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Constructing a series of events for motion controlled lighting

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    #16
    It may be that your switches are older. Here is the thread where the fix was mentioned. Your question lead me to test my switches. On a single button Cooper dimmer a double tap (as fast as I was able to do it) resulted in the light going ON then OFF, so each press changes the state, but there seems to be no way to register a double tap. What is new to me and interesting is that the Jasco switches, which are ON with the top of the paddle and OFF with he bottom, now register a new "Last Change" date and time if ON is pressed with the switch ON. The results are similar with the switch OFF. It also registers the device "had it's value set to ON" trigger, even if the light is already on. That opens up some new possibilities that weren't there when I designed the above events.
    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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      #17
      Yes, for me it seems more natural to apply a double tap to one end of the paddle than going back and forth. Right when HS3 was being released I tried to implement that, using timers and counters, but gave up due to the lack of instant status available to me.
      You have re-motivated me to get it working...
      Doug

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        #18
        Arrgh. I still can't see instant, or even quick status with a brand new Jasco/GE switch...
        Anyone know what are the items I need to check?

        "Associations", is greyed-out for this device. Is that ok?

        I've got the latest Zwave Beta, Ztroller with latest firmware...

        doug

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          #19
          Originally posted by DMcKnight View Post
          Arrgh. I still can't see instant, or even quick status with a brand new Jasco/GE switch...
          Anyone know what are the items I need to check?

          "Associations", is greyed-out for this device. Is that ok?

          I've got the latest Zwave Beta, Ztroller with latest firmware...

          doug
          The GE/Jasco switches have worked fine for me for a while except for 3-way slaves. If you control a Jasco switch from the slave the status only updates by polling. Is this a slave? I can post a screenshot of the node information from one of mine when I get back home.

          They don't support associations.
          HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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            #20
            Here are screenshots of the node information from one of my Jasco switches. As far as I know they all work and I am using them in 7 or 8 events that require instant status.
            Attached Files
            HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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              #21
              Back at this after an enforced break and I've got it going.

              My problems were, I believe, due to a combination of two things. First, I was incorrectly assuming that either the master or the slave causing the change of state would be reported. As Randy pointed out, it has to be the master. Although I tried both, I think that when I tried the master I was running into the second problem, which is that the response isn't as quick as I was expecting, at least on my system.

              Once I just broke it all down and debugged piece by piece, it became clear that by using the master switch, and adopting a more patient "tap", more like a deliberate switch and pause, it works fine.

              I wonder if the response of this small chain of events is significantly influenced by PC speed (as distinct from Zwave protocol delays)? My HS3 system runs on a lowish power Atom server. I don't consider it to be a problem, really, I was just a bit surprised.

              Of course, as luck would have it, both of the master switches I want to use are in the "wrong" locations for my purposes. Murphy's law I suppose, but I think I'll have to pull some wire if I want to use this capability at our back door. One day, I'll get into the right frame of mind and get it done...

              Doug

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                #22
                Not sure if this helps Doug, but I didn't install any slave switches for my 3-way wiring. Just used the Cooper Scene switches for direct control of Master with top button and 4 other bonus buttons for anything else! That may save running wire to back door...
                And after reading Randy's write-ups, I am wondering if their functionality can be extended with double taps - will have to try and see if it works...

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                  #23
                  Hi,

                  Just got a quick rookie question.

                  I have previously read that you should have a condition/trigger that is changed by the action.
                  If no motion
                  and if light is ON
                  Then turn light OFF

                  or

                  If motion
                  and if light is OFF
                  Then turn light on

                  Think it was something so that the event don't go in a loop, or something.

                  Why don't we need it in these events?

                  Something like this:

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                    #24
                    This seems like a huge mess of setup for one pair of motion sensor / light.

                    I very much appreciate the write up, its nice to see how others do things, so please don't take that the wrong way. I'm in the same boat of either setting up a million virtual devices / events, or trying to write a script. I just really wish there was a script already written for this sort of thing, or better yet, a plugin. seems like an extremely common problem to have, and creating an insane number of virtual devices, variables, and events seems unwieldy. I've got 18 motion sensors that control 14 sets of lights (some lights have multiple sensors), and the thought of setting all of this up for all of those just makes me hurt inside.

                    Also, what is the need for all the light sequencing? (on - off - on etc.). Can't you just use a flag or variable to determine that you manually adjusted the light, and to ignore any motion changes for X amount of time. This way, you get a normal timeout period of maybe 15 min. or whatever you choose, but if you manually set the light level, then timeout period would be 60 minutes instead (or some number of your choosing).

                    There is an awesome plugin on micasaverde called the smart switch plugin. It works very similarly to how I described, and is crazy easy to set up and use. If I knew more about scripting for HS3, I would create something similar.

                    If anyone has ideas on how to write a simple function that accepts the params: automatic timeout, manual timeout, and a device ID (for the light), I would love to contribute. Not sure where to start though.

                    Thanks again for the inspiration on moving forward with something. I'm sad that I spent a small fortune on this software and am left wanting to go back to my already setup and working vera due to the amount of effort involved to accomplish something that seems trivial.

