{"id":166,"date":"2017-08-20T13:28:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/?p=166"},"modified":"2017-08-20T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T13:28:13","slug":"use-environment-canada-weather-forecast-atom-feed-to-decide-whether-to-irrigate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/08\/20\/use-environment-canada-weather-forecast-atom-feed-to-decide-whether-to-irrigate\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Environment Canada Weather forecast atom feed to decide whether to irrigate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have more or less switched to using Home Assistant to automate things at the cabin. \u00a0One of the things I’ve had to do is integrate the Etherrain\/8 from\u00a0QuickSmart<\/a>\u00a0into HomeAssistant by creating a new component and switch module. \u00a0This is currently (as of this writing) on a branch<\/a> waiting for release integration.<\/p>\n

Now the next thing was to automate the irrigation. \u00a0HomeAssistant’s automation scripts take a bit of getting used to.. It’s certainly not very intuitive but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

First the automation, to water the front beds at 7 AM on Mon\/Wed\/Fri if the chance of rain is <60%:<\/p>\n

    - id: water_front_beds_on\r\n      alias: Start<\/span> Watering Front Beds mon\/wed\/fri at<\/span> 7<\/span>AM\r\n      initial_state: on<\/span>\r\n      trigger<\/span>:\r\n        platform: time<\/span>\r\n        hours: 7<\/span>\r\n        minutes: 0<\/span>\r\n        seconds: 0<\/span>\r\n      condition:\r\n        condition: and<\/span>\r\n        conditions:\r\n          - condition: state\r\n            entity_id: binary_sensor.rain_unlikely\r\n            state: 'on'<\/span>\r\n          - condition: time<\/span>\r\n            weekday<\/span>:\r\n              - mon\r\n              - wed\r\n              - fri\r\n      action<\/span>:\r\n        service: switch.turn_on\r\n        entity_id: switch.front_beds<\/code><\/pre>\n
So the next question is likely “where does rain_unlikely come from”? \u00a0It’s here:<\/p>\n
    binary_sensor:\r\n      - platform: threshold\r\n        name: rain_unlikely\r\n        threshold: 59\r\n        type<\/span>: lower\r\n        entity_id: sensor.environment_canada_pop\r\n    \r\n      - platform: mqtt\r\n        state_topic: environment_canada\/pop\r\n        name: environment_canada_pop<\/code><\/pre>\n
Essentially, an MQTT message with a percentage that is the “probability of precipitation”. \u00a0But who generates this MQTT message? \u00a0In fact, nobody really. \u00a0This is just a placeholder sensor that holds the POP. \u00a0But something must populate this. Well, here’s an Appdaemon script written in Python:<\/p>\n
    import appdaemon.appapi as appapi\r\n    import feedparser\r\n    import sys\r\n    import time\r\n    import datetime\r\n\r\n    class<\/span> EnvCanada<\/span>(appapi<\/span>.AppDaemon<\/span>):<\/span>\r\n\r\n      def<\/span> initialize<\/span>(self<\/span>)<\/span><\/span>:\r\n        if<\/span> \"locator\"<\/span> in<\/span> self<\/span>.args:<\/span>\r\n          loc = self<\/span>.args[\"locator\"<\/span>]\r\n        else:<\/span>\r\n          loc = \"ab-52\"<\/span>  # Default to Calgary<\/span>\r\n        if<\/span> \"hr\"<\/span> in<\/span> self<\/span>.args:<\/span>\r\n          hr = int(self<\/span>.args[\"hr\"<\/span>])\r\n        else:<\/span>\r\n          hr = 4<\/span>\r\n        if<\/span> \"ahead\"<\/span> in<\/span> self<\/span>.args:<\/span>\r\n          add=int(self<\/span>.args[\"ahead\"<\/span>])\r\n        else:<\/span>\r\n          add = 0<\/span>\r\n\r\n        myargs={}\r\n        myargs[\"loc\"<\/span>] = loc\r\n        myargs[\"add\"<\/span>] = add\r\n        myargs[\"module\"<\/span>] = self<\/span>.args[\"module\"<\/span>]\r\n        # First run immediately<\/span>\r\n        h = self<\/span>.run_in(self<\/span>.get_pop, 1<\/span>, **myargs)\r\n        # Then schedule a runtime for the specified hour.