first screen shot of my first post, you can see I have a lot of the options checked in "Store Forecast Data in Devices and Database". But none of them appear in "Temperature Controls".

Must I enter them in "Sensors" of mcsTemperature?

[Michael McSharry]

I see what you mean now. I add the forecast devices to the list of available devices for mcsTemperature to accept. It is in V5.8.0. Note this version also have a more understandable Temperature Action.

[SeattleGirl5122]

Great, I thought I was crazy. It was driving me nuts.

So I should download the newest version then, eh? Where from?

[Michael McSharry]

Being crazy is not such a bad reality. As you get older the craziness does not change. The condition is just called something else out of respect to gaining senior status.

The latest is at the top of the subforum at http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=116165

[SeattleGirl5122]

OK, that did the trick. They all appear now. Thanks