Lowering blinds based on time of year/day and inside temp, outside temp and sun level

[Levahj]

1) Give a description of the problem
I’ve had this piston for a while. If at the start of the piston (i.e. 260 minutes after sunrise in May) AND the inside temp is already over 70, outside temp is already over 65 and the solar radiation is already over 400, then the piston fires fine. If, however, the inside temp is not over 70 or the outside temp is not over 65 or the solar radiation is not over 400 BUT these three variables during the day do all go over their designated numbers at some point, the piston does not fire.

2) What is the expected behavior?
I thought by putting the three variables at the top (inside temp, outside temp and solar radiation) all on ‘always subscribe’ that it would solve the problem but it does not.

3) What is happening/not happening?
The blinds do not go down unless the first three variables are over their limits at the beginning of the pistons time of day. (ie 260 minutes after sunrise in May) If they go over later in the day but still during the time I have asked it to fire, it does not work.

**4) Post a Green Snapshot of the piston!

**5) Attach any logs

Help is greatly appreciated. It is driving me crazy…

[Gopack2]

Try moving your if block with all the time restrictions to the section that says only when at the top.

Then do you if block for the weather / temperature related stuff
In the then section for that if block put your toggle

For example:

[Levahj]

@Gopack2. You were right on. Changed it to your recommendation and it works like a charm

THANK YOU!

[Ryan780]

I’m wondering why you have this set to “toggle” as the action? If you blinds are closed manually for some reason, this will open them when you want them closed and close them when you want them opened until you toggle the switch manually again. I would avoid toggle in this case.

[Levahj]

This is a 20yr old Velux system with a wired keypad control in the wall and a 24v ‘brain’ in the attic. It was fairly complex to integrate a ST interface to such an old system. The toggle triggers a timed relay which both energizes the 24v system to close the blinds and another relay which disables the keypad control so that someone cant try to accidentally reverse polarity when the timed relay is trying to close them. There is the same dual relay control to then open the blinds. Adding to the complexity is the fact I cant fully trust ST to not accidentally energize the open blind relay and close blind relay at the same time. To make it full-proof against that scenario there is an additional relay which guards against that.

Kind of crazy but it works…

[Levahj]

@Gopack2 or anyone that knows subscription stuff!

Any idea why in this same piston the line for Home Weather Station Temperature shows the lightening bolt on the left showing it subscribes to events but the line for the Home Weather Stations Solar Radiation does not? I’ve tried to set the line for the Home Weather Satations Solarradiation reading to ‘always subscribe’, but it still does not make a difference. I am trying to make changes to this piston that rely on just the solar radiation line to subscribe to events but it is not working.

[Ryan780]

You do realize the difference between IS and CHANGES TO, right? You may want to re-think the way you have this built because this is going to continue to execute whenever the temp changes when it’s above that point and not just when it changes to above that point. (Once versus many, MANY times).

The lightning bolt does not mean subscribed to events. It means it is acting as a trigger for the piston. My guess is that whatever you have set in the expression is not being passed to WebCore routinely and must be polled.

[Levahj]

I stop the execution of the piston on every temp change by executing the toggle of the switch on ‘condition change state only’

I probably should study conditions vs triggers more. It is a fairly tough thing to initially get your hands around in this WebCore world but is so impt. I see there is a thread on it and that is useful. I can only guess that is what you imply when you speak of IS vs CHANGES TO…