Firstly, this is a great plugin and looking to utilize it for more complicated automation triggers working in conjunction with scenes. It is still nice to see all of the automations in one place (aka Scenes) although I may need to use Reactor actions if things get a bit complicated.
Have a few questions - noticed that the reactor plugin has a backup function. Does the regular Vera backup not handle all of the configuration backing up of the plugins? Want to understand why I would want to perform both backups. Lastly, the main purpose of this post is to ask about the Interval Condition - noticed there is an option for Interval and an option for Relative but how would this work if I wanted to only have the condition true for a duration of 60 minutes from that Interval time being triggered? Is this possible through some simple way or would this be a new feature request to support a Duration variable? Thank you.
The Vera backup will, of course, back up the Reactor configurations. What, though, if you want to restore the configuration for one ReactorSensor after making a change you don’t like? Restore the entire Vera would be the only option, which may also undo other changes throughout the system you’ve had since that back that you otherwise would want to keep.
The Reactor backup/restore mechanism allows you to back up whenever you want, very quickly, save the backup locally on your hard disk, and restore all or a single ReactorSensor at will.
This is a bit too abstract to answer specifically, so you’re going to have to give me a use case, specifically for the Duration variable idea.
The Interval condition fires on the set period. If it’s relative to time, it fires so that the trigger times go through that specified relative time. For example, if your period is 6 hours, and the relative time is 1:00pm (13:00), then the Interval condition will trigger at 01:00, 07:00, 13:00 (!), and 19:00 and repeat indefinitely. If the Interval condition is relative to another condition, it will fire when the related condition (which may be a group) goes true, and every time period after, until the condition goes false. The Interval condition generates a brief pulse (so brief, in fact, that you can’t see it in the UI, but it does its work nonetheless). You can extend the pulse either by using the delay reset option on the Interval condition (in “follow” output mode), or using the “pulse” output mode option and setting a pulse duration.
The Interval condition should be rarely used. There are other, simpler timing mechanisms in condition options that generally work better than trying to use interval conditions as a timer. Where Interval conditions are useful, however, is in generating repeating actions when a condition is true, such as a repeating warning notification when a leak detector is tripped or a garage door has been left open too long. Even this usage is simplified in 3.5 (upcoming) by changes to the “pulse” output mode option on most condition types to allow repeat pulses while the related condition is true, which duplicates much of the functionality of the Interval condition but in a more useful and easier-to-use way, so I expect Interval conditions will fall into disuse over time (I’m even considering “hiding” them, but they will be supported as a legacy condition for the foreseeable future).