Amalgamate Dawn/Dusk Sensors..

[manxam]

Hey Blade, I'm wondering it is possible somehow to amalgamate dawn/dusk sensors like using active zones with motion detectors.

I'm trying to create a virtual device of "Is Dark" which I'd like to take the data from all the of light sensors and determine if one of them is light or dark. If so, then set the status of the virtual device appropriately. I only care that one of the group of sensors is either light or dark to set this flag.

I've tried setting up events such as

"If light sensor 1 value within range [0...3000] OR If light sensor 2 value within range [0...3000] OR If light sensor 3 etc" then device "Is Dark" to ON

"If light sensor 1 value within range [3001...10000] OR If light sensor 2 value within range [3001...10000] OR If light sensor 3 etc" then device "Is Dark" to OFF

But I get conflicts as invariably one sensor will still be light while the other 3 show dark causing homeseer to fire ON,OFF,ON,OFF repeatedly to the virtual device.

any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,
M

[Uncle Michael]

I may not understand exactly what you intend to do, but if you have multiple light/dark detectors, one of them will almost certainly change before the rest; and one will be the last to change. So if you check them all, there will be some transition time when at least one will report dark and at least one will report light. I use a script to count how many sensors are on, then make a decision based on that. Is that what you want to do?

[manxam]

That's exactly what I'm looking to do! I have a few sensors on the main floor and I base motion lighting on those. I was using events based upon the individual light levels but would prefer just one virtual device that says light or dark to use as a condition.

If even one of the sensors says it's "dark" then I want to set my virtual device to dark. If even one of the sensors says it's light I want to set the device to "light".

Do you mind sharing your script?

Cheers!

[Uncle Michael]

If even one of the sensors says it's "dark" then I want to set my virtual device to dark. If even one of the sensors says it's light I want to set the device to "light".

Do you understand why your criteria cannot work?
If just one sensor says it's light, than at least one sensor will also say it's dark! You are asking a question that does not have an answer. You need to change your criteria.

I actually use two scripts because I use a smaller subset of sensors to determine if it is not dark. You'll need to replace my device list with your own and change the loop index to reflect the number of devices you are checking.

Dark script:

Public Sub Main(ByVal Parms As Object)

        ' A list of the Device Codes for all X10 light sensors to monitor
        Dim strSensor_addr() As String = {"A4", "A6", "A12", "A14", "B14", "D12", "F10", "H16", "K12", "K14"}
        Dim intStat As Integer
        Dim intCount As Integer = 0
        Dim intNight As Integer
        Dim I As Integer

        intNight = hs.DeviceStatus("[1")

        ' Check each motion sensor
        For I = 0 To 9
            intStat = hs.DeviceStatus(strSensor_addr(I))
            If intStat = 2 Then     ' If the light sensor is ON (dark) then count it
                intCount = intCount + 1
            End If
        Next 'I

        ' If 3 or more sensors are reporting dark, then set flag 'VDark'
        If intCount > 3 Then
            hs.ExecX10("[18", "ON", 0, 0)
            hs.ExecX10("[13", "ON", 0, 0)
        End If

    End Sub

Not dark script:

Public Sub Main(ByVal Parms As Object)

        ' A list of the Device Codes for X10 light sensors to monitor
        Dim strSensor_addr() As String = {"A4", "A6", "B12", "F10", "K14"}
        Dim intStat As Integer
        Dim I As Integer
    Dim intCount As Integer = 0

        ' Check each light sensor
        For I = 0 To 4
            intStat = hs.DeviceStatus(strSensor_addr(I))
            If intStat = 2 Then intCount += 1
        Next 'I

        ' If no more than 2 sensors are on (dark) then clear the VDark flag
        If intCount < 3 Then hs.ExecX10("[18", "OFF", 0, 0)

    End Sub

[Rotech]

Do you understand why your criteria cannot work?
If just one sensor says it's light, than at least one sensor will also say it's dark! You are asking a question that does not have an answer. You need to change your criteria.

