Hi everyone,
I am working on a presence sensor that is based on a D1mini board with a PIR flashed with Tasmota. I have that part working fine and its sending MQTT messages ON,OFF etc… I can see this on MQTTfx.
Now what I am trying to do is have only an off timer. I am not trying to sense movement and switch a light ON. ie when the kids go down the hallway and leave the light on, after a pre determined time it turns the light OFF.
My lighting setup is a bit complex, detailed in this thread -:
and I am trying to add the timer in this thread-:
So far I have tried my best to adapt this motion sensor example to my needs, but I am getting very lost. I am looking to trigger the timer when the D1mini sends an ON command and then when the timer is up, send a command to the 2 way light rule to turn the light off. Is there something special I have to do to trigger another rule from the timer rule?
Heres my items
//D1 Mini boards used with PIR's for presence detection
Switch D1mini_pir1 <pir> (gPresent) { mqtt=">[broker:cmnd/d1mini_pir1/POWER1:command:*:default],<[broker:d1mini_pir1:state:default]", autoupdate="false" }
Rules
var Timer occupancyTimer = null
val int timeoutMinutes = 1 // choose an appropriate value
rule "D1mini_pir1 received ON"
when
Item D1mini_pir1 received update ON
then
if(occupancyTimer === null) {
occupancyTimer = createTimer(now.plusMinutes(timeoutMinutes ), [|
Sonoff4ch_2Channel5.sendCommand(OFF)
occupancyTimer = null
])
}
else {
occupancyTimer.reschedule(now.plusMinutes(timeoutMinutes ))
}
end
I am struggling to understand the flow of events from when the broker gets the ON from the PIR on MQTT.
Hope someone can point me in the right direction away from confusion.
So, is what I have done so far correct? When the D1mini sends an ON via MQTT, the rule above creates a timer and when expired it sends an OFF command to the Sonoff4ch_2Channel5. This in itself has a rule setup depending on the state of the physical light.
Now are we saying that instead of sending the command to Sonoff4ch_2Channel5, I need to send it to a sort of virtual switch in the D1mini items file? How do I then trigger the 2 way lighting rule from there to switch the light off?
Sorry for all the questions, I am pretty new at all this and trying to make head or tail of how it all works together.
I’m not sure what you’re thinking there. The timing rule in this thread will send an OFF command after a time to Sonoff_channel Item, the rule in your other thread will see that command and act on it.
The part that isn’t visible to us is how the light gets switched ON in the first place, but maybe that’s a manual action.
Correct, if the kids turn the light on or anyone leaves a light on and the presence sensor detects nobody in the hall then the system turns the light off.
I am not after an auto on and off light.
Cheers
It’s worth understanding that your timer is going to kicking even if the light is OFF to start with.
That may be fine, but it does allow a situation where the light is manually turned ON and an already running timer turns the light OFF again in less than the usual time.
Whether that’s a problem is probably about how likely a “light user” is to trip your motion sensor.
One way to deal with that in this case would be to start/schedule the timer whenever the light goes ON.
That would also take care of somehow turning light ON and never tripping motion sensor at all, which would never start the existing timer.
You could add a “light changed to on” trigger to the rule here.
Yes I see what you mean, I dont think thats a problem.
But doesnt the timer get re-scheduled if the PIR sends another ON command? Is that not how the else part of the rule works?
Anyone entering the hallway is going to be sensed, the sensor is mounted in an spare LED down light fitting.
Yes, thats what I thought about to start with but ruled it out as if say someone is cleaning in the hallway, I would want the light to stay on and not turn off on the timer. Hence the reschedule timer bit…
So if I change that update to command part, will the “Sonoff4ch_2Channel5.sendCommand(OFF)” part of the rule work in conjunction with the other rule I have for 2 way lighting? ie when this command is sent to “Sonoff4ch_2Channel5” will it abide by the other rule that I have set for that light??
Yes, absolutely. All I was trying to point out, it does all rely on consistent triggering of your PIR. I you’re confident that no-one could avoid it, that’s fine.
There’s two parts to rules - when, the trigger conditions, listening to events; and the then part, the “doing” code, making things happen.
If one of the things you make happen is to send a command to an Item, any and all rules listening for a command to that item will get triggered next.
This is the “bus” you may have seen mentioned, every command (whatever its source) gets put on the bus for every rule to see.
I’m not sure you need to change the trigger at all. You mentioned command trigger while coding for update, is all. Which you really want depends on how your PIR signal gets into openHAB, how you’ve configured your Item/MQTT?
Sensor device don’t usually generate commends, a binding normally updates the Item, causing its state to change (or maybe stay the same). Such updates go on that bus, of course
OK, I thought I was getting somewhere when I found I had an _ instead of an / but still I cant figure it out.
So heres my items file-:
//D1 Mini boards used with PIR's for presence detection
Switch D1mini_pir1 <pir> (gPresent) { mqtt="<[broker:d1mini/pir1:state:default]" ,autoupdate="false"}
and heres my detector rules-:
var Timer occupancyTimer = null
val int timeoutMinutes = 1 // choose an appropriate value
rule "D1mini_pir1 received ON"
when
Item D1mini_pir1 received update ON
then
if(occupancyTimer === null) {
occupancyTimer = createTimer(now.plusMinutes(timeoutMinutes ), [|
Sonoff4ch_2Channel5.sendCommand(OFF)
occupancyTimer = null
])
}
else {
occupancyTimer.reschedule(now.plusMinutes(timeoutMinutes ))
}
end
and here is what I am sending from the D1mini when the PIR is triggered-:
You can see from the bottom up. arduino/channel5 is the light being manually turned on. Then the PIR triggers ON (RESULT and POWER), then the PIR switches OFF (RESULT and POWER again).
I feel like I have the When part of the rule wrong but I cant see it! Its like the rule is not getting the received update.
Thanks Vincent, that makes sense as I am seeing the result being sent on the MQTT message but I now get this error in the log-:
2018-12-08 09:35:43.125 [WARN ] [b.core.events.EventPublisherDelegate] - given new state is NULL, couldn't post update for 'D1mini_pir1'
Does the When part of the rule need to be changed to RESULT instead of update ?? I am struggling to see the flow of how it all works at the moment but I dare say once it works it will be obvious!
I just tried that before I saw your post! I see where I made the mistake now, in my first items file I used POWER1 instead of POWER… Doh…
Thanks for your help on this @vzorglub and @rossko57 Your legends, no more kids leaving the lights on…cheaper power bills here we come.
Once I get the D1mini in its full time new home of an old LED downlight case with a specific adapter board for the PIR I will post a full run down on how it was all made and got going.