Bigtalker and WebCore - Silence issue

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
So… I created a piston in hopes to create a silent time at night with BigTalker. I believe the logic is right and the piston is functioning as written but I cannot get the Bigtalker behavior to change. I think I am just missing a command of some type.

Basically, I have Bigtalker and LaNnoucer working together to announce when sensor doors are opened and closed. That has been working fine for months. But I am now moving to the night shift and want to silence my sensors based off the presence of my phone and during a certain time frame (as seen in the code below) as not to wake up others in the middle of the night when i enter or leave the home but at the same time if i am not there that the sensors do alarm as there might be an intrusion while I am gone.

2) What is the expected behavior?
Piston humming along and checks for presence of my phone, when phone is present between hours of 2000 and 1300, TURN OFF Bigtalker announcements.

3) What is happening/not happening?
TURN OFF command is probably not the right command for Devices? If you look at ST app and see the status of my Bigtalker devices they are already in the off mode. They only turn on when triggered. So there must be another command that i should be using to silence bigtalker?

OR

My time in between is not logical - 2000 to 1300… as shown below?
║Comparison (time) 74783627 is_between (time) 79200000 … (time) 46800000 = false (9ms)

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the pistonimage
(UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE HERE)

Piston_BT
Piston_BT.png1178×496 46 KB

5) Attach any logs (From ST IDE and by turning logging level to Full)
(PASTE YOUR LOGS HERE BETWEEN THE MARKS THEN HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE LOGS SND CLICK ON THE </> ICON TO FORMAT THEM)

REMOVE BELOW AFTER READING
If a solution is found for your question then please mark the post as the solution.

#2

Well, this may be a convoluted answer, but this is what I do. I have a global Variable that changes when I go to and from work.
ie: @iAmAtWork = 2 (when I am at work)
ie: @iAmAtWork = 1 (when I am home)

Then, in every piston that is sending speech, let that one command only run at night IF @iAmAtWork = 2.

Also, in general, I try to avoid pistons that span midnight, but YMMV.

#3

I guess a different (sneaky) solution would be to attach your speaker to a smart outlet, and simply have your return home piston turn off the power to the speaker for 5 minutes when you arrive home late at night.

Pros: Less coding required
Cons: Requires an extra smart outlet

Personally, I like my previous suggestion better. (It is much more customizable)

Also, food for thought: Instead of spanning midnight (and all the frustration that entails) why not do an inverted code like this:

Change:
Time is between 8PM and 1PM
-TO-
Time is NOT between 1PM and 8PM

#4

Thanks for the tips. I’ll implement that time change as it makes more sense.

On trying to get BigTalker to quiet down, I think I have a solution I’ll test when I get home.
In the BigTalker settings you can choose which mode it is allowed to talk in, so I am thinking if exclude my SLEEP mode from Bigtalker, then I can create a piston that will just change modes based off my phone’s presence, so basically IF PHONE IS PRESENT and time is not between then set location mode to SLEEP. Then maybe an ELSE IF statement to set it off sleep when I leave.

I’ll hopefully test tonight and see how it goes.
Thanks!