a scene with Heliotrope

Plugins & Plugin Development General Plugin Discussion
#1

Hello,

First, i’m new with vera.

I want to make a scene with Heliotrope.
I have the vera 3 with the new firmware and i install the app.
I want that the light goes on when the sun goes down.
If i go to new scene i see a red cross by the app, i can only select the light dimmers.

Maybe someone can help me

#2

Hi John,

You don’t need to use Heliotrope if you want a scene to activate at sunset (but you can).

To use the standard built-in functionality, go to the Schedules tab while you are editing the scene, and select Day of week based. You can then select At sunset as well as some other options. See the attached screenshot.

To use Heliotrope, go to the Triggers tab while you are editing the scene, select the Heliotrope device, and pick Sun goes below altitude and say 0 degrees. See the attached screenshot.

The screen that has the “red cross” (Devices) is only where you say what the scene should do when the time comes (in your case, turn the light on). You can’t control the sun, hence the no-entry symbol. :slight_smile:

It’s been remarked that having the result first, cause second, in the Edit Scene tab order is a bit counter-intuitive. Looks like you are a victim of this too.

#3

That is very quick Futzle !!

It is very cool what i can do with Vera.

Know i see " Sun goes below altidude " in de screen and then i must fill in degrees.

At 0 the sun is under and at 90 its the highest point ?

#4

0 is the horizon, yes. It will only reach +90 (or -90) if your latitude is between the two tropics, ±23.5º latitude.

Obligatory Wikipedia reference: Horizontal coordinate system - Wikipedia

#5

Both works, thank you.

#6

Downloaded the plugin from Apps last night as I had been using the older plugin created from uploading the files, it’s different with the sun icon and I hadn’t noticed the trigger capability before.

I think I can use this to keep my weather camera always pointed 180 degrees out of the sun.
Coupled to a motorized base, It could also be used to keep solar panels pointed into the sun.

Very kewl.
Thanks @futzle

#7

Hi,

New to Vera and need help with Heliotrope.

Last year I was able to install Heliotrope on our home Vera Lite from http://apps.mios.com/ and it displays the Altitude and is controlling our outside lights.

I recently installed Heliotrope from http://apps.mios.com/ on our cabin Vera Lite. The Right Ascension and Declination values were displayed but the Altitude and Azimuth did not showing up.

Deinstalling and reinstalling the app a couple of times from http://apps.mios.com/ resulted in no Altitude or Azimuth.
As a newbie, I figured this next move was a long shot. Decided to started over with the zip file downloaded from the June 21, 2011 post by futzle this forum, installed the four files and created a new device with APPS>Develop Apps>Create Device. I checked the D_Heliotrope1.xml spelling carefully.
No Altitude and Azimuth!
I compared the Heliotrope data on the home UI5 interface Advanced tab to the cabin Advanced tab line by line checking correct entry of device_file, mpl_file. Saved changes but No Altitude and Azimuth!

One odd note, the working home Heliotrope control pad shows the sun but the partially working cabin pad shows the moon??

Any help would be appreciated,

Thank you,
Owen

#8

Owen, that would happen if you haven’t set your location. Are you sure you’ve done that?

Otherwise you’ll need to capture the Luup log and report the error message that Heliotrope is printing there.

#9

Yes, I needed to set up the location and time correctly. Now the altitude is displaying and the sun icon is up during the day!

Thanks!
Owen