Tutorial 7 — time control

Part 2 — Tutorials. Continues the project from Tutorial 6.

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What you will build

• Outside lights that switch on at dusk and off at dawn, all year, with no schedule to maintain

• A garden watering system that runs on selected days

• A holiday mode that runs between two dates

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11.1 Programs are actors

Everything so far has been triggered by a person pressing something. A program is triggered by time — and once defined, it behaves exactly like any other actor. You drag a wire from it and give that wire an action and a function, just as you did with a button.

Programs have two actions:

Action	Fires when
Program value switch ON	the program becomes active
Program value switch OFF	it becomes inactive

That is the whole idea. A program turns "it is 07:00 on a Tuesday" into something you can wire.

The three kinds

Type	Shape	Use for
Periodical	a moment, repeating	watering at 06:00 on Mondays and Thursdays
Two-state	on/off stretches across a week	night-time setback, weekday-only equipment
Continuous	one stretch between two dates	holiday mode, seasonal switching

Heating uses two more — Heating/Cooling - week and Heating/Cooling day — which you already met in Tutorial 6.

All of them live in Managers → System manager → System programs.

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11.2 Dusk to dawn, without a schedule

The best schedule for outside lights is no schedule. Sunset moves by three hours across the year; any fixed time you pick will be wrong for ten months.

The Astronomical-Module calculates sunrise and sunset from the date and your location, and presents them as ordinary digital inputs you can wire.

Add the module

1. Project → Device manager.

2. Select the central unit, then click New slave.

3. Choose Astronomical-Module → OK.

Only one astronomical module is allowed per project, and its address is fixed.

Tell it where the building is

Select the module and open Parameters:

Field	What to do
Description	Sun and moon
Use city	tick it, then pick the nearest of 50 predefined cities from City
Longitude / Latitude	or untick Use city and type the coordinates to two decimals

Coordinates are more accurate; a city is faster and close enough for lighting.

What it gives you

Device	Meaning
Sunshine-DIN1 … Sunshine-DIN4	daylight — ON from sunrise, OFF from sunset
New-Moon-DIN	ON when less than 25 % of the moon is lit
Moon-First-Quarter-DIN	ON between 25 % and 75 %
Full-Moon-DIN	ON at 75 % or more
Moon-Third-Quarter-DIN	ON between 25 % and 75 %

There are four sunshine inputs because each can carry its own offset. That is the useful part:

Field	Range	Meaning
Sunrise Offset	−82801 … +82801 seconds	negative = before the calculated sunrise, positive = after
Sunset Offset	−82801 … +82801 seconds	the same, for sunset

So Sunshine-DIN1 can be true daylight, Sunshine-DIN2 can switch 30 minutes before sunset (Sunset Offset = -1800) for the drive lights, and Sunshine-DIN3 can switch an hour after sunrise for something else.

Wire the outside light

1. Device manager → expand the astronomical module and give Sunshine-DIN2 a Sunset Offset of -1800 and a Sunrise Offset of 0.

2. Design workspace tab → drag an input icon onto the plan → Connect it to Sunshine-DIN2 → name it Daylight.

3. Function workspace tab → Add connection → drag Daylight → your outside light (reuse Stair light if you have no outdoor circuit).

4. Wire manager → name it Outside light — dusk to dawn → add two functions:

   • Action: Digital IN switch OFF → User function: DIGITAL_ON

   • Action: Digital IN switch ON → User function: DIGITAL_OFF

5. Close, save, upload.

Read it carefully — the logic is inverted on purpose. The input is daylight, so: daylight ends → light on, daylight begins → light off.

Sunrise, sunset and moon phase are calculated when the project is saved to the central unit. They are not recalculated live from an internet source, so the CU's clock and time zone must be right. Check them in CU configuration (Chapter 22).

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11.3 A periodical program — watering

A periodical program fires at a moment, repeatedly.

