Just to be very clear, I have no plans to automate the joining of these sessions - you will still have to opt in manually via email or the website. That’s why there are two events - the first says “hey there’s a session being planned” - that’s when you opt in. The second says “hey the session is starting”. At that point your flow can do whatever you want in terms of powering-up or powering-down.
It may be possible to finesse the session is starting trigger so that it is only signalled if you have opted in - I need to check the availability and quality of the opt-in data. Also include the minutes duration as a tag on this card so your flow can reverse its changes at the end of the session.
Maybe an end of session trigger card. Lots to think about.
Wasn’t expecting that to be honest, it is primarily the start and end of session triggers to automate things. I can’t see Octopus wanting people to try automate the sign-up to events frankly. But that’s the purpose of the announcement trigger, so you know to login and sign up if you want to. No point trying to make it too complex or convoluted.
Evening all. Had a user get in contact today, they had problems with Intelligent Octopus Go after Octopus exercised the 360 minute dispatch limit on their account. The pricing data associated with IOG was completely wrong, causing the Kraken App to stop working.
This fix release hardens the code around slot handling so that the App will continue to function. However, when the price slot data is wrong, calculations around pricing and value will also be wrong (you can’t calculate correct outputs from incorrect inputs).
If you have problems with IOG you should get in contact with Octopus to get them put right. I was able to help the user in question by supplying a snapshot of the erroneous pricing data so they could demonstrate the mess to Octopus.
Been following-up on how to implement Power-Up and Power-Down sessions. The good news is the “strawberry” GQL environment that has to be used to get this data appears more robust than it first seemed.
More good news is that the data looks relatively straight-forward. For an account there is an indicator to show whether or not the Power-Up/Power-Down campaign has been joined (have you opted into these sessions at all).
If you are opted in, then there are two data lists. One shows the set of published sessions with dates, times, session type, octo-points per kWh and other data. The other shows the set of sessions that you have opted to join.
In terms of the functionality previously discussed, the first list can be used to fire the “Newly Published” Trigger flow card when a new event is published. The second list can be used to fire the “Session Starting” Trigger flow card when the session actually starts. This list will also support a “Session Ending” Trigger flow card.
Priorities
Gas Tariff to include Invoice Period data
Correct handling and pricing for IOG dispatch sessions, including the time-limit
Oh that sounds absolutely amazing. When you do get to this part, if there is any way of displaying these lists, especially the published sessions list, so you know when to sign up for them, that would be utterly amazeballs!!!
Thank you for your time researching this, much appreciated. And it sounds good news that it’s more robust than you expected. I look forward to helping you test it From what I have used so far, and what you have described is coming, this is going to be one of the best apps I’m running on my Homey
In my experience there is only one future event at any one time. It would be possible to have a device that displayed the details of this event. However, that seems less useful to me than having a flow trigger.
If you have a trigger flow card it can pass all the details as tags. Then you can write a flow that does whatever you want with that information - including sending those details to your mobile phone as an alert. You could even write and run a script that did the sign-up for you.
Once you have signed up, the Event Start trigger would enable you to set up any behaviour you want - again the Start trigger can provide tags about whether it is a Power-Up, Power-Down (or now the recently introduced Weekend Happy Hour). Your flow can decide whether to eat all the power it can, or to stop consuming anything.
One extra thing the app will have to do in the Tariff And Account Devices is apply a zero charge to the Weekend Happy Hours.
Gotta love how all these special cases are making cost calculations ever more difficult…
Planned tags on “New Session Scheduled” card:
Event type
Start date-time
End date-time
Duration in minutes
Reward per kWh (octo points) [think this is for Power-Down only]
Event Id (just because its there)
Planned tags on “Session Start” and “Session End” cards:
Event type
Start date-time (though that’s “now”, of course)
End date-time
Evend Id (it might be useful)
Need to think about “Session End” handling - maybe have a “pre-session end” card (say 2 minutes before the end) so that devices that take time to shut down (like the typical ASHP) can be triggered early. Might just NOT HAVE a session end card - the flow triggered at the start could use the duration to wait then trigger “off” behaviours after the wait. A potential problem with that is Homey rebooting during the flow. But then if Homey is down when the session end flow card should be received, it won’t happen anyway.
I agree, I was just thinking of a possible idea for a widget that listed any future or current events… you did say you were considering widgets further down the line didn’t you.
The most important things in my personal opinion though would definitely be the event start and end When trigger cards for flows.
I think I may have spotted a possible issue with the Gas Tariff. It seems to be showing up as a device consumption in the Electricity usage list and being included in that, throwing out the Electricity usage by however many KWh gas used. I’m reasonably sure it used to turn up in a separate graph from the Electricity, that was red instead of blue. Is this a bug?
As long as it’s of help n value, I will keep testing and commenting any oddities I find
I have to say, so far, it’s been a damn sight more stable than my old solution that was a bought and paid for commercial product… a Glowmarkt CAD (not a typo, that’s how they spell it). Which is basically an In Home Display device, but that connects to your WiFi as well as the meter’s Zigbee HAN, so it gives you instantaneous live Electric & Gas meter data. Despite paying for it, it was always dropping connection to Homey or the meter, and was a total pain in the posterior. The Octopus Home Mini with your app hasn’t skipped a beat once yet!
wanting people to try automate the sign-up to events frankly. But that’s the purpose of the announcement trigger, so you know to login and sign up if you want to. No point trying to make it too complex or convoluted.
From what I have used so far, and what you have described is coming, this is going to be one of the best apps I’m running on my Homey 
