CHRISTOPHER MILLER 569 Events Enhancer User Guide

CHRISTOPHER MILLER 569 Events Enhancer

Specifications

This software plugin enhances the functionality of HS4 events by facilitating device grouping and offering custom Actions and Triggers.

Features

The plugin offers the following features:

• Device Groups: Allows users to group devices for efficient event configuration.
• Feature Mapping: Enables mapping of similar features and controls across grouped devices.

Usage Instructions

Device Groups

To create device groups:

1. Select the devices you want to group.
2. Create a new group and add the selected devices to it.
3. Utilize custom Triggers and Actions to set up events across these device clusters.

Feature Mapping

To map features and controls:

1. Access the Features section while Adding or Modifying a group.
2. Associate similar features from various devices within a group to a unified, single feature.
3. Use Control Mapping functionality to align controls for each mapped feature.

FAQ

• Q: How do I add devices to a group?
  • A: Select the devices you want to group, then create a new group and add the selected devices to it.
• Q: Can I customize Triggers and Actions for each device group?
  • A: Yes, you can leverage custom Triggers and Actions to set up events specific to each device group.

Overview

This software plugin is designed to enhance the functionality of HS4 events by facilitating the grouping of devices and offering custom Actions and Triggers to streamline event configuration for these groups. Additionally, the plugin empowers users to craft personalized Scenes using both individual devices and groups.

Features

1. Device Groups

Introduction

HS4 events are typically configured on individual devices. However, when the same Triggers or Actions need to be set up across multiple devices, this necessitates repeating the configuration process for each device. As the number of devices grows, this task can become increasingly cumbersome. This is where device grouping proves invaluable, providing a more efficient and convenient way to manage and apply configurations across multiple devices simultaneously. Consolidate your devices into groups and leverage the custom Triggers and Actions available through the plugin to set up events across these device clusters. This functionality significantly streamlines the process of configuring complex events spanning multiple devices. Detailed explanations of these custom Triggers and Actions are provided in the subsequent sections for comprehensive understanding and utilization.

Feature Mapping

When devices are grouped, there might be instances where similar features across these devices possess different names. For example, the “Brightness” feature in Light 1 might be termed “Dim Level” in Light 2. Despite their similarity in function, the distinct names hinder the ability to apply a Trigger or Action uniformly across these features without specifying each one individually. To resolve this issue, the plugin offers the Feature Mapping functionality. This enables users to associate similar features from various devices within a group to a unified, single feature. To utilize this functionality, access the Features section while Adding or Modifying a group to start mapping features across devices. Similar discrepancies in naming can also apply to feature controls. For example, the “Power” feature of Light 1 has “Power On/Power Off” controls, while the “Power” feature of Light 2 has corresponding “On/Off” controls. The controls are similar in functionality but are named differently in different devices. For these instances, the plugin includes Control Mapping functionality for each mapped feature. This enables users to associate and align controls across features, allowing for unified management and application of controls despite the differing names or labels. Please note that the feature mapping functionality is optional. If you choose not to map features, every unique feature will be displayed in the feature selection dropdown within Triggers, Actions, and Scene Action settings. By opting not to map features, all distinct features across devices within the group will be individually presented for selection in the dropdown menus, allowing for specific and separate feature configurations within the group triggers, actions, and scene actions.

Example

A group of lights in a room is a good example of when to use device group functionality. Every light in a room can have a separate device in HS4. These devices can be grouped for easier management. For simplicity, let’s say we have two lights in a room. The configuration of these devices is as follows,

Light 1

Features:

• Power (Power On/Power Off controls)
• Color (Color Picker)
• Brightness (0 – 100 Slider)

Light 2

Features:

• Power (On/Off controls)
• Color (Color Picker)
• Dim Level (0 – 100 Slider)

To create a group for these devices, go to Plugins -> Events Enhancer -> Groups and follow the following steps.

1. Click on ADD GROUP to open the Add Group screen.
2. Give a unique name to the group. This name will be useful to identify the group in Triggers, Actions, and Scenes. For our example, we will name it Living Room Lights.
3. Select the devices you want to include in the group. In our case, we will select Light 1 and Light 2 devices.
4. Open the Features section to map Features and Controls. You can skip this step if you don’t want to map Features or Controls. For our case, we will map the Power feature since it has controls with different names on both devices and the Brightness feature since the name of this feature is different on both devices. We will add a Power feature with two single value controls On and Off and map the respective features/controls of each device. We will add a Brightness feature with one range control with a range of 0 – 100 and map the respective features of each device.
5. Click on SAVE once you are done configuring the group and you will be redirected to the Groups screen. This screen will list all the groups you have created.

On the Groups screen you can perform several actions. You can modify the configuration of an existing group. Just click on CONFIGURE and you will be redirected to the Configure Group screen. Make the changes you want and click SAVE. A group can also be copied to create a new group by using COPY TO NEW feature. That will redirect to the Add Group screen and copy all configurations from the source group, which can further be modified and saved as a new group. Don’t need a group anymore? Click on DELETE to remove that group. Checkout the preview of this process below,

Scenes

Introduction

A scene is a list of sequential actions on a group or device with optional delays in between. The scenes functionality empowers users to effortlessly create complex home automation scenarios.

The scene supports the following three types of actions.

