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How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 6:20 am
by norcoscia
I want to set up something that will indicate ON if any of the lights in my house are on and OFF only when all the lights are off - not sure if that would be better as a virtual device or variable.
I was thinking about setting up a condition that was - - if ALL of the lights are off - then change viable or device to off.
and also have one that was set up like - - if ANY of the lights are on - then change the variable or device to on.
Questions are:
Any issues / problems with that approach?
Which is better - variable or virtual device?
What are others doing?
Thx in advance for any help!
PS. they are a mix of ZWAVE and INSTEON devices.
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 6:42 am
by howartp
A virtual device is exactly what you want here.
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Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 7:43 am
by norcoscia
This is turning out to be problematic - I set up the rules but don't want the triggers to both run every second - not really sure how best to handle this w/o 200 steps or schedules that runs every second to check
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:14 am
by FlyingDiver
First question - what are you using this for? Logic in some other schedule/trigger? Or on a control page as a status indicator?
You've got three choices:
1. Set up a schedule that keeps the variable up to date,
2. Do the update on demand when needed.
3. Put a trigger on each device that you're monitoring and have it update the status variable real time.
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:23 am
by howartp
One or all of us is confused.
I agree with FD’s first paragraph, but not his 123’s. But nor do i understand Norm’s 200 steps.
Explain your situation then we might understand each other’s misunderstandings.
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Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:31 am
by jay (support)
A Device Group Virtual Device is exactly what you want (it offers the ANY or ALL options as part of the config). No scripting/scheduling necessary.
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:34 am
by norcoscia
I'll try - I have a ton of lights. I made a control page that displays all of them. On that page I can turn them on or off and see status in real time since they are on/off devices.
On my master control page I don't have enough room for 30 plus items so I made one item that I can look at on the way out of my house and know if a light is on. I want to have that one device on the master control page turn on if ANY light is on in my house or OFF if all light are off. Then I can jump to the control page for lights and turn off anything I may have left on by mistake.
So I created a virtual device, set the action group to no operation actions, set it to monitor a variable to change state.
Then I created trigger that has every light in it and it will change the variable if any light is on
and a second trigger to turn off the variable if all lights are off
The 200 steps would be to go into each device and have it run the check every time a light changes state - otherwise I will need to have a schedule run every second or two to check status.
Neither option seems like fun and involves a ton of steps I will forget by next month and then have problems when I change or add stuff.
Wondering if there is an easy way to do this that is less complicated?
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:35 am
by norcoscia
What is a device group virtual device - is that different than a virtual device?
Crap, never mind I forgot about that one - sigh - that is 3 hours I will not be getting back
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:38 am
by howartp
Ah, your using my variable device plugin?
Yes there’s a built in, but disabled, virtual device group device plugin thing.
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Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 8:41 am
by norcoscia
So much unused space and hundreds of things in the list, head hanging down.....
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 9:01 am
by jay (support)
norcoscia wrote:What is a device group virtual device - is that different than a virtual device?
Device Groups (link for completeness).
Re: How best to handle many lights (over 30)
Posted:
Wed May 15, 2019 9:15 am
by norcoscia
Thanks -- all working now - I blame old age and lack of sleep for my bad memory - might be other contributing factors, but I can't remember