It happens more than once per evening, but I haven’t been around this weekend too much to test. I’ll update soon!
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Suggestion: it’d be nice to have an option to allow a button (likely virtual) to override the settings for a predefined amount of time and just have the lights stay on full brightness.
Let’s say I have someone coming over, or I ordered a pizza - I would want the lights to be on full brightness for a while so they can easily find the house. i know I can change the settings itself but I’d love something easy for my wife to push to just handle it for her.
Just a thought. Thanks! This is working perfectly for me.
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I think this is a great idea (and similar to another suggestion I have received). I think it would be nice to have this behavior linked to the physical dimmer (assuming there is one) - I think this would help with the WAF. For example, maybe there is an option in the set-up to assign a physical ON press to: set to x% for y minutes, then return to the program control. Maybe physical OFF press is assigned to : turn light off for z minutes then return to the program.
I’m not planning to try to do this anytime soon as I don’t have the time right now. However, my code is out there and I’m not asserting any rights to it so, if anyone wants to have a go at it, feel free!
. . . just checking in here. Life has re-arranged my priorities such that I haven’t been as active here as I was. This app is still in review for publication. I did receive notice from ST that they did some initial tests to verify that it works. I was also asked recently to verify that I still am interested in publishing my app and I indicated that I am.
This app has been solid at my house. Is anyone experiencing any issues?
Realistically, I don’t think I’m going to be able to respond to feature requests in the near future. If you do have feature ideas, please go ahead and post therm here in case someone else is ready and willing to pick it up and run with it. Anyone is welcome to start with my code and expand/improve it. The latest code is still posted behind the GitHub link in the first post of this thread.
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This is still one of my favorite SmartApps. It’s been very solid for me as well. Thank you for your time that you put into making this. Hopefully things will settle down for you soon and you can show us what else is up your sleeve!
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Hi Chris, not sure if you got the full brightness suggestion implemented but I use the little app created by @bravenel from this post and it does exactly what you described.
I agree with @DITPL . I have this Dusk to Dawn light control app for all my outside lights and it’s solid.
Thanks Ray for the link - I will take a look.
I have to say that out of everything I do ST related that this dusk to dawn module is one of the easiest, most reliable components. I’ve been running it for over a month now without any issues whatsoever. Thanks for the effort in creating this!
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ST staff has asked me to do some minor clean-up in the app and is looking into the problem I am solving with the gotDark() method - they would like this done another way. They’ve also asked me to come up with a shorter, snappier name for it. I’m thinking about going with “PorchLight Pro”. Other suggestions?
Porchlight pro sounds about right. Too bad you have to change the name. It would be pretty hard not to know what that app does with the name like “Dust To Dawn light control with lux control and motion Dimming”!
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They didn’t say I had to change it. . . just a suggestion. But I do agree that shorter, snappier name is better. I’m realizing that it would be really handy to have a ‘marketplace’ of some sort that could include a few paragraphs about the app, how to use it, reviews, etc. The problem with the way it is now is that the only place to explain the app at all is in the title and the various prompts for user settings.
We’re definitely in agreement here that a marketplace would be worthwhile!
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This app has been super buggy for me lately. I haven’t changed anything on my end, so I suspect ST as the cause. If I open the SmartApp and click “Done” it “wakes up” the app and all is good for a day or so. Must be something on the back end.
Seems like it was acting up a few days ago for me. . . . too busy to troubleshoot and I didn’t touch it. I happened to be on the porch at sunset today and the lights came on as expected. Just checked now and the app responded to motion. Maybe just some weirdness on the back-end. If you happen to catch it misbehaving and can capture a log, please share. Thanks for the update!
Can I use this on light switches that are just on/off with no dimming?
I would also like this functionality. I have just a plain old smart switch (aeon labs micro switch) that I would like to use with sunrise/sunset scheduling. This app is the closest I’ve found while searching but maybe there is a more applicable app out there?
I just want to turn my outdoor lights on 1 hour before sunset and leave them on for 2 hours. Then turn them off.
Then I want to turn my outdoor lights on 1 hour before sunrise, and leave them on for 1 hour. Then turn them off.
Seems like the app for that would exist. This is more powerful and I’d even think about getting an outdoor motion detector to take care of these features, but don’t have dimmable lights on the exterior of my house (CFL).
@onetrav - sorry for the very slow response. I just haven’t been plugged in as much as I was. Depending on exactly what you want to do, you might be able to do it with just the built in stuff. Someone else will need to speak to this since I really haven’t spent any time working with the built-in functions. I’m pretty sure if you want motion to trigger a light but only if it is after dusk and before sunrise, you should be able to do it without a custom app. Revising my app to work with non-dimming switches should be fairly easy as well
@drshaw - not sure if you can do what you want with the built in apps. A custom app would be pretty straightforward. You would just need to determine what time sunset - 1 hour is each day, trigger the lights, set a turn off event in 2 hours, etc. There is probable code in my app you could use as a starting point but quite a bit of it wouldn’t be needed.
To both of you . … you might try starting a new thread with your use case and see who comes to your aid.
Just wanted to update that this app is very reliable for me again. The bugginess was on ST’s end and had nothing to do with this app.
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I’ve just published the app to my device, to have a play with it, I dont have anything that can detect Lux so i was hoping to use ZIP code. However in the UK they are called Postcodes and they are more than 5 Digits. do you know if the the field will work if i put a UK postcode in?
thanks
actually i missed the bit that if you dont put a zip in it defaults to location so, hopefully it will work
You can also use the weather tile as your lux as well.
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