Random lighting program

[born2dive]

I am looking for suggestions or best practices to create a random lighting program that give the house an "occupied" look while we are away.

 

I am experimenting with the "wait/random" options but was wondering what others have done.

 

Thanks.

 

[Tuckerdude]

Hey born2dive....thanks for starting this thread! I am looking for the same thing. I've tried programming a little bit, but not really had much luck. For those out there with more experience, I would be grateful for any examples that could help get me started. My particular situation is that our second home stays vacant for months at a time, and I'd like to be able to (as mentioned above), give the house the appearance that someone is there.

 

Ideally, the program would do the following:

 

1. Have a "Set" a time period in which the random on/off events will occur. Say between the hours of 6pm and 11pm (user definable)

2. Have a variable time period in which the light will stay on. Say a range of between 2 minutes and several hours

3. Have the ability to "Daisy Chain" lights together so they will go off in a sequence. This would give the appearance of someone either entering the house and turning on lights as they move through the space, or conversely at the end of the evening, start shutting down lights as if they were going to bed.

 

There may be more obvious features that I'm missing, but with just those described above I think it would unlock a lot of potential!

 

Thanks in advance for any help or pointers

[stusviews]

I sometimes change the status of some lights while I'm away, most often while I'm waiting for my wife to get dressed for dinner. I also peek in at the cameras, both interior and exterior

[lilyoyo1]

All of that is possible. It's just up to you to program it to happen that way. I've included 2 quick examples. There are multiple ways to set them up. Both can be done with variables. You could also drop them in a folder that only runs when the status of a kpl button (whatever you choose) is on.

 

With that said, depending on your home, there are alot more variables involved which means tinking and dialing in whatever methods best suits you

 

Basic random program

If time is from 3pm to 8pm

Wait 15min (check random box)

Turn light on

Or else turn off

 

Device follows each other

If time is 11pm

Wait 10min. (Check random box)

Turn off scene A

Wait 30sec (check random box if desired)

Turn off scene B

Wait 30sec (check random box if desired)

turn off Scene C

[Tuckerdude]

Hi lilyoyo1....many thanks for the reply!

 

I saw something similar as I began to dig further into the forums. I typed in a very basic version (similar to yours) and tried it out. It works well and does what I had hoped. Thanks for the addition of the "wait 15 min (check random box)" as that will help to randomize when the lights all start to come on! Super helpful and much appreciated!

 

Happy Holidays everyone!