Program to force light sensor status update

[landolfi]

I am troubleshooting an old ancient Insteon light sensor connected to an IOLinc that normally reports On when the light level is low enough but it struggles on overcast days. It responds immediately in AC to light changes that are obvious but the problem is that it is reporting Off to AC in marginal light changes but never subsequently reporting On in AC after that even though by then it's completely dark. This usually happens in batches of 4 or more where it goes on/off, then on/off again and Off is the final status when it's completely dark, causing lights not to go on. I'm using it for low light conditions to turn on front room lights when it gets dark regardless of time of day and off when it brightens up again, including the next morning.

In thinking about this it makes sense to me that the sensor depends on a certain degree of light level change to report a new status. So my question: Will this program below solve the problem of the light sensor not reporting its status to AC because the light level change isn't large enough? I don't care what happens after 23:15 because it's lights off after 11:30 anyway.

And yes, I know I can get a better light sensor for Zwave and I even have some, I just have trouble parting with stuff that still works.

Check Light Sensor - [ID 000D][Parent 0001]

If
        From    12:01:00AM
        To      11:15:00PM (same day)
 
Then
        Set 'Light Sensor - Sensor' Query
 

 

[Guy Lavoie]

A program like that will normally only trigger once, when the time interval becomes true for the first time. Ideally, you'd want to mathematically integrate the analog value of the sensor (take several samples over time and take an average).

The thing is, you're not reading an analog value, only on/off. The iolinc should normally report a status change when it occurs. So instead you'd need to integrate the on (or off) duration time over a time interval instead, like a duty cycle measurement. 

But let me ask you, what is this light sensor? A Light Dependent Resistor (LDR)? If so, there might be a way to calibrate it's sensitivity with an external potentiometer or something.