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

'Activate Period' Tip:

At some point you may wish energise some device at a certain time and have it switch OFF at sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately, as far as I can see, there is no way of doing this directly with the Grid Connect App – BUT it can be achieved in three simple automations.

As an example, I have a light I want to only turn ON for 1 minute when movement is detected after midnight, but I don’t want it to work between sunrise and midnight. As far as I can see, there is no way of achieving this with the Grid Connect ‘Activate Period’.

Solution:

1. Create an automation ‘Night Light’ to switch the required light ON if motion sensor detects movement.

2. Create an automation ‘Night Light Enable’ which enables the ‘Night Light’ automation at 0:00.

3. Create an automation ‘Night Light Disable’ to disable the ‘Night Light’ automation at sunrise.

CSParnell

@GreenHouse I'm not sure if Grid Connect is the same as Smart Life but in SL you can select the following for Sunset and Sunrise Options.

GreenHouse

Grid connect is the same.

You can enable an automation from sunset to sunrise etc no problems – BUT - you can't directly enable something from say midnight to sunrise.

Hence my tip, unfortunately using 3 automations to combine a time / weather related activation period.

It does amaze me how you can get around things with the limited instruction set. I would love to see some basic improvements in the instruction set, not the least being ‘if-then-else’ and ‘for next looping’ capabilities etc etc. Oh well, one can dream!

CSParnell

And that's where Home Assistant comes in for full controll. And then you never come out of that rabbit hole 😄

GreenHouse

Switch Status Testing.

Problem:

At some point, you may wish to check the status (ON or OFF) of a Smart Switch in an Automation ‘If’ condition test, and if ‘True’, perform some Actions. Unfortunately, there is no direct way of doing this in the Grid Connect App (that I’ve found), unless it’s status has only just changed.

As an example, if the front door has been left open, I want the passage light to be turned ON if I subsequently checked.

Unless the front door was only just opened, the condition test for it being open will not work.

Solution:

1. Write an Automation which includes a Condition Test for the front door sensor AND the status of some other device. (In this example, a test to see if the TV light is ON.) Make sure you include: 'When ALL conditions are met'.

In the THEN Actions, include all the required actions. (In this example, just switch the passage light ON.)

2. Write a Tap to Trigger Scene to turn the TV light ON, delays a short time (to give the above Automation time to run) and then turn the TV light OFF.

When you click the Tap to Trigger Scene, the TV light will turn ON. This will force the automation to run which will test for the front door switch being open and then perform the scheduled actions if the door is open. And, the Trigger Scene will finally turn the TV light back OFF.

It appears that whilst you can’t directly test the current switch status of a Smart Switch, if you combine the ‘If’ condition test with some other status change you initiate, Grid Connect will check BOTH conditions!

Who knew!? - I only just found this out by accident today.

Automation and Tap to Trigger Scene Example:

CSParnell

https://youtu.be/LI3lhgOiZ-8?si=ZqPpBk6lfbspq0Fy

At some point very soon you will be here with what you are doing as you will get frustrated with the limitations of GC, SL, TH and so on.

GreenHouse

Great (and funny) YouTube clip.

My only concern: Will diving that deep into 'Home Assistant' make me bald? 🤔

GreenHouse

SG023HA Movement Sensor Testing and Review:

(More or less a direct copy of my product review of the product on the Bunnings web site.)

I've spent several hours testing and playing around with various Grid Connect App commands and have come to the following conclusions:

With my SG023HA movement sensor, movement is picked up immediately BUT there is a 35 second delay after motion has ceased for ‘No Motion’ to be detected. Initially, I thought this would not be a problem, HOWEVER, if you add ‘delays’ or countdowns in the actions, undesirable things appear to happen if you wish to simply turn a light ON if there’s motion and OFF if there’s no Motion. eg Actions don’t happen when you want or don’t happen at all etc. The only simple way I could see to get around this was to create two automations:

One with an Action to switch the light ON, when movement IS detected and . . .

One with an Action to switch the light OFF when NO movement is detected.

For example:

‘Automation 1’ . . .

Condition:

Garage Sensor – Motion Detected

Then:

Garage Light – Switch ON

‘Automation 2’ . . .

Condition:

Garage Sensor – No Motion

Then:

Garage Light – Switch OFF

‘Automation 1’ runs immediately when Motion is detected, turning the Garage Light ON.

(Once movement ceases, there is a 35 second delay until the sensor changes to ‘No Motion’.)

Once ‘No Motion’ is detected, ‘Automation 2’ runs, turning the Garage Light OFF.

That is, the Garage Light stays ON while you’re moving around and then turns OFF 35 seconds once you stop moving.

Not very flexible, but the best I could do. Fortunately, in my situation, this is just tolerable.

I hasten to add, I have had no such problems with the old SGS02HA motion sensors which have proven to be very flexible and very reliable. (However, the battery does have to be replaced now and again.) In my opinion, the new SG023HA sensors should be discontinued in favour of the old SGS02HA sensors!

PS:

I’ve been running the SG023HA sensor plugged into an old 5V phone charger with the battery removed without any problems. If I have no power, the sensor won’t work BUT neither will the light I wish to control.

Some reviewers on the Bunnings web site have assumed the micro USB port on the sensor is a 'charging' port for the battery. The battery has a warning 'DO NOT RECHARGE'. A quick search on the internet confirms the CR123A battery used in this sensor is a single use, non rechargeable battery. However, the current drawn by the sensor is so low, I was unable to read it. Therefore, given the 1600mAh capacity of these batteries, the sensor could possibly run for years on the battery alone; if you wish to run it that way.

Accordingly, the micro USB port is NOT a charging port, just an alternate way of powering the sensor.

CSParnell

The lag could be due to the fact it has to bounce to the Tuya cloud server and back before actioning the only way around that lag if that is the case is Home Assistant with Tuya Local addon installed and set it up to that add-on rather than cloud server.

I am on 270-290mb/sec DL and decent upload and my sensors and lights lag all the time even with a 4 x device mesh network 2.4/5g

CSParnell

Check this out, this is only 1 of many cool features these LED strip's do which I didn't realise until today

https://youtu.be/RZxRRyP7scQ?si=wm6wh2SMCBQewvxO

Not sure which exact of the Bunnings brands do it but I do remember I think the higher end Arlec or Mirabella might but look for light chasing feature...

These are TuYa brand that work in the TuYa umbrella environment.