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Use case: Bathroom ventilation problem with Vera

AthomeyAthomey Member
in Archive
Is it possible (without writing your own code) to do the following with Homey:

*** Trigger ON: An Aeon PIR sensor detects movement in the bathroom when you start taking a shower, and sets the house fan to mid-level immediately, using a Fibaro 2x1.5kW switch.

*** Trigger OFF: If Aeon Humidity stays Why I ask: In Vera Edge this is NOT possible, because the Vera only triggers on CHANGES, not an BEING some level. So when the fan gets switched on, and humidity never goes ABOVE 60% first, then the second trigger never fires.

((Details: The real scenario in my house is much more complex, also involving low and high settings for the fan, and also triggering on other humidity levels, but above is a slimmed down version of the 'problem' to solve, which in a Vera takes coding in LUA. I'd love for Homey to solve such scenario's out of the box, so not only having conditions like "goes below ___%", but Homey also supporting "is below ___%".))

Comments

  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    The thing is; You need to know if somebody wants to take an shower. Maybe you could create an "virtual switch" in the bathroom. Is the switch is On, somebody want to shower and the Central Ventilation goes to mid-level. Or you could use an water sensor to detect water in the bathroom. And myself uses an OpenThermGateway for my Central Heater. The gateway sniffs the communication between thermostat and Central Heater.

    One of the parameters is "request Domestic Hot Water (DHW)", so i have; 
    
Trigger requestDHW == on
        turnCentralVentilationUnitUp() //instant on
}
    
Trigger requestDHW == off
        delay(turnCentralVentilationUnitDown(),10) //10 min. delay off
}
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    Thx MarcoF! Ah, the question was not how to detect who takes a shower, the question is about the trigger OFF, is it possible in Homey to trigger on something being below a value for a certain time. Vera doesn't support that and only support the TRANSITION of going below a certain value. Is that more clear and could you shed more light on Homey in that case? If not, I could describe it more elaborately.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited February 2015
    ok, with Vera its possible to trigger if humidity is below a certain value. Here we have a Itho ventBox with RF remotes and i bought an Ethernet relaisboard. Wrote my private plugin that create 8 relais devices in my Vera and soldered 4 relais to the for "buttons" of the RF Remote. Then i create an scene that if humidity is below 70%, "relais Ventilatie stand 1" is toggle on/off and the VentBox goes to ventilation mode 1 (lowest setting).

    You could take 2 fibaro 2x1,5kW modules and connect them to the ventilation switch.
    Also i found the following site and the use 1 Fibaro 2x1,5kW module to switch between ventilation mode Low(1) and High(3);
    http://www.robbshop.nl/about-z-wave/z-wave-projects#bathroom-ventilation


  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    Thx for the reply and the reference to ROBBshop. I read their set-up. I'm not succeeding in making myself clear to you. You say it's possible in the Vera to trigger if humidity IS below 60%. That's NOT possible. It is however possible to trigger if humidity GOES below 60%. That's something different. It's a fact that Vera can't do it out of the box. I'm asking if Homey cán. :-)

    I want to trigger the fan ON when entering the room, on the PIR, and switching it OFF if it's 30 minutes below 60% (not when it changes from a higher value to below 60%!), but I have a problem in the scenario where it enables on the PIR, and when the humidity never goes ABOVE the 60%, then the scene to switch it OFF never fires. This is because the Vera only triggers when the % CHANGES from above to below the 60% (or the set value), but that is NOT what I want. I want after latest PIR movement, that it switches OFF after 30 minutes of being below 60, not CHANGING to below 60. In this case it'll switch off when change from e.g. 61% to 59% (which the Vera supports), but ALSO when staying lower than 59% all the time.

    You are missing my point of the problem, but I blame myself. Apparently I don't describe it clear enough. :-) Thx for the effort anyways, maybe I'm clearer now.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    if I'm honest, i coded everything in my Vera3 and thats because the trigger/scene options sucks big time.
    Therefore i'm not fully known with the limitation/options of the triggers/scenes.

    I LUA scripts that "watch" variables and if the change fire an callback function. I also use custom device parameters to keep track on last time(stamp) switching/triggering devices. This way its possible to see when a switch/motion was switched/triggered for the last time.
    This works great for me and beside some code side bugs, we are very pleased with the system.

    I hope Homey will be smarter, better, faster, foolproof, intuitive, etc etc. and my Vera3 goes within days on Marktplaats.nl :)

    Lets see what the update of tomorrow will bring (i finally hope to see an production Homey..........)
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    With other words, i experienced some limitations with the Vera's scene/trigger editor and therefore i decided to write my own stuff.
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    Thanx MarcoF. Very helpful. I want to be able to implement 10+ houses with such set-ups, all with very different conditions, and very little time to implement ~40 devices. I'm hoping for the same as you with Homey. I'll be patient and wait for it for now. Or Emile might chime in and explain if it'll work out of the box without coding. (With a good UI it should be.)
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    I am thinking about creating a 'variable' block, where you can store and read variables. So in your scenario, when the switch goes off, you set a variable (action), and trigger another flow (delayed, 10 min). In the second flow, you'd then check if the variable is still true.

    Just please don't expect it at launch. These 'advanced' features need careful thought, before it all gets a mess :)
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    Nice thinking, at least. Thx!
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    +1

    Also nice for using it with KaKu light sensors. You can than delay the 'light off' command for say a minute or two.
    If it become darker in that time you can skip the action 'light off'.

  • JeroenKleijnJeroenKleijn Member
    This would also be nice for a going to bed scene. "Hey homey i am going to bed" and all the lights turn off after 3 min so you have time to walk upstairs with the lights on.
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    That's already possible @JeroenKleijn :-)
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    edited February 2015
    #1 - But that's different from a length-of-time in the trigger. :-) Having a temperature trigger that says if temperature is 5 minutes below X, is different from do something 5 minutes after the temperature is below X. The first measures the time of trigger-situation/condition, the second delays the result. @Emile are both supported?

    #2 - @Emile, in the scenario of @JeroenKleijn is it possible to cancel the 3 minute timer from another scene (without writing your own code)? If I decide to go back after 1,5 minutes, because I forgot to check some e-mail, I'd want a movement trigger from the Fibaro 3 in 1 sensor to cancel the turning off the lights. (And in any case turning the lights on if they were off.) I'd hate it that the 3 minute timer is already running, and thus after 1,5 minute back in the room the lights would switch off! @Emile, could you shed some light on this usecase using Homey?

    Thx!
  • remcoploegremcoploeg Member
    +1 for the variable option. That makes the Fibaro HC2 currently 'great'
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    @Athomey

    #2 In javascript you can with clearInterval ( ).
    Example: http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/met_win_clearinterval.asp

    http://www.w3schools.com is the place for me to found a lot of help in programming.
  • AthomeyAthomey Member
    @TheoDeKoning: Thx for thinking along! Very nice. I'm wondering if it'll be possible to do this with Homey without scripting. To me it seems like an elementary Lego element in Homey if they really want to surpass the nerdy-level of all other Domotica solutions. :-) But who am I. ;-)
  • TheoDeKoningTheoDeKoning Member
    @Athomey
    You are very right in about that nerdy-level, I have mention that on this form already.
    That Homey this canceling has to do from the start is very simple to explain.
    If you can tell Homey that you go to bed and the timer "light's off" is then starting, you also need the cancel command because you are forgetting something. Putting the trashcan outside e.g.
This discussion has been closed.