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Author Topic: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight  (Read 6468 times)

cindygardner

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Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« on: March 06, 2006, 02:30:32 AM »

I have two different lights programmed to go on at dusk and off at 11:00 PM, daily.  In addition, I have them turn on at 11:15 PM on Friday and Saturday nights and go off at 1:30AM the following morning.  The problem is, they do not go off at 1:30AM.  They just stay on all day.  This only occurs on the weekends and I am wondering if I am missing something when programming over the midnight hour.
After posting this, I found the answer in the forum.  Correct me if I am wrong but I need two timer settings for each day.  An on time without an off time and an off time without an on time.  Will see if this works next week....
« Last Edit: March 06, 2006, 02:41:55 AM by cindygardner »
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Dan Lawrence

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2006, 09:59:25 AM »

Strange. I have lights on four different housecodes that turn on at 10 minutes before sunset and turn off alfter midnight every day of the week.  Check your timers. Something's not right.
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Noam

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2006, 10:57:42 AM »

The way I understand it, you want the light to come on at 11:15 pm Friday, and go off at 1:30 am the next morning (Saturday), you need to program the on and off times as separate timers. If you put them on the same timer, then it will send the "off" command at 1:30 am on Friday, not on Saturday. Same thing goes for Saturday/Sunday.
Try creating a separate "on" timer and a separate "off" timer. that should correct the problem for you.
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Dan Lawrence

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2006, 01:03:11 PM »

You do not need sepaerate timers. Use the Advanced feature in the Timer Designer, you can spectify on and off times in the same timer for the modules involved.
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Noam

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2006, 02:12:00 PM »

I think my post may have been a bit confusing.
I didn't mean that you need to create separate modules for the same light, but rather that a new "line" in the timer program needs to be created to run it off correctly. Since you want it to come on at 11:15 pm on Friday, and turn off at 1:30am Saturday, you need a separate line for the on and off. Otherwise, if you set it for "on" at 11:15pm, and "off" at 1:30am, and you checked Friday and Saturday, it would send an "off" at 1:30 am FRIDAY, and not send one at 1:30 am SUNDAY. you can do this with TWO timer lines. One for "on" at 11:15 pm, with both Friday and Saturday checked, and another for "off" at 1:30 am, with both Saturday and Sunday checked.

I hope this is a little less confusing.
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rich

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2006, 12:27:08 AM »

I am sorry, but I would like to see if I can get yet another clarification.  I thought I had everything programmed right until I read this thread.  I'm going on vacation tomorrow and I'm afraid I don't have time to experiment.

Is the idea here that a lamp can not be told to turn off unless it has been told to turn on earlier that same day?
In other words, if Thursday's last action was to turn it on, Friday's first action can't be to turn it off?
So that one day's events cannot pick up where the previous day's events left off?

So the entries below don't mean that the light will go on at 8:PM on one night and off at 1:AM the next morning?
Fri    --- off 1:AM  ---  on 8:PM
Sat   --- off 1:AM  ---  on 8:PM
Sun  --- off 1:AM  ---  on 8:PM
... etc...

I will be very disappointed if that is true.  but if it is, do I correctly understand that the solution is to break the three lines above into six lines, one for each command?

Fri    --- off 1:AM (no on specification)
Fri    --- on 8:PM  (no off specification)
Sat   --- off 1:AM (no on specification)
Sat   --- on 8:PM (no off specification)
... etc ...

I am sorry if I am overstating something that may be obvious to everyone else, but perhaps my age is catching up with me.  Maybe somebody else will appreciate this extra clarity.

Thank you for your patience,
Rich
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steven r

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosses midnight
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2006, 12:45:20 PM »

The way I understand it, you want the light to come on at 11:15 pm Friday, and go off at 1:30 am the next morning (Saturday), you need to program the on and off times as separate timers. If you put them on the same timer, then it will send the "off" command at 1:30 am on Friday, not on Saturday. Same thing goes for Saturday/Sunday.
Try creating a separate "on" timer and a separate "off" timer. that should correct the problem for you.
I recall this discussion elsewhere on the forum. It got a bit involved but I made the same point there.

Noam's got it right.
If you were doing the same thing every day you would only need one timer line. More timer lines are needed to handle the weekend.

Noam: Could you post a screen example for rich? I think that would clarify it for him. (I'm embarrassed to say I haven't mastered the posting of a screen capture yet.)
« Last Edit: July 17, 2006, 01:10:19 PM by steven r »
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steven r

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosses midnight
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2006, 02:27:33 PM »

In addition to your dusk to 11:00pm timer, you'll need to add these two more timer lines. Sorry I don't know how to post a screen capture for you. Even if the why is not clear to you at the moment, add these lines and enjoy your vacation. Clarity on the why can come later.

Create an ON time for 11:15pm for Friday and Saturday. Then create an off time for 1:30am Weekends (Sat & Sun).

Your two timer lines should look like this:
  • Turn ON at 11:15 PM Fridays, Saturdays
  • Turn OFF at 1:30 AM Weekends

These timers will turn ON at 11:15pm Fri, OFF at 1:30am Sat, back ON at 11:15pm Sat and finally OFF again at 1:30am Sun.

The key to understanding the how it works is understanding that timers in each line can only be for the day(s) specified in the line.
eg. If you used this one line...
  • Turn ON at 11:15 PM Weekends Turn OFF at 1:30 AM Weekends

The timers would turn OFF at 1:30am Sat, turn ON at 11:15pm Sat, OFF at 1:30am Sun and back on at at 11:15pm Sun. This would leave the lights on Mon as there is no OFF time Mon morning. A similar problem, with a 1 day shift, would occur if "Friday, Saturday" were used instead of weekend.

Hope that helps.

Re-reading the post it looks I'm talking to two people. The above example applies to cindygardner's situation. Rich you'll need to adapt it to your situation unless Cindy is vacationing with you. ;)
« Last Edit: July 17, 2006, 02:54:53 PM by steven r »
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steven r

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosses midnight
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2006, 02:50:49 PM »

...Is the idea here that a lamp can not be told to turn off unless it has been told to turn on earlier that same day?...
No. Each timer action is independent of any previous timers action.
The key, as I exampled above, is that each timer in a line will only  apply to that timer line's days.
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JMac

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2006, 08:08:33 PM »

How about using a 24 hour set up?  No confusion there.....................
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steven r

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosses midnight
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2006, 08:40:27 PM »

How about using a 24 hour set up?..
I doesn't matter if you use am & pm or 24 hr time. An X10 day is between 12:00am (0000 hours) and 12:00pm (2400 hours). The timer rules remain the same. If it is easier to see, feel free to substitute 2315 for 11:15 pm and 0130 for my 1:30 am.  :)

A day technically ends at the stroke of midnight followed by the next day beginning an instant after midnight. Actually I've never been really sure what day X10 puts midnight at so I've always stayed away from that time setting. I'll have to set a timer for midnight on a specific day and find out sometime.
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steven r

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosses midnight
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2006, 12:09:33 AM »

...I've never been really sure what day X10 puts midnight at so I've always stayed away from that time setting. I'll have to set a timer for midnight on a specific day...
For what it's worth, I conducted my test and X10 treats Midnight (12:00 am) as the next day.
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JMac

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Re: Lights will not shut off if time crosess midnight
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2006, 08:25:35 AM »

That's right........0000 is the start of a 24 hour clock!
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