String constants case sensitive in PLEG?

Plugins & Plugin Development Program Logic (PLEG)
1

I’m trying to turn on and off a celing fan when my heater goes on and off. I’m using the ModeState property from my Nest Thermostat which has “Idle” and “Heating” states. If my Condition Expression is:

FanOn = State ne “Idle”

the fan will turn on as soon as the heater turns on (ModeState changes from Idle to Heating)
However of I just use

FanOn = State eq “Heating”

I never get the Action and the fan does not turn on.
I noticed that when there’s a syntax error… the error message displays “Heating” as “HEATING”
Could this be the problem?

2

Chances are those values are actually numbers mapped by the user interface.
To find out what to use:

  1. Set the Thermostat to a Know Operating State.
  2. Reload the Web browser (to make sure it does not have a previously cached value).
  3. Go to the Advanced TAB for the Thermostat.
  4. See what values are set … these are the values that PLEG will see.

String constants are case sensitive!
When you get syntax errors it does not know that “Heating” is a constant at the time … as an arbitrary token it shows it in uppercase. Tokens like AND, NOT, OR, input names (triggers, calendars, device properties) are NOT case sensitive.

3

Thanks Richard… BTW… Absolutly love the plugin! Can’t belive I waited so long to install it.

Checked and verifed that the parameters are “Idle” and “Heating”. That’s what shows up in the Nest Advance Tab. I also used my browser and sent:

http://myipaddress:3480/data_request?id=variableget&DeviceNum=38&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HVAC_OperatingState1&Variable=ModeState

and got “Idle” or “Heating” in the browser.

This is how my PLEG is set up

Device Property:
State = The Therostats ModeState variable

Conditions:
FanOn = State eq “Heating”
FanOff = State eq “Idle”

Then I’ve got two scenes using the FanOn trigger to turn ON the fan and the FanOff trigger to turn off the fan
I get no trigger when the Furnace cuts on or off.

I’m obviously doing somthing wrong.

4

Please let me know if there is a suspected problem in the Nest plugin. I’ve got ModeState in the UI in v1.0 (submitted today), and it seems to change values when expected (but it can take up to the poll delay number of seconds to be reflected in Vera).

watou

5

Maybe you can record your Vera Log during a period when you change the Fan state
so I can see what is happening.
To record the log use the following URL: [url=http://YourVeraIP/cgi-bin/cmh/log.sh?Device=LuaUPnP]http://YourVeraIP/cgi-bin/cmh/log.sh?Device=LuaUPnP[/url]

6

Thanks for looking at this! Attached are the log files. Once when I turned the Heat On and then then I turned it off

The exact Condition Expresssion “directly copied” is:

FanOn: State eq “Idle”
FanOff: State eq “Heating”

7

Thanks for the log … I did have a bug.

Download the attached file until I get it released.

Attachement removed! Fix is available in version 2.1

8

Works Perfectly! Thanks Richard.

I realize that the actual development of the plugin is not the major inventment in time…it’s the suppport. I know it’s been said before… but I can’t thank you and others like Guesed and Futzle who contribute so much to the fourm. Home Automation is not a cheap proposition and your willingness to support Vera adds value to our investment. I look forward to the point when I can return the favor by contributing to the fourm in a meaningful way.

9

The fix is now officially in Version 2.1