HowTo: DateTime add-on Sunset/Sunrise event with a +/- OFFSET in minutes?

WebThings
1

I would like to use the nice DateTime add-on’s Sunset/Sunrise capability. Alas, at Sunset it’s too dark already and want that event nn minutes earlier. At Sunrise it’s still too dark and want my lights to remain on later.

Q: How would I implement a + and/or - minute OFFSET to either Sunrise or Sunset timers?

Ideally, this should be built into the DateTime add-on (MR?). I think there are probably add-on tricks to delay but I have no clue how to force Sunrise earlier by nn minutes.

My legacy X10 ActiveHome program supports offset natively in their advanced scheduling.

Thanks for hints…

2

You’ll have to convince the author to add that feature. Somebody already requested it here: https://github.com/tomasy/date-time-adapter/issues/16

We also have a gateway issue: https://github.com/mozilla-iot/gateway/issues/562

3

After digging around, there is already a DateTime GITHUB issue requesting +/- OFFSET support for sunrise/sunset 16.

Guess I’ll use static time for the time being.

4

What is your Sunrise/Sunset set to? Civilian, nautical, astronaumical? Adjusting these vaules may give you the desired effect.

5

Hi I have a fork that includes this feature. I found that one of my bulbs was located in a darker room so I created an offset event. Let me share the code shortly.

6

Sorry for the delay, you can install this pre-release of the date-time-adapter on your gateway. You will need to manually install it. Note as this is a manual install, you install at your own risk and I am not liable for any issues or data loss that arises from installing and using it. Note i have tested this for over 2 months and you should be able to install it without removing the existing datetime device or altering existing rules that use the Sunset or Sunrise events.

#Remove the existing date-time-adapter

#Copy the new package to your gateway
Download the package from the above Github link.
scp date-time-adapter-1.0.1.tgz pi@gateway.local:/home/pi/.mozilla-iot/addons
OR ssh to your gateway, cd /home/pi/.mozilla-iot/addons and wget https://github.com/damooooooooooh/date-time-adapter/releases/download/1.0.1/date-time-adapter-1.0.1.tgz

#ssh to the gateway
cd .mozilla-iot/addons
tar -xvf date-time-adapter-1.0.1.tgz
mv package date-time-adapter
cd date-time-adapter
mkdir .git
sudo systemctl restart mozilla-iot-gateway.service or sudo reboot

#configure the package
goto the Settings > Addons Page
Find DateTime Adapter Addon and Configure
Enable the DateTime Adapter Adapter

#Wait for it to build, can take about 5 mins then
Goto to Things page and Add the new DateTime Adapter

#Reinstall 1.0.0 version
You can returnto the release version 1.0.0 of the adapter by removing this one through the adapter add/remove page and then add back the 1.0.0 one.

Sample logs below of -30mins offset for Sunset

2020-01-23 16:12:10.427 INFO : date-time: date_device.py:169 INFO now:2020-01-23 16:12:10.424119+00:00 > next:2020-01-23 16:42:08.816134+00:00
2020-01-23 16:12:10.430 INFO : date-time: date_device.py:172 INFO New event sunset_offset
2020-01-23 16:42:10.722 INFO : date-time: date_device.py:169 INFO now:2020-01-23 16:42:10.718688+00:00 > next:2020-01-23 16:42:08.816134+00:00
2020-01-23 16:42:10.725 INFO : date-time: date_device.py:172 INFO New event sunset
2020-01-23 16:42:10.727 INFO : date-time: util.py:113 INFO CALC_SUNSET today.utc: 2020/1/23 16:42:11 sunset: 2020/1/24 16:44:05 sunset_local: 2020-01-24 16:44:05.394557+00:00

7

@mstegeman the code isn’t published on Github to issue pull requests.

8

@damooooooooooh It’s all on the release branch: https://github.com/tomasy/date-time-adapter/tree/release

Just a heads up, the author isn’t usually very responsive.

9

Ah ok, let me issue a pull request on this.

10

@damooooooooooh what’s the state of your fork? It looks like you added some features, but then reverted them, and I never saw a PR opened.

I’d be willing to replace the current adapter with your fork if you intend to keep up with maintenance and such.

1 Like
11

Hey @mstegeman,

Sorry I’ve been out with the flu for a week or so and will pick this up tomorrow.

I’d be fine with maintaining the fork going forward after I refactor the solution for this problem slightly.

12

Ok. When you’re ready, can you open a PR to the addon-list repo to replace the adapter with your fork?

13

Hi there @mstegeman, I wanted this feature and a few others, so I took it upon myself to update the date-time-adapter with fixes to the way @damooooooooooh was doing things (he had a bug where if the desired offset was after the sunset, it would never happen because the sunset time would be reset at sunset to the next day). I also added properties to tell you how long in minutes until the next sunset/sunrise, and how long it’s been since the last one. I also added a couple of properties that let you see the sun’s azimuth and elevation, so that you can detect things like certain angles when the sun shines in a window, or position/uncover solar panels at certain times, etc. My repo is a fork from @damooooooooooh’s last changes , and my repo is at https://github.com/wfahle/date-time-adapter, and I am willing to take over maintenance. Edit: I successfully added a pull request to the addon-list.

14

Hi sorry, this slipped off my radar.

15

Hi @damooooooooooh, I’m happy to continue to support the fork, or if you want you can merge in my changes (I can post a pull request). Basically I fixed a couple of bugs in your implementation and then added some useful properties like minutes until next sunset/sunrise and minutes since last sunset/sunrise, along with the azimuth and elevation of the sun from the given location.

Edit: according to https://github.com/tomasy/date-time-adapter/issues/23, I can also speed up the deployment / startup time greatly by making a few minor changes, too. As I said, I’m willing to work on this to fix the remaining issues and any new ones that come up.

Edit: As of 2021/03/10 0:50 UTC it looks like 1.0.2 version of the date-time-adapter is live, and supports this feature. Go to configure and choose update. It takes a while to install (next on the list to fix).