SunTracker - with moving ghost

[krambriw]

This plugin is intended to be used as a sunset/sunrise tracker for planned controls especially for indoor and outdoor lights

PLEASE NOTE: Always take a copy of your local weather_conditions.py file before you upgrade if you have made any modifications to it and copy it back afterwards.

The plugin is now utilizing Weather.com to get current local weather conditions. To find your location ID, browse or search for your city from the Weather.com home page(http://weather.com) The weather ID is in the URL for the forecast page for that city. For example, if you search for New York, the forecast page for that city is http://www.weather.com/weather/today/l/USNY0996:1:US. The location ID is USNY0996:1:US.

The vacation and empty house modes are useful when you need to have different behavior of your home automation when you have vacation or if you are away from your house (like a holiday stay elsewhere). To activate the different modes you can use python scripts that you can can trigger with suitable events. The python syntax looks like in the following example:

Code: Select all

#To set/unset vacation mode
eg.plugins.Suntracker.plugin.vacation_m = True
eg.plugins.Suntracker.plugin.vacation_m = False

Code: Select all

#To set/unset empty house mode
eg.plugins.Suntracker.plugin.emptyHouse_m = True
eg.plugins.Suntracker.plugin.emptyHouse_m = False

When set to vacation or empty house mode, the special day and time settings will be used instead of the normal Monday to Sunday settings

To upgrade, it is very important to follow the steps below in the specified order.

1) When EG is running current version, disable the SunTracker plugin and all SunTracker actions so that they all stops
- save and exit EG

2) Replace the current plugin files with the new files downloaded from the webserver (see link below)
- start EG again

3) Now configure the SunTracker plugin:
- accept or change the event prefix
- add your location ID from Weather.com
- check the boxes to select when the event shall happen
When finished, click ok, then enable the plugin so that it starts.

4) Now for each action, configure each of them by opening them and clicking ok

5) Enable each of the actions

6) Open the settings for the plugin again and check that they are all running
- save the configuration

7) You are done!




______________________

[riksvag]

Great job, I'll give it a go.

I'm using suntracker already today, so how do I upgrade?

[krambriw]

Hi, yes upgrading....

I did it the following way

1) Make a copy of your current working project (xml-file) just to save a backup with a different name

2) Start EG with the current project

3) Make some screen shots of the current SunTracker actions (the settings view like the one above)

4) Print them if you need

5) Delete your already created SunTracker actions

6) Create the actions again with the same names as before and with the same event names (important)

7) Re-enter your other settings

Save, restart EG with this project and it should run as earlier

When you decide to activate "Moving Ghost", open settings for the action, check the check box, click OK. Then click "Save" to save the project. Restart EG and it will run "Moving Ghost" function for that action.

I think it might be enough to click on "Test" in the settings to run the action with the new settings but I'm not 100% sure, haven't tried that too much


Best regards, Walter

[krambriw]

Hi,

Updated version with

- Bugfix in string conversion
- Bugfix in synchronization routine

BestR Walter

17.09.2008_SunTracker.zip

(62.31 KiB) Downloaded 761 times

[krambriw]

Hello,

Updated version
- Individual settings for bursts (ON/OFF) added

Hope the setting screen will fit your PC screen. I have something like 1280x800 and its OK for me but with lower resolution it might go outside your desktop area...don't know how to fix it...

Best regards, Walter

PS you will have to delete and recreate your actions if you have the previous version running already

24.09.2008_SunTracker.zip

(62.98 KiB) Downloaded 777 times

[krambriw]

Hello,

I have made some modifications to this plugin

After using it for a while I become a bit irritated in the behaviour when I needed to make modifications to the settings

What I wanted to achieve was that whenever a setting is changed, the necessary part shall read this new data and use it. Basically for this to happen, a full or partial restart was necessary

Besides, I thought some of the settings should be "common" while others still should be "individual"

Therefore I have moved the following variables from the action settings to the plugin settings;

-The geographic position (longitude & latitude)
-Fixed and Variable Public Holidays
-Vacation mode
-Moving Ghost mode

I have also changed the behaviour of some buttons...

