Manage lights based on Lux

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
Hi everyone, I’ve been trying different permutations of building a piston that will monitor the Lux of my living room, and adjust lights based on how much sun is around.

2) What is the expected behavior?
Ideally I would want some lights to go on when Lux goes below 35, all of the lights turning on when it moves below 15, and turning off lights when the sun returns and Lux rises above 25 and 45 respectively.

3) What is happening/not happening?
My variations of the idea have resulted in nothing happening. Ideally I would want it to be a constant monitoring of what is happening in the room in terms of Lux, but nothing seems to happen.

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the piston

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#2

This idea is solid IF the lux sensor is far away from the lights you want to adjust.

On the other hand, if the bulbs are seen by the lux sensor, then each time the lights move, the lux also moves, so you can create an endless loop if you are not careful.

#3

I tried that before but wasn’t happy with the results…Lux sensors do not report the changes as percise and fast as we would want.
And @WCmore has a great point. If the Lux sensor seeing the lights it will create some crazy stuff LOL

plus (if i am not mistaken) since you used BELOW or EQUAL, ever second it’s BELOW 30 your piston will keep executing.

Try this,

IF lux sensor illuminance DROPS BELOW 30
then 
do this do that

IF lux sensor DROPS BELOW 15
then
do this do that

and the morning time RAISES ABOVE.

but again, don’t expect percise results…

#4

If your Lux sensor is FAR away from the bulbs, I would be tempted to use a repeating timer so the constant light changes do not spam your network… Maybe something like this:

Every 30 minutes
    IF lux is greater than 45
        Turn off ALL lights
    END IF
    IF lux is between 25 and 35
        Turn on SOME lights
        Turn off OTHER lights
    END IF
    IF lux is below 15
        Turn on ALL lights
    END IF
END EVERY

Your logic does leave a gap from 15-25 and another from 35-45, so you might want to consider what you want done in those circumstances. (although it is harmless to leave the gaps if you are aware that sometimes the piston won’t do anything)

Again, please do not test this piston if your Lux sensor can see the bulbs.
(unless you want to see a crazy light show)

#5

Hi everyone,

So I tried both suggestions but it highlighs a issue, the one I have been struggling with:

My home goes from a state (forexample ‘Good Morning’) into the Home state, and in it is in the Home state, I want the piston to check in with the sensor (Aeotec Multisensor 6 if it changes anything) and ask about current lux situation.

Right now the lux in the room is 0 = Dark, and the main light should go on but it hasn’t turned on and it has been 0 lux for a few hours now.

Is there a way to force a checkin with the sensor every two minutes or so?

#6

You can adjust the first line in my last post to do this.

#7

That toally did the trick, thanks a ton!