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[lflorack]

I have a number of AHP timers set to turn on both inside and outside lights at various times -- based on a combination of dusk and fixed times for weekends and weeknights.  They work fine but now I find that I'll be on vacation a few days before and about 2 weeks after Halloween this year.  Around here. the signal that you're "open for business" (trick-or-treaters) is to turn on your outside lights.  If you don't appear to be home, then they don't come to your door.  I'm torn between turning everything off versus leaving everything on........

In any case, if I decide I want everything off for just the one night, how would I best handle having my 'normally on' lights stay off -- just this one night -- and then revert to the normal programming?

TIA

[Dan Lawrence]

Easy.  Create a copy of the .ahx file you want to modify. Open that and remove any timers you don't want.  Save it with a new file name.  When you are ready to leave on vacation, clear the CM15A,  open that new file and upload it to the CM15A.  Only the lights you want will go on.

You can modify any module's timers to do whatever you want.

[MichaelHlubb]

Timers also have a start date and and end date. I mostly have mine set to start on 1/1 January first, and run through December 31. in the  case of skipping October 31 would setting the  start date of 1 November and a end date of 30 October work?

I just tried this and yes, it does appear to take, and allow the timer to skip that one day. On the other hand, you could also have the first timer run from 1/1 to 10/30 and a second timer run 11/1 to 12/31 . Either way, this should allow you to run the timers normally, and just have the one skipping the date needed.

[dave w]

Dan and Michael have suggested excellent ways to deal with the Halloween lighting. I do not use AHP anymore having moved up to Homeseer, however if you have "SmartMacros" you can use a conditional to enable/disable all or select timers.

You need to create a "permissive" switch. Select an unused House Code/Unit Code (for AHP, if I remember, it will have to be a "monitored" house code if you store in the interface) and within each timer macro add a conditional that this HCUC must be ON for the macro to run. Now you can simply turn ON or OFF that "permissive" to enable or disable your timing macros. The permissive(s) can be controlled by another timer, or manually from any X10 controller.

I have permissives for all my regular timed events and some triggered events: inside accent lighting, outside accent lighting, coffee in the morning, announcements, etc. It just allows easy control of automatic events.

[JMac]

And to add my two cents - the "permissive" could be a flag (set or not set), I believe.

[dave w]

And to add my two cents - the "permissive" could be a flag (set or not set), I believe.

Jmac makes a great point.

The idea of using an unused HCUC allows you to change your system response from a X10 controller, even remotely through the telephone or internet. You could also use a HCUC to set and reset the flag.

[lflorack]

Thanks for the feedback from everyone.   A couple of points:

A key factor in this is that I want the lights to run just like the currently do -- both all nights before and all nights after Halloween.  Just not on Halloween itself.  Since I won't be home to manually intervene for a few nights before and many nights after Halloween, the solution has to be pre-programmed and preloaded to handle:

• all the nights before Halloween -- to continue the 'lived in' look I currently have
• Halloween night itself - to appear no one is home
• and then put everything back as it was for all nights after Halloween to continue with the 'lived in' look

With that in mind, the simplest solution -- logically speaking -- is to create a second copy of all 'needed' timers. Then change the end date for the current timers to the night before Halloween.  With the second timer copies, I'd create a start date of the day after Halloween and an end date of Dec 31st.  If needed for any of the lights, I'd create a 3rd copy of any "special needs" timers (probably just a few as I'd want most of the lights to stay off) for just the night of Halloween.  So, LOGICALLY, that's the simplest solution.  However, it perhaps isn't the simplest to execute -- which is why I asked.

The 'permissive' macro flag idea might be easier than my 'logical' approach.  I'll have to look at that.

Looking back at the solutions offerred

[Brandt]

I don't use AHP, but I do use a CM11a so I am familiar with timers.

You could use one timer file to upload and have multiple start and end dates.

Since I use heyu, the syntax of my schedule file will probably look different but you'll get the gist:

file x10.sched:

timer  smtwtfs  01/01-10/30  dusk dawn    lived_in_look_on     lived_in_look_off
timer  smtwtfs  10/31-10/31  dusk dawn    halloween_look_on     halloween_look_off
timer  smtwtfs  11/01-12/31  dusk dawn    lived_in_look_on     lived_in_look_off

[Dan Lawrence]

Timers also have a start date and and end date. I mostly have mine set to start on 1/1 January first, and run through December 31. in the  case of skipping October 31 would setting the  start date of 1 November and a end date of 30 October work?

I just tried this and yes, it does appear to take, and allow the timer to skip that one day. On the other hand, you could also have the first timer run from 1/1 to 10/30 and a second timer run 11/1 to 12/31 . Either way, this should allow you to run the timers normally, and just have the one skipping the date needed.

Timers DO NOT have a start date or an end date.  NONE of my timers have that.  They have start and stop times and day settings. Some timers are weekdays only, many are 7 days a week.

[Knightrider]

uhhhhhhh

[MichaelHlubb]

uhhhhhhh

Thank you Knightrider!

I will note that if one is using Timer Disigner in SIMPLE mode, those boxes do not show. Use the advanced mode and there they are.

[Dan Lawrence]

uhhhhhhh

Thank you Knightrider!

I will note that if one is using Timer Disigner in SIMPLE mode, those boxes do not show. Use the advanced mode and there they are.

They are there in Advanced Mode, but if you don't make any changes from the default mode the dates do not show up.  NONE of my timers have start/stop dates.

[Knightrider]

Sometimes you need some chocolate syrup on that plain vanilla ice cream. 

[MichaelHlubb]

uhhhhhhh

Thank you Knightrider!

I will note that if one is using Timer Designer in SIMPLE mode, those boxes do not show. Use the advanced mode and there they are.

They are there in Advanced Mode, but if you don't make any changes from the default mode the dates do not show up.  NONE of my timers have start/stop dates.

on the other hand, one can look at their .ahx files, the timers there all look like this:

This info shows the same fields, regardless of the simple or advanced settings.

<timer address="16" id="3000002" modid="2000017" MacroId="-1" UseOn="1" UseOffTime="0" OnTimeHour="19" OnTimeMin="21" OffTimeHour="5" OffTimeMin="54" StartDateMonth="1" StartDateDay="1" EndDateMonth="12" EndDateDay="31" DayUsage0="1" DayUsage1="1" DayUsage2="1" DayUsage3="1" DayUsage4="1" DayUsage5="1" DayUsage6="1" UseDawnDelay="0" DawnDelayCmdIsOn="0" DawnDelay="0" DawnDelayIsAfter="0" UseDuskDelay="1" DuskDelayCmdIsOn="1" DuskDelay="0" DuskDelayIsAfter="0" UseSecurity="0" hardware="1" Repeat="1" DimLevel="100" DimEnabled="1" Enabled="1" DayUsage="1" LastModified="129284463505755000"  />

Red color added by me to show the start & stop date fields. 

None of this really adds any help to the original question.    which I was glad to hear had been resolved before all this foolishness. 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Since I won't be home to manually intervene for a few nights before and many nights after Halloween,

If you will have network access where you are going, you could manually employ a mobile solution like X10 Commander or Web X10der and not have to reprogram anything.