What is the coolest feature of your Indigo setup?

I've got a hacked XBOX running XBMC (an open-source media center software) which I use to watch all my movies and television shows. I never watch broadcast TV.

Once I get all my stuff set up I'm planning on querying the state of the XBOX via AppleScript and if it starts playing a video I'll dim the lights in the living room. If the video is paused, I'll brighten them some until the video starts playing again. When the video is over I'll turn the lights back on and maybe have a corny applause sound or something (since my mini is in my living room).

If I want to get really fancy I can have the video pause automatically when motion is detected at the front door.

I think the automatic light dimming would be really cool though. I know XBMC sends broadcast packets about status changes but I have no idea how to grab them...I figure I'll go the reverse way and just query the XBMC status every couple of seconds.

Great posts! 90 percent of these ideas I have not implemented. I think I will work on some IR controll for my AV setup and celing fans this year.

I am also planning on adding a Mac Mini to either my garage (which ill flash the latest caller ID info, mail status, and recent emails recieved) when the garage door opens, or put it in my car and let it call home when it is within a couple blocks, to close or open the garage. I think the garage is the more practical use for it.

In my kitchen there are 6 recessed can lights that my wife tends to not turn off when she is done in there. So, after 50 minutes the lights briefly dim to 80% then back up (this takes like only a second or two) and 5 minutes after that they turn off. If after seeing the dim you go and tap the 'on' button forhte lights again it resets the timer for another 50 minutes.

Dpattee, how did you manage to do that? I found it a great solution, but I could not get it to work, actually it works as intended if the light is on, but if I turn off the light on purpose, after the programmed time (lets say 50min) it will dim it to 80% and turn it on for 5 min before turning it off again (i.e. I used trigger actions but I did not find a way to interrupt the actions once they are triggered when I turn the light on)

Thanks, Bruno

When I leave a room, I press a KeypadLinc button based on my *destination* -- e.g. when I leave the kitchen to go upstairs, I press the "upstairs" button, and Indigo turns on the lights ahead of me and turns off the ones behind me after a delay, so I don't have to press another switch at all.

(This is why I'm so keen on being able to upload delays to the PowerLinc V2; for now I have a kludge using X10 signals and the 1132CU.)

George

In my kitchen there are 6 recessed can lights that my wife tends to not turn off when she is done in there. So, after 50 minutes the lights briefly dim to 80% then back up (this takes like only a second or two) and 5 minutes after that they turn off. If after seeing the dim you go and tap the 'on' button forhte lights again it resets the timer for another 50 minutes.

Dpattee, how did you manage to do that? I found it a great solution, but I could not get it to work, actually it works as intended if the light is on, but if I turn off the light on purpose, after the programmed time (lets say 50min) it will dim it to 80% and turn it on for 5 min before turning it off again (i.e. I used trigger actions but I did not find a way to interrupt the actions once they are triggered when I turn the light on)

Thanks, Bruno

Hello,

I'm having the same problem as you Bruno. Have you figured out a work around. How did you do this Dpattee. I would love to know.

So far the coolest thing I've done is controlling everything remotely using my iPhone. Thank you for the iPhone files paolopasseri. I dont have much installed yet and have not done anything as cool as some of the post I've read (thanks for the ideas folks). Just started playing with Insteon and Indigo about a month ago.

Thank You
Edmond

In my kitchen there are 6 recessed can lights that my wife tends to not turn off when she is done in there. So, after 50 minutes the lights briefly dim to 80% then back up (this takes like only a second or two) and 5 minutes after that they turn off. If after seeing the dim you go and tap the 'on' button forhte lights again it resets the timer for another 50 minutes.

Dpattee, how did you manage to do that? I found it a great solution, but I could not get it to work, actually it works as intended if the light is on, but if I turn off the light on purpose, after the programmed time (lets say 50min) it will dim it to 80% and turn it on for 5 min before turning it off again (i.e. I used trigger actions but I did not find a way to interrupt the actions once they are triggered when I turn the light on)

Thanks, Bruno

Hello,

I'm having the same problem as you Bruno. Have you figured out a work around. How did you do this Dpattee. I would love to know.

So far the coolest thing I've done is controlling everything remotely using my iPhone. Thank you for the iPhone files paolopasseri. I dont have much installed yet and have not done anything as cool as some of the post I've read (thanks for the ideas folks). Just started playing with Insteon and Indigo about a month ago.

Thank You
Edmond

I tried to ask earlier in this thread and didn't hear back. I am also interested in this solution.

