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    best practices?

    I've been playing around with blradar a bit and I very much like the concept. There's no exactly a whole lot of documentation, however. I am hoping community or developer can provide some guidance.

    I have a mix of alarm motion sensors and traditional z-wave type sensors with adjustable off times. BLradar works quite well with the alarm sensors, but i'm not sure of how to best combine them with the z-wave sensors. Is it advisable to create virtual devices for every sensor? For z-wave sensors, is it best to enable off processing and use a sensor recovery time equal to the specific device off time?

    If the latter is the case, considering a relatively simple example where an PIR sensor and z-wave sensor with a 10 minute off time are part of an active zone. The active zone has its own motion sensor off time, which is added to the last sensor to not be faulted. If one wants the sensors to have the same off times, is it better to add recovery time to the PIR sensors (without off processing) or better to turn down the recovery time on the z-wave sensors? fwiw, I don't use many battery powered devices, nearly all sensors are PoE.

    As to triggering events. BLRadar allows you to put events in BLRadar group into the device config page to be triggered when the zone goes on/off. Is this mandatory or can events be triggered off the status of the virtual device directly?

    Lastly, I'm curious about movement devices. I'm not sure if its worth messing with, but I'd love to see some examples of how people use this. i.e. garage overhead door opens, followed by door from garage to interior faulting > triggers some sort of I'm home sequence.

    Also I dont' suppose there is a github or similar for USMC. I am a terrible scripter but good enough at modifying other's work.

    #2
    Originally posted by Sk000tch View Post
    I've been playing around with blradar a bit and I very much like the concept. There's no exactly a whole lot of documentation, however. I am hoping community or developer can provide some guidance.

    I have a mix of alarm motion sensors and traditional z-wave type sensors with adjustable off times. BLradar works quite well with the alarm sensors, but i'm not sure of how to best combine them with the z-wave sensors. Is it advisable to create virtual devices for every sensor? For z-wave sensors, is it best to enable off processing and use a sensor recovery time equal to the specific device off time?

    If the latter is the case, considering a relatively simple example where an PIR sensor and z-wave sensor with a 10 minute off time are part of an active zone. The active zone has its own motion sensor off time, which is added to the last sensor to not be faulted. If one wants the sensors to have the same off times, is it better to add recovery time to the PIR sensors (without off processing) or better to turn down the recovery time on the z-wave sensors? fwiw, I don't use many battery powered devices, nearly all sensors are PoE.

    As to triggering events. BLRadar allows you to put events in BLRadar group into the device config page to be triggered when the zone goes on/off. Is this mandatory or can events be triggered off the status of the virtual device directly?

    Lastly, I'm curious about movement devices. I'm not sure if its worth messing with, but I'd love to see some examples of how people use this. i.e. garage overhead door opens, followed by door from garage to interior faulting > triggers some sort of I'm home sequence.

    Also I dont' suppose there is a github or similar for USMC. I am a terrible scripter but good enough at modifying other's work.
    Here is a quick response as I am out

    It is best to create virtual devices for them so that the plugin does not mess with the actual devices
    I use the sensor recovery time here and it seems to work fine

    The active zone motion sensor off wait time will only trigger when all sensors have been off for the specified minutes

    If should not be a problem to trigger off the virtual devices by using the status of them

    There is no github for UDMC but you can usually get help on here for what you want to do
    Cheers,
    Bob
    Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

    Comment


      #3
      No worries, appreciate the response. When you're not out perhaps you could elaborate on a few things.

      I get the virtual device, just wasn't sure if you were doing it with the z-wave devices as well. fwiw, if all it messes with is device string. I messed around with scripts and code to use the string to store, for example, a value calculated by an expression of other device values. Might be a feature?

      My question on that was, more specifically, in an environment of mixed PIR and Z-wave devices, do you just dial the z-wave devices down to 60 seconds or something? Otherwise you have different sensors with different delays due the combined effect of sensor delay plus active zone delay. Or, is it better in practice to add recovery time to the PIR sensors?

      I'll hold on the rest, but a resource with scripting examples would be a great benefit to the overall add-in. There are so... many... possibilities. Managed to get mobile phones transitioning between APs or connecting to trigger active zones tonight - So perhaps i will take a look more into that Overhead door > phone conects to wifi > interior garage lights path to most probable destinations depending on who's phone connects.

      If you do have some code examples, I'm am contemplating how to handle dim transitions in a "on" active zone, triggered by either a change in time range or luminence average (i have default dimmer levels based on conditions now, but if the house makes an adjustment i'd like it to be imperceptible.

      Comment


        #4
        I recommend virtual devices because the plugin will mess with the device string for the device.

        The sensor recovery time is sort of a fail safe for a sensor so that it will go off if the OFF from the sensor is missed (this sometimes happened with the X10 sensors)

        With the ZWave sensors I would use the value triggered section for the sensor and then enter in the ON and OFF values for the sensor.
        Cheers,
        Bob
        Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Blade View Post
          With the ZWave sensors I would use the value triggered section for the sensor and then enter in the ON and OFF values for the sensor.
          And, to clarify, leave the sensor recovery time blank?

          I am still not certain exactly what it does. I have tinkered a bit with using non-motion sensors as motion sensors rather than the timers I have used in the past. Door sensors, for example, but also virtual devices that are turned on when a humidity spike is measured, which BLRadar can watch, turn on the fan, then keep the fan on for whatever period of time after the humidity drops below a threshold. It would be helpful to know what exactly it does for cases like this.

          Comment


            #6
            If you leave the sensor recovery blank then the plugin will rely on the OFF for the sensor

            If you set it at 5 minutes then the plugin will turn off the sensor 5 minutes after the last ON
            Cheers,
            Bob
            Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

            Comment

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