Create Event w/ changable Time based Trigger - Best way to solve?

Plugins & Plugin Development Program Logic (PLEG)
1

I have an Event that turns on my espresso machine each night at 7pm, so it is ready to use by 8pm (needs 45-60 mins to warm up). On occasion, like last night, I did not get home until 10pm and thus the machine really could have started 2 hours later than normal.

So this got me thinking… what if I could create a single Event that has a default trigger time, but had a selectable variable time… this would solve the problem.

If I know I’m going to be home 1 or 2 hours later… I can just set a delay (remotely would be ideal).

So here comes the questions…

What is the best way to set this up?
How do I create it in a way so I can change, or invoke, the delay remotely… Virtual Switch type device but must do more than on/off so different times, or minute delays, can be input.

thoughts?

2

I use the VirtualClock plugin for tasks like this. You can set the alarm time on, off or duration by luup.call_action(…) from scenes. It works very reliably and the alarm settings survive Vera restarts.

This is the Luup to set the alarm time:

sEarly = string.format("%02d:%02d:%02d",hour,minute,second) local lul_arguments = {} lul_arguments["newAlarmTimeValue"] = sEarly luup.call_action("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:VClock1","SetAlarmTime",lul_arguments,92)

3

[quote=“RexBeckett, post:2, topic:175435”]I use the VirtualClock plugin for tasks like this. You can set the alarm time on, off or duration by luup.call_action(…) from scenes. It works very reliably and the alarm settings survive Vera restarts.

This is the Luup to set the alarm time:

sEarly = string.format("%02d:%02d:%02d",hour,minute,second) local lul_arguments = {} lul_arguments["newAlarmTimeValue"] = sEarly luup.call_action("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:VClock1","SetAlarmTime",lul_arguments,92) [/quote]

I don’t get how this would easily allow a user to add a time delay while using a mobile system (like Authomation via an Android phone)? Ideally there would be a Device that had multiple buttons… 30 min : 60 min : 180 min … etc, so when the user selected the button it set a value on the device - then a PLEG device would read that value and add that amount of time to the decide when to trigger the event.

4

I have scenes to increment or decrement the alarm time by 1 hour or 15 minutes. I can trigger the scenes from my phone and from the Joggler devices I use as in-house control screens. I just nudge the alarm time to the one I want - to the nearest 15 minutes.

5

Am I understanding correctly… you have one scene per time increment? So if I wanted minute delays of 30 / 60 / 120 / 180 - I’d need to create one scene for each?

There must be a simple way to create a device that simply has a value based on a presets, which can be invoked using a button on the device. Maybe a modification of the Virtual Switch or Variable Container?

6
So if I wanted minute delays of 30 / 60 / 120 / 180 - I'd need to create one scene for each?
Well you could, I suppose.

Personally I just have four scenes. One increments the time one hour, one decrements it one hour, one increments it 15 minutes and one decrements it 15 minutes. Usually three or four button-clicks gets me to the time I want.

There must be a simple way to create a device that simply has a value based on a presets, which can be invoked using a button on the device. Maybe a modification of the Virtual Switch or Variable Container?
If I wanted preset times, I would use a Multiswitch plugin to provide eight triggers for a single scene. I would put Luup in each trigger to set the required time into a variable and have the main scene Luup send the variable as a [i]SetAlarmTime[/i] action to VirtualClock. Your remote-access plugin may not support Multiswitch yet, of course. @intveltr is looking at adding it to HomeWave - I don't know about other apps. You would have the same issue with modified versions of VirtualSwitch or VariableContainer.
7

Rex,
I get what you are saying but I don’t know LUUP/LUA.

Also, is there any way to have the LUUP modify the existing Scene and not require use of VirtualClock? I’m trying to keep the # of scenes/devices as low as possible. If it is possible, what this will do is I can set LUUP in each trigger to be a specific time, thus modifying the Schedule in that Scene and keep everything in one place - except for the MultiSwitch, of course.

thx for the help!

8

This is a really interesting problem you pose. By chance do you have an android phone? If so you could use PLEG to not start the scene unless you were near or in the house. Is the idea that the appliance is warm when you get home? How long is your commute home? I think I would create a virtual switch at work/not at work and have the scene only run when you’re not at work. Provided you have a decent commute that is. So say you have a 40 minute commute, you want espresso when you get home and it takes 1 hour to ready the machine. I would have a PLEG scene to turn the machine on when you’re not at work and the time is later than 7 PM. The work/not at work switch could be controlled by Tasker and AutHomation or one of the other Android utilities. There may also be an Iphone way to do this. I have no clue. The Google Latitude plugin could also accomplish this.

Actually, the Google Latitude plugin would be great for this. Depending on where you live travel times vary, so let’s just say that you set it up for 60 miles which takes an hour to travel at 60 mph. The scene runs only if you’re closer than 60 miles. But… that won’t work if you’re at the local pub instead of a regular commute.You could create multiple Google Latitude instances for different distances and only run the scene if you are getting closer to the house. Still holes in this one. I try to not interface directly with Vera if I can help it. I want everything set up to be… get this… automated.

I’m going to think long a hard on this one.

The multiswitch with PLEG scenario described by RTS may be the best solution.

9

I have done a similar approach,
My car has vehicle tracking, i have set up 2 geofences they both trigger a url to be fetched.

The first one (a few km around the house) turns on coffee, and air-conditioning
The second one (about 50meters around the house) turn on the lights (if night for 30 min to get stuff out of the car)
Unlock the doors (hopefully open the gate soon) and turn on another set of devices.
They combined with virtual switches, and can be triggered by the unlock-event of the doors as well.

In the bedroom i have a tkb dimmer with 2 buttons, where the secound button triggers both the comming home scenes. (Wakeup mode)

Before 3 am the same button do shut down all things in the living room and kitchen as well (sleep mode)

So i just have to invent time travel to have the things take time to be ready after press the wakeup button :stuck_out_tongue:

10

Integrating geolocation is way more than I need - and in my case does not do what I’d like since my timing is based more on my daily activities than my location.

I have set times my espresso machine comes on… often I’m running late (dinner or work is longer than expected, etc) and I want to simply open Authomation and hit one button to trigger a 1 hour delay in the turn-on time for the existing Espresso Machine On event.

If I could figure out how to integrate PLEG with Multiswitch it would work. Example:

Multiswtich has radio buttons for different # of minutes: 30/60/90/180/etc
PLEG would use the Multiswitch value, add it to the set time (7pm) in the Condition, thus calculate when to trigger the Action (in PLEG)

Any thoughts on how to set PLEG up for this?