Scene on a schedule?

[NightStorm]

I have a scene that includes a subset of lights in the house. I would like to make this scene so that I can:

• always turn it off at any time of day
• only turn it on from dusk to dawn

Is there a way to do this?  It does not appear that a scene can trigger a program, so that is out.  I only use the scenes directly or via UD Mobile Geofencing and have no buttons (controllers) that can kick off a program.

Currently I use an ISY994i (v5.3.4) but I do have an EISY on order, perhaps the new device has the capability?

TIA

[paulbates]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

Yes you can. The scene you created is considered a 'virtual circuit'... meaning use it, and it only to control the lights together and not  the devices themselves

1- For dusk - dawn automation, you create an iox program that looks like this

New Program - [ID 005E][Parent 0001]

If
        From    Sunrise
        To      Sunset  (same day)
 
Then
        Set 'Lighting Indoor / Virtual Circuits - No Program / Living Room / Lamps' Off    
 
Else
        Set 'Lighting Indoor / Virtual Circuits - No Program / Living Room / Lamps' On
 

This is how it looks in iox when you do it, substituting your scene for my sample above

 

 

The Set ... lamps on is my scene for 2 lamps, turn the Scene on and off, not the individual devices. The scene icon looks like this in iox

 

 

2- Use the same scene in UD mobile... Turn the Scene on and off, not the individul devices.

 

Hope this answers it

 

[NightStorm]

Nice, I'll give it a try when the EISY arrives (apparently not available in the older ISY994i).

Thank you for such a detailed and quick reply!

Edited April 18 by NightStorm
spelling/grammer

[paulbates]

This works on 994, Polisy and Eisy

 

[paulbates]

Have you logged into the iox java console, or did you do everything in the UD Mobile app? 

The programs tab in the iox java console is right next to the network tab, which is where all of your devices are. That's where you'll create that program

Edited April 18 by paulbates

[NightStorm]

I suspect I am *way* off course as I have no IOX and am only seeing this (which I got to via the start.jnlp):

Edited April 18 by NightStorm

[paulbates]

See the Programs, right next to Main.. click that one and it will let you create the program

iox is the new name for the software you are seeing, the admin console. 

Edited April 18 by paulbates

[NightStorm]

Apologies for my confusion, all this time and I never noticed that the Java program itself is called IOX and so I was looking for a tab or button called iox.

I entered the program (for my scene which is named "Welcome Home") but I think that it will turn on that Scene in the dusk to dawn interval and turn it off in the dawn to dusk interval.  That is not exactly what I am looking for.  What I want is that when I go into UD Moble and tell it to turn on "Welcome Home" it will disobey me during daylight hours but will obey me when it is dark.  Conversely if in UD Mobile I tell it to set "Welcome Home" to "OFF" I want that to always work no matter the time of day.  In a similar manner if I setup that scene in a UD Mobile Geofence to turn on "Welcome Home" it should turn on the lights if I drive into the GeoFence around my home and it is dark but not turn them on during the daytime.

I am setting here typing this and my Welcome Home scene just activated.  Makes sense as it just turned dusk here.

[paulbates]

Ok. Where/how are you telling it to turn on? With UD Mobile App? Or using geofencing in the UD mobile app so it tries whenever you get close to home (driving, etc)?

[NightStorm]

To test I have been using ON and OFF (or Fast On and Fast Off) for the scene in UD Mobile.

[Guy Lavoie]

Ok, so you want to be able to issue a scene command from UD mobile and have your controller "filter" it through a time of day condition, to allow it to be executed or not. 

Since you mention that you have a eisy on the way, I can tell you that there is a very nice way to do that on the eisy, using a free plugin (called "Virtual"). The idea is that you create a virtual switch that you add to your existing scene. You then create a program that watches for changes in the status of that virtual switch, and ANDs that with your time of day criteria and anything else to then execute your command(s). Since this virtual switch can only get turned on by your scene, this is how you can get a scene to execute a program. You would actually need to create this as two scenes: one that turns on the virtual switch (and triggers the program) from UD Mobile, and then the actual scene that you want to execute, which is run by the program.

[NightStorm]

Thanks Guy, I am looking forward to receiving the Eisy and will give this a try.

[dbwarner5]

1 hour ago, Guy Lavoie said:

The idea is that you create a virtual switch that you add to your existing scene. You then create a program that watches for changes in the status of that virtual switch, and ANDs that with your time of day criteria and anything else to then execute your command(s). Since this virtual switch can only get turned on by your scene, this is how you can get a scene to execute a program. You would actually need to create this as two scenes: one that turns on the virtual switch (and triggers the program) from UD Mobile, and then the actual scene that you want to execute, which is run by the program.

An alternative way to using the virtual switch concept above is to simply replicate part or all of the scene in your If statement:

For example if in your scene you have switch 1 @50%, switch 2 @100% and switch 3 @100%, Then put in your If statement the matching values of the scene.

Sometimes in a scene I may have just one switch turn on to a very unique value like 98%. Then I only check to see if that one switch is at 98%, which lets me know that scene is on. 

The drawback to this approach is that you have to make sure you keep the two items "in sync" --> ie 98% in the scene and 98% in the IF statement. 

Other than that, it's a pretty straightforward and easy way to accomplish the same as a virtual switch.