PHLocation ideas

[MNB]

Thanxs Randy, I wasn't seeing " the trees from the forest" again! The first line is where I went a stray with "at least" leaving the barn door wide open for repeat triggering vs using exactly.

[randy]

Randy, question, as you can tell, I'm fine tuning my events using your examples I noticed that one of my events (as attached) is triggering constantly (excerpt of HSLog) are you using the "Cannot Re-Run For:" option Mike

Look at your Event:



In my Event I use Exactly as a trigger so it will only trigger once. Also I use a condition checking that the polling interval is less than the virtual device. The condition would stop yours from triggering more than once, or changing the trigger to Exactly will allow it to trigger once.

[MNB]

Randy, question, as you can tell, I'm fine tuning my events using your examples I noticed that one of my events (as attached) is triggering constantly (excerpt of HSLog) are you using the "Cannot Re-Run For:" option Mike

Jan-18 1:08:52 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:51 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:50 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:49 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:48 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:47 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:46 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:45 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:44 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:43 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:42 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:41 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:40 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:39 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:38 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:37 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

Jan-18 1:08:36 PM

Event

Event Trigger "Geo Fence Mike - HOME > 1hr, DECREASE polling rate to 1 hr"

[randy]

The way I approach my system is (to the greatest extent possible) allow tailoring settings without editing Events. That is why the Virtual Devices are in a subfunction of controls. I have Location Controls, Power Controls, Thermostat Controls, etc.

[MNB]

Randy, many thanxs for taking the time.. I did not realize that the Increase/Decrease virtual devices values were manually selected where my confusion was that somehow the virtual device would increment values via the EasyTrigger command but instead it updates the iCloud Polling value to reflect the Manually selected value virtual device. I have to say I like the ability to have a single place to change the value, but I fear that like you once it set there's no reason to come to change it. Well I learnt more re virtual device setup and usage(s). Mike

[randy]

a few questions,
1. I see on the Decreased Polling device that 5 min control use is set to "off" and 6 min is set to "on" whilst the remaining lines have "Not Specified"
2. Why on the Decreased Polling device for 4 Hours there is a value in the Row and Column fields "1,3"?
3. On the Decreased Polling device should there be a status graphic (like Increased Polling device) that should be defined with a range from 5-1440?

1. I don't bother with the "Control Use" values for devices that are not voice controlled. If voice command was enabled I would change those. I probably started with a basic On Off virtual device and modified the values. The Control Use are just the defaults.
2. The row and column settings determine how the buttons are placed on the Device Manager or the Pop-up dialog. Read Post #5 in the Virtual Device creation thread where I explain what those settings are for. With so many individual values on the decreased virtual device, they no longer matter.
3. That is also covered in the virtual device thread. You assign a graphic to a value or range of values. If you want the same graphic assigned to all values from 5-1440, you would set a RANGE.

Here is one where the buttons are all on row 1 each in their own column.





On the one where there a lot of buttons, the placement is no longer needing to be controlled.




If you want a special arrangement, you can choose rows and columns





The graphics:

[MNB]

a few questions,
1. I see on the Decreased Polling device that 5 min control use is set to "off" and 6 min is set to "on" whilst the remaining lines have "Not Specified"
2. Why on the Decreased Polling device for 4 Hours there is a value in the Row and Column fields "1,3"?
3. On the Decreased Polling device should there be a status graphic (like Increased Polling device) that should be defined with a range from 5-1440?

[MNB]

Thanxs Randy for the tutorial, I would not have figured this out any time soon...

[randy]

The Dynamic Interval device is to control whether the polling varies or not. If it is Off, the Events to increase or decrease polling intervals are disabled. The polling remains at the "Default" which is currently my decreased polling interval device value. The Virtual Devices mimic the settings of the iCloud account Interval devices. The Easy Trigger action sets the PHL2 interval device to the Virtual Device.

I actually have a number of Virtual Devices to control iCloud polling. The rapid location updates devices can be used to poll the devices even faster than the 1 minute available on the interval device. They cause the account to poll once every 20 seconds. As you can see from the last change dates, I haven't used those since 2017. Once a minute is fast enough for any purpose other than to simulate a "real time" driving map. I will probably be deleting them and the Events.

[MNB]

Randy
How are you setting up the virtual devices (decreased/increased) to contain/display the values are there events associated with them? Also what is the "Dynamic Interval" used for? Mike

HELP! - "The first line sets the polling rate to a virtual device. I use the virtual device to set the increased polling rate. Currently it is at 1 minute. I also use a virtual device for decreased polling rate." I'm not getting how you accomplished this.. I know PIA!

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[Rvtravlr]

As Randy has so well documented, we use PHL2 for similar events. We also use PHL2 along with the Blue Iris PI to Disable/Enable cameras based on where we are. In the future, when provided by the PI author, we’ll use Hide/Unhide so we can continue to record - it is a feature request being added.



This event changes our camera displays. We don’t want to look at ourselves when at home.

[randy]

Randy I've finished studying your examples and have two more questions can help with what's going on in these two events. It looks like there is another event that is being called "Location Controls Increased Polling Rate" via Easy Trigger command.

In the second line where did "Location Michell - Decreased polling rate" come from? everything else I believe I understand. Mike

The first line sets the polling rate to a virtual device. I use the virtual device to set the increased polling rate. Currently it is at 1 minute. I also use a virtual device for decreased polling rate. The event that does that is called in the third line. The second line cancels the delayed event if we enter or exit a fence before the 1 hour delay was up. I have to use a delayed Event, because an Easy Trigger Action cannot be delayed. The delayed Event sets the polling rate to the other virtual device. The polling rate is also reduced when we are more than 25 miles from home or if the batteries are below 60%. It is always reduced to 45 minutes at a known location. As I wrote above, this is no longer a big issue. It is at the end of the day both of our phones still have an 85-90% charge.

[racerfern]

Great. Now all I have to do is get an iPhone and clean out the garage. The dog part works fine.

JK of course, thanks again Randy for an excellent tutorial.

[MNB]

Randy I've finished studying your examples and have two more questions can help with what's going on in these two events. It looks like there is another event that is being called "Location Controls Increased Polling Rate" via Easy Trigger command.

In the second line where did "Location Michell - Decreased polling rate" come from? everything else I believe I understand. Mike

[MNB]

Randy, thanxs… I was pulling my hair out, but to compound the issue I had also disable the PHL2 PI (trying to multiplex by installing update) which doesn't allow PHLocation2 command to be available in the drop down, alls well! problem muddled through. Mike