I actually use two scripts because I use a smaller subset of sensors to determine if it is not dark. You'll need to replace my device list with your own and change the loop index to reflect the number of devices you are checking.

Dark script:

Public Sub Main(ByVal Parms As Object)

        ' A list of the Device Codes for all X10 light sensors to monitor
        Dim strSensor_addr() As String = {"A4", "A6", "A12", "A14", "B14", "D12", "F10", "H16", "K12", "K14"}
        Dim intStat As Integer
        Dim intCount As Integer = 0
        Dim intNight As Integer
        Dim I As Integer

        intNight = hs.DeviceStatus("[1")

        ' Check each motion sensor
        For I = 0 To 9
            intStat = hs.DeviceStatus(strSensor_addr(I))
            If intStat = 2 Then     ' If the light sensor is ON (dark) then count it
                intCount = intCount + 1
            End If
        Next 'I

        ' If 3 or more sensors are reporting dark, then set flag 'VDark'
        If intCount > 3 Then
            hs.ExecX10("[18", "ON", 0, 0)
            hs.ExecX10("[13", "ON", 0, 0)
        End If

    End Sub

Not dark script:

Public Sub Main(ByVal Parms As Object)

        ' A list of the Device Codes for X10 light sensors to monitor
        Dim strSensor_addr() As String = {"A4", "A6", "B12", "F10", "K14"}
        Dim intStat As Integer
        Dim I As Integer
    Dim intCount As Integer = 0

        ' Check each light sensor
        For I = 0 To 4
            intStat = hs.DeviceStatus(strSensor_addr(I))
            If intStat = 2 Then intCount += 1
        Next 'I

        ' If no more than 2 sensors are on (dark) then clear the VDark flag
        If intCount < 3 Then hs.ExecX10("[18", "OFF", 0, 0)

    End Sub

UM for what purpose do you this script for? If I may ask......

[Microchip]

UM,

I you think about it slightly differently for a virtual device it should work.

If even one of the sensors CHANGES TO it's "dark" then I want to set my virtual device to dark. If even one of the sensors CHANGES TO it's light I want to set the device to "light".

You are looking for change, not "is", which as you say will not work.
In old electronics design it would mean 2 mono-stables on each sensor one for light, say rising O/P the other for dark, say falling O/P, each light or dark MS ORed together to change the virtual device.

[Uncle Michael]

UM for what purpose do you this script for? If I may ask......

I have some lighting scenes that change depending on how light it is. Most of the time the lights turn off in an unoccupied room after some delay, but some rooms have the room lights dimmed to a low level instead if it is dark enough. Because we are surrounded by trees, a very cloudy day can be enough, so I found I could not always rely on sunrise/sunset criteria.

FWIW, I use these sensors as just one input. I also have a solar sensor on my Davis weather station and a home-made light level sensor. Both of those are also used for input.

[Uncle Michael]

I you think about it slightly differently for a virtual device it should work. If even one of the sensors CHANGES TO it's "dark" then I want to set my virtual device to dark. If even one of the sensors CHANGES TO it's light I want to set the device to "light".

Exactly. You could probably accomplish it with two events for each sensor. One if it changes to On, and one if it changes to Off. (I'm not sure if you'd need to add conditions for the states of the other sensors or not, but that would make it a bit more tedious to set up.)

That would be an interesting way to change the criteria. Of course, depending on the location and relative sensitivities of the sensors, it could still lead to some oscillation, but it would still be useful to try it to see.

In my case, I was most interested in avoiding oscillation, so that's why I settled on the 'voting' approach.

[manxam]

Thanks for your help UM. I made some changes to your script which suited my install a little better and all is working exactly as needed. Basically just iterating through the list and setting the device value/status based upon the number of sensors in either light or dark state. Thanks very much for the ground work!

When I first wrote my events they looked solid but it wasn't until I saw a log full of ON-OFF-ON-OFF... that I realized what I had done

Cheers,
M

[Uncle Michael]

Great. Glad it was of use.