I have been eagerly awating the 'duration' feature since I got my 3000, as I lost my ability to do X10 'dim' Macros!

I had a look at the new version of ProntoEdit last night and can't work out how to use a 'Duration' in a 'Macro'

The Duration only appears inside a button.. So, would I have to create a hidden button which does 'Dim for X seconds' and then create a macro which uses it???

Jon

Jon,

Please try your suggestion and report back. Your suggested approach makes sense.

I had the same problem with X10 dim macros. Now I have set the duration for the dim IR code to 0.5 seconds. To obtain a light dim to a preset level(s) I have a macro which switches the light OFF, then ON (to maximum) then a series of dims each followed by a delay as follows:

Light OFF
delay 0.1
Light ON
delay 0.1
Link to dim button (hidden) containing IR code
delay 0.1
link to dim button
delay 0.1
link to dim button
etc etc

I find that between 4 & 12 cycles of the dim/delay achieves the range of dimming I require.

Works well for me

Ahha.. Thats a good approach.. Use the 'duration' to make the codes "macro friendly" and then use a sequence of them to dim.

Thats the way that I used to do it on my old Pronto...

But will still try and use the 'dim for x seconds' approach, as thats one of the reasons why 'duration' is there!

Still a little disappointed (And surprised) that they didn't included the 'duration' feature in a macro.. It seems a bit strange that you have to create a duration on your buttons.

In a macro, it would be nice to say "volume down for x seconds"!

I will give it a go later in the week.

Cheers

Jon

You are correct, there is an alternative approach (more sensible) which I have now tested & found to work.

For different amounts of dimming create a number of hidden buttons each containing the IR code for Dim. But each of these is given a different duration. I used 2 seconds to obtain about 50% dim and 5 seconds for a 90% (approx) dim.

The macro then contains a link to the appropriate button ,eg for about 50% dim:

Light OFF
delay 0.1
Light ON
delay 0.1
Link to dim button (hidden) containing dim IR code with duration of 2 secs

The advantage of this approach is that the dimming is smooth whereas my initial methodology was jerky.

The light off/light on cycle is included in order to get a baseline (eg max light level) from which to dim to obtain a final end result level of light intensity.

I have finally got around to testing this and can confirm that my inital theory was right.

Bascially I created a bunch of hidden buttons which did the following

- Dim for 2 seconds
- Dim for 3 seconds
- Dim for 4 seconds
- Undim for 5 seconds.

My Dim macros now call one of these buttons, i.e

1
2
3
4
link too - "Dim for 3 seconds" button

My un-dim macro works the same way:

1
2
3
4
link too - "Undim for 5 seconds" button


I am still a bit dissapointed that you can't set a 'duration' in a Macro directly, but this is far better than nothing and I am really pleased to have my 'X10 macros' working again!

I have a bunch of macros that I want to change which set the volume to zero and then back up to a particular settings ie:

Vol-
Vol-
Vol-
Vol-
Vol-
etc
etc
Vol+
Vol+
Vol+
Vol+

I will do those the same way that I did my X10 commands.

Thanks for your help with this

Jon