niklaswall / node-red-contrib-light-scheduler

Light Scheduler is a node-red node that provides a weekly schedule mainly focused on controlling light in home automation scenarios.
Apache License 2.0
41 stars 15 forks source link

Document behaviour of Sun / dusk Dawn #72

Open rekcodocker opened 3 years ago

rekcodocker commented 3 years ago

It's completely unclear to me how the dusk/dawn setting works. Schedule only, dusk dawn - it is not intuitive and it is not documented. Does it combine the schedule with the dusk/dawn? Or does it only look at dusk/dawn? I don't get it and the only thing the description says is 'it can take the sun into account'. But it doesn't say under which setting.

niklaswall commented 3 years ago

Hmm.. It might be a little unclear for the new user.

You first mark the schedule in the calendar when you want the ON-payload to be sent. ON-payload will be sent at the end of the marked schedule. image

The Dusk / Dawn setting controls if the astro-clock functionality should be used. If set to "Only when dark", both the marked schedule and the sun position determines if the ON-payload is sent. i.e if the sun's elevation is below the Threshold the node will consider it to be dark outside and turn "ON" if there is a schedule at that time. image

If the Dusk / Dawn setting is set to "Schedule Only", the sun's elevation is ignored and the output is according to the marked schedule. image

If you click the help icon on the right pane you will get some basic help that tries to explain the behavior. image

Hope this helps! :-)

//Niklas

niklaswall commented 3 years ago

I try to keep this page updated with as detailed information as possible.

rekcodocker commented 3 years ago

Thanks for the fast reply. This helps. I did look at the page before I posted my issue; it wasn't clear to me. The main thing that causes confusion is the word 'only'.
'schedule only' really means: schedule only. But 'only when dark' means 'on schedule when it is dark'

Same happens in the documentation: "the output is only triggered to on / off based on both the schedule and "it it's dark" outside". First the word 'only' combined with 'both' is confusing. Second it says 'based on' but it does not describe what it actually does. An Uber driver can plan his route 'based on' the destination but that does not tell you anything.

Also: this is part of a sentence that describes 3 separate things. Suggestion: Cut that sentence in 3. For dusk/dawn/schedule: List a couple of examples. If you want this, then set the settings like so.

Suggestion: Maybe the dropdown could be changed / extended: 'schedule only' (ignore the sun) 'only when dark' (ignore the schedule) 'on schedule when dark' <--- This is current setting named 'only when dark'

It does not have a 'during the day' setting (which is something I need). I understand I can also set it to ON when it is light but I must invert the ON/OFF settings for that.

pfurrie commented 2 years ago

I concur with rekcodocker. I've been fighting the scheduler for several days, thinking the problem was elsewhere. From the text surrounding the scheduler, figured it was schedule OR dusk/dawn, not AND. So, with no schedule set and "only when dark" selected" (as opposed to "schedule only"), there's been a lot of mussing to understand why the rest of my configuration wasn't working.

Would be super to add this (I've copied-and-pasted from rekcodocker): Suggestion: Maybe the dropdown could be changed / extended: 'schedule only' (ignore the sun) 'only when dark' (ignore the schedule) 'on schedule when dark' <--- This is current setting named 'only when dark'

casperse commented 2 years ago

I love this scheduler! But this Dark only eludes me, sorry it is my first time using the "Only when dark" and I also have some problems finding how to set this?

I want light to turn on when ever its dark (During summer time and winter time I had to keep moving the start time earlier and earlier using the schedule only function.

So if I understand this correctly I would need to set it up like this? image

But I can see the state is updated correctly but it doesn't output a ON? image

Again sorry I dont want to hijack this thread but it is all about how to understand the Sun/Dusk Dawn so I think it ok to place it here....