Programming Question for "Welcome Home"

[byronomo]

Like many C4 users, I have a "welcome home" button which turns on certain lights and adjusts thermostat settings. Additionally, I have motion-detectors outside which activate certain lights outside. The motion detectors only activate the lights when the light level outside is below a certain threshold (i.e. at night).

So on to the question:

Does anyone have tips on how to program the Welcome Home button to only turn on lights based on the light level outside? Basically, there is no need to turn on certain lights when it is bright outside and I usually end up turning off those lights manually.

Thanks!

[Godzilla]

if time is night time?......or you can program if time is between 8 pm and 5 am.........pretty much whatever you want..............just make sure you leave the t-stats in when you do the welcome home no matter what time it is

[nikon]

Like many C4 users, I have a "welcome home" button which turns on certain lights and adjusts thermostat settings. Additionally, I have motion-detectors outside which activate certain lights outside. The motion detectors only activate the lights when the light level outside is below a certain threshold (i.e. at night).

So on to the question:

Does anyone have tips on how to program the Welcome Home button to only turn on lights based on the light level outside? Basically, there is no need to turn on certain lights when it is bright outside and I usually end up turning off those lights manually.

Thanks!

Are the motion sensors the cardaccess one with he light level sensor or are they regular motion sensors? If you have the normal sensors then you would base it on the position of the sun in the sky rather than the actual light levels.

[pstuart]

Or use the sunset / sunrise scheduler variables. +/- 30 mins sunset or sunrise usually works for me for those types of events.

[GoGo Delicious]

Does anyone have tips on how to program the Welcome Home button to only turn on lights based on the light level outside?

To do this right you need to use a Photocell sensor that can measure ambient light. We use these all the time for daylight harvesting. It will adjust lighting based on the ambient light including sun light. Ask you C4 dealer on how to integrate Photocell sensors within your project.

Hope that helps.

[ILoveC4]

I do this with Card Access Motion Detectors.

[byronomo]

Thanks everyone for all of the replies.

I do indeed have the card access motion detectors with the light level sensor.

I spoke to my dealer (who I have no complaints with) and he has never done this kind of programming before and is looking into it. In the mean time I thought I'd post here to ask if it had been done before, to (hopefully) confirm that it is possible.

Again, thanks for the replies and the suggestions.

[ILoveC4]

Just set a conditional based on light level.

When xxx happens

IF light level is below x's

->turn on light yyy

[byronomo]

Just set a conditional based on light level.

When xxx happens

IF light level is below x's

->turn on light yyy

I finally got back to trying to make this work. I cannot find a way to observe the light level explicitly, even though the motion detector has this capability. That being said, you can set the light threshold by which the sensor goes into (and out of) "Night Mode".

What I am attempting to program now is that when my "Welcome Home" (Garage Button 1) button is pressed, if the Motion sensor is in "Night Mode", then execute the lighting scene called "Home". If the senor is not in Night Mode, then forget about the lighting scene and execute the other programming associated with that button.

So ultimately my question is, should the way that I programmed it here (screenshot attached) accomplish this? I'm not familiar with how "ContactState" works. I would test it, but it is dark right now, and I don't know if this will do what I want when it is daytime (don't turn on any lights).

Thanks for anyone who can provide some additional guidance.