Away/Vacation "lived in" timeclock event

[dvpvic]

I haven't had a chance to setup and program a time clock event that is activated when away/vacation mode is enabled but will be needing to do so soon and need some clarifications. I will have to add on and off times for specific loads under that away timclock event to have that "somebody is home" look correct? I think that the caseta system has some simple auto mode where it picks random loads when its in away mode (from what some rep told me before). I was under the impression that when I would program a keypad button for that away time clock event that it would randomize and pick loads by itself, but seems thats not the case. If anyone can shed some light on this for me that would be great.

[SDR-Mike]

You will have to generate individual start times/lower/off for each "event" you want to create. I had a small house and was able to create 5 new events to create the "lived in" look. Some of these events actually cross over to the normal mode as well. It can be crazy to think about, but start from the beginning of the "away" and linearly write out what you want. You should be able to create multiple events to generate what you are after.

[dvpvic]

You will have to generate individual start times/lower/off for each "event" you want to create. I had a small house and was able to create 5 new events to create the "lived in" look. Some of these events actually cross over to the normal mode as well. It can be crazy to think about, but start from the beginning of the "away" and linearly write out what you want. You should be able to create multiple events to generate what you are after.

What do you mean by "some actually cross over to normal mode"? That would really happen only if you forgot under which time clock your making the event. Or does some wonky stuff happen when you try to make something like this work.

[SDR-Mike]

What do you mean by "some actually cross over to normal mode"? That would really happen only if you forgot under which time clock your making the event. Or does some wonky stuff happen when you try to make something like this work.

Some things like the "front door light on at sunset" would already exist. It would exist in the normal TC mode. You would want that to also exist in the away mode, so that particular event would have both the normal and away TC modes checked when programming the event. You could then have a normal mode "off" for that front door light at say 9:30PM, and then generate another "off" event in the away mode for sunrise. This way, when you change the TC mode, there will still be an "on" and an "off" for the front door lights. Feel free to email me, i have a great example of this from an actual job. Best compliment came from the customer's neighbor that swore Andy was home, even though he and his wife were in Chicago and the house was empty.

[wkearney99]

You will have to generate individual start times/lower/off for each "event" you want to create. I had a small house and was able to create 5 new events to create the "lived in" look. Some of these events actually cross over to the normal mode as well. It can be crazy to think about, but start from the beginning of the "away" and linearly write out what you want. You should be able to create multiple events to generate what you are after.

You'd duplicate the events that you want to operate in both modes. Bear in mind that some events might not need to be in both. Ones tied to motion sensors and such.

It's also not a bad idea to thrown in a 3am "all off" event. Doesn't have to be everything but it's a handy housekeeping event that tidies up should something have been left lit and not otherwise handled.