If you click "Restart All" all defined actions will restart independently if they are running or not

If you make a change of the setting in the plug-in, all defined actions will also restart when you click "OK"

If you make a change of an action setting and/or you click the "OK" button, the action will restart

All was made with an effort to make it easier to use when changing any settings. Now the affected parts are automatically restarted if needed

If you migrate from previous version, you will unfortunately have to make the configuration again, there is no way I can figure out how to migrate the data. You will have to delete the actions as well as the plugin and start all over again

How to use: Download the attached zip-file and extract the included files to folder "plugins\SunTracker", restart EG and make the configuration

If you don't need or like these function changes, use the previous version


Best Regards, Walter

[glunka]

Hi
I have tried SunTracker m. Movin Ghost, and i wonder:
There is 2 off-settings, but only 1 on-setting?
You can set "Night Off", "Morning On" and "Evening Off", why not "Afternoon On"?
What i wan't is to put the lights in my windows on at for example 15.00, but the latest time i can set in "Morning On" is 11:59.
How can i get the light on at 15:00?, why is it a limit at 11:59?
Would't it be simpler if you had for example 3 on and 3 off -times per day?
Regards Glunka

[krambriw]

Hi,

When I created the SunTracker plugin, I had my outdoor and indoor lamps of my house in mind. I tried to cover all needs but it might be I missed some use cases...

To explain the idea behind, it is best is to start with the morning of a new day and assume that you have not modified the offset settings:

The SunTracker can then turn ON something like lamps at a defined time like 06.00

At sunrise the lamps will go OFF

Then nothing really happens before sunset later in the afternoon or evening depending on the season

At sunset, the lamps are turned ON

Then you can define a time when the lamps shall be turned OFF again, either later in the evening like 23.00 or during the following night like 02.00

Now you are waiting for the next morning action of the new day to happen and it all starts from the beginning

....................

If you need to turn on and off devices at certain fixed times, you can use the Scheduler I made for such purposes. There you have more settings for fixed on/off actions

http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtop ... f=10&t=818


My idea was never to combine the Scheduler with the SunTracker, I wanted them to be separated. Its so easy anyway with EG to add the two plugins.

I hope this explained better, but if you still believe there should be a change made to the SunTracker it is not impossible to do. But as I said, I did not and I do not target to bring the two together into one.

Best regards, Walter

[glunka]

Hi
Ok now that you explained i think i understand. I wasn't aware of that the plugin turned the lights on and off automatically att sunset and sunrise, i thougt it just adjusted the time off the "on" and "off":s according to the sun.
Ok i will give it a try, great job btw.
regards Glunka

[krambriw]

An updated version to overcome the problem I created in some PC's with the SpinNumCtrl....

Besides I changed again the settings for the "moving ghost" mode back to the action settings. Its more likely you need to have individual settings for each action instead.

Best regards, Walter

19.03.2009_SunTracker.zip

(65.53 KiB) Downloaded 747 times

[vuego]

Hey krambriw and thanks a lot for this plugin. I've been using it every day for the last couple of years

I tried the 19/03 version (using EventGhost 0.3.7.r851) and there's one problem with Vista. About one minute after launching it wants to write to logfile C:\Program Files\EventGhost\Log\Suntracker_<name>.html. This is not allowed in Vista so there's some nasty error lines in EventGhost. I had to manually give my user modify access to this file.

Could we change the log file location to something like %ALLUSERSPROFILE% (C:\ProgramData is Vista default)?

[krambriw]

Thanks Vuego,

It's nice to hear that you have use for it!

Regarding the problem you indicate, I have made some initial tests.

Would it be ok to have a solution that works as follows:

- if Vista log to a log file in %ALLUSERSPROFILE% / EventGhost / Log

- if NOT Vista log to a file in the location as it is defined today


Best regards, Walter

[vuego]

Sounds like a good solution.

[krambriw]

I have now updated the plug-in logging feature so that it works as follows

- if Vista log to a log file in %ALLUSERSPROFILE% / EventGhost / Log

- if NOT Vista log to a file in the location as it is defined today, Program / EventGhost / Log or Program Files / EventGhost / Log

Should be compatible with the previous version except for the location of the log file if you use Vista

I have made the same changes for the Scheduler

Best regards, Walter

16.04.2009_SunTracker.zip

(65.25 KiB) Downloaded 762 times

[vuego]

Thanks, it works just as intended.