Summer, sun – summer storm? Thanks to Z-Weather window blinds and awnings can be closed automatically. That’s the way how it works with the Zipato smart home system.
The Z-Weather multi sensor provides various weather and sensor data. The Zipato system receives the following values from Z-Weather:
- Wind speed
- Humidity
- Brightness
- Air Pressure
- Dew Point
- (Outdoor) Temperature
- Efficiency (available energy of a photovoltaic system with 1qm and 17% efficiency)
Installation:
The Z-Weather is supplied unmounted and uncharged. Mount the cup anemometer. In order to charge Z-Weather place it in a location with direct sunlight exposure for 3-4 hours. Without direct sun light, charging may take 12 hours. There is no battery or mains connection need, because Z-Weather is energy-self-sufficient due to a small solar cell and an internal capacitor. The integrated energy management manages wake up intervals an intelligent way. So there will be always enough energy available reporting squally wind or storm. The wake up interval varies from 15 minutes (on sunny day) to 2 hours (at night) to 5 hours (dark winter days).
Include
If the Z-Weather has a full charge you can start your Zipabox’s inclusion process. As known from the Zipabox it will start the exclusion process before resetting the device. Please press the function button (Z-Weather’s bottom side) 3 times for this. After successful exclusion the process has to be repeated for inclusion.
After that the Z-Weather should be listed under “General Measuring Devices” showing the following values:
Note: CUMULATIV_CONSUMPTION and ELECTRIC_PULSE_COUNT can’t be displayed yet. But the next update is planned to solve this (Status: June 7th 2016).
As described above the wake up interval varies on the basis of the internal capacitor’s charge capacity. It is recommended to set the wake up interval to 286 minutes (device configuration) preventing that the Zipato system marks the Z-Weather as “dead”.
If you want to close window blinds or awnings because of squally wind, it’s absolutely recommended to use the association groups. A connection via scenes isn’t useful due to varying and partly long wake up interval.
There are 3 association groups available
- Group 2 can control at too high wind speed. Default: 6m/s (22Km/h)
- Group 3 reports dawn (sunrise). Default: 37%
- Group 4 reports dusk (sunrise). Default: 37%
All values can be changed in parameter configuration. Use parameter 1 setting limit value for wind speed. Default is 6m/s (22Km/h), but it’s possible to change the value from 0-30m/s (1m/s = 3,6 km/h ; 1 km/h = 0,28 m/s).
If one limit value is achieved or exceeded the Z-Weather wakes up and sends a command immediately closing blinds/awnings to all devices connected in association group 2. Thanks to direct connection through association groups the blinds/awnings will close also when the central gateway is out of order.