• Control Device
• Control Group
• Delay

Optionally, you can enable Restore On Completion for a scene if you want to restore the devices in their original state after the scene execution is completed. The scenes can also be executed from HS4 events using the Execute Scene action. The actions are explained in detail in the following sections. You can also configure the scene using a JSON file. Create a JSON file with your configuration and click on Upload JSON File to upload your configuration.

Following is the syntax of JSON Configuration,

Example

A good example of creating a scene is Light Animation. You can change the color of your living room lights after every 5 seconds to create a beautiful light animation. This can be achieved by creating a scene. Let’s say we want to create a light animation for birthday celebrations and before running that animation we want to turn off the Main Lights of the living room. The light animation will change the color of lights every 5 seconds. For simplicity we will have only two steps for the animation. We have the following devices in HS4.

1. Main Lights
2. Light 1
3. Light 2

We previously created Living Room Lights for Light 1 and Light 2 so that we can manage them together. Now we will use that group for creating the scene.

To create a scene for this light animation, go to Plugins -> Events Enhancer -> Scenes and follow the following steps.

1. Click on ADD SCENE to open the Add Scene screen.
2. Give a unique name to the scene. This name will be useful to identify the scene later in the Actions. For our example, we will name it Birthday Lights.
3. Check the Restore On Completion option if you want to restore the state of devices when the scene completes. For example, we will check this option.
4. Add the actions that you want the scene to perform. For our example, we will add the following ones,
   • Turn off the Main Lights
   • Change the colour of the Living Room Lights #FFA500 – Add a delay of 5000 milliseconds (i.e. 5 seconds)
   • Change the color of the Living Room Lights to #FFF555
   • Add a delay of 5000 milliseconds (i.e. 5 seconds)
5. Optionally, you can click TEST SCENE to quickly test how the scene will play out.
6. Once you are done with configuring the scene, click on SAVE to create the scene. You will be redirected to the Scenes screen. This screen will list all the scenes you have created.

Alternatively, you can also create the same scene using JSON File. To create the scene using JSON file, go to Plugins -> Events Enhancer -> Scenes and follow the following steps.

1. Create a file with following contents and .json extension.
2. Click on Upload JSON File and select the .json file created in Step 1. This will load the configuration in the UI.
3. Verify the configuration and click on SAVE to create the scene.

On the Scenes screen, you can perform various actions for already created scenes. You can change the configuration of an existing scene. Click on CONFIGURE to open the Configure Scene screen. Make the changes you want and click SAVE to update the configuration. A scene can also be copied to create a new scene by using COPY TO NEW feature. That will redirect to the Add Scene screen and copy all configurations from the source scene, which can further be modified and saved as a new scene. You can quickly test any existing scene by clicking TEST SCENE. Don’t want a scene anymore? Click on DELETE to remove that scene. Checkout the preview of this process below,

Custom Triggers

Value of a device in the group changes

It triggers when the value of the configured feature changes in any of the group’s devices. Configured actions will be executed once per device of the group satisfying the trigger condition.

When value of a device in the group changes and becomes

It triggers when the value of the configured feature changes to the configured value in any of the group’s devices. Configured actions will be executed once per device of the group satisfying the trigger condition.

When value of a device in the group changes to fall within a range

It triggers when the value of the configured feature changes to fall within the configured range for any of the group’s devices. Configured actions will be executed once per device of the group satisfying the trigger condition.

When value of a device in the group changes to fall outside of a range

It triggers when the value of the configured feature changes to fall outside of the configured range for any of the group’s devices. Configured actions will be executed once per device of the group satisfying the trigger condition.

Custom Actions

Call Webhook

This action is intended for use with a group. Configured webhook will be called once per device of the group. The Webhook URL allows for variable replacement. To use a variable, use the syntax {{ }}. During the action execution, the variables get replaced with the corresponding feature value.

Example: The light device contains a feature named “Brightness”. To include a Brightness feature variable in the URL, you can use the following format:

• http://my-webhook/data/{{brightness}}

The variable will be replaced by the value of Brightness feature whenever the Action is executed.

Control Group

This action allows you to control a group. Once executed it will perform the configured action once per device of the group.

Example: Turning OFF all the lights of the group Living Room Lights

Execute Scene

This action allows you to execute a scene.

Send Pushover Notification

This action enables the sending of Pushover Notifications, leveraging Pushover as a push notification service. For more information about Pushover, visit their website at https://pushover.net/. Before utilizing this action, it’s necessary to configure the App Token and the User Key of Pushover. You can set these up by navigating to Plugins -> Events Enhancer -> Pushover Settings. Access your Pushover account to obtain the App Token and the User Key. The notification body allows variable replacement. However, please note that the variable replacement works only with triggers supported by the plugin, listed in the previous section.

To implement variables, use the syntax {{}}. During the action execution, the variables will be replaced by the actual values of the group/device/feature for which this action is being executed. Currently, the following variables are supported:

• DeviceRef – Inserts HS4 device ref
• DeviceName – Inserts device name
• FeatureRef – Inserts HS4 feature ref
• FeatureName – Inserts feature name
• FeatureValue – Inserts feature value
• GroupId – Inserts group id
• GroupName – Inserts group name

Example: If we want to insert the Feature Name and Value in the notification body, we can use the variables as follows,

Message:

The value of feature {{featureName}} changed to {{featureValue}}

References

• Pushover: Simple Notifications for Android, iPhone, iPad, and Desktop

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