How to program garage lights on for 10 minutes with GDO...

[Dimarc67]

Fellow automators,

 

I'm guessing this has been covered and solved here already, but a keyword search just didn't find it for me.

 

I have the ISY994i, the I/OLinc 2450 for the garage door, and Insteon switches for the garage lights. Programming the controller to turn on the garage lights when the door opens was no problem.

 

Now I'm trying to program the lights to turn on when the garage door opens, and then automatically turn off after 10 minutes--except if the garage lights weren't already on when the door opened. If the garage lights were already on, then I want them to stay on until they're manually turned off.

 

I've tried to find a logic flow for programming this, but haven't been able to nail it down.

 

Any suggestions on this?

 

Thanks much!

 

Dimarc67

Frederick, MD

[LeeG]

There are a number of ways to do that. Here is one approach.

 

Program1

If
       Status  'SwitchLinc Relay' is Off
   And Control 'IO Linc-Sensor' is switched On
Then
       Run Program 'Program2' (Then Path)
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Program2

If
  - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition')
Then
       Set 'SwitchLinc Relay' On
       Wait  10 minutes 
       Set 'SwitchLinc Relay' Off
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

[Dimarc67]

NICE!! Thanks much! Needed one adjustment, but works perfectly.

 

Counter-intuitively, the I/OLinc sensor is "off" when the door is open, and "on" when the door is closed. So the second condition of Program1 needs to be:

And Control 'IO Linc-Sensor' is switched Off

With that adjustment, it's flawless.

 

Just for further edification, what are one or two other approaches for this scenario?

 

Dimarc67

Frederick, MD

[KMan]

There is a limitation of the solution posted, which is that the light is going off 10 minutes after the door opens, whether you want it to or not. That is, there is no way to keep the light on after the garage door opens.

 

A fairly simple solution would be to add the following to Program2 (and enable the program):

 

If
       Control 'SwitchLinc Relay' is not switched On

Then
...

 

With this addition, when you turn on the SwitchLinc Relay, it will cancel the Program2 timer if it was running.

[Dimarc67]

Thanks for the thought, KMan. You're right about the scenario, and the logic you provided looks right, but it doesn't work when testing it. Since the SwitchLinc is already on, I think flipping it on again doesn't seem to be a detectable event for the system, so the timer program doesn't sense it and halt.

 

Let me know if you think I'm missing something here, or if there might be another way to address my original scenario solution, or the adjustment you're proposing.

 

Thanks.

 

Dimarc67

Frederick, MD

[KMan]

Are you sure Program2 is enabled? It should run when the switch is turned on, regardless of the state of the light.

 

And make sure the "not" is in there, so the false path is taken, rather than re-starting the true path.