Lighting on/off based on lux, time since last lighting change, and motion

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
Can’t seem to nail down the “time since last lighting change.”

2) What is the expected behaviour?
I have two pistons set up to automatically turn on or turn off kitchen lights based on reporting from a Aqara motion sensor set up in the kitchen. I would like for the kitchen lights (switches) to automatically turn off whenever 65 or greater lux is reported by the motion sensor. I also have it set to turn the lights on if the lux drops below 45 AND there is motion detected (I don’t want the lights to turn on automatically if the room is empty). Lastly, I don’t want any of this to happen if the lights have been switched on or off in the last 30 minutes, manually or programmatically (to avoid auto lights off if someone just turned them on or in cases of lux fluctuation - I don’t want lights turning off and on every single time the lux threshold has been met). All of this only occurs between sunrise and sunset.

I’m new to WebCore: should this all be in one piston, as opposed to two?

3) What is happening/not happening?
The “don’t execute this” parameter doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve tried it a few different ways, but, for example, the “turn off” piston executed based on lux, where I then I used voice to turn the lights back on, only for them to instantaneously turn back off.

**4) Post a Green Snapshot of the piston

on
on.png1178×590 63.4 KB
off
off.png1178×570 60.8 KB

#2

There are many ways to do this, but for me I would start with my main triggers.

If lux rises above 65(trigger)
      has it been 30 minutes
      turn off lights
      set Myvarible to $now

If motion is active(trigger)
       is lux < 45
           has it been 30 minutes
           turn on lights
           set Myvarible to $now

Did any light change state(trigger)
    set Myvarible to $now

For determining time I use a date/time variable. I would set this variable to $now any time the switch changes and then use that to determine if it has been 30 minutes since last change.

IF $now is after addminutes(MyVariable,30) then

The problem with this might be that when you change the switch with the code and not manually that will trigger the last if. The switches are changing. If your switch can determine a manual vs a program change it would be less messy.

You might not need to set the variable in the first two ifs. As they change the switch state, which will trigger the last if. I think you can set the first two ifs TCP to not cancel on state change. That should allow those two ifs to complete before triggering the last.

#3

Giving it a shot. Thank you!