Frequently Asked Question

In order to implement a schedule effectively, understanding the “Before and After” election of an Action and Sensor Schedule is critical. This article will advise of the details of how this configuration operates.

Why this option is important

When setting a schedule for an Action or Sensor Schedule, the iProTAACS software implements schedules with the consideration of a day being an entire 24 hour period starting at 12:00:00 AM and ending at 11:59:59 PM. Therefore despite the natural instinct to set a schedule as a person might think, you will need to consider the way that the iProTAACS software handles schedules.

Understand the “Between” election

It is often instinctual for a person to select the option “Between” when configuring a schedule. However, when the desired schedule crosses the threshold between the end of a day (11:59:59 PM) and the start of a new day (12:00:00 AM), the election “Between” is not applied. This is generally applicable when it is desired for a schedule to be applied overnight crossing the threshold of one day to another. Since the software applies the day schedule as a single 24 hour period, if you select “Between” and the start time you select is a later time than the end time, the schedule will not be applied.

This is why it is critical to understand when to select the “Before and After” schedule option.

Understanding the “Before and After” election

Whereas the “Between” election set the schedule to have a continues period for “on” in the single day, the “Before and After” election is the opposite of “Between”. If you want the schedule to be active during the transition of one day to another, this elections configures an “off” time to be a continuous period of the single day.

Because the portal looks at the schedule as a single 24 hour period, you cannot elect the Before time to be PM, and the After time to be AM. If the Before time is PM and After AM, the schedule will be nullified. Be sure to consider the day as a 24 hour period.

Example

If your objective is to schedule a schedule to be off during the day time hours, but active overnight into the morning of the next day, you would select the “Between and After” schedule option.
Desired schedule
Notification not active: 8 AM until 6 PM the same day
Notification Active: 6 PM until 8 AM the next day
Correct Schedule election: Before 8 AM and After 6 PM

You might see this configuