Question on Condition trigger

[tman1]

I just want to make sure I have this straight in my head.

If I set an event to trigger by condition, the condition (or conditions) is/are checked every minute? Not on state change of the condition device(s). I change a state with the setup like this and the conditions are not evaluated or output wont occur until the next minute change.

If I set an event to trigger recurring with the same conditions as the above event I can control how often these conditions are checked but the event would still only output if the conditions were met at the recurring time the event is ran?

Depending on the situation this is not a problem, I just need to know how to approach it.

Thanks in advance, Later Terry

[Steve Q]

Terry,

If you want to trigger an event when the status of a device changes, use the "device status change" trigger and then attach conditions to that. I'm pretty sure this will always trigger within seconds after the device status has changed. For example if you want the light to come on when you open the door, you should trigger the event with the door status change and add the condition "if nighttime".

I have never tried attaching conditions to recurring events. I'm not sure how that would work!

Steve Q

[nightwalker]

I use a lot of on status change triggers with conditions applied and they're almost instant once the status changes.

[tman1]

It seems to me its like setting the sample rate. If something only changes every x minutes I set a recurring event to happen at 1/2 x minutes and check for the conditions I am monitoring. It insures that the conditions get captured without overloading the x-10 bus, log, or web with un-needed traffic. I might add that the something that changes is not one of the things I can check with the conditions. Otherwise what you mention would work fine. That would be a conditional trigger?

An example I can give is my Homeland security checker. The level on the website could change at any time. Rarely does so sampling every minute is overkill and would piss off Dubya for pinging his server so much. A recurring event of once an hour with the condition to check if a virtual device that indicates the internet is available is on (is on, not changes to on, which would me missed) will keep the level indicator up to date without too much traffic. In my case the condition is an enabler not a trigger. Wow, pretty flexible stuff.

Sampling every minute (or less) may not be needed, but it seems like HS has both ends covered. You can set a recurring trigger for less than a minute with the seconds entry. Wow, that really filled up the log.

I have used these recurring types of triggers from the get go. I only recently read the updated help files from HS and it mentioned setting the trigger type to condition, which I had never considered before. I tried one and I started to notice the pattern. I was hoping someone could confirm this was by design.

The condition grouping allows for some fairly complex logic. And's and or's and such. Nice. Im finding some new things in an effort to see if most things can be done sans scripting.

Thanks, Terry

Oh, mentioning the Help files slash tutorials. The example wizard for setting up a motion light was very well done and worked better than one I had setup earlier. I lost the earlier setup and went looking for examples on the message board with a search and it lead me back to the help files of all places. Well done HS.