DPattee refers to a "timer" in his response, so maybe he is using the timer solution I described in this topic: How to define a timer in Indigo 2.

[jay (support)]

All,

I've created an applescript library in which one function is the creation of timers. You can download the library (with extensive comments) here:

http://www.bazaarsoft.com/bzr_indigo_lib.sitx

I believe you could create the light solution in this thread using the "createTimer" function along with the appropriate "pester" function (see the documentation in the script file for more detail). If the light is turned "on" again when already on, just cancel the timer/pester and create a new one. It will handle doing the timing, etc., and cleanup (deleting of variables, timers, etc.).

There are also other pretty handy functions in that attachment library. Since it's an attachment lib, it should go into Scripts/Attachments. Also note, it extends the existing "iTunes attachment.scpt" file as shipped with Indigo, so if you've renamed/moved/altered that script, some functionality may not work.

Have fun and I hope someone finds it useful. And, if there's something else you'd like to see in the lib let me know.

jay

So far, the "cool things" that I like are:

1. I have a keypad linc in my master bedroom showing the kids room lights, the water heater status and an "early bed" which turns all lights and appliances off at will

2. I have a Keypad linc at my interior Garage Door that shows all bedroom lights, water heater, outside lights and "Leave AM" and "Leave PM" macros which control lighting

3. My iPod touch can control all lights and music piped thru our house from my Indigo Server running on my Mac mini.

4. I have our Master bedroom turn on when I get up and will brighten 100% after 1 mins to let me know if I am still "on schedule" for work. Lights get turned off & on through out my house during my morning routine.

I mostly love the ability to control my house from the web (from my iPod Touch of course!) using the control pages.

Whoops, sorry guys. The problem is I read the forums at work via RSS and can reply to most things, but if I want to take screenshots or write specific instructions I have to wait until I get home - where I usually forget

I'll try not to forget tonight. It is really easy to set up.

Cool, I did some work. I started with macpro's timer script. It works great, but I had to create lots of triggers
I started with Creating The Variable TimerOutside

Step 2 is creating the trigger that sets the variable TimerOutside to the number of seconds I want the light to stay on ( example 3000 second for 50 min.) every time the ON command is pushed on the Insteon light switch.

Step 3 is creating the trigger that dims the light when the TimerOutside variable becomes equal to 300 seconds ( 5 min. ) and then back up to 100% after a 2 second delay.

Step 4 create a trigger that turns the light off when the TimerOutside variable becomes equal to 0

and Step 5 Create a trigger that sets TimerOutside variable to 0 when I push the OFF command on the switch.

I have a total of four triggers for this one switch to turn off automatically.

Macpro, is this what you had in mind? It works like a charm, but i'm wondering if we can pull this off with fewer triggers.

DPattee, did you need to create this many steps for your setup?

Jay I would like to try your script as well, but I'm confused with how to use it (newbie). I put it in the attachment folder inside Scripts, and read thru the script but it lost me. Please help, if you can give me some examples I would greatly appreciate it.

If anyone else has any ideas on how to improve this (fewer steps) please let me know.

Thank You
Edmond

Hi Edmond,

The 4 triggers you described are really needed. Less triggers is not possible.
But the beauty of this solution is that you do not need to write any AppleScript to get it working. Standard Indigo triggers that act upon variable values and pressing switches do all the magic.

Maybe it looks like you need to do a lot, but look at it from another perspective: you are implementing a cool feature with only 4 triggers, that's impressive!

Regards, Paul.

Hi Edmond,

The 4 triggers you described are really needed. Less triggers is not possible.

Hello Paul,

Thats no problem, its easy to setup.

One thing I needed to change was step 3. I changed the trigger to activate if the variable becomes less then 315 with a condition that the variable is greater then 299.

For some reason the timer would not always count down and land onto 300 seconds. some times it hit 305 sometimes 310

Thanks for your help
Edmond

Whoops, sorry guys. The problem is I read the forums at work via RSS and can reply to most things, but if I want to take screenshots or write specific instructions I have to wait until I get home - where I usually forget

I'll try not to forget tonight. It is really easy to set up.

DPattee - I am still interested in your 80% warning functionality as I have a couple of Auto-Off lights and wish they would drop to 80% or something similar as a warning before turning off for good a few minutes later. Please post the basics if you have a minute. Thanks so much.

hello,

check out this post on timers from DPattee
http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3388

Thank You DPattee

Edmond