[FIXED]: Error in Sprinkler Documentation

Re the documentation for how to script sprinklers, I believe I found an error. I refer to the documentation here:
http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/wiki/doku.php?id=indigo_6_documentation:device_class#sprinklerdevice

Under Commands (indigo.sprinkler.*)/Run Schedule/Parameters/schedule we have

list of integers representing the number of minutes to run for each zone - the list must have [zoneCount] elements, with 0 for any zone that shouldn’t run

In fact the numbers in the list may be reals. I ran the following:

Code: Select all

>>> s = indigo.devices[122151062]
>>> indigo.sprinkler.run(s.id, schedule =[1.5,1.5,0,0,0,0,0,0])

No errors were given. I went outside and verified that the two first zones ran for 90 minutes each.

Oops. I mean 90 seconds each.

I'm not seeing the error, 1.5 minutes is 90 seconds. The numbers represent the minutes you want to run each zone.

The error is in the documentation, which states that the durations have to be integers. They don't have to be integers. They may be reals.

Ah, gotcha

[matt (support)]

Thanks for reporting this -- I've corrected the documentation to reals.

You're welcome. I have some additional comments about the Python API for the sprinklers which might be of use to others. I don't know if I should post them here or somewhere else; please redirect this to the appropriate place if necessary.

I was looking for a mechanism to detect whether a running schedule is paused, or whether the schedule is finished. I want to be able to detect both. It is clear that Indigo knows this, as it shows up in the UI. The UI even shows how much time is left in the current zone within which it is paused. There is no direct call to determine the paused state, but I found a way to detect it. I can trigger off of Active Zone Name Becomes Equal to 0. If the sprinkler is paused, indigo.devices[<sprinklerID>].activeZone will return None, whereas indigo.devices[<sprinklerID>].zoneScheduledDurations will return a non-empty list. On the other hand, if the sprinkler has run off the end of its schedule, then activeZone will also return None, but zoneScheduledDurations will return an empty list.

There is still no direct way to find out what zone in the schedule was running when the pause occurred, nor to query how much time is left in that zone; however, if I start the schedule from a Python script I can record a time-stamp in an Indigo variable, then when the pause occurs, calculate the paused zone and time left in that zone from the soneScheduledDurations list.

Since this is a bit of a hack, my question is do you think this behavior will continue to work, or do you anticipate changing the zoneScheduledDurations behavior? Is there any chance you might add a direct method for querying the Paused state and the timeLeftInZone value?

[matt (support)]

Indigo 6.0.13 is now available, and includes 2 new attributes: pausedScheduleZone and pausedScheduleRemainingZoneDuration. I believe they'll do what you expect. Note they both return None if the schedule is not paused.

WOW! Thanks. That will make my coding life a lot easier.
I am amazed and very pleased about your fast response time on this.
Thanks again.