Controlling virtual devices

[jameswestcott]

Hi,

I'm trying to find a way of controlling a virtual device from a physical piece of hardware eg. A zwave light switch.

Basically I want to create a simple burglar alarm using events. So when the door opens, the zwave alarm goes off but only if the virtual device is set on.

The problem I have is trying to find something that can turn the virtual device on and off. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[mrhappy]

You can do it by event, one event for on and one for off. The trigger for the event would be the zwave switch turning off and on, then the action would be to control the virtual device. To control the device you can do it like you would any other X10 device by clicking device action, selecting the device from the list and then setting on or off...

[jameswestcott]

Ok cool that makes sense. I think I may have been trying to complicate it as the zwave device I was thinking of using to turn the alarm on / off is one of those two wall switches where the right hand switch can only do zwave associations. It cannot report to homeseer what it's status is. So I was going to use that to control another zwave plug-in wall switch I wasn't using and use that device as the alarm status. Trouble is homeseer takes a while get
an update of its status. As a result it can take a long time for homeseer to realise you've turned the alarm off.

I guess the logic would be...
1. Open door triggers a 10s pause
2. User using the light switch (via an association) turns another zwave device off
3. Homeseer updates status of that device
4. If device is on then sound the alarm
5. Somehow keep getting device status every 1s
6. When the device is turned off switch off the alarm