New to Composer HE . . . . My Help! Thread

[TGannon]

Hey everyone,

I just had my C4 system installed a few weeks ago, and finally have time to post some questions. My dealer has encouraged me to post on the message board before coming to him for answers, as I have a fairly small install, and he is quite busy. I'm hoping that with questions to everyone here, as well as looking through older posts that have programming, I will be able to come up with all of the programming I want on my own.

Anyways, here is my first comment / question to the board. I've programmed my staircase light switch to both turn on and off the staircase light, as well as execute different scenes on the second press. Here is my programming:

The 'Off' command has never failed me. If I press once, only the staircase light turns off. On the second press, if I wait for the light to go off, then everything turns off. The 'On' command, however, is a little different. Sometimes one press turns on just the staircase light, sometimes it turns on the staircase light, then 3 seconds later, the scene turns on. I've tried to nail it down on if I hold a little long sometimes when I first hit the dimmer, however I haven't been able to nail down anything conclusive.

Any takers on my programming and what I've done wrong?

[RyanE]

Well, any programming on a dimmer that attempts to use a conditional on whether it's on, or it's level is bound to be a little tenuous, since pressing the buttons changes the on/level values.

I'm guessing you're getting differing results on your scripts also because you're using 'press' on one, and 'release' on the other.

It might be better if you just say what you want it to do, and people can post how they've done that, or how it's not easy or possible to do.

RyanE

[TGannon]

I guess basically what I want the dimmer to do is this . . . When entering my basement, first press turns on only the staircase light, second press turns on a specific scene.

When leaving the basement, first press turns off only the staircase light, while second press turns off everything in the basement.

[CFUG]

That's super easy. Just establish a VAR that counts with the presses and actions associated with each numeric VAR value. Reset the VAR in the right places and you'll be laughing. Don't forget to place a slight delay at the start of the script (time to collect the button press count).

[TGannon]

That's super easy. Just establish a VAR that counts with the presses and actions associated with each numeric VAR value. Reset the VAR in the right places and you'll be laughing. Don't forget to place a slight delay at the start of the script (time to collect the button press count).

Laughing, or tearing my hair out!

I've yet to even try doing variables, as I have no idea how to use correctly code one. My dealer sent me a brief little email on how to use them, however working them into a command has been challenging for me. While I fundementally understand how the variables work and how they should be implemented into programming, the actual 'coding' escapes me. I've tried searching on here to find maybe a 'Variables for Dummies' type thread, but haven't had luck.

[thecodeman]

Yeah what you want is a double tap, you're executing different programming on both the press and the release there which is why it's not really working like you want.

Simplest terms:

Create a variable. On the button press, increment the variable. On the button release, delay of x seconds. If the button press =1 do something. If it equals 2 = do something else. At the end, set the variable back to 0.

I dont have a good link to another thread that shows this but searching for "double tap" will get more posts that should help.

[akg4y]

I did this last night with a button keypad but in order to get it to work I had to have the variable increment on the 'press' and have the scene execute after a 2 second delay on the 'release'.

Also, I havent quite figured out how to get the LED to track on the button with the light it turns on. For example, I want the button LED to turn green when the family room light is on (regardless of where I turn it on from) and turn blue when it is off. Is that possible with HE?

[TGannon]

I believe I've accomplished what I want to do using a variable. This is what I did, I opted to use a 1 second delay, as waiting for 2 seconds for the staircase light to turn on seemed a little foolish, as in my tests I was almost already down the stairs by then.

I also went into the properties of the dimmer and unchecked 'Buttons Attached'. I am not sure why I did this, but it seems to work. Corrections are welcome!

Next, I am going to explore what akg4y stated above; if any light is on, I'd like the bottom LED to be red, rather than green (green is my standard color).

[TGannon]

OK, I did some more digging now and programmed a couple variables in order to try and set the bottom LED on my upper staircase dimmer to red if any lights are on in my basement, or if the theater is on. I took the guts of the programming from a thread located here: http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=3397.

Following is my programming. This currently works.

First, I created a variable called Downstairs Lights Check1. It is a number variable. I inserted the following programming:

Next, I created a second variable called Downstairs Lights On, this one is a boolean. There is no programming in this variable.

Lastly, I went into each light I have and inserted the following in the Level Changes script area.

I left the programming the same on the Staircase button, as is shown in my first post. When I leave a light on, and turn the staircase light off, the bottom LED changes to red, when I press the button a second time to issue the 'All Off' and 'Turn off Theater' commands, the bottom LED returns to green when the lights have gone off.

[ILoveC4]

Congrats on getting if figured out...feels great doesn't it!

One thing that I should add, and this may be different for everyone, but my multi taps work much better when I put the programming on the release of the button as opposed to the press of the button.

[TGannon]

I'll take a look at it tonight, I can't see my screenshots here at work.

My main concern with the double tap programming is that there is still a 1 second delay on the main staircase light going on, which, if you are a normal person, you are halfway down the stairs before the light turns on. Is there any way to make the light go on with the press, instead of after the delay?

Also, another concern I have is the variable in the LED color programming. The variable never gets reset to 0, so with every light change on every light, it keeps getting bigger. Is there a max number this variable can go to? Is this a baseless concern?

[ILoveC4]

Just set the variable to zero when you turn everything off, or put a scheduler in to reset the variable everyday at 3AM or something.

You can put the main stair light turning on before the delay if you want, then it will happen instantly. Obviously everytime you press the butto you want that to happen, so eliminate the "If double tap = 1" line and just put the turning on of the light above the delay.

[alhouko]

You can decrease your delay to 500 milliseconds which would be a half second as well it would just require you to tap a little faster. Or you can as ILoveC4 said before, move the light on before the delay comand. One thing I am trying to wrap my head around is why you are running the second counter anyway. You are looking at the true false to set the LED anyway why are you counting? From what I could tell you weren't using the counting anyway except to tell you to look to see if a switch was on. The other thing you want to watch for is level changes happen in both directions so even if you are trying to shut off a light it will run a level change prompt and and another variable to your counter.

[TGannon]

I ended up doing what ILoveC4 suggested and elimiated the doubletap=1 step. I also reset the variable to 0 when everything turns off. Seems to be working fine!