App manual – Clock rules

You get to the clock rules list screen by pressing the or button for a specific light switch on the main screen. It is a list of all the clock rules you’ve specified for a particular ETHA Light Switch.

Here you can add, modify and delete clock rules. Any changes to the clock rules are only sent to the ETHA Light Switch when you press either the Back button of your device or the Up button in the app bar. Pressing these buttons when no changes are made will not send anything to the time switch. Pressing Discard changes in the menu will discard all changes made, including deletions of clock rules.

The button takes care of removing a clock rule (again, only after confirmation by pressing the Back button of your device or the Up button in the app bar).

To modify a clock rule just press the entry in the list. To add a clock rule, press on the button. Both actions take you to the next screen where you can edit the (new) clock rule. The same as stated above applies to this screen: pressing the Back button of your device or the Up button in the app bar confirms the changes, while pressing Discard changes discards any changes made. (Note that a confirmation of this screen will be undone by pressing Discard changes in the clock rules list screen.)

Here is an overview of all the fields of the clock rule screen:

Clock rule name

This is just a (explanatory) name, meant to describe something that has a meaning to you.

Active

Indicates whether this particular clock rule is active or not. This offers a quick way to inactivate the clock rule without the need to delete it completely.

From

and

To

These two sections describe the period for which this clock rule is valid. They both essentially consist of the same fields. First you have to choose between Clock time and Solar time. With this choice the possible input fields change.
With Clock time you get the input field Clock time (hh:mm). When you press it, a clock time picker appears.
With Solar time the input field Solar time appears. Pressing this field leads to a solar time picker.

For a more in-depth explanation of these fields see here.

Another input field appears when you choose Solar time. This field, Divider, is explained here.

Lastly, the To section has one more input field than the From section. This field, Next day, indicates whether the time of the To section is on the day following the time of the From section, or on the same day. Sometimes you cannot change this indicator. For instance, when you set the time of the From section to a clock time of 20:00 and the time of the To section to a clock time of 18:00, it is obvious that the latter time is on the next day. A clock rule from 20:00 to 18:00 the same day is nonsense. The same applies to solar times. A clock rule from sunset to sunrise will always have the Next day field checked.

It is not always obvious, however. In those cases the Android app tries to guess what you mean (this happens when you make changes to the From and To sections), but that could be the wrong choice. In those cases you can alter the Next day field manually.

Days

Here you can choose for which days of the week (Monday to Sunday) this clock rule is valid. Just press on the symbol to change the value. The button means that on Monday this clock rule is applied. The symbol means that on Monday this clock rule is skipped.

Apply pattern

Normally a clock rule describes a period wherein the light is on. With a pattern you can change that behaviour in shorter periods of light on and light off. See here for more information on patterns. When Apply pattern is activated, more input fields will become available.

On (minutes)

The time the light is on within the pattern. The time is in minutes. Pressing in this field leads to a time picker popup, where you can set this time (in hours and minutes).

Off (minutes)

The time the light is off within the pattern. The time is in minutes. Pressing in this field leads to a time picker popup, where you can set this time (in hours and minutes).

Randomize pattern

The time the light is on and the time the light is off are normally fixed times. With Randomize pattern the ETHA Light Switch Python program randomizes these times to a time in seconds between 1 minute and the time supplied.