School Day Mode

[sfhutchi]

I have setup multiple programs in a 'School Day' folder that run M-F with sunrise scenes in the kids rooms and handle some other morning lighting tasks.

 

As a next step, I wanted to dedicated a KPL button to highlight that I was in 'school mode', and have a way to override 'school mode' if the next day was a holiday or the kids were not going to school, etc.

 

I have gotten a bit rusty with my programming of the system and could use some pointers.

 

For the specific folder, I was going to add a restriction to run only when this KPL button 'School' was 'On'.

 

Then I was thinking that I needed to automate this KPL button so that if I turned it off one night, it would reset 24 hours later. I was thinking that I could do this with one program. Something like:

If KPL-School is OFF

Then

Wait 24 hours

Set KPL-School ON

 

How does this logic sound? I will be playing around with this and will report back, but if anyone has done anything similar and can pass along any lessons learned, that would be great. For example, can I set this KPL button directly or do I need to put it in a scene (by itself as a responder?) and call that?

[oberkc]

I have a question. Do you want one KPL to indicate that you are in school mode, and a second button as an override? Do you want the override to stay on indefinitely, until you manually turn it off, or do you want it to reset itself each day?

 

My intial reaction, were I doing it, would be to use a single button as indication and override. I would set up a program to turn the KPL on at a set time each afternoon (sun - thurs at 200p for example) indicating that school mode will run the following morning. If I did not want it to run the next morning, then I would simply turn it off each evening beforehand. I believe also that I would have a program to turn the KPL off on Fri and Sat afternoons.

 

As you suggested, you could have a folder that contains your morning program with the folder condition to include the KPL button being on. Without knowing why, my temptation would be to create a scene to include desire devices as responders, then create a simple program:

 

if

KPL button is on

and time from 0600 - 0900 (or whatever time you want)

then set school scene on

else

set school scene off

 

While simple, it does not account for holidays or extended breaks (Christmas, summer, presidents day, etc). One would have to remember to turn it off each day, rather than turn it on. Of course, you could disable the program during extended times, but that is inelegant.

 

Perhaps a better option would be to simply have a manual KPL button. Leave it on always, unless there was a scheduled break from the M-F school schedule planned. The program above could be modified as follows:

 

if

KPL button is on

and time from 0600 - 0900 on m-f (or whatever time you want)

then set school scene on

else

set school scene off

 

Please understand that these programming suggestions are not precise. I cannot recall the exact programming verbage, but I am hoping it can spark some ideas. I am sure there are other good options out there that others will suggest.

[sfhutchi]

Thanks for the ideas. I will post my first attempt here soon. I am going to have one button that serves as the indicator of a school night and also act as the 'override'. The school day programs will run in a folder that will look for the school indicator to be on. Due to this, I will probably set the program to leave the indicator light from Sunday night through Friday afternoon.

[oberkc]

The most important thing, in my mind, is to understand what it is that you want the system to do before programming. It looks like you have given good thought to this. Have fun!

[sfhutchi]

Here is what I have for the program to use the KPL button 'school' as the indicator that the next day is a school day and also as the override.

 

I am not sure that it is very robust since it only runs when the switch is turned off. What do you think?

 

Also, it seems that I had to but this KPL button in a scene (by itself) as a responder to be able to toggle it. Can I toggle it directly?

 

If
     On Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur
     From  12:00:00AM on 2010/01/01
     To      12:00:00AM on 2010/06/04
 And  Status  'Family Room Light - School' is Off

Then
     Wait 24 hours
     Set Scene 'School Button' On