Elk M1 rule validation ( for light automation)

[dhiren]

Folks,

Just wanted to start my post by saying that this forum has been a source of immeasurable help and information while i setup my elk and up UPB lighting stuff - THANK YOU to all of you (esp @work2play for his informative UPB post)

However i couldn't find any information on the below was hoping to have a second set of eyes to help validate if he below rules condition will work or if there's a more efficient way of doing this -

SCENARIO : I wanted to setup a rule to have the elk run a lighting scene (called welcome) only if

• the system has been disarmed from an away mode (as opposed to disarmed from the stay instant mode)
• and if its dark outside

SOLUTION:

I setup a counter called arm status and created two initial rules

if system is armed to away mode
then set counter to 1

if system is armed to stay instant mode
then set counter to 0

RULES for lighting

if system is disarmed
and if its dark outside
and if counter is 1
then turn on [a5]welcome

I figured i'd use the counter to have elk email me only when the system was disarmed from away for a specific user; since earlier I kept getting emails for every disarm (away or stay)

if system is disarmed
and if last user was [xxxx]
and if counter is 1
then email [email protected]

thoughts ?

 

[tmbrown97]

Happy to help! ^_^

Personally I don't wait for the disarm action... instead, I trigger the lighting scenes based on the opening of a door while armed away. For instance, if armed away and front door becomes violated, execute Welcome Home scene.

That's overly simplified; I have different routines that run depending on which door I enter through, but the basic gist is that, when the alarm is armed away and zone XX is violated and It Is Dark Outside, then run lighting scene XXX.

Any reason that wouldn't work for you? For me it's turning on the lights that makes it easier to enter the house, send the kids in, and get to the keypad to disarm.

 

[wuench]

I got all of you beat. I trigger my welcome scene when the garage door is violated. The outdoor lights fade up as I pull into the driveway and the indoor ones are on when I get there. I am working on a way to detect my iphone and trigger that from CQC just by walking up....

As far as your rules above go, I think you would need to clear your counters (set to zero) when disarmed too or else you might be in for some side effects, unless those are the only two arm modes you use.

 

[video321]

Let me ask this....
Personally, from what I know, I would have used a high-numbered output to trigger what I wanted. What does a counter buy me?

 

[dhiren]

thank you both for the suggestions. I like the idea of simplifying it that way (i.e) based on if zone violated run welcome scene but, we got broken into last month (didnt have an alarm system then) and I didn't want to light up the whole house for the bad guys if it were to happen again . Hope that makes sense. However to make it easy for us, the foyer light does come on once entry timer is active

Currently, elk is set to blink the whole house if the alarm goes off or incorrect code is entered 3 times.

Wuench -thought about that but was being cheap and trying to save some rule space lol - i have 11 rules already :blush:

 

[dhiren]

video 321,

to be honest, i'm not sure how to use the outputs in ELK just yet.. I found it easier to use a counter as a boolean value to help keep track of the status
(i.e) - was the last armed status 'away' ? If yes (and if dark) run welcome scene; if not, then dont do anything because that would mean we were home

We run two modes at home - away and stay instant & didnt want to run the welcome scene if we were disarming from the stay mode

 

[video321]

dhiren-

Outputs can be used 3 different ways:
1. as voltage to drive something
2. as a relay (as in the case of output 3 on the M1G)
3. as a signaling mechanism for rules (which is exactly what the counter is doing as well)

I use outputs in different ways for rules; some are simple on/off (like a counter) and some are used with a timed function (turn output on for xx seconds).
For example...I have an output turn on incase of any burglar alarms. What this does for me is we use keyfobs to arm/disarm the house and open/close the garage door from our cars and if we didn't get notification of the alarm I wouldn't want my wife and kids to run into the house when the keyfob disarms the system unaware of a potential situation. So, on the initial press of the button the system stays armed but chirps the outside siren, flashes the strobe and turns an output on for 10 seconds. Once that output turns off it turns on another output for a couple minutes which allows the system to be disarmed and opens the garage door. This way there is no mistaking of an alarm condition.

...if that makes sense to any of the gurus, but you have a 'cleaner' way please let me know.

 

[dhiren]

Thanks video321 ! i like the idea of a pre emptive notification if you will. Going to see if i can implement something similar.