<\/span>\r\n        runtime = datetime.time(hr, 0<\/span>, 0<\/span>)\r\n        h = self<\/span>.run_once(self<\/span>.get_pop, runtime, **myargs)\r\n\r\n      def<\/span> get_pop<\/span>(self<\/span>, args)<\/span><\/span>:\r\n        loc = args[\"loc\"<\/span>]\r\n        add = args[\"add\"<\/span>]\r\n        d=feedparser.parse('http:\/\/weather.gc.ca\/rss\/city\/{0}_e.xml'<\/span>.format(loc))\r\n        weekdays=[\"Monday\"<\/span>,\"Tuesday\"<\/span>,\"Wednesday\"<\/span>,\"Thursday\"<\/span>,\"Friday\"<\/span>,\"Saturday\"<\/span>,\"Sunday\"<\/span>]\r\n        today = (weekdays[time.localtime().tm_wday+add])\r\n        pop = 0<\/span>\r\n        for<\/span> entry in<\/span> iter(d.entries):\r\n          if<\/span> today in<\/span> entry.title:<\/span>\r\n            if<\/span> \"howers\"<\/span> in<\/span> entry.title:<\/span>\r\n              pop = 100<\/span>\r\n            if<\/span> \"POP\"<\/span> in<\/span> entry.title:<\/span>\r\n              next<\/span>=0<\/span>\r\n              for<\/span> word in<\/span> iter(entry.title.split(\" \"<\/span>)):\r\n                if<\/span> next:<\/span>\r\n                  pop = int(word.rstrip(\"%\"<\/span>))\r\n                if<\/span> word == \"POP\"<\/span>:\r\n                  next<\/span>=1<\/span>\r\n        print(\"{0}: Got POP {1}\"<\/span>.format(args[\"module\"<\/span>], pop))\r\n        self<\/span>.set_state(\"sensor.environment_canada_pop\"<\/span>, state = pop)\r\n\r\n      def<\/span> terminate<\/span>(self<\/span>)<\/span><\/span>:\r\n        self<\/span>.log(\"Terminating!\"<\/span>, \"INFO\"<\/span>)\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
This essentially grabs the Atom feed from Environment Canada, looks for the word “Showers” or “showers” or “POP” and generates that percentage. \u00a0It then reaches under the skirt of Home Assistant and populates the above mentioned ‘MQTT sensor’.. I really wish I could think of a better way to do that.<\/p>\n
Just for the sake of completion; here is the AppDaemon configuration to get it all started:<\/p>\n
  EnvCanada:\r\n  module: environment_canada\r\n  class: EnvCanada\r\n  hr: 5\r\n  ahead: 0\r\n  locator: ab-53\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
The ‘ahead’ attribute is “how many days ahead to determine the POP. \u00a0Ie: at 0, it returns todays probability of precipitation. \u00a0At 1, it will return tomorrow’s. \u00a0 the ‘hr’ attribute is when AppDaemon should run this script. \u00a0In this case, at 05:00AM. \u00a0The ‘locator’ is the portion of the URL that specifies which Environment Canada weather location to use. \u00a0‘ab-53’ is Sundre Alberta.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Hope that helps someone.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have more or less switched to using Home Assistant to automate things at the cabin. \u00a0One of the things I’ve had to do is integrate the Etherrain\/8 from\u00a0QuickSmart\u00a0into HomeAssistant by creating a new component and switch module. \u00a0This is currently (as of this writing) on a branch waiting for release integration. Now the next… Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beer.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}