Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a macro?
- What is a quick macro?
- What is a trigger?
- What is a time trigger?
- What is a sensor trigger?
- What is a group trigger?
- What is an action?
- How do I set the program up for video?
A macro is a series of actions that happen when it is triggered.
For
example, you can create a macro which is triggered by a motion sensor. The
trigger is the motion sensor. The actions could be to turn on a light, 2
minutes later turn on another light, and then after 5 minutes of trigger
inactivity, shut off both lights. The actions do not necessarily have to
be switching actions either. For instance, you could make the computer
beep or play a sound, or send an email.
A macro can have one or more triggers. If it has
more than one trigger, it can be set to trigger when all of the triggers are in
an active state, or when any of the triggers are in an active state by setting
the Trigger When field.
A macro can be set to only work during the day, only at night, or at any time
by setting the Day/Night field. If it is set to work only at night, then
all triggers are ignored until it is at night. See "How
is the dawn and dusk time determined?" to find out how to adjust how
day and night is determined.
The macro can have an unlimited list of actions.
Each action in the list will finish completely before it goes on to the next
action in the list. When there are no more actions to process, then the
macro returns to a monitoring state, where it's watching the triggers to see if
it's time to start again.
An unlimited number of macros can be programmed. It monitors all macros
simultaneously, so it's possible that several macros can be running at the same
time.
A quick macro is a standard macro but with a simpler setup screen. With
it, you can quickly set up macros that will monitor a sensor and turn a switch
on when the sensor trips. You can
optionally turn off the switch after a user specified time with no sensor
activity.
Quick Macros can easily be done when setting up sensors and
switches. Just highlight the switch you want to control, and click the
Quick Macro button.
You can easily switch to the advanced macro screen when you need
to have full access to all the macro capabilities.
A trigger is something that causes a macro to
start. A trigger can be a time trigger, sensor
trigger, or group trigger.
A time trigger will cause a macro to start at a particular time. A trigger can start and end at a certain time, at dawn,
or at dusk.
The time trigger can be set to trigger once during that duration, for when
it's used alone to trigger a macro, or it can be set to trigger for the entire
duration, which is useful when used in conjunction with other triggers.
For instance, if you want a motion sensor to trigger a macro, but you only want
it to trigger during the day, you would create a time trigger that is set to
always trigger between dawn and dusk, and then you would add a sensor trigger
that will trigger once. When both triggers are set, which will only be
during the day, then the macro will start.
Time triggers can be set to recur on a regular basis, starting at the start
date. They can recur hourly, daily, weekly on specified days, monthly on a
particular day of the month, on the ?th day on a particular day, or at the end
of the month, or on a particular day of the year, or a certain occurrence of a
specified day on a specified month. This lets you set up macros to run on
any holiday, or on any day or days of the week you like.
A sensor trigger will cause a macro to start when a sensor sends a
signal. The sensor trigger can be activated when the sensor turns on or
off. The sensor can be any X10 house and unit code combination, or an IO
sensor if you purchased the IO Add-On feature. If the sensor contains
data, such as when an X10 dim or bright command is sent, it can also trigger
based on whether this data is greater than, less than, or equal to a specified
value.
A group trigger is a type of trigger that consists of other triggers.
This is used in case you need all of some triggers to be active to start a
macro, but you may have one group of triggers which you want to be active if any
of those triggers are active. For instance, if you have a time during the
day where you want a macro to occur, and you want it to happen when any of
several motion sensor are tripped, then you would need to set up a time macro
and a group macro, which must all be active for the macro to trigger, and the
group trigger would consist of several sensor triggers, and the group trigger
would be active when any of those sensors is active.
When you set up a macro, you can set it to trigger only during the day, or
only at night, or both. If you add a time trigger, you have the option of
triggering at dawn or at dusk as well. As you know, dawn and dusk don't
stay the same all year unless you happen to live at the equator.
So how does it know when dawn and dusk are? Well, there's two ways that
it can be done, and you set up how it is done under Setup and then Day /
Night. Here you can set whether dawn and dusk are calculated, or if a
sensor is to be used. X10 motion sensors have the ability to send an on
code on the next unit code when it gets dark, and an off code when it gets
light. For instance, if your motion sensor is set up for A1, then it will
send an on signal for code A2 when it gets dark out, and when it gets light
again, it will send the off signal for A2.
If you choose to let Home Domination calculate the dawn and dusk time for
you, you will need to enter your approximate latitude, longitude, and time
zone. This is more reliable than the sensor method, however it won't
adjust for cloudy days. If you use a sensor to determine dawn and dusk,
then you need to choose the function that indicates night (on for X10 motion
sensors). You can use other types of sensors however. The sensor
method can be less reliable since X10 codes are sometimes lost when multiple X10
modules transmit at the same time, however it will handle cloudy days better by
setting the dusk time earlier.
An action is something that happens when a macro is triggered. An
action can be to control a switch (either an X10 or an IO switch), make the
computer beep or play a sound, send an email, buffer an email to send later, or
send a buffered email, start or terminate another macro, reboot the PC (to make
sure memory stays clean), set a mode, take a video snapshot, or alert a specific
network client user.
The video add-on feature is required for video, although it is also available
for a limited time as a demo. Make sure you install your video device
first. This will likely install any DirectX files you need to access this
device. If not, go to Microsoft's
web site to download and install the latest version of DirectX for your
computer.
Then you'll need to go into the Home Domination main control program, click
Setup, click Video, and then click Add. This will display a list of video
sources that are available to you. If the list is empty or you don't see
your video source in the list, then check to make sure your device was installed
correctly and that DirectX is properly installed on your machine. Click on
the video device you want to use, select a short name that indicates which video
device you are using, and a longer description if you like. If the video
source is an X10 device which is turned on and off using an X10 code, then add
the appropriate switch and select it.
Click OK until you are back to the main screen. Now a tab should be
created on the bottom of the screen with the name of the video source tab you
just created. If you click on that tab, you should see a live preview from
that device unless the preview check box is not checked.
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