Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mikeythemars]

The front door lights in my home are  controlled by a WS467 wall switch.  I have a macro I use at Halloween,where it runs a routine where when the macro is triggered, it turns off the front door lights via a 99% dim  command sent to the  WS467, which is followed by a outdoor lightning simulation using several 100 watt floodlights and a PA system connected to a sound to light controller that the macro tiggers via a universal module right after it dims the lights.The front door lights are then dimmed back up to full on after the lightning simulation ends (the whole routine takes about 15 seconds to run) . 

I've used this routine for years with no issues however, this year when I tested it I found that for some reason the dim down and back up commands being sent to the WS467 are not working as they used to.  When i execute the macro, it starts correctly (the front door lights do dim to off) but they do not come back on as they should at the end of the routine.
 
I've tried tweaking the "end of routine" dim settings in the macro, but no matter what I do, the issue with the lights not turning back on persists.  The only way I have found to get it to work is by manually replicating the "dim down then dim back up" commands, by using an XI0 remote control set to the house code the WS467 is on to turn the front door.lights off and then back on in sync with routine.  That obviously is both cumbersome and defeats the whole purpose of having a macro to automate that process.

Consequently, any troubleshooting suggestions to resolve this glitch would be appreciated.           

[mikeythemars]

OK, I was finally able to resolve the issue with the WS467 not turning lights back on at the end of a macro sequence.  The key there was reading comments in this forum on the WS467, which implied that switch unit has to already be "on" to properly process dimming or brighten commands.

That made me realize that since my macro starts by completely dimming  the lights it controls,the WS467 unit was subsequently being seen as "off" by X10, which is why the "brighten" command at the end of the routine was not being activated.

So I went into the macro and inserted an additional step before the final "brighten lights by 99%" one, specifically an "on" command to the WS467 and that fixed the problem!