Schedules vs Switch Timers

I have an issue with a lighting zone. It turns off after the schedule is running or does not turn on with the schedule.

The schedule turns on all the light zones at 7am and disables the switch's then turns off the light zones at 6pm and enables the switch's.

The switch's have been setup with a timer function for 2 hours and 7 seconds (not sure why 7 seconds). The lights in one zone went off about 9am..

So my question is will a timer on a switch overrule the running schedule if the switch is pressed in the 7 seconds prior to 7 am?

Cheers,
Rob.

and no I didn't set this site up I have inherited it.

 

First, a few clarifications. Do I correctly assume that the schedules to turn off the lights and enable/disable the switches are running in Homegate, a Touchscreen or a PAC?

At the scheduled time, how are the groups set? Are all the lights turned on as part of a scene, or does each group have it's own schedule?

When you say that the Schedule disables the switches, does it do this using the keypad disable feature of the switches or by some other means?

The keypad disable feature does exactly that; it disables the physical keypad. Any timers that are running will be left running. Any timers running in the units will be cancelled when the schedule turns on all the groups.

If the groups are turned on first, and the keypad is disabled second, there would be a small window of time (maybe up to a couple of seconds long, depending upon how big the scene is) where the groups would have been in the process of being turned on by the schedule, but the keypad wouldn't have been disabled. It is possible that someone pressed a button during this window of time, resulting in the timer being left running in the switch.

If the above theory is true, then the way to solve it would be to disable the keypads a couple of seconds before 7am, i.e. a couple of seconds before the schedule turns all the groups on.

Another possibility is that comms on the network is a bit unreliable and the switch simply missed the scheduled command, resulting in it's timer remaining running, or it's keypad not being disabled.

 

Hi Newman,

Sorry I have not replied until now, pretty much what you have said is right, I have had a chance to test the system and yes there is a window of opportunity that the switch can be pressed and the timer kicks in and then turns the lights off two hours later.

I will when I get a spare minute create a scene rather than the two events and this should sort it all out.

Thanks,
Rob.

 

The scene items are played out into the network in the same order they're listed in PICED. To be sure that the keypads are disabled before the schedule turns on the groups (cancelling any active timers in the switches) make sure that the scene disables the keypads first, and then turns on the lighting groups.