Date/Time on SWRemote

[roussell]

I would love some type of time, date, control box for the SWremotes. Something that allows a configurable display of hours/minutes could be very helpful when setting time-specific functions from an SWRemote and would allow e to eliminate quite a few scripts that kludge up similar functions.

Terry

[ScottBot]

Terry,

Can you give me a bit more detail on what this would look/work like?

[roussell]

Well, here are two examples that I'm battling now.

1. "Programmable Thermostat" I've already got a thermostat in HB with hard-coded times for setpoint changes. Problem is that the wife wants to be able to change the programed schedule from a touchscreen, you know: "Like I could do if we had just put in a $50 thermostat instead of using all this other stuff." So... I need to be able to give her some sort of control that will allow her to pick a on/off time (Say 4:30pm) and the selected time will populate an already existing time-formated property in my thermostat device. As to how it would look, I have no clue - I would say what ever is easiest on you that gets the time value into HB. You could go extreme and show an analog clock with hands that you can move, or go with a control that is a group of 2 or 3 combo boxes that combine their selections into a single time value, doesn't matter to me. I don't think seconds are needed anywhere, maybe for somebody else but I certainly don't need that kind of resolution. Just hours, minutes, and am/pm would work for my needs in this example.

2. Similar scenario, but substitute thermostat for sprinklers. We have several zones around the yard and in a greenhouse. It would be nice to be able to specify the Time on/off with a control similar to the above for the sprinklers. The duration isn't a problem as that can be handled just fine with existing controls. Although now that I think about it, A count-down timer-style-control might be nice for the kitchen. I've thought about a recipe theme for a kitchen swremote and it would be cool to have the option of displaying several timers on there for when different meals would be finished. An example might be; a 20 minute timer for baked chicken, or 4 hours 30 minutes for a turkey. It could be the same control I suppose, with an option at creation to display/send clock time or timer(?) time.

I'm sure there are other uses but those are my needs at the moment. I try to get by with multiple list controls, sliders, knobs and other things that manipulate scrips in the background. It works, sort of, but is by no means elegant or without errors.

Terry

[Steve Horn]

I like this idea the more I think about applications for it. Maybe break it into two controls: 1) time (hr:minute), and 2) date (calendar format?). I personally can see more use for the time control, for example: countdown timer, alarm, trigger a task at an appointed (but user specified rather than hard-coded) time, trigger a task after a specified delay.Cool idea Terry.

[kilowatt]

This would be handy if it would work for adjusting sleep timers - sleep time property. I use these to control how long the ice eaters run to protect my docks from ice buildup at my vacation home. It would be nice to be able to easily adjust this value from the software remote
Mark

[Richard Naninck]

This would be handy if it would work for adjusting sleep timers - sleep time property. I use these to control how long the ice eaters run to protect my docks from ice buildup at my vacation home. It would be nice to be able to easily adjust this value from the software remote
Mark

Easily done using a task, a null device property and a small script:

Task:
If ('Null Devices -> Meedio\News.Seconds' is Not Equal '0') Then
Change 'Null Devices -> Meedio\News.Action' to 'Set Timer'

Null Device Property:
Group = Meedio (could be any of course)
Null Device = News (could be any)
Property = Seconds (AlphaNumeric and can also be named anything else)

Script line:
Create a constantly running script and have it read the Action Property. If the Action Property reads 'Set Timer' do the following. Of course a Select Case etc should be n the script as well.
Case "Set Timer" : SetPropertyValue "News Timer.Sleep Time", "Seconds=" & GetPropertyValue("News.Seconds")


I can adjust many timers from my theme using this setup. I also have a complete calender script with gui posted here somewhere where events can be triggered on times set using a theme panel.
I don't see how this should be standardised without loosing flexibilty of scripting etc. All of the above can already be done. That's what makes HB so flexible.

[Steve Horn]

Richard, what does the actual user interface to a set-time type of control look like in your theme? I see from your examples how the timer's value/property could be set. But when Terry suggested the idea I was intrigued by the idea of something more than 3 drop-down list boxes to select hours, mins, seconds. Maybe there is a more suitable existing control that could be used; I haven't looked. Maybe two buttons (up/down or +/-) tied to a label control (via a task?). Clicking/pressing one of the buttons increments/decrements the value of the label control. Dunno - I'm just making this up as I go...

[Richard Naninck]

I change the timer using a simple slider controlling seconds. So 120 seconds would be two minutes. HB calculates values larger than 60 seconds back to minutes. So one slider in your theme controlling seconds would do the job. Obviously if you are not interested in seconds you could go for controlling minutes.

My gui looks something like the attached image Be advised that all controls behind this gui are scripted.

[roussell]

That is similar to what I do, and I must say...it a lot of freaking work for just one control. I need many of them, all over the place. I still haven't put in code to stop the hours from incrementing past 12 or the minutes past 60, I got tired of vbscript at that point. That's the main reason behind the feature request - it's not that it can't be done with gluing together controls/scripts/tasks. HB is versatile enough to do just about anything, it's more about improving efficiency...

Terry

[dlmorgan999]

Just to contribute to the idea pool, here is what my version of this looks like:

ClockRadio.png (24.47 KiB) Viewed 5690 times

And here is the corresponding script code (run when "Set Time" is pressed):

Code: Select all

sHour = GetPropertyValue("Bedroom Clock Radio.Alarm Hour")
sMinute = GetPropertyValue("Bedroom Clock Radio.Alarm Minute")

If Len(sHour) = 1 Then sHour = "0" & sHour
If Len(sMinute) = 1 Then sMinute = "0" & sMinute

strAlarm = "Hour=" & sHour & ", Minute=" & sMinute

SetPropertyValue "Bedroom Clock Radio.Alarm Time", strAlarm