SunTracker - with moving ghost

[Pastis]

Hello
Weather retrieval doesn't work anymore ? or is it just me ?

[krambriw]

Using latest version?

Works here:

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15:24:00   Main.Weather Condition: 'Fair'

[Saxtus]

Works from here too

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16:58:00   Main.Weather Condition: 'Mostly Cloudy'

[Pastis]

ok sorry my mistake, location was wrong...
thank you

[krambriw]

Good that you found it,
Have a nice weekend

[rdgerken]

I'm getting SunTracker set up for the first time.

Can anyone explain to me what Vacation mode does? Also, if I turn on moving ghost external trigger in exclusive mode - and I drop this tracker in autostart, will it generate random on and off events that I can then use to trigger other macros? I'm really struggling to find help on how to use the moving ghost feature. Let's say I have a whole home lighting system, and i want to randomize devices 3, 5,9, 12, and 14 between the hours of 10PM to 6AM - and I already have macros set up to turn these devices on and off, I just need random events to drive them - how would I go about that?

TIA!

[krambriw]

I think a configuration guide is really needed for this plugin, I'll see if I get some time some rainy day...
In the mean time, I'll try to explain:

Can anyone explain to me what Vacation mode does?
When in vacation mode, the specific day and time settings you have defined for vacation will be used, that's all (instead of using the monday to sunday settings)

Also, if I turn on moving ghost external trigger in exclusive mode - and I drop this tracker in autostart, will it generate random on and off events that I can then use to trigger other macros?
Yes, it will. The external trigger is used to start or stop the global MovingGhost function (like a keyswitch). To control this with a keyswitch or similar, you use the actions 'MovingGhost ON' and 'MovingGhost OFF'. The events generated will start basically after sunset and end after sunrise the following morning. Then start again after sunset and so on until the keyswitch is changed...
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=982&hilit=moving+gh ... =45#p15283
The exclusive mode shall be selected if you are just interested in getting such moving ghost events
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=982&hilit=moving+gh ... 165#p22288

I'm really struggling to find help on how to use the moving ghost feature. Let's say I have a whole home lighting system, and i want to randomize devices 3, 5,9, 12, and 14 between the hours of 10PM to 6AM - and I already have macros set up to turn these devices on and off, I just need random events to drive them - how would I go about that?
Well, you have to think in terms of sunset/sunrise so the actual 10PM to 6PM might not be fully possible (in fact, it will dynamically adjust itself according to actual sunset/sunrise in your location with the offset and weather compensation that you eventually use). To use it, you just create an event with the correct event names (or you copy & paste from the log once they have happened) into your existing macros. Put the 'on' events in the macros that turns your lights 'on' and the 'off' events in the macros that turns your lights 'off'.
If you like to have different randomized moving ghost events for your lamps, you can create multiple trackers with slightly different settings. If you have one tracker per lamp, they will be completely independent from each other and they will go on and off individually fully randomized


Best, Walter

[GraemeEvans]

i cant seem to get this plugin to do anything useful. So far i've got it opening my blinds and closing them but it only ever seems to do it the wrong way round, opening them at night and closing them in the morning even if i switch the event names around, and flipping between opening and closing them constantly. I don't know what going on.

If i just have a "start new or control running suntracker" with my longitude and latitude programmed in, should that be creating an event for sunrise and sunset? what will the events be called? the same as the events i have in place for Event name on / Event Name off?

[krambriw]

Try to publish some screen shots of your configuration,
Best, Walter

[GraemeEvans]

this is what my setup is now, and it doesnt seem to do anything. I did previously have 0700 for every morning on, and 2000 for every evening off. and had synchronize on, but that seemed to just make it constantly open and close the blinds.

and i keep getting things like

22:32:02 Next execution of Blinds will start in 60.7076006589 seconds 0

but nothing happens

[krambriw]

To get rid of the message you receive every minute, uncheck the box 'Print normal loop info (Y/N)'.

Set all 'Morning ON' times to 1100 (a time is needed to make the thing work, at 1100 the sun should be up and therefore this would not have any other negative impact. I know this is maybe not perfect but this is the way it works)

You should then get events like this:

- at sunrise, the 'Event name OFF' will be triggered, in your case 'BlindsOpen'
- at sunset, the 'Event name ON' will be triggered, in your case 'BlindsClose'

You have to drag those events to macros that will have the actions to actually control your blinds (I assume you have this already)

(To simulate, you can adjust the system clock accordingly and set it just before the triggering is supposed to happen)


Best, Walter

[GraemeEvans]

i though it triggered an event at sunrise and sunset based on my long/lat? No?

just tried it with a time in. Still nothing happening

[krambriw]

I think you have to write down your use cases (what you wan't to achieve), then I can tell you how to configure it.

For instance, if you are only interested in having events at sunset/sunrise, you only have to have the plugin itself running as you already have configured it (with the box ' Create events at sunset and sunrise ' checked).

To verify that your location settings are correct, create and execute a python script like this:

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print eg.plugins.Suntracker.GetTimeFor_SunSet_SunRise()

Check and verify what times you will get as response

Best, Walter

[Angus_MacGyver]

I get the following error:

14:18:00 Fehler in Befehl: "SunTracker: GetCurrentCondition"
14:18:00 Traceback (most recent call last) (1610):
14:18:00 File "C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\eg\Classes\ActionBase.py", line 170, in CallWrapper
14:18:00 return self(*args)
14:18:00 File "C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\plugins\SunTracker\__init__.py", line 5015, in __call__
14:18:00 tlStartType = tlStartTypeCtrl.GetStringSelection()
14:18:00 TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable

How can I fix it?

[krambriw]

I think you have to check your 'Location' configuration in the plugin. Use Yahoo! weather to find your location ID.

When I test with this script

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print eg.plugins.Suntracker.GetCurrentCondition()

I get this result

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2013-06-22 08:24:43        {'date': u'Sat, 22 Jun 2013 7:50 am CEST', 'text': u'Partly Cloudy', 'code': u'30', 'temp': u'19', 'title': u'Conditions for Stockholm, SE at 7:50 am CEST'}

You should get similar