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Now that I got this funky cool zWave thing going, I'm trying to figure out how I could code a triggered event to "put house into sleep mode" that kicks off if it's between 10pm->2am, and the last light is turned off.
I'm experiencing brain-freeze. Any ideas?
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That would require reading the state of every light basically, so it's probably a little piggier than you would want to do. It would probably be a lot more practical to just have the person put the house into sleep mode when they think it's time.
Dean Roddey
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Could you setup some kind of variable that is a count of how many lights are on? And so when a light control switches to off, it decrements the counter, and then trigger on when that value becomes 0. That way you wouldn't have to keep checking all of the lights individually.
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That probably wouldn't last too long. I don't think it would be reliable enough to bother with.
Dean Roddey
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This is probably a highly personal thing, but I wouldn't really want to have to run around to shut all the lights off to "put the house to sleep." In my view, part of the point of an automation system is to hit a single button and have the system turn all the lights off, arm your alarm, etc.
You could also tie it to arming your ELK.. When it goes into Armed Stay, have it start a sequence which shuts your lights off, etc.
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Prefect Wrote:This is probably a highly personal thing, but I wouldn't really want to have to run around to shut all the lights off to "put the house to sleep." In my view, part of the point of an automation system is to hit a single button and have the system turn all the lights off, arm your alarm, etc. Yep, highly personal.
If there was a telephone or voice recognition interface to CQC, I'd agree with you. But I don't want to have to go to a touchscreen just to do this. I don't have a touchscreen next to the bed, so this means i'd have to do something like "put house to sleep, but turn these lights off in 1 minute so I can physically get to the bed."
Quote:You could also tie it to arming your ELK.. When it goes into Armed Stay, have it start a sequence which shuts your lights off, etc.
We live in Oakland - the house goes into Armed Stay mode at 8pm :-)
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IVB Wrote:Yep, highly personal.
If there was a telephone or voice recognition interface to CQC, I'd agree with you. But I don't want to have to go to a touchscreen just to do this. I don't have a touchscreen next to the bed, so this means i'd have to do something like "put house to sleep, but turn these lights off in 1 minute so I can physically get to the bed."
I'm still figuring out the best way to handle this myself. One idea is to use an Insteon desktop controller and use one of the presets to kick off the "go to sleep" mode. Failing that, I may just put a pushbutton in an unobtrusive place on or near my nightstand. The button output would tie to an ELK zone and could be used trigger the sequence in CQC. For extra points, I need to get a bust of someone famous and hinge the head so I can flip it back and activate night mode, like Bruce Wayne had to access the Bat Cave on the cheesy old Batman TV series. 
IVB Wrote:We live in Oakland - the house goes into Armed Stay mode at 8pm :-)
Fair enough.. I've visited my girlfriend's brother in Oakland a couple times and have little desire to go back.
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that's a cool idea. I wouldn't use a bust of someone's head; maybe a clapper...
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IVB Wrote:Yep, highly personal.
If there was a telephone or voice recognition interface to CQC, I'd agree with you. But I don't want to have to go to a touchscreen just to do this. I don't have a touchscreen next to the bed, so this means i'd have to do something like "put house to sleep, but turn these lights off in 1 minute so I can physically get to the bed."
We live in Oakland - the house goes into Armed Stay mode at 8pm :-)
IVB, if you have an elk then you could use a phone to trigger an even. You can use one of the elks outputs (with nothing actually connected) and set the output to on or off depending on the mode of the house you want. Then CQC could trigger off the change of that output. Use an output higher than 16 because the elk actually has 1-16 onboard and anything higher than 16 are virtual outputs unless you have an expanded board.
Another trick that might work if you have IR throughout the house is to pick a button on the remote that does nothing normally. I know just about every remote I own has some IR button that does nothing when pressed. CQC could trigger off of the IR signal.
Lastly, you could monitor a small set of lights such as those in the bedrooms where you would normally be when you are about to go to bed. Setup a timer that starts when a light is first turned on and a variable that is incremented only after the timer has start and resets to 0 when the timer has finished. If the counter reaches 2 before the time runs out then CQC would put you house in NightMode. You would simply have to turn the light on and off and on and off and CQC would trigger off of that.
I am sure there are other ways. You need to use every sensor you have installed including Doors, Lights, Motions, Clocks to determine exactly what would warrant the house being in NightMode. You probably have your TV in your room wired to the system somehow. You could put the TV on a certain channel which would start a timer and if the tv is still on that channel after 2 seconds then trigger an event.
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Squintz Wrote:You would simply have to turn the light on and off and on and off and CQC would trigger off of that. .
Morse code through your home automation system...I LOVE it!
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