Running an action only if time condition is met

[alexbca]

Hi everyone! Newbie here, I am using the below script to generate a push notification when I get a delivery at home / someone walks into my garden, using input from some outdoor infrared beams.

This has been working really well with code running on a Raspberry Pi, but I wanted to expand the script to also switch on some smart lights. I am doing this with requests.post via IFTT, but am trying to find a solution to only action this command when it is dark, between sunset and sunrise.

I have done some searching and found Projects like Astral, but with my limited coding knowledge I am a little confused how I would use Astral to do this, so thought I might try to source current time via datetime, specify sunset and sunrise times manually and only action the post request if the event time falls between these times. Would really appreciate any pointers about how I can integrate this.

from pushbullet import Pushbullet
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import requests
from time import sleep
from gpiozero import Button
button = Button(2)
pb = Pushbullet("my_account_api")
pbv = Pushbullet("my_account_api_1")
print(pb.devices)
print(pbv.devices)

while True:
    if button.is_pressed:
        print("Detect")
        push = pb.push_note("IR Detect", "Beams Detect")
        push = pbv.push_note("IR Detect", "Beams Detect")
        requests.post('https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/beamstrigger/json/with/key/xxxxx')
        sleep(21)

else:
    print("Released")

[rob101]

I'd use a Photocell, rather than sunrise/sunset times, which would be far less complicated and possibly more reliable.

[alexbca]

Might look at a PE cell at a later point! I've got it working with this code - but it requires times to be entered manually.

from pushbullet import Pushbullet
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import requests
from time import sleep
from gpiozero import Button
from datetime import datetime

def lights():
    now = datetime.now()
    current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
    start = '20:15:00'
    end = '7:00:00'
    if current_time > start and current_time < end:
	    requests.post('https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/xxx/json/with/key/xxxxxxx')
	    requests.post('https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/xxx/json/with/key/xxxxxxx')
	    requests.post('https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/xxx/json/with/key/xxxxxxx')	

        
   

button = Button(2)
pb = Pushbullet("o.xxxxxxx")
pbv = Pushbullet("o.xxxxxxx")
print(pb.devices)
print(pbv.devices)

while True:
    if button.is_pressed:
        print("Trigger")
        push = pb.push_note("IR Detect", "Beams Detect")
        push = pbv.push_note("IR Detect", "Beams Detect")
        lights()
        
        sleep(21)

else:
    print("NoTrigger")

[rob101]

Might look at a PE cell at a later point! I've got it working with this code - but it requires times to be entered manually.

I've just remembered a website that I've not been to for years: https://www.heavens-above.com/

Under 'Astronomy', there's a link to 'sun'. Maybe you can use the sunrise/sunset data from there?

I don't see an API, but perhaps there's some way around that?

Just casing out thoughts here.

[deanhystad]

Or you could calculate.

If you want to implment the algorithm:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions...nset-times
gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/solareqns.PDF

Or let someone else do the work:
https://pypi.org/project/suntime/

[alexbca]

Thanks crew, will check these out 😊