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    Setting up alternating on/off lights throughout the day

    Setting up alternating on/off lights throughout the day

    Hey Cool People!

    Whats the best wat to set up an alternating lights "on for an hour, off for an hour, then on an hour again, so on, so forth" within the HS software?

    Best to you all!

    Rick




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    #2
    I do something similar using sunset timings.

    I do an If statement with ands for at home and evening, no motion for 30 minutes then or if followed by similar rule for at home and after sunset, no motion for 90 the or If again with rules for night time (i.e. Bed time until morning) no motion for 5 minutes.


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      #3
      HS really does not provide a good native method to do this, it does not really do looping events all that well, instead what I would suggest is an event like this;

      Trigger: Recurring every two hours
      Action: Turn light 1 on, then turn off after one hour

      That way it should do one hour on, one hour off, one on etc.

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        #4
        Setting up alternating on/off lights throughout the day

        I think that this can be done with a looping of multiple events together. The only drawback would be that an outsider looking in would notice the loop if it was not sufficiently long enough.

        To do this I would recommend creating a virtual device to determine occupancy, a timer for each event that would turn on a specific light, an event group to house all of these events, and if you really want to get snazzy, figure out a way to determine occupancy and automate your virtual occupancy switch.

        Devices and Timers
        1. Create a virtual device. It should have two positions 0 and 1 (to denote home/away for home occupancy).
        2. Create a timer for each event (except the last event, and the cleanup event)

        Event Configuration
        create a new event group,
        A. The first event should be configured to trigger when the occupancy status virtual device changes and becomes 1 (away). Have the first device turn on the first light and restart the timer associated with the fist event in the group.
        B. The second event in the group should be configured to trigger when the preceding event's timer gets to 1 hour. It should have an "and if" condition where the occupancy status virtual device "has a value equal to" 1 (away). It should then stop event 1's timer, turn off the preceding event's light, turn on the current event's light, and then start the current event's timer.
        C. Each sequential event can be setup in the above way.
        D. The final event in your event group should be configured to trigger when the preceding event's timer gets to 1 hour, and have an "and if" condition where the occupancy status virtual device "has a value equal to" 1 (away). It should then stop the preceding event's timer, turn off the preceding event's light, and run event 1 (effectively giving you a loop as long as your occupancy status virtual device is set to away.
        E. good programming etiquette would be that you create 1 more event to stop timers and possibly turn off any lights that were on during any of the events in your loop. This would be useful as you will likely come home in the middle of one of the event's running and switch your occupancy status back to 0 (home). In this scenario, without any cleanup, any lights would be left on, and 1 event's timer would run until the next time the event was ran.
        I would recommend a cleanup event to do just that. Your trigger for the cleanup event would be the occupancy status virtual trigger being set back to 0 (home). The cleanup event should then stop all timers, and turn all of the lights that are enumerated in your events off.

        The sweeter part of home automation would be to allow HS3 to somehow detect if you are home. You could leverage
        1. motion sensors
        2. phlocation
        or
        3. ibeacon
        to assist HS3 to automatically determine occupancy status.

        Your low tech alternative would be to get a scene capable multi tap switch at your front, back and garage entry points and configure either a double tap or triple tap to set your occupancy virtual device to 1 (away).


        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
        Last edited by Kerat; November 13, 2016, 10:20 PM.

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          #5
          Originally posted by RDelSanto View Post
          Setting up alternating on/off lights throughout the day

          Hey Cool People!

          Whats the best wat to set up an alternating lights "on for an hour, off for an hour, then on an hour again, so on, so forth" within the HS software?

          Best to you all!

          Rick
          Are you trying to simulate someone being at home?
          💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

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            #6
            Originally posted by RDelSanto View Post
            Setting up alternating on/off lights throughout the day
            Adding to what others have responded with native HS3. Spud's EasyTrigger plugin has a 'Toggle Device' option where you can schedule a reoccurring hourly event.
            Len


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              #7
              Originally posted by Rupp View Post
              Are you trying to simulate someone being at home?
              Not to simulate someone being home. I'm just trying to distribute hourly increments of on/off plant grow lights through out the day for an indoor herb garden.

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