Fish tank feed - Simple piston but somehow not working?

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
This s reminder for my fish tank. If the top is not opened it gives the warnings but even if I open the top before 11am I still get a warning.

2) What is the expected behavior?
The fish should be fed between 7am and 11am and if not fed I should get a warning at 11am.
There is an open-closed sensor on the lid.

3) What is happening/not happening?
The sensor works. When I open and close the lid I can see the responce in ST APP.
But regardless of feeding the fish or not feeding I get a warning.

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

Unknown-19
Unknown-19.png1178Ă—514 86 KB

Specific time for bulb to turn on and dim when dog needs to be fed, otherwise normal on/off with motion
Temperature control & dog feeding alerts
#2

That looks like it should work but I think a lot of your problems are coming from your “contact did not change in the last 4 hours” line. What that actually does is set a timer for your piston to wake up in 4 hours to see if the contact has opened.

Say, for example, you feed your fish at 7:30am. You wouldn’t expect your piston to send you a warning. BUT, what it does at 7:30am is set a timer to wake itself up four hours later, at 11:30am. When the piston wakes up and runs at 11:30am, both of your IF conditions are met (it’s after 11:00am AND your contact hasn’t changed in 4 hours) so you get a warning.

The piston below is a completely different approach but will work for you. Change “switch 1” back to your Media Player - I didn’t have one to pick so I used something else. If you have any questions on how it works, let me know and I’ll do my best to explain.

image
image.png1178Ă—752 38.2 KB

#3

Deep inside I knew I had to use variables… But I was running away from using them:) (newby still afraid of variables:)))

I will try this and let you know tomorrow…

Thank you so much for your help.
Ike

#4

Haha, don’t be afraid of them! They’re quite simple to use on here once you try them… and the open up new dimensions in what you can do with your pistons.

There are most certainly ways to do it without variables, but this makes it pretty easy to follow and debug if it ever misbehaves.

Glad to help and looking forward to hearing how it works tomorrow!

#5

That first piston (provided by the OP) will never be true, because there are two triggers in the piston. There can only ever be 1 trigger (there can never be 2 triggers evaluated as true in a piston). The triggers have lightening bolts next to them down the left hand side.

Change one of the triggers to a condition (or both) and you should be OK.

#6

I see.
I never knew two lightning bolts wouldn’t work. But I am kind of getting what you mean by that.

Thanks Georgercastoanza.

#7

@ike2018, What George has said is true when you use the pistons as you have. However, there are some advanced features available to use logical OR events where it can be possible to use two triggers on a single piston.

I’m not sure why your change in the last condition is showing as a trigger, because I am using a similar setup and it’s just a condition.

#8

I really like @michicago’s piston above. You could even spice it up a bit by having a color light nearby turn a certain color as a sort of visual notification. This would be helpful to other family members who might not get the notification or hear the text. Then, when the top opens after 11, you can have webCoRE reset the color light back to normal.

#9

I love this one…
Yes color change would be very noticeable.

Thank you WCmore I am on it:))))

#10

The piston @michicago generously provided works perfectly. tested real time for 3 days.

  • Day 1 - I fed my fish but without opening the lid. (I couldn’t let them without food just for testing purposes:)))
    Got a warning at 11.00am
  • Day 2 - i fed them by opening the lid around 7.30 and no warning.
  • Day 3 - Again fed them without opening the lid and got a warning.

And now I am adding what @WCmore recommended, lights will turn red if we missed the warnings.

Thank you all for your help.
Ike

#11

What about flashing a pattern with the light to train the fish it is feeding time? Then if you wanted to get the fish out to show them off you should, theoretically, be able play the same pattern on command and them come looking for the food.

Maybe a little cruel as they won’t find any, but I guess no different to training a dog and eventually not giving the treat for say sitting at the curb.

#12

That would drive them crazy:)))) because the feeding schedule changes everyday (somewhere between 7.00 to 11.00)
So far the training they have is, little taps on the glass. When they hear the tapping sound they all come out looking for food (not too smart for a smart house;())))))

#13

Sorry, should have been more specific. Have the monitor flash the light when you open the lid :wink:

On another note, what lights are you using? I am awaiting delivery of my new fish tank and have purchased a Hue LightStrip which I intend to put in a plastic tube to make it more waterproof. Not sure how well it will work but should give me the option of different colours, etc as it is going in the living room.

#14

Oh okok… that does make more sense than tapping on the glass actually:))))
I am not using smart lights for the tank yet. (But I liked you idea of hue light stips… I might justt add that:))
I have four of these, 2 on each side: They turn everything glow in the dark. pretty cool actually