Premise Comparing Premise to Homeseer?

[Aaron]

I'm currently a Homeseer user but not very happy about it.

For basic stuff it works fine, but it lacks greatly in several areas that I'd like to be using.

These are...

Scene Tracking & Management
- Example: A scene is chosen and lighting in specified rooms change. When that scene is turned off, the app restores the lighting to the way it was, unless another scene is chosen.

Events with multiple paths
- Time condition (15 minutes before sun down) and in the summer time (determined by month) one path is followed; in winter, a different path is followed.
- Based on a device status (on/off), different paths are chosen.


... and some other items that HS has been lacking ever since 1.x

Can anyone give input on these? Would also love to hear from HS2 converts.

thx

 

[Automation]

HomeSeer can do these checks by simply creating events that have the sunrise/sunset conditions. You simply select a Sunset trigger and supply the offset using the drop downlist. I'm a bit confused as to the month issue as sunrise and sunset are calculated on your local and automatically adjust. If you need to check the month, date, etc a simple script that checks this information will work.

Events based on a device status (on/off), different paths are chosen are as simple as it gets in HomeSeer. You select a conditional event and select from drop down list any device you have to use as the condition.

 

[drozwood90]

I'm a bit confused on this one
"- Example: A scene is chosen and lighting in specified rooms change. When that scene is turned off, the app restores the lighting to the way it was, unless another scene is chosen."

It sounds like you might have a goofy conditional (something that sounds right, but isn't).

If you want, we can try to troubleshoot it.

As you said, for basic stuff it works fine. As for complex stuff...I'm not sure why you think it doesn't work fine? I've got some pretty complicated things running. I find the more complex, what I'm doing is I setup a BUNCH of events, in a specific group. Each event has only a few conditionals. This then calls a script, which has added logic. Finally it calls a script I made called updateEvent. This takes care of automatically rescheduling any delayed events.

For example, in my powder room, there is a sensor on the Door, Motion by the sink and a pressure pad by the toilet.

For the door, if the door has been "Normal" (Closed) and the door is opened, if the light is off, it turns on. If the light is on, the fan and lighting (to turn off) are both reset. If the door is closed and someone is on the pressure pad, once a minute (how often HS runs it's conditional check) the time to turn OFF the lights is reset. The FIRST time the pad is triggered, the fan is set to turn on in 5 minutes.

If the fan is on and the door is opened, it's set to run for 20 minutes. Lights set for 1 minute, unless there is motion, then they are reset for 5 minutes.

I've done this from memory, so I'm sure I missed something, but the idea being that this is pretty complex and it works. I find this is the easiest for me, as I have coding experience.

As for events with multiple paths, I've done this as well. Why not create an event that you want run, set it for manual execution. Then create 1 event for each "condition". Set THOSE events to RUN the manual event. So, for example:
Create an event that turns a specific "light on" in the house.
Create an event that runs at sun set, to execute the "light on" event
Create an event that will run at a specific time to also execute that "light on" event.
Create an event that will run when it gets an X10 code A2 off, which also executes the "light on" event.

So now, if you get a trigger from the sunset, or a specific time, or a motion sensor, who's house code is set to A1 (which means it's light dark code is A2) will make that light go on.

-OR-

as I would have done it, the common event ("light on") would execute a script, which would have your logic in there (

if MONTH(NOW()) >= Summer_Month AND MONTH(NOW()) < Winter_Month then 
  run summer-code / event / whatever
else
  if (device is on) then
	run winter-code / event / whatever
  else
	run winter-code_2 / event_2 / whatever_2
  end if
end if

Any questions, let me know. HS is designed to be able to run small snippets of code to make having logic like this easier to put in. If you ask the community, I'm sure we can help. I'd suggest this before you stop using your HS license...you did pay for it.

Wow, I actually got in a Homeseer answer before Rupp did!

--Dan

 

[123]

Aaron,

Have you posted your questions in Homeseer's forum? Homeseer is a very capable program with a large user-community. I'm sure someone has accomplished what you have requested (as demonstrated by Dan's response).

FWIW
The scene behaviour you've described is called a "Set-Restore" scene in Premise. When a "Set-Restore" scene finishes playing, it will restore all objects to their initial state. A "Set" scene simply set the objects to a specified state and then leaves them that way. Scenes can be activated by Schedules and by programming logic (via Logic Diagrams or Scripting).

In Premise, a Schedule can run at Sunrise/set (plus an optional offset). Premise's Schedules cannot be set to run based on specific months or seasons unless you use the TaskEx module. In lieu of TaskEx, you'd have to use Timers with a script or a Logic Diagram.

The TaskEx Module adds nine new scheduling filters including Month and Season. When I wrote the Module, I based its filters on Homeseer's scheduling capabilities. HS has the functionality you need.

 

[drozwood90]

123,

Well said!

--Dan