1. Managers → System manager → System programs → +.

2. Choose Periodical → OK.

3. Fill in:

   • Program name: WATERING_MORNING

   • Activation time/dispersion: 06:00

4. Choose one of three repeat modes:

Mode	Repeats	Tick boxes select
Every week	weekly	which days of the week
Every month	monthly	which days of the month
Selected months	daily	which months of the year

1. Pick Every week and tick Monday and Thursday.

2. Click ✓.

You must tick at least one day or month. With none selected, the confirm button stays unavailable. It is easy to miss and looks like the dialog is broken.

Now wire it:

1. Design tab → drag a program icon onto the plan and assign it WATERING_MORNING.

2. Function tab → Add connection → drag the program → your watering valve output.

3. Wire manager → name it Watering → +:

   • Action: Program value switch ON

   • User function: a Digital_Impulse_ON of your chosen duration — say a 20-minute DIGITAL_IMPULSE_20MIN you define in Function manager

4. Save, upload.

The impulse does the timing, so you need no "off" program at all.

Connecting programs, timers and counters. These live inside the central unit rather than on a bus, so you may find yourself dragging a wire from the central unit icon. When you do, a Select devices to create wires dialog opens and you choose which timer, counter or program you meant.

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11.4 A two-state program — night setback

A two-state program is on for some stretches of the week and off for others — the same style of weekly graph you drew for heating.

1. System programs → + → Two-state → OK.

2. Program name: NIGHT

3. Select a day and place time stamps, up to 16 per day:

   • Mark adds a single time stamp

   • Mark then Window adds a pair — use this for a "from 22:00 to 06:00" block

4. Set each stretch on or off by clicking below the stamps. Green is ON, red is OFF.

5. Right-click the day label → tick target days or use Working days / Weekend / All week → Copy actual program.

6. ✓.

Wire Program value switch ON → dim the corridor lights to 10 %, and Program value switch OFF → back to normal. The building now has a night mode.

Two-state programs, like heating time plans, can be edited live after the first upload — change the graph and confirm with ✓.

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11.5 A continuous program — holiday mode

A continuous program is a single stretch between two dates.

1. System programs → + → Continuous → OK.

2. Fill in Program name, Start date and Stop date.

3. ✓.

It switches ON at 00:00:00 on the start date and OFF at 23:59:00 on the stop date.

Wire Program value switch ON → HEATING_COOLING_HOLIDAY_PLAN on your heating area, and Program value switch OFF → HEATING_COOLING_NORMAL_PLAN. Set the dates before the client leaves and the house looks after itself.

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11.6 Choosing the right one

You want	Use
Something at a fixed clock time, on chosen days	Periodical
Something on for stretches of the week	Two-state
Something between two calendar dates	Continuous
Something that tracks the sun through the year	Astronomical module
Temperature by hour of the week	Heating/Cooling - week (Ch. 10)
A delay after an event	not a program — a timer (Ch. 12)

The last row matters. Programs answer "what time is it?". Timers answer "how long since something happened?". Reaching for a program when you needed a timer is a common wrong turn.

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What you learned

• A program is an actor, with Program value switch ON / OFF as its actions

• Periodical = a repeating moment · Two-state = weekly on/off stretches · Continuous = between two dates

• The astronomical module gives sunrise, sunset and moon phase as digital inputs

• Four sunshine inputs, each with its own Sunrise/Sunset Offset in seconds

• Sun times are calculated at upload, so the CU clock and time zone must be correct

• Programs need at least one day or month ticked before they can be saved

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Try this before moving on

1. Give Sunshine-DIN3 a Sunrise Offset of +3600 and use it for something that should start an hour after dawn.

2. Build a two-state program that only allows the doorbell to sound between 08:00 and 21:00 — you will use it as a condition in the next chapter.

3. Set up a continuous program for the summer and use it to disable your heating boost button.

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Next: Chapter 12 — Tutorial 8: logic and conditions — timers, counters, system bits, and rules that fire only sometimes.