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                      #25
                      I'm overhauling my system and this thread was helpful pointing me in the right direction as I had no HS3 experience. While similar, I took a bit of a different direction for the stuff that leaves the lights on or off regardless of motion, thanks to the brand new Homeseer switches. I had been doing the same thing on my 16 year old Switchlincs and JDS Stargate, where a double tap to the top leaves the lights on and a double tap to the bottom leaves the lights off regardless of motion. This seems more user friendly and intuitive than the way it operates in the example in this thread with on-off-on.

                      There are essentially the same events from this example for motion on and off, an event looking for the double tap on scene change for the light switch and one looking for a double tap off scene change. Those set a counter value that holds three states for the light: 0=leave off, 1=leave on, 2=normal motion control. The double tap off event also Cancels the delayed event to turn off the lights. The motion on event only works if the counter=2. There is also one more event to manually cancel the always on or always off by looking for a single tap on or single tap off and setting the counter back to 2.

                      I also have a nightly event to reset the counters to 2 so the lights don't stay on or off forever without manual intervention. I was hoping to refer directly to the switch's scene value in the events and not need the counter, but turns out those scene values are not changeable in HS, only by pressing the switch, so using the counter allowed it to be reset nightly.

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                        #26
                        Originally posted by rprade View Post
                        I would like to see a column for device Reference ID in the device manager since the Reference ID is the bets way to positively identify devices for replacement variables.
                        And now you have it, its there in the current version.

                        Thanks for doing this work, I was fine on the logic stuff, but didn't realise we could change the 'room' label, and hadn't seen how to add the additional useful columns to the device management view.

                        This will save me loads of time and frustration, thank you.

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                          #27
                          Really great series of posts. Would you PLEASE share your icons from your screen shots? Using Google didn't find them, and I like the overall look!

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Originally posted by NetworkGuy View Post
                            Really great series of posts. Would you PLEASE share your icons from your screen shots? Using Google didn't find them, and I like the overall look!
                            The original post was made a couple of years ago. Those were the standard icons for HomeSeer at the time. A switch was made to 200 x 200 "Contemporary" icons. Those old icons are still available by going to the custom page of setup and selecting the "Classic" icon set. You will need to clear the cache in your browsers to see the change. Every time you install an update to HomeSeer it will default back to the Contemporary icons.
                            HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by rprade View Post
                              The original post was made a couple of years ago. Those were the standard icons for HomeSeer at the time. A switch was made to 200 x 200 "Contemporary" icons. Those old icons are still available by going to the custom page of setup and selecting the "Classic" icon set. You will need to clear the cache in your browsers to see the change. Every time you install an update to HomeSeer it will default back to the Contemporary icons.
                              Thanks Randy. I do prefer the contemporary icons to the classic, but it's nice to know they are there too. I'll keep scouring the internet for more icons.

                              I do have some additional questions:

                              > In Post #2 (near bottom) the screen shot includes some "Options", but those are not talked about nor shown. What are they and how can they be used?

                              > Is there a physical limit to the number of Device Reference IDs allowed on a system? I thought I read somewhere it was about 255? Maybe it was talking about something else and I didn't recognize it. I'm really just getting into events and logic, so I may be incorrect in my thoughts about Reference ID limits.

                              > For motion lighting, I can easily see having 15 or 20 sensors for various locations. From the sounds of these motion sensor zones, it seems that you would want them virtually everywhere! Since most (all) would be battery operated, how many BATTERY devices might a typical home contain (e.g. yours or Mark's)?

                              Again, great post!

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Originally posted by NetworkGuy View Post
                                Thanks Randy. I do prefer the contemporary icons to the classic, but it's nice to know they are there too. I'll keep scouring the internet for more icons.

                                I do have some additional questions:

                                > In Post #2 (near bottom) the screen shot includes some "Options", but those are not talked about nor shown. What are they and how can they be used?

                                > Is there a physical limit to the number of Device Reference IDs allowed on a system? I thought I read somewhere it was about 255? Maybe it was talking about something else and I didn't recognize it. I'm really just getting into events and logic, so I may be incorrect in my thoughts about Reference ID limits.

                                > For motion lighting, I can easily see having 15 or 20 sensors for various locations. From the sounds of these motion sensor zones, it seems that you would want them virtually everywhere! Since most (all) would be battery operated, how many BATTERY devices might a typical home contain (e.g. yours or Mark's)?

                                Again, great post!
                                All Events offer the same options.

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                                I use the "Cannot Re-Run For:" to keep an event from re-triggering prematurely. With 5 seconds it gives all devices time to report their new status if controlled by the event. Usually things happen immediately, but the 5 second buffer allows for any system delays. The other options should be self explanatory.

                                The limit on devices is currently 9,999. Z-Wave has a limit of 232 devices per HomeID, but you can use multiple HomeIDs. I currently have 2100 devices, of which 117 are Z-Wave root nodes. Some of the Z-Wave devices have multiple child devices, so I would guess of the 2100 at least 200 are Z-Wave. The Z-Wave devices are spread among 3 controllers, each with its own HomeID.

                                All of my motion sensors are hardwired because I like the instant reporting of changes in status. As soon as it is no longer detecting motion, it goes to "No Motion" without delay. Motion is reported within 1/2 second. I have 18 motion sensor zones, some of which have more than 1 motion sensor. They are all handled by my DSC security system and reported to HomeSeer with Spud's Envisilink plug-in.
                                HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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