SteveInNorCal
Active Member
Hello everybody. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.
This is a general best-practices question on lighting automation using UPB switches and receptacles.
I want the Elk M1 to make our house look lived-in while we are out for the evening or on vacation (armed "away"). It seems there are several ways to do this with the Elk M1 rules without adding on an external controller. Can anybody advise best practice?
1. Set up multiple scenes and use Elk M1 Rules to turn scenes on and off at specific times.
2. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn on individual lights and a corresponding rule to turn off the same light later in the evening.
3. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn one or more lights and to turn off other lights that were turned on earlier in the evening by another rule.
4. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn on individual lights for a specific duration of time. Example: turn on hall lights for 20 minutes. This way I don't need any corresponding rule to turn the lights off -- they simply time out.
Is any way better than another? #3 and #4 seem to have the advantage of minimizing the number of rules I need to create.
All of these require some careful planning and lighting coordination to make the house look lived-in.
Editorial Comment: I'm really bugged that Elk didn't provide a way to randomize lighting on and off times the way the PCS Timed Event Controller does (as well as almost every other controller including my 30 year old X10 controllers). All these years and Elk has never added this feature -- that is ridiculous! Oh well, with enough lights going on and off, I doubt any burglars will notice the fact that the same lights go on at precisely the same time every night.
Steve
This is a general best-practices question on lighting automation using UPB switches and receptacles.
I want the Elk M1 to make our house look lived-in while we are out for the evening or on vacation (armed "away"). It seems there are several ways to do this with the Elk M1 rules without adding on an external controller. Can anybody advise best practice?
1. Set up multiple scenes and use Elk M1 Rules to turn scenes on and off at specific times.
2. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn on individual lights and a corresponding rule to turn off the same light later in the evening.
3. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn one or more lights and to turn off other lights that were turned on earlier in the evening by another rule.
4. Use one Elk M1 rule to turn on individual lights for a specific duration of time. Example: turn on hall lights for 20 minutes. This way I don't need any corresponding rule to turn the lights off -- they simply time out.
Is any way better than another? #3 and #4 seem to have the advantage of minimizing the number of rules I need to create.
All of these require some careful planning and lighting coordination to make the house look lived-in.
Editorial Comment: I'm really bugged that Elk didn't provide a way to randomize lighting on and off times the way the PCS Timed Event Controller does (as well as almost every other controller including my 30 year old X10 controllers). All these years and Elk has never added this feature -- that is ridiculous! Oh well, with enough lights going on and off, I doubt any burglars will notice the fact that the same lights go on at precisely the same time every night.
Steve