New to Indigo, new to home automation

Btw, how do you tell your system, that you are "on vacation" or at home?

I have several variables like that:
- Home/Away (I would typically be home, but I'm presently not)
- Vacation (true/false) (you might call it holiday )
- Holiday (true/false) (a typical work day that is a national holiday.)
etc.

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I set them via a control page. I click on one of the control page switches which executes an Action, for example, "Away Status Toggle":

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Then Edit Action Settings:

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I use these status variables in Conditions, Python script logic and so on. Something this simple (status variables that are true/false) can be amazingly powerful things! For example, [away = true] can cause climate control to ramp down, switch off lights, pause my Sonos system, direct notifications to my phone versus other things like audio annoucements, etc. On the way out the door, click one button, and off I go.

You'll be amazed at the possibilities.
Dave

Thank you Dave - great service with all the pics

You are talking about Scripts/Python. When do I need these?

In my test setting, I have defined that the light in the living room turns on when < 50 lux is reached. The lamp will turn off when > 50 lux. So far so good. But what if I tun the lamp off manually? What routine will take care of my triggers than? How can I define "now, I go to bed, stay off and start again next day"?

1) Be careful with your <50 and >50 triggers. You'll probably find that the lamp turning on will take the lux above 50, so it will turn off, and get in an endless loop.

2) If you're relying solely on lux for that light, then you need a variable such as 'Asleep' which is a condition on the Lux trigger(s).

My lights use lux, but also times and motion.


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Thank you Dave - great service with all the pics

You are most welcome!

You are talking about Scripts/Python. When do I need these?

These are never required, but allow for fine-grained control or tailoring. For example, in the way that howartp suggested. I manage my climate control based on python scripts which allows me to have all the logic in one place. This is personal preference and is in no way the only way to do it.

But what if I tun the lamp off manually?

As howartp suggests, managing lighting based on lux is actually pretty tricky. I would suggest a lot of logic to go along with it.
- you don't want the lights to go on with each passing cloud.
- you may not want the lights to go on when you're not home.
etc.

For very common lighting, I don't even worry about lux. I have many lights tied to dusk, sunset, sunrise and dawn. I would suggest starting out small, making sure that everything works as you intend, and build function incrementally.

Dave

Another thing to consider in your logic is nuance. Here's a simple example. I have a scene that I will run if we're heading off to bed before the automatic nighttime script runs (why keep lights on unnecessarily?) The order in which commands are executed makes a difference, can affect perception, and can be done in several ways:

1. Turn off the lights nearest to me first; gives the impression of the scene being executed instantly.
2. Turn off the lights farthest from me first; gives me the opportunity to take advantage of the light nearest me the longest.
3. Turn off the lights that consume the most energy first; the most energy efficient approach.

I use a hybrid which does #1 and then #3. I try to do #3 as much as possible, but I don't want users to feel that they've asked for something to happen and have them wondering if it will happen.
Dave

@ howartp:
You are right. I tried to include motion. But adding motion under "condition" of the trigger failed. It should turn on when lux < 50 and movement. Just to ensure light doesn't go on when I am not at home. This is no realistic scenario. Currently, I am playing around to find out how things are working.

Btw, as artificial light has no lux power, I will not get in any loop trouble (it is really a tiny lamp). Perhaps 50 lux is to low anyway.

@ Dave:
How do you start the scene?

@ Dave:
How do you start the scene?

For the one in my example, I start it from a Home Remote shortcut on my iPhone.
http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13874&hilit=home+remote&start=60#p102197

Note your trigger there will only run once at the point that lux becomes less than 50, and only if there is motion at that time. It won't run again until lux has gone back above 50 then dropped again.

The better way for this specific use case is: if motion detected becomes true (trigger), and lux <50 (condition) then turn on lamp (action).


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@ Dave

This is awesome. As soon as I have a iOS device I have to figure out how to do this (or I guess I should just read your linked comments).

@ howartp

Thanks. This works much better

By thinking of a smart home, it would be nice to have an idea of how the system should proceed when I go to bed.

@ all

I have just started to write down some "user requirements" or better "marcus requirements" for the new house....Uff, that's quite some work and money I have to spend I am looking forward to it, though.

Here are my priorities:

1) Shutters (sunset, sunrise and depending on temperature and uv for the summer time, door/window sensor)
2) Alarm/Security (smoke sensor, water sensor, motion sensor, camera)
3) Hifi/TV
4) Outside stuff (motion sensor/light, sprinkler sometimes)
5) Heating/Air condition
6) Ambilight and scenes