Was discussing methods of automating exterior shades and awnings the other night, and decided that the simplest way to solve the use case in question was to just write a small app. App will use luminance or a schedule to trigger operation, and if a wind measurement device is available to give windSpeed/windGust opening/closing of the shade/awning can be automated to avoid damage (10 minutes over the maximum windSpeed or a single reading or windGust ≥ 120%. of the maximum).
Schedule is based on the Julian Day (001-366); any mulitple entries for a day are averaged. Days without an entry will use the closest previous day entry average. Can also use a simple set of closing/opening override times.
My question is decidedly more analog:
Has anyone found any outdoor shades that
a. can be controlled by Hubitat
AND
b. are opaque such that they provide privacy at night (when it is dark out and lit on the other side of the shade, such as on a porch)
I'd like to buy some and then make use of this app!!
This app is exactly what I'd been looking for! Having each of my outdoor shades to be controlled using time triggers based on user-observed data provides the ability to customize opening/closing times at a very granular level.
In my specific case, my two shades need to open/close at separate times, due to the angle of the sun. Also, those times change significantly due to the movement of the sun, but also due to the occlusion of the sun by trees and my neighbor's roofline.
This phenomenal app allows me to enter times as conditions change, then the app calculates times in between my data points. The more data I collect over time, the more accurate my trigger times become. Brilliant!
I can't thank @thebearmay enough for his time, expertise, and community-minded spirit!! I've been trying to solve this dilemma for months and he flew in like Superman and crushed my problem. The Hubitat community is excellent and I appreciate support from @sburke781 along the way as well. Thank You!!
Great looking app!
Will this take sunset/sunrise and +/- offsets into account also?
I created a rule that uses days of the year for summer/winter with offsets from sunrise and sunset, but it is rather cumbersome even though it "works" sort of...
That would be great! I use offsets because the sun doesn't come through my windows at sunrise / sunset but with an offset I can "chase" the sunshine.
Thanks!
