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[summeratlast]

Hi,

This summer I decided it was time to automate the watering of lawn around my house.   X10 appeared to be the most popular route to follow. The water pipes,  sprinklers and even the electrical control valves are all in place (I used five of them since the water pressure from the municipality could not do everthing at once). The municipality restricts its citizen to water the lawn every second day of the calendar year. Houses with odd addresses can water the lawn on odd days of the calendar and even addresses on even days of the calendar.

Having no experience with home automation, I turn to you for help on deciding the kind of software and apparatus that may be required. First off, can ActiveHome Pro be programmed to take care of this even/odd day business? If not, can you suggest a software (Mac or PC) that can?

Thanks, I await your inputs.

[Walt2]

First off, can ActiveHome Pro be programmed to take care of this even/odd day business?

You could set up a timer event that toggled a flag every night.  One day the flag would be set, the next day the flag would be reset.

Then you could set up macro, that tested the value of the flag.  If set, water.  If reset, don't water.

Well, that is a rough outline.  If you need more details, post back.

[Tuicemen]

You could also get x10dispatcher it will allow the programing you need !
And it is cheeper then the AHP Smartmacro plug-in that you would need in order to use flags!

[steven r]

...You could set up a timer event that toggled a flag every night.  One day the flag would be set, the next day the flag would be reset....

e.g. Flag set could represent an odd day. It would important to always set the flag on the first of the month or things would get screwed up following any month with 31 days as well as March in a leap year.

[Walt2]

e.g. Flag set could represent an odd day. It would important to always set the flag on the first of the month or things would get screwed up following any month with 31 days as well as March in a leap year.

Why would one need to set the flag on the first of the month?

summeratlast mentioned that his municipality based watering on alternating days of the calendar year (either on the odd numbers in the set {1..365}, or the even numbers), not calendar month.   If one reset on the first of each month as you suggest, then one might be watering twice in a row on any month with 31 days (watering on the 31st and then again on the 1st).  I don't think the municipality would approve of that. 

[steven r]

Why would one need to set the flag on the first of the month?

I believe his Odd / Even watering works like this:
If your address is odd then you can water on days 1, 3, 5,... 31 and if even you can water on days 2, 4, 6,... 30. If so, then if a month ended on the 31st then the next day would be the 1st. (The odds are in favor of the odds.)

[summeratlast]

I am thankful to all of you for volunteering your time.

Your lasts posts are right (Walt2 and steven r). It's a fact that people that have an even numbered address loose one day at the end of a month having an odd number of days (May, July, August and October for the summer season). Because this ruling makes it very simple to remember when one can/can't water his lawn, nobody seems to complain (I myself am one of those with an even numbered address).

If I knew how to program it would be a fairly simple task I think to add that feature (even/odd days) to AHP. But I must stop dreaming, this option is definitely not for me. I am thus looking for a program that allows sequencing my five X10 water outlets on even days even though resetting will be required at the end of a month which has an odd number of days. In my municipality, one can water the lawn when the day is right, from 9 PM till 11:30 PM (in my case, 30 minutes for each outlet). Following Tuicemen's advice, I downloaded X10dispatcher. I noticed a Schedules tab which offers a run every  x days option. Choosing 2 for this option appears to offer the possibility to water every second day. But I'm not out of the woods yet because I have no clue how to use/configure this last program and how it is used in conjunction with AHP (if it is). I would much appreciate if someone could explain in simple terms (one step after another) how to use this or theses programs together (AHP and X10dispatcher).

Could you also comment on my purchasing decisions for the control of the five water outlets using a X10 network: I plan to purchase AHP with the CM15A interface, five SR227 (SuperSocket Receptacle) each of which will feed a small 24 VAC transformer required by the water outlet, a PalmPad Remote Control (HR12A) for occasional manual control and a 1:1 Passive Ratio Coupler (XPCP) which allows X10 signals to transit on both live wires of the electrical residential system.


Thank you again.

[spam4us]

I don't know if the calendars in the daily timers are accurate.  IF they are, you could set up a daily timer that the start and end date would be for one month at a time..   (ex.  Start 1/1      End 1/31) (start 2/1     end 2/29)  (start 3/1     end 3/31)  etc.   You will have 12 timers for the year.   Set them up so that they start on the day of the month that is for you (an odd or even day) and put a check in the box next to every other day.

When Jan. 31 gets here, the 1st timer would not work again until next year and the Feb. timer will then start to take care of the next month.  When Feb. ends, March starts, etc., etc.,

This is assuming (insert joke here ) that the timer date routines are accurate.

[summeratlast]

Thanks spam4us,

I have not purchased yet the software AHP. Is the box "every other day" that you refer to in your post part of AHP?

[Tuicemen]

Thanks spam4us,

I have not purchased yet the software AHP. Is the box "every other day" that you refer to in your post part of AHP?

Althought a good idea there is no every other day check box in AHP even in the advanced layout screen!
At least not in mine

[spam4us]

thanks Tuicemen.  My bad.   I didn't look at my advanced screen close enough.  However, you could set up a timer for each week.  You would wind up with 52 of them.  The start/stop dates would coincide with Sunday thru Saturday and only be for a week at a time.  For the Sunday dates having an odd day (presuming you water on the odd days) you would check Sun. Tue. Thu. Sat.  For the that begins with Sunday on an even day, you would check Mon. Wed. Fri.

Have you looked into the RAIN8.  Here's a link.  Scroll down & you'll see a screen that has exactly what your looking for.

http://mcssprinklers.com/wglmcsSprinklers.htm

I'm sure there are other options out there that interface with X10 as well.

[spam4us]

Here's a solution that should work.

     Setup a daily timer that turns L1 on every day at say 3 am. (you can pick the time).  Unit L1 is a phantom or dummy appliance module.    Turning L1 on will trigger the L1 ON macro.  This is pseudo code.

3 am  L1 On timer runs and triggers the L1 On Macro

L1 On Macro
Trigger L1 On
If Flag2 is on
    Set Flag2 off
    Set L1 Off
Else
If Flag2 is Off
   Set Flag2 On
   Set b3 On  (B3 being the water valve x10 address)  This turns the water on
   Delay a certain amount of time that you want the water to run
   Set B3 Off  (turns the water valve off)
   Set L1 Off

Now setup  timers that start and stop on the last day of the month but only for those months having 31 days..  Have these timers turn off Flag2.   You would have a timer for the following months.
Jan, (feb 29 if leap year), Mar. May, July, Aug, Oct , Dec  All having a start and end date = 31


This will water your lawn every other day on odd days.

[summeratlast]

You're a clever man Mr. spam4us.

It took me that long to figure out your solution and I am not even sure that I completely understand every detail. Please tell me where I am right:

1)  since I need to control five water valves, five dummy appliance modules (like L1) and five macros will be required

2)  the watering season being between the months of May and October, four timers will be required in order to turn off Flag2 on the 31st of each of the four months

3)  my home address being an even number, I can water the lawn on even days. So your L1 On Macro could be modified as follows:

L1 On Macro
Trigger L1 On
If Flag2 is Off
    Set Flag2 On
    Set L1 Off
Else
If Flag2 is On
   Set Flag2 Off
   Set b3 On  (B3 being the water valve x10 address)  This turns the water on
   Delay a certain amount of time that you want the water to run
   Set B3 Off  (turns the water valve off)
   Set L1 Off   

I'm ordering AHP and the CM15A interface tomorrow. I've read that sequences like the above macros can be downloaded into the interface and then the computer can be turned off. That's an important consideration for me.
Is that so? If it is, I don't understand how the interface manages to generate the On and Off commands if it only has memory. It seems to me that a processor is required that is synchonized on 60 Hz in order to perform such functions. And what happens if there is an electrical shut down that lasts a few hours? Obviously I still have a lot to learn about this X10 technology.

One last question: does a command from the PalmPad Remote Control (HR12A) take priority on a command issued from the automation program (i.e. if an outlet is turned Off by the program and then turned On with the HR12A, will that outlet stay Off or turn On.

Thanks you all once again.

[steven r]

....I'm ordering AHP and the CM15A interface tomorrow. I've read that sequences like the above macros can be downloaded into the interface and then the computer can be turned off. That's an important consideration for me....

Yes this is correct. The CM15A can store and process most macros including what you want to do.
I would recommend as a fail safe that you issue 1 or 2 redundant off commands with a delay between them to turn off the water. This way if an off signal should be missed you won't have a surprise water bill.

[summeratlast]

Please answer one last question spam4us,

Looking at the AHP package on the X10 site, I note that macros are built by dragging modules in the Macro pane. The resulting macro instructions are seen at the bottom of the pane. What I don't see is how one enters pseudo codes like the ones that are inside your macro solution (especially the if statement).

If there is a set of macro instructions specific to AHP, is their syntax supplied with the package and how are they entered into AHP?       javascript:void(0);

Thank you, again.