Hi!
Working with time 
in flows opens up tons of new possibilites… 
On Homey Pro, there are multiple ways to work with chronometers/stopwatches/timers/… – put simply: time.
But on Homey Cloud (and Bridge), there is no app which helps here.
My suggestion:
Add a native action (“then”) which stores the current time in a variable, in some standardized format which allows to substract or add seconds, minutes, hours from/to.
With a simple Blog article, you folks could then explain how to do certain calculations, like “IF/WHEN current time is XX larger than variable [time when user A went away]”, THEN do something".
Examples:
- Warn if a window was opened and not closed after X minutes.
- Turn lights on to the previously set brightness, only if turning the lights off was less than 30 minutes ago.
- Turn a device (plug or light) on with a delay after an event happened.
…
Or is there an alternative approach which I might have missed? (talking about Cloud & Bridge here 
)
It seems not so much of a challenge, technically.
Hoping 
for a comment (and more):
Martin
It has less possibilities than a Pro for a reason I think (€€€)
That’s possible
(“Na 45 sec” is Dutch for After 45 sec)
(If it is closed within 5mins, no warning is sent.)
(read “is aan” for is open)
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I totally forgot the “Delay” feature! Thanks, @Peter_Kawa! Also for the example flows!
Will play around with this approach more.
Although this won’t make everything possible and it seems like a hack, too, even where it does help. So, I’m still hoping for a dedicated “store timestamp in variable” system – which would have quite a high benefit for a relatively small (development) investment.
I also don’t think Cloud/Bridge has less possibilities because of the price, but instead only because:
- it is new (incl.: not so many users YET)
- some functionalities are harder to implement
What do you think?
In any case: It will be interesting to see how Cloud/Bridge will evolve!
Best
Martin
Your welcome, Martin. Using the flowcard delay option, combined with logics provides for some options.
It’s a pity one cannot save the timestamp and do calculations with it on both Homey types.
For the Pro (only) are lots of “tools category” apps available, but most of them will not be allowed on Homey cloud.
F.i. HomeyScript can calculate with timestamps, but that’s another level (pure coding).
This is also possible, but for a regular consumer it is too complicated or abstract maybe.
I thought of someting like this, flipping a variable after 30 minutes:
