Sun position or light sensor for blinds?
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I have finally integrated my new motorized (blackout) blinds in the home office, since I'm planning to mainly work from home at least since the end of the year.
I'm quite satisfied, since I made them completely automatic, but I noticed that I have two problems:
- rainy days: I have a rain sensor for the exterior sunscreens, so I can think about moving the interior ones as well
- moving season: while moving them to a middle position for the night is good now at 30 minutes before sunset, I'm not sure it will be OK in autumn or winter.
So, I was thinking about adding some logic linked to sun position, or a light sensor device.
Any hints, before re-inventing the wheel? Thanks. -
Yes, it's all been done. You need @futzle's Heliotrope plugin. It runs under openLuup, IIRC, but may need a couple of lines commenting out because it was very chatty in the logs.
With a small amount of work, these variables (sun right ascension & declination, azimuth & elevation) could be exposed in openLuup natively, since the timer module also calculates these from scratch using the 'equation of time'.
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I find my Fibaro multi-sensors are good.
The problem I have with anything Lux based as a trigger is that lux varies hugely. In my office at 0800 it was 460 Lux. Totally fine. Yesterday it peaked at >1200. Highest over the month was 2400. It can be as low as 120 and I can still see.
Same with our lounge, though less extreme. During the day (overcast) 100 lux is OK. When we put the lights on it goes up to 120. But finding a sensible trigger to automate it may be challenging.
C
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I have an open space home office, so a large window (3x5 mt) + a small window (2,5x1,5) [architects, crazy people, but I love it]. I tried to survive with no interior blinds for 3 years, and then I gave up, because if it's windy and I can't use the sun screen, there's too much light to work all day. When I was working part time here it was almost survivable, but in the latest 3 months I had to order and mount blinds to survive.
Anyway, I'll try with a multi sensor, maybe placed outdoor to get the true outside lux value (I have a small porch, so it will be protected from rain).
I found that 13:00 works for them to go down, but x minutes before sunset is too variable and the weather must be accounted to get a good result.
Thanks for the suggestions! -
Yes, it's all been done. You need @futzle's Heliotrope plugin. It runs under openLuup, IIRC, but may need a couple of lines commenting out because it was very chatty in the logs.
With a small amount of work, these variables (sun right ascension & declination, azimuth & elevation) could be exposed in openLuup natively, since the timer module also calculates these from scratch using the 'equation of time'.
@akbooer said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
Yes, it's all been done. You need @futzle's Heliotrope plugin.
Out of interest; I've modified/updated and re released Futzle's Heliotrope plugin in the AltApp store (with Futzle's permission).
Likewise; I've modified/updated and re released Chris Jackson's EDS one wire server plugin in the AltApp store (with Chris's permission).
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@akbooer said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
Yes, it's all been done. You need @futzle's Heliotrope plugin.
Out of interest; I've modified/updated and re released Futzle's Heliotrope plugin in the AltApp store (with Futzle's permission).
Likewise; I've modified/updated and re released Chris Jackson's EDS one wire server plugin in the AltApp store (with Chris's permission).
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There seems to be no repository information in the Alt App Store for the Heliotrope plugin? I can fix this, having found your GitHub version of it, unless you want to change it yourself.
@akbooer said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
There seems to be no repository information in the Alt App Store for the Heliotrope plugin?
If you look at the AltApp store in AltUI it shows up. Gets back to the mirror delay you have previously referred to? I also have thought in the past, things were going awry. The publishing process has some strangeness that can be tricky to traverse and I don't do it often enough to be sure all is OK.
It may be an idea to start an alt App Store thread starting with how to publish an app. I know it can be found
hereand there but here would be good. -
@akbooer said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
There seems to be no repository information in the Alt App Store for the Heliotrope plugin?
If you look at the AltApp store in AltUI it shows up. Gets back to the mirror delay you have previously referred to? I also have thought in the past, things were going awry. The publishing process has some strangeness that can be tricky to traverse and I don't do it often enough to be sure all is OK.
It may be an idea to start an alt App Store thread starting with how to publish an app. I know it can be found
hereand there but here would be good.@a-lurker said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
If you look at the AltApp store in AltUI it shows up.
Yes, but have you tried to install it from there? I haven't, but I'm just looking at the raw database.
@a-lurker said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
It may be an idea to start an alt App Store thread
Excellent idea! Not a specific openLuup issue... wonder where the best place would be?? @DesT ?
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@akbooer said in [Yes, but have you tried to install it from there?]
I've re released it so I don't have to install it.
@DesT said in Sun position or light sensor for blinds?:
yeah I can create a new category for that!
Whatever it needs - it seems there are many users that understand the mysterious inner workings of the store and those that run their invisible hands over it
Is Vosmont around? -
Just to update this thread, I've installed my sensor, added my virtual sensor and this seems to work. I'm still operating the blinds at specified time (but looking at the real amount of light to choose to operate them or not), but weather is starting to suck here in Italy, so I'm working on something smarter than this. I'll probably write some averaging logic, in order to avoid to operate the blings too frequently.
Equation of time - Wikipedia
