Mac Home Automation

Turns on a real unit, group or a pseudo.

turn on “name of the unit”
turnon is OK too.

• in (integer: seconds) If specified an event is created to apply your new settings after this number of seconds.
• at (date) Instead of the in param you may specify a specific date at which to create the event.
• for (integer: seconds) returns the unit to it’s current state this many seconds after any in or at event has run.
• until (date) similar to for but pass the specific date at which you wish the unit to return to it’s current state
• rate (number: seconds) The number of seconds you wish the transition to take. You may specify a fractional seconds value such as 0.2 or 7.5. Not all devices support a rate param.
• with no script Stops the on or off script from running.
• with no transmit Updates the database but doesn't actually send the command.

Many color capable bulbs are now available for ZWave and ZigBee via the Phillips Hue hub. XTension can also create an “RGB Pseudo” that groups any 3 other units as the red, green and blue channels of a single fixture. Even if your device is not directly supported as an individual color lamp the channels are usually available separately. This is normally the case with ZWave 3 channel controllers. There are several optional parameters to this command for setting color. Some are specific to the hue bulbs, others will work for any color capable device.

rgb color (text, a standard HTML color string with each 2 characters being 00 to FF a hex representation of the level of that color in the mix. All color devices support the rgb color command. This is the normal way to set the color of a bulb. “FF0000” would be full red, “0000FF” would be full blue.)
hue/saturation (integer, if using a Phillips Hue bulb you can set the color by passing the hue and saturation. If using this you must pass both the hue and saturation values.)
xvalue/yvalue (number, another method of sending color to a Phillips Hue bulb. If using this you must pass both the x and y coordinate values.)
color temperature (integer, currently supported only for Phillips Hue bulbs this number corresponds to the color temperature. For the hue bulbs this is not the actual color temperature in kelvin, but a number from 153 to 500 with larger numbers being warmer. As other bulbs become more commonly available that support changes in color temperature support will be added for those.)
color preset (number, 1-8, all color capable devices can have 8 colors or color temperatures set as presets. You can recall one by passing the color preset number to this parameter.)

If you are using a color capable device keep in mind that the level that the lamp displays the color at is separate from the brightness of the color that you are passing. For example, dimming a lamp to 10% with an rgb color of “FF0000” would result in a color at the lamp that is really “190000” So if you wish a dimmer red, you can just pass the full on along with a lower dim level. Color presets are handled in the same way. This can be a little confusing when just reading about it, but it does seem to make the most sense when actually using the lamp. You have your lamp at a specific color and you wish to change it to another color, you don’t wish the level to change dramatically along with that color preset change. This is how the Phillips Hue bulbs handle color changes natively and how XTension handles the RGB pseudo internally.

Since the phillips hue bulbs are always treated as simulated including a color setting in the ON command will return the bulb to the last level with that level altering the color that you are passing to be the proper brightness.

RGB colors on the computer screen do not correspond perfectly to the color displayed by the bulb. A lot of work was done to support the specific transforms necessary for the Phillips hue bulbs and as long as you are choosing a color that the bulb can actually generate the color display is pretty close. For RGB Pseudo devices there could be considerable differences between what is displayed on your screen and what is shown at the lamp. Many less expensive devices seem to have an underpowered red channel and so you may have to boost the red above what you need to see the proper color on the screen in order to see the proper color on the lamp itself.

--just turn on the lamp right now
turnon "Kitchen Overhead"

--create a scheduled event that will turn on the light in 30 minutes
turnon "Kitchen Overhead" for (30 * minutes)

--create a scheduled event to turn on the light in 90 seconds
--and another event in 20 minutes and 90 seconds that will turn it back off again.
turnon "Kitchen Overhead" in 90 for (20 * minutes)

-- turn on the light at 8pm and off at 10pm that day
turnon “outside light” at date (“8:00pm”) until date (“10:00pm”)

-- turnon a hue lamp to bright green
turnon “my hue bulb” rgb color “00FF00”

-- turnon a hue bulb moving to a color temperature saved as a preset
turnon “my hue bulb” color preset 2

Non-dimmable (discrete) units simply turn on and off. Different kinds of dimmable devices have widely varying behavior when receiving an ON command. Older X10 devices and some ZWave devices treat an on as a dim to 100%. They will always go to full on when receiving an ON command. Other “smart” devices will remember their last dim level and return to that when they receive an ON command. XTension supports all these types of dimmers but some setup in the unit preferences may be necessary to get them to behave as you wish. See the Dimmable Unit Types page for more information.

The command will do nothing if the unit is Blocked.

When using the “for” or “until” parameters note that the current state of the lamp is saved as the return value. If the lamp is already on then the event that is created will be to return the lamp to on, not to turn it off. If you wish the light to turn on for a specific amount of time while not knowing the current state of the lamp use a separate specific turn off command for the off ie:

turn on “myLamp” 
turn off “myLamp” at date (“11:00pm”)

For more info on making a motion controlled lamp or for extending the time that a light is kept on based on motion or other input please see Motion Controlled Light