Webcore - lamp turn on before dark?

Is there a more efficient way to get a lamp turned on before dark? I figured using Smartweather lux value made sense but either it doesn’t update quick enough or it just isn’t reliable? I didn’t have much luck with setting it to turn on 30+ minutes prior to sunset either. Basically I’m trying to avoid frustration from the wife who is always asking me why the lamp is never on when she expects it on.

Basically just using an Inovelli plug with the Smartweather device and the following piston:

Any thoughts?

I’m using the following to turn on lights an hour before sunset and it works well.

The code is w58d in case you want to import it and look at the whole pistion.

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Why not just use the built-in smart lighting app? It’s literally made to do exactly what you want. This is how I turn on my outdoor lights and also allow indoor lights to work only on motion after sunset and before sunrise. Plus smart lighting works locally so the response is pretty much instantaneous.

I should have mentioned I started off using the built in smart lighting app and for some reason I had problems with it as well and thats why I moved to Web Core. I have other working Pistons, it’s jut this one use case I just can’t get right.

Isn’t 30+ the same as 30 after sunset. Where -30 is 30 before sunset.

Correct. I have my outdoor lights set to turn on 15 minutes before Sunset so I have a -15 in that box and then 15 minutes after Sunrise so just 15. Works perfectly.

Are you trying to get the lights to turn on during the day if there is a sudden darkness due to massive clouds or a thunderstorm or something? What you want to get is something with illuminance measurement as well. The zooz motion sensor also has an illuminance measurement as well. This will be able to detect the brightness level in your room and you’ll be able to respond to that in WebCore. But be wary, the sensor can’t tell the difference between artificial light and sunlight. So, if you have it turn off lights once it gets bright enough, you’ll end up with your lights just flashing on and off till the end of time. So, triggering to turn lights on when it’s dark might work or triggering to turn them off when it’s bright enough…but not both, like you have in your piston.

I use the illuminance sensor on an Aeotec Multisensor 6. The sensor is hidden behind a curtain (looking out of the window), so isn’t affected by artificial lighting inside the house.

The lights come on if lux level is below a certain value and if it’s after a preset time (1:30pm), and turn off at a preset time or if lux level increases above a preset value; so if there’s a thunderstorm in the afternoon and it gets very dark, the lights will come on, but when the sun comes out again they will turn off.

This is all running in SmartLighting