Diagnostic needed for this event

[Rotech]

ok, so I got this event that turns on a fan when the light has been on for 2 min. 15 sec. the problem is that the fan does not turn on after the determine time.

So I did a experiment, I manually turn the light on thru the device page and waited till the time expired, surly enough the fan turned on as expected.

I then fired the event thru its trigger(motion sensor) and the fan did not turn on My conclusion, could it be that when the light event re-triggers and removes the delay action, the actual time of the light being on gets reset?

[randy]

ok, so I got this event that turns on a fan when the light has been on for 2 min. 15 sec. the problem is that the fan does not turn on after the determine time.

So I did a experiment, I manually turn the light on thru the device page and waited till the time expired, surly enough the fan turned on as expected.

I then fired the event thru its trigger(motion sensor) and the fan did not turn on My conclusion, could it be that when the light event re-triggers and removes the delay action, the actual time of the light being on gets reset?

I think you will have to look at the "Last Change" time and see if it is being reset every time your motion event is triggered. If that is changed each time the light is set with the motion event, then you might not see the device on for the 2m, 15s required. It is not the delayed action being removed. The way the event determines the time the light has been on is by comparing the current time to the Last Change time stored in the device.

[Rotech]

Hi Randy, how would you do this event to make it fire?

[randy]

Hi Randy, how would you do this event to make it fire?

Have you confirmed that the Guest Bathroom light Last Change time is being reset each time the motion event is triggered? If that is what is happening, you could add a timer to the motion event, then read and reset the timer in the fan event.

You would create a timer called "Guest Bathroom Fan Timer"

The motion event would have this action:

THEN Resume Timer Bathroom Fan Timer

Your Fan event would be:

IF Guest Bathroom Fan Timer is more than 2m, 15s
AND IF Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan has a value of Off

THEN Set Device Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan to On
Then Stop Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer
Then Set Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer to time 0 Seconds

Then I would create a cleanup event on the timer because the timer will not reset if the fan is already running.
IF Guest Bathroom Fan Timer is more than 2m, 30s

Then Stop Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer
Then Set Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer to time 0 Seconds

You could also put in a Delayed Device Action in your light event to turn the fan off 10 minutes after motion is no longer detected. Of course you would also want to remove that Delayed Device Action within that event as well.

[Rotech]

Have you confirmed that the Guest Bathroom light Last Change time is being reset each time the motion event is triggered? If that is what is happening, you could add a timer to the motion event, then read and reset the timer in the fan event.

You would create a timer called "Guest Bathroom Fan Timer"

The motion event would have this action:

THEN Resume Timer Bathroom Fan Timer

Your Fan event would be:

IF Guest Bathroom Fan Timer is more than 2m, 15s
AND IF Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan has a value of Off

THEN Set Device Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan to On
Then Stop Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer
Then Set Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer to time 0 Seconds

Then I would create a cleanup event on the timer because the timer will not reset if the fan is already running.
IF Guest Bathroom Fan Timer is more than 2m, 30s

Then Stop Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer
Then Set Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer to time 0 Seconds

You could also put in a Delayed Device Action in your light event to turn the fan off 10 minutes after motion is no longer detected. Of course you would also want to remove that Delayed Device Action within that event as well.

I haven't confirmed yet if this issue is caused the last change time, but will report back. Wouldn't you consider this a bug?

I have a contusion with your clean up event, in your first event you already added.

Then stop Tomer guest fan timer and
Then set timer guest bathroom fan timer to 0 seconds

[Rotech]

Then stop Tomer guest fan timer and
Then set timer guest bathroom fan timer to 0 seconds

I have another event that turns the fan off, when the guest bathroom ligth is turn off. I can then add the actions:

Then stop timer guest fan timer
Then set timer guest bathroom fan timer to 0 seconds

What do you think?

[Rotech]

I have confirmed that every time the ligth event fire it updates the time. That is the issue. So any device that has a renewed elapse timing can not be used for a condition "has been at least" or "has been exactly"?

[randy]

I haven't confirmed yet if this issue is caused the last change time, but will report back. Wouldn't you consider this a bug?

It would consider it a bug. The Last Change time should only reflect the time the device's value was changed, not when it is set. What version of HS3 are you running. I *think* that might have been a bug that was addressed in one of the later betas.

I have a contusion with your clean up event, in your first event you already added.

Then stop Tomer guest fan timer and
Then set timer guest bathroom fan timer to 0 seconds

Because if you look at the fan event

IF Guest Bathroom Fan Timer is more than 2m, 15s
AND IF Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan has a value of Off

THEN Set Device Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan to On
Then Stop Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer
Then Set Timer Guest Bathroom Fan Timer to time 0 Seconds

It will NOT run if the fan is running. Since your motion event starts the timer, the cleanup would stop and reset it if it passed the value that would turn the fan on. You could also take the condition AND IF Fan Guest Bathroom Guest Bathroom Fan has a value of Off out of the fan event - then it would stop and reset the timer each time the timer exceeded 2m, 15s regardless of if the fan is running or not.

There really is no harm in sending an ON command to a device that is already on - you do it in the motion event.

There are always a number of different ways to approach events. Another would be to break your first event into two events. the first one would use the BLRadar triggers to turn the light on - only if it is OFF, that way the Last Change time would not be reset each time the event runs. A second event would delete the Delayed Device Action to turn the light off , then create a new one. If you want me to show you a screen shot of what I am describing, let me know.

[randy]

I have another event that turns the fan off, when the guest bathroom ligth is turn off. I can then add the actions:

Then stop timer guest fan timer
Then set timer guest bathroom fan timer to 0 seconds

What do you think?

That would also work.

[Rotech]

Randy, I am on rev .143, I am having a hard time trying to understand the timers. I created a fan timer but how do I add the time for the trigger?

[randy]

Randy, I am on rev .143, I am having a hard time trying to understand the timers. I created a fan timer but how do I add the time for the trigger?

Like this

[Rotech]

Randy is this ok? I tried it but sometimes it doesn't shut off.

[randy]

Randy is this ok? I tried it but sometimes it doesn't shut off.

The timer does not control the fan, so your fan OFF event doesn't need to stop the timer, it needs to "Set Device Fan Guest Bathroom Fan Guest Bathroom Fan to Off". The only thing stopping the timer does is to stop the timer.

I had originally shown the Fan On Event stopping then resetting the timer as well as the cleanup event. If you created the cleanup event, you don't need to do it in both places. With timers, I always like redundancy.

[Rotech]

Thank you Randy, I will try your method, I am sorry for the hassle, but if you look in the HS3 help files there not much to read on timers. So Randy in the timer page you only add the timer name and that it?

[randy]

Thank you Randy, I will try your method, I am sorry for the hassle, but if you look in the HS3 help files there not much to read on timers. So Randy in the timer page you only add the timer name and that it?

That's it. You can also create a timer within the event. The button labeled "Create/Edit Timers" will allow you to create one or rename an existing one on the fly.

I will be covering it soon in the new Event Clinic Forum as we get into building events. There is not much to creating Timers or Counters other than adding a name to the list. While you can control them from the Global Variables, Counters and Timers page, by design all the control is done through events.