I am brand new in this smart home stuff. I ordered a VeraPlus a couple of weeks ago and expect it will be delivered in a few weeks.
I?ve been reading a lot thru this forum and have a question that hopefully some of you experienced guys can answer.
I plan on installing several motion detectors and 4 Plug In Dimmable Lamp Modules.
What I would like to be able to do is set up the lamp modules so that when I am in the “Vacation” mode they will come on at random times for random durations during the night to give the impression that the house is occupied.
Can this be done with the standard Vera software, or do I need some specific plug-ins?
This newbie would appreciate any advice he can get.
If you search vacation ghost in this forum you will get a lot of ideas. I do not believe the original ghost is available but thre are some alternatives.
You could do it with the native software of vera. It would take some work. App would be easier. I was not worried about randomization so I created several light scenes that would only run in “vacation” mode. A dedicated burglar casing the joint would figure things out.
There probably is a way to randomize with code. I didn’t look in to it.
Again, the apps mentioned would be easier.
Edit: Vacation ghost is not in the app store anymore. Deus Ex Machina is still available. Perhaps there is another way to get vacation ghost?
[quote=“Inzax, post:4, topic:191395”]You could do it with the native software of vera. It would take some work. App would be easier. I was not worry about randomization so I created several light scenes that would only run in “vacation” mode. A dedicated burglar would casing the joint would figure things out.
There probably is a way to randomize with code. I didn’t look in to it.[/quote]
To be honest, how many homes have lights going on and off randomly. I know that in my home, the sequence of lights when at home is pretty standard. Perhaps include some random on/off of the toilet and kitchen lights. A fairly simple scene would probably provide a good enough system.
[quote=“Slartibartfast, post:5, topic:191395”][quote=“Inzax, post:4, topic:191395”]You could do it with the native software of vera. It would take some work. App would be easier. I was not worry about randomization so I created several light scenes that would only run in “vacation” mode. A dedicated burglar would casing the joint would figure things out.
There probably is a way to randomize with code. I didn’t look in to it.[/quote]
To be honest, how many homes have lights going on and off randomly. I know that in my home, the sequence of lights when at home is pretty standard. Perhaps include some random on/off of the toilet and kitchen lights. A fairly simple scene would probably provide a good enough system.[/quote]
Although not designed to for this purpose … PLEG can provide some help here.
PLEG has timers that can be scheduled ON/OFF relative to SunRise/SunSet or any Absolute time with a RANDOM time.
You can also have OFF times that are a fixed interval + a RANDOM element.
i.e.
An Input scedule:
sBedroomTimer On every day at 23:00:00 + 45 Minute random time (i.e. between 23:00:00 and 23:45:00)
Off after 15 Minutes + 30 Minutes random time (off between 15 and 45 minutes after being turned on)
Then a pair of conditions:
BedroomLightsOn VacationMode and sBedroomTimer
BedroomLightsOff !BedroomLightsOn
If you have multiple lights in your room … you can use some delayed actions to turn on/off additional lights relative to the primary light.
Repeat this pattern for as many random zones as you want.