Grid Connect tips, tricks and help

[CSParnell]

Hi all,

I thought it may he good to have a feed where we could share any tips and tricks to do with any of the Grid Connect Range being Arlec, Deta, Verve, Orion.

I am learning from trial and error and really just accident so sharing with others and sharing back we may be able to create some good learning information for us all.

Please post below starting with what the trick is as the title then how to do so as the body of information.

Carl 

[GreenHouse]

Grid Connect Notifications:

For the first time the other night, I had a quick look at Grid Connect 'Notifications'.

I wrote down a few operational notes for myself from my findings.  See photo of my notes below.

I would like to know:

• Is there any more to it (have I missed anything)?
• Are any of my notes incorrect?
• Are there any other tips and tricks people have?

[JacobZ]

Hi @GreenHouse,

Thank you for your notes on the Grid Connect notifications.

Allow me to tag @CSParnell so they are notified of your post and can offer their thoughts and assistance.

Jacob

[w0mbat]

How to disable an Automation for a set time and then re-enable it...(a work around).

This is my first post. Hi to the workshop community.

I have been using and experimenting with Grid Connect and other Tuya devices for a couple of years now. Generally I have been very happy with the results. However recently I came across an issue that I could not solve. I contacted Arlec support and they admitted they could see no way of doing what I wanted either. After thinking for a while I came up with a work around solution that works very well.

I live in country Victoria and we have a big problem with feral deer coming into our garden after we have gone to sleep and causing a lot of damage.

I decided to set up a system of LED flood lights which would be activated by Grid Connect PIR movement sensors. I wrote an automation that turned the LED floodlights on and then flashed them on and off for a couple of minutes. This all worked fine.

However, I wanted to be able to disable the automation for ten minutes so that it was not constantly reactivated.

I thought I would be able to do this in the Grid Connect App but I could not get the App to even accept the necessary programming. I contacted Arlec support and they confessed that they could see no way to do what I wanted.

I then realised that I could add the state (on or off) of a spare smart switch to the IF part of the automation and include a time delay in the THEN section.

IF(when ALL conditions are met)

Motion detected

and 

Spare Switch is off

THEN

Turn spare switch ON

Run rest of the automation steps

Set a time delay (in my case 10 minutes)

Turn Spare Switch OFF

So this means the Automation will only run when the spare switch is OFF. So effectively, the Automation has been disabled for the period of the time delay .

I have found this to work with100% reliability.

In my case I had a few of the Bluetooth Hubs with Switch in my system where the switch was not being used so they were ideal for this purpose.

I hope I have made this clear and that it helps someone else in the future.

As a side note I was unable to find how you start a new topic in this forum. I could see no way to post here unless I replied to another post.

Maybe some basic instructions would be good for dummies like me!

Ian

[EricL]

Hello @w0mbat 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your Grid automation work around project.

What a fantastic clever idea to use another PIR sensor to carry out a small piece of coding. It's truly a creative solution to get the behaviour you're looking for in the system. I'm sure this information will come in handy to those members who are after the same setup.

In regards to starting a new topic, if you look at the very top of the webpage, you'll see big red buttons saying, "Ask a question" and "Share a project". Once you start simply follow the prompts.

Again, thank you for sharing such an interesting project.

Eric

[GreenHouse]

CHECKING THE CURRENT STATE OF A SMART SWITCH:

wOmbat's post reminded me of a trick to test the ‘ON/OFF’ state of a Smart Switch (SW1).

Grid Connect's 'IF' condition test only checks for changes in a switch status.

You can't directly check a switch status if it hasn't changed.

However, if you change the state of a spare Smart Switch (SW2) to ‘ON’ in one automation and then use another automation to check the status of SW1 and SW2 (when ALL conditions are met), Grid Connect will test the status of SW1 because SW2 was changed.

I have used this trick successfully several times.

[w0mbat]

Hi Greenhouse,

I know that what you say appears to be the case from the way the available options are worded. However, I am not sure that it is actually like that.

In my case there is only one automation involved. I goes like this:-

IF

when all conditions are met  

Motion Sensor     motion state : motion

BTHubSwitch      power : off

THEN

BTHubSwitch      power : on

Back Garden Lights   switch : on

Then a whole lot of light switching and time delays which are irrelevant untill it concludes with

Set a delay (time lapse)   10 min

BTHubSwitch   power : off

That is all that is involved and it works.

Occasionally PIR motion sensors get "stuck" in the motion state and then I find what happens is that the lights on and off sequence runs only every ten minutes as shown in the logs. That seems to indicate to me that the GC app is actually checking the current state of the BTHubSwitch rather than whether it has changed because the automation will be attempting to run over and over again during the ten minute delay because the first condition (motion state : motion) is true for the whole time.

I hope my logic makes sense but I am open to being corrected if I am wrong.

Anyway, all I know for sure is I only have one automation involved and it works exactly as I intended. It looks to me that the GC app actually checks the current state of a switch rather than whether it has changed.

Ian

[GreenHouse]

Hi wOmbat
Your logic all looks good to me. In you particular case, you are cunningly turning the BTHubSwitch power ON and OFF in the body of your Automation as well as sensing (when all conditions are met) the state of the Motion Sensor AND the BTHubSwitch which controls whether the Automation will run or not.  It never ceases to amaze me what can be achieved with the limited Grid Connect instruction set - BUT - sometimes you have to be more than a little cunning, crafty and devious!  The bottom line is: If it works, it ain't wrong.  Well done!  I'm sure others will find your post helpful.  

[w0mbat]

Hi again @GreenHouse,

Thanks for the compliments. They do go down well with a soon to be 73 year old who enjoys wrapping his head around new technology!

There is one more bit to this which maybe you know the answer to.

For the Activation period in the automation I use the time period setting ie. the automation is active from 11PM to 6AM the next day.

I wondered what would happen if the activation period ended while the automation was running therefore possibly leaving the spare switch in the on state and so possibly stopping the automation running when the next activation period started. To cover this possibility, I wrote another very brief automation that checks the state of the spare switch shortly after the main automation activation period ends and turns it off if it is on. It may be unnecessary but I did it just to be sure.

So the question is, what happens to a running automation when its activation period ends? I suppose I could have experimented to find out but I took the "belt and braces" approach instead.

Ian

[GreenHouse]

Hello @w0mbat

For a start, at 71 years old,  I'm not far behind you.

As I didn't know what would happen if the control logic within an automation exceeded its active period, I wrote a short automation to test this scenario.

I fully expected the automation would effectively 'stop' at the end of its active period, leaving 'uncompleted' commands in abeyance.  To my surprise, from this one test, it appeared to complete the automation at the end of the delay period, even though the timing was outside the active period.

HOWEVER, it is never good practice to rely on 'operational quirks' of a command language to achieve your desired outcome.

Even if your additional coding to achieve a particular outcome proves to be redundant, it is always better to include it to ensure you get the desired outcome.  In any case, the additional code would make it clear to you and anyone else looking at the code at a later date exactly what you intended.

I was taught it is just 'good practice'.

Your "belt and braces" approach is highly commendable and reduces any risk.  Well done, and thanks for sharing.

[EmJr]

In order to get around the delay between my driveway camera detecting motion and starting to record, I would like to set up a motion detector (or even another camera) near the street and use it to trigger the first camera to begin recording before it detects motion itself. Is there documentation available which could tell me before purchase which Grid Connect cameras are capable of being triggered to start recording via an automation?

I've tried to set up a test automation using an already owned Orion SC002HA (aka "CatCam") to trigger my driveway camera (an Orion SC079HA, I think; the box is long gone and I'm not climbing a ladder in the rain to look for stickers right now). Using motion detection by CatCam as a trigger is easy enough, but my driveway camera doesn't seem to have a "start recording" function available in the app as a "Then" action. The choices are to turn the LED on/off, flip the screen, turn the humanoid filter on/off, turn the PIR on/off or adjust its sensitivity, or set the alarm mode to '0'.

Setting up the test the other way around (so that driveway motion triggers CatCam to record) is simple because CatCam lists Record Switch as a Then action. Unfortunately CatCam is an indoor model and I need the recording camera to be outside, so just swapping them over isn't an option.

I haven't found any info on the Grid Connect or Orion websites about how to tell in advance if a camera has this specific capability. Is there a keyword or something I should be searching for?