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pwmcmaho
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| Posted: May 20 2008 at 22:09 | IP Logged
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I'm getting to the point where I want to take my automation via insteon to another level - mostly to strengthen the basics in how my lighting operates.
I'm currently using PowerHome with a PLC (and watching the evolution of the PLM as well) for some basic sun up, sun down and night time type automation via timed events.
However, I have a number of scenes that involved overlapping fixtures that really need to work better.
For example, I have a night time scene (created through simple KPL links) that turns on a bunch of different lights across the house, mostly at lower dimmed levels.. This works great except when that room goes from its "unoccupied" state to "occupied" while that scene is on.
Let me use the kitchen as an example - with the night time scene on, the under cabinet lights are at 40%, some pathway lights at 50% and an alcove light at 50%. When somebody goes into the kitchen and turns on a light (or group of lights), I'd like the previous "state" of the lights to be resumed, once they leave and turn off the lights.
In my current setup, you turn on the nighttime scene, go into a room and turn on (or brighten) lights associated with the scene and when you leave, they turn off (instead of going back to the previous setting) and then you have to turn off and then on the night time scene (since I have those buttons as toggle on the KPL's). Obviously if I made them non-toggle, I could eliminate one click, but the point is to element them both ;-)
Is getting deeper into PowerHome via macros and variables and such the easiest way to accomplish this?
I've just started doing a few basic triggers to change global variables to start getting the feel for programming PH but I need some pointers on how to acclimate my "logical" thinking for architecting such a solution...
Are others of you achieving my desired results and if so, how?
Thanks for all your input!
Patrick
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nadler
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| Posted: May 21 2008 at 13:38 | IP Logged
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Patrick,
There are many different ways of doing this with PH. One easy, but not elegant, way would be to have the off press of that KPL button trigger a macro. The macro could check the time and either turn all the lights off, or set the 3 lights to the 40%, 50%, 50% level you want at night.
Another way would be to put the 3 lights in a group and do the same thing.
Another way would be to have the KPL button macro be triggered by double taps on or off and then execute the macro. This would save you some KPL buttons as you could also use the same button as a single tap button to turn on/off one of the lights (or a different light or another scene).
Another way would be for a single KPL button tap to run a macro to check the status of the lights (are they on or off or dimmed) and then check the time of day and perform the proper action based on the lights' present state and the time of day.
Another way would be to set global variables for each light when they are turned on or off and then have the macro logic act accordingly.
I'm not a programmer so these are just some down and dirty ways PH could work for you. I'm sure others, better versed, will chime in.
If you need help writing the macros, I could try and help you.
Noel
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onhiatus
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| Posted: May 21 2008 at 14:58 | IP Logged
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I don't use Insteon, so I might be off track here, but this is how I would handle it with X10, and I think it should be comparable.
It seems like the easiest way to do this is leave everything as is and add a trigger (on off) for the switches that you care about.
The trigger would just run a macro that checked the time and turned on the nighttime scene if appropriate.
End effect is that the user turns off the lights - they go off immediately (good - instant feedback), then come back up to the nighttime level.
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pwmcmaho
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 10:37 | IP Logged
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ok, I've written some macros (for timed events), so no worries there, yet. and I've started to get the triggers to work properly (but ensuring that the PLC is at least a responder to the device ;-) )
both responses raised an interesting question - Why even bother to have a button dedicated to a nightime scene? Instead, just have it go one automatically... something I will need to ponder a bit more. Certainly that would eliminate one requirement of the solution (and probably add a few more things...)
I'm curious to learn if others apply this sort of automation in their environments and how they accomplish...
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nadler
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 11:00 | IP Logged
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You certainly don't need a KPL. You can do all of this by way of triggers, timed events and macros.
I use macros a lot, but I wanted to point out others use formulas instead. In several years of using PH I haven't figured out which is better to use. I feel more comfortable with macros. Others feel more comfortable with using formulas. Basically they can do the same thing.
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pwmcmaho
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 11:29 | IP Logged
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Nadler - good point, if eliminate the need to turn on certain scenes and make them more time driven, then the KPL isn't really needed for that (so instead I've learned some good stuff on triggers to apply for other uses ;-) )...
Do you do alot of macro events for things like daytime, nighttime scenes, etc.?
Always learning...
Patrick
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nadler
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 12:08 | IP Logged
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I have 50+ Insteon devices at this point and use a lot of PH macros, triggers and timed events. But I don't have a lot of scenes.
I'll give you an example of some other KPL uses. I have an 8 button KPL in my kitchen. The first button turns on and off a kitchen light. The second button mutes the kitchen speakers (using PH triggers & macros). The third and fourth button raises and lowers the volume of the music throughout the house (using PH triggers & macros, USB-IRT and IR commands from PH). The fifth button is the MUSIC button. Through a PH macro, it loads ITUNES on my PC and then cycles through 6 playlists of various types of music - jazz, classical, NPR, Beatles etc. If that KPL button is double tapped quickly it turns on the Receiver instead of ITUNES and then single tapping cycles through FM and AM presets.
The 6th button is the NEWS button which loads internet explorer on my PC and starts a news station (but this is not working at the moment because they changed their stream). Double tapping this button starts an announcemnt throughout the house that "DINNER IS BEING SERVED. Please take a seat in the main dining room"
The seventh button announces the time, weather outside and the setting of my insteon thermostat as well as the temp at the thermostat. The last button turns on/off a macro which sets additional lights throughout the house for security purposes. We rarely use this button.
I call this setup 'the poor man's touch screen'. I would rather have a touch screen for the visuals but coupled with the announcements this set up does everything I want it to do (for the moment).
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pwmcmaho
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| Posted: May 22 2008 at 14:39 | IP Logged
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Nadler - very impressive. I'll need to create the "Boys, stop fighting" button on my remotelinc to carry around with me :-)
Having the whole house audio must be fun... I've just started dabbling in that - but went wireless instead of wired, via Sonos...
Patrick
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Topic: Getting started with programming scenes
