Timed grow light...how would you go about that?

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
(PUT YOUR INFO HERE)

2) What is the expected behavior?
(PUT YOUR INFO HERE)

Basically the situation is as follows: My home office has no access to natural sunlight, but I still put some plants in it and am trying to have them get sufficient light without “just” keeping the lights on for 24 hours.

The aim is to have them receive 10-12 hours of light a day, DURING the day. So no light between say midnight and 7am.

Now, what I would like to program: When I am at home and present in the home office, the light will be on (because I dont work in the dark) and I want that “on time” to be attributed to the 10-12hr/day contingent. If the light is off, it means I am elsewhere, in that moment I want the “grow light” to kick in. At this moment I am just thinking of having my Hue’s turn on with the Fuchsia style, without the green LEDs, which apprantly are not necessary to grow plants.

After the 10-12hrs are up, OR after it turns midnight OR while I manually turn on my normal working light, I want the grow light to turn off.

Because I have not figured out variables yet I am at a loss on how to put this onto practice.
How would you go about it?

#2

you normal working light is also connected to ST?

#3

Hi @bengali :slight_smile:

Yes, all ST-connected. I basically “just” need a way to capture “on”-time and combine it with a simple “Start grow light when away” routine.

#4

Wait…I’m confused…all you want to do is turn a light on and off when you’re away? There are easier ways to do that than webcore but a simple piston with “Happens daily at” function would do it. Then restrict to when you’re away.

#5

try this … change the piston name :wink:

image
image.png1178×1708 267 KB

#6

Oooh, this is brilliant, especially the Dungeon Office part (so true). Thanks!

I’ll have to do some modifications because grow light and office light are essentially the same bunch of bulbs (just with different colour settings), but the crucial part I had no idea how to tackle were the variables, and with your piston I have a fairly good idea on how to do these kinda things.

@Ryan780…I might have not explained very well. The “kicker” here was the mechanism to track the total time the plant receives light and restrict it to a certain number.

#7

btw … if they are the same lights probably wont work as well as is. :slight_smile:

#8

Oh man, I am already hitting an obstacle that makes me feel stupid:

Imagine an IKEA-style stand-up lamp with three bulbs in it - next to said plant. Thats essentialyl what we are talking about when referring to office- and grow light.

I have several different light recipies, so at any given point, only one, two, or all three bulbs might be on at the same time.

How do I properly capture the moment all lights turn off in order to write the elapsed “on”-time into the variable?

“If any of 1,2,3 turns off” - wont work, because I might have just changed from a 3 bulb recipe to a 2 bulb recipe.
“If all of 1,2,3 turn off” - wont work either (right?), because maybe the 3rd bulb has been off all along and only 1,2 are being turned off.
I could use a condition, but then I would have to remove all the triggers in the piston I guess?

Would this work:
“If any of 1,2,3 turn of AND all of 1,2,3 are off” ?

#9

if all of 1, 2, 3 are off

#10

But i’d need that to be a trigger, no?

#11

if there are other triggers that reference the same lights … which there is … this one can be a condition.

#12

Alright, Its 1am here, I will have to sleep over it and can probably more sense of it tomorrow! Thanks again for the valuable input so far!