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[bebop]

I'd like to see dusk/dawn offset times
increased to 120 minutes.

[jon]

I've used Dawn +3:00 with the old Active
Home and I'd like to go to 180 minutes or
more.

[ken]

I too would make use of this feature.  I
create an additional OFF command for porch
lights, for example, that triggers hours
after they are normally turned off, "just in
case" they are turned on again very late.

I don't know why the arbitrary limit is 60
minutes.  A byte is a byte and I can count to
255 in one byte just as easily as 60.

[bebop]

As we approach shorter days in winter the
lower angle of the sun produces much less
ambient light in the later afternoon hours
thus resulting in the need to turn on lights
on weekend days much earlier than 60 minutes
before dusk! I need at least 2 hours or more
offset to trigger lights -- especially on a
cloudy afternoon. That brings up another
wish item for me -- it'd be very nice to
have a light sensing module that could
trigger a macro depending on specific light
conditions. But I suppose since we still
haven't seen conditionals asking for
additional hardware development is way out
of line! Oh, well, doesn't hurt to ask I
guess.

[bebop]

Haven't heard anything about this one -- why
is it so difficult to extend the offset
times from 60 to 120 or 180 minutes??

[X10 Pro]

The Dusk/Dawn offset is limited by what the
hardware allows, which is 60 minutes. It's
not possible for us to change the offset in
the hardware.

[Noam]

I have a workaround you could try:
Let's say you want to have an offset of 120
minutes (2 hours).
Create a macro (for example, H2) to delay
for 60 minutes, then turn on the light (for
example, H3). set the macro to run with a 60
minute offset after dusk (or whatever offset
you choose). That should work. At 60 minutes
after dusk, it will kick off the macro. 60
minutes later, the light will go on.

[donald mcmow]

A better work around would be to use an
outdoor motion sensor to trigger a macro
based upon the light levels rather than
relying on the dawn/dusk times since these
are calculated out and do not reflect local
environmental conditions. Take a look at
the motion sensors on the website - some
trigger both with motion and with light
levels.

[jon]

I doubt this is really a hardware
limitation?  That makes no sense.  Who
would do such a table driven calculation in
real hardware?  Since the old Active Home
could do longer offsets it seems more
likely to be a firmware or software issue,
despite the response from the X10 people.

[bebop]

Well if it really is a hardware limitation
then that is an unfortunate circumstance
since putting a limitation of 60 minutes on
an offset is a bit of an oversight IMO. On
the other hand as others have pointed out it
can be overcome by buying yet another piece
of hardware -- but that requires batteries
and puts another layer of potential
unrealiability into the picture.

[rick j]

In regards to Noam and Donald McMow
responses. Both of these are viable
solutions. If you have a motion sensor you
can use the Dawn/Dusk feature to trigger a
Macro that you put a delay of how ever long
you want before it sends a light on request.
If you don't, just add a lamp switch and set
it to an address (that address is just used
to trigger the Macro). Set the timer for
that switch to dusk and when that command is
sent to that address(remember that switch
and timer is only to trigger the Macro) it
will trigger the Macro and use the delay
timer for the Macro and turn on the real
light. I use both solutions.