ISY Thermostat Programming Help requested

[Xathros]

Hello, I am doing some similar automations and ended up with a slightly different twist. I also have multiple house states, such as home and away, summer and winter, etc. But there are multiple potential controls that could affect the current house state, and many potential programs that are affected by the state. So I used a set of variables to define all my states instead of using particular insteon devices as the state. Various controls or events change the variables, for example a keypad button. And then all my programs refer to the variables.

The programs effectively work the same way but I think this approach is more flexible and potentially makes programs more simple to write, read, and maintain.

But I've only been programming the isy for a few months so its possible I'm overlooking some downside of using variables. Feedback from the seasoned experts welcomed.

 

Hello mountainman3520-

 

Many of us us the same approach as you have. It does make things more flexible.

 

-Xathros

[JSP0511]

Hello, I am doing some similar automations and ended up with a slightly different twist. I also have multiple house states, such as home and away, summer and winter, etc. But there are multiple potential controls that could affect the current house state, and many potential programs that are affected by the state. So I used a set of variables to define all my states instead of using particular insteon devices as the state. Various controls or events change the variables, for example a keypad button. And then all my programs refer to the variables.

The programs effectively work the same way but I think this approach is more flexible and potentially makes programs more simple to write, read, and maintain.

But I've only been programming the isy for a few months so its possible I'm overlooking some downside of using variables. Feedback from the seasoned experts welcomed.

 

Hello mountainman3520-

 

Many of us us the same approach as you have. It does make things more flexible.

 

-Xathros

 

I have been programming the ISY on and off (more off) for about a year now. I understand what a variable is, but I'm not sure if I understand how to program a variable in the ISY and use it for programming purposes. My fear is that I'll be creating messy programs when I could simply be using variables but not realizing it. So sad....

[mountainman3520]

Hello, I am doing some similar automations and ended up with a slightly different twist. I also have multiple house states, such as home and away, summer and winter, etc. But there are multiple potential controls that could affect the current house state, and many potential programs that are affected by the state. So I used a set of variables to define all my states instead of using particular insteon devices as the state. Various controls or events change the variables, for example a keypad button. And then all my programs refer to the variables.

The programs effectively work the same way but I think this approach is more flexible and potentially makes programs more simple to write, read, and maintain.

But I've only been programming the isy for a few months so its possible I'm overlooking some downside of using variables. Feedback from the seasoned experts welcomed.

 

Hello mountainman3520-

 

Many of us us the same approach as you have. It does make things more flexible.

 

-Xathros

 

I have been programming the ISY on and off (more off) for about a year now. I understand what a variable is, but I'm not sure if I understand how to program a variable in the ISY and use it for programming purposes. My fear is that I'll be creating messy programs when I could simply be using variables but not realizing it. So sad....

No need to despair. The isy makes variable use very easy. I'll post a few examples when I get back to a computer.

[JSP0511]

Thank you Xathros, I'm looking forward to seeing them. It would be cool if there were more informative videos on youtube regarding ISY, programming and how people are using these devices. I'm more of a visual learner and always open to the ideas of others.

[Xathros]

That was actually mountainman3520 but I can post some examples as well if needed. Variables add a layer of complexity but add so much flexibility that it is well worth it. And as mountainman said above, The ISY makes it pretty easy to deal with.

 

-Xathros

[JSP0511]

That was actually mountainman3520 but I can post some examples as well if needed. Variables add a layer of complexity but add so much flexibility that it is well worth it. And as mountainman said above, The ISY makes it pretty easy to deal with.

 

-Xathros

Well thank you both. The more the merrier!

[mountainman3520]

No need to despair. The isy makes variable use very easy. I'll post a few examples when I get back to a computer.

 

Hmmmm, is there some trick to exporting or copying ISY programming? I have a hierarchy of programs in subfolders that I'd like to copy and paste on this forum as examples of how I've used variables to control my thermostats. But I've only figured out how to copy each individual program and it doesn't include any hierarchy info so its tough to post a complete program that is hierarchically organized and have it be comprehensible to the reader.

[Jimbo.Automates]

I asked for that a while ago and was told it would be very low priority. I think people would be more willing to share larger examples if it was not so tedious.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[JSP0511]

No need to despair. The isy makes variable use very easy. I'll post a few examples when I get back to a computer.

 

Hmmmm, is there some trick to exporting or copying ISY programming? I have a hierarchy of programs in subfolders that I'd like to copy and paste on this forum as examples of how I've used variables to control my thermostats. But I've only figured out how to copy each individual program and it doesn't include any hierarchy info so its tough to post a complete program that is hierarchically organized and have it be comprehensible to the reader.

 

Screen shot? Lol

[mountainman3520]

No need to despair. The isy makes variable use very easy. I'll post a few examples when I get back to a computer.

 

Hmmmm, is there some trick to exporting or copying ISY programming? I have a hierarchy of programs in subfolders that I'd like to copy and paste on this forum as examples of how I've used variables to control my thermostats. But I've only figured out how to copy each individual program and it doesn't include any hierarchy info so its tough to post a complete program that is hierarchically organized and have it be comprehensible to the reader.

 

Screen shot? Lol

 

Screen shots won't work either since each little program must be separately selected in the left window for the code to display in the right window. So a program with 20 subprograms would need 20 screenshots. Not a practical way to share info.

 

UD team: please enhance the "copy to clipboard" feature so that if a user has selected multiple programs or directories in the left window, the copy to clipboard options should copy all selected programs including program names and code, in a readable format. Thanks.

 

This feature could have a big impact on how easily and frequently the ISY user community collaborates, shares code, improves the ISY product use experience, and thereby helps UD sell mode ISYs. If you want a vibrant community, we need to be able to conveniently share programs.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello mountainman3520,

 

With all due respect, I think the best way of sharing large programs is zipped version so that they can be imported into another ISY and examined.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[arw01]

Hello mountainman3520,

 

With all due respect, I think the best way of sharing large programs is zipped version so that they can be imported into another ISY and examined.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Michel, what's the format for the programs in the zip file? Could a little utility be written up to make them pretty?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Alan,

 

Aha, good point. Yes, of course; programs are in XML so I suppose any type of XSLT transform can make them pretty.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Jimbo.Automates]

I was thinking the same thing today. To write something to pull the folder of programs using another program in Perl or whatever and reformat it with bbcode to copy and paste to forums.

 

Sharing in a forum for help and comments would be nice. Using a zip file to export and import would be good for reuse.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[mountainman3520]

I was thinking the same thing today. To write something to pull the folder of programs using another program in Perl or whatever and reformat it with bbcode to copy and paste to forums.

 

Sharing in a forum for help and comments would be nice. Using a zip file to export and import would be good for reuse.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

I think this is a great idea. While I agree that its valuable for people to be able to share imported/exported programs directly without retyping them, it would also be really helpful for the community and sharing knowledge if we could conveniently extract blocks of programming into a text editor, showing the program names, hierarchy, readable formatting, etc. And then edit that content to insert comments to explain whatever we are trying to share. And then paste that content into forum posts.

 

I'd love to see some of the programs from the very advanced users who have been learning to make the most of the ISY for years. And I'll probably have useful content to share as well.