Fade on and off

[jreberry]

Quick question:



I have Housebot set up running all the lights in my house using MS13(14)A's, WS467's, WS4777's, WS13A's, XPSS's, PAT01's, and a CM11a. I'm very happy with the setup, but there's one thing I can't seem to figure out. Currently when I walk into a room the lights turn on and then when I leave (sleep time runs out) they turn off. That’s all good. However, is there a way to make the lights dim up over a period of a few seconds when I walk into the room, and dim off over a few seconds when I walk out? I think this would be a nice effect, and less jeering than having them suddenly turn on and off. I’m guessing there is a simple solution to this I’m overlooking



thanks for the help, I'm REALLY enjoying X10,

--Jon

[ScottBot]

Sure. Instead of simply changing the Power On property of the light, you can run a Script device that executes a VB script that will loop several times and delay between dim or bright levels.

[jreberry]

I'm new to this, and I got a reply from the creator himself. Crazy. Thanks Scott. I'm off to google about VB Scripts.



On a side note. It seems like there is about a 3 second delay for things to happen. Is that type of a delay native to X10, is it my X10 hardware, or is it something I can change in the Housebot software? 3 seconds(ish) seems like a long delay to me. I can be up the stairs before the stairs light turns on.



--Jon

[kbosscawen]

I'm not an expert in the area, but I've found the performance of X10 to be very dependent on the electrical design of the house and the "wire" distance between the transmitter and receiver. This effect is multiplied (doubled) when you're dealing with motion sensors - The sensor has to send an X10 signal to a controller (presumably HB here), then the controller has to send an X10 signal to the lights.



Have you tried putting an X10 controller in place of HB to see if you experience a similar delay after you press a button on the controller? This will narrow down whether your delay is being caused by HB (if the response you get from the X10 controller is lickety split) or native X10 delay (if the response you get from the X10 controller is about the same).

[jreberry]

Thanks kbosscawen for the reply. I don't have a X-10 controller to test bypassing Housebot with, but I can say that the delay is not with the motion detectors. If I click the lights on or off within Housebot (removing the motion sensors from the equation) it still takes a long time to turn on. Normally around 3 seconds, but sometimes as long as 10 seconds. If I just push the actual switch that is on the wall they turn on or off instantly.



I'm curious what kind of delays other X-10 users are experiencing? or none at all?



thanks,

--Jon

[ScottBot]

I'm new to this, and I got a reply from the creator himself. Crazy. Thanks Scott.

You're no less special because you're new.

...there is about a 3 second delay for things to happen. Is that type of a delay native to X10

The actual delay for X10 is about 1/2 second. However, the CM11a does take a bit longer than that to actually send the detection info to HouseBot. If you then have to send out another X10 in response to the reception, it just starts to add up.



If your CM11a is on a different electrical phase from your light, it may be having trouble crossing the phase. You may need an X10 phase coupler to fix that.



Other problems could be line noise or weak signals, although these would be more likely to cause the light to not turn on at all.

[jreberry]

Thanks again Scott.



I've gotten around the delay problem by "buffering" around the current room where you are in the house. Instead of having the Living room motion sensor just turn on the Living room lights, now it turns on the Living Room lights, Dining room lights, and Stairway lights. Then if you walk into the Dining room the Dining room motion sensor turns on the Dining room lights, Living room lights, Bath 1 lights, and Kitchen lights. You don't notice the delay this way because the lights turn on based on adjacent rooms instead of only the current rooms. My better half is much more happy with this new setup.



On a side note, the only problem with this setup was discovered last night because the bedroom light kept turning on and off while we were sleeping. Turns out the cat kept walking down the hallway outside the bedroom (door was closed) and because of the way it is setup the Hallway motion sensor was turning on not only the Hallway light, but the Master Bedroom lights as well. Stupid cat. This morning I put together some “Else If” statements for sleeping hours in the Bedrooms. Hopefully this will solve the problem.



--Jon

[ScottBot]

...This morning I put together some “Else If” statements for sleeping hours in the Bedrooms. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

As your configuration increases in complexity, you might find that another solution is to use 'Modes'. You could set an 'Awake' Mode that is deactivated at night. If you include the daytime Tasks in that Mode, they won't execute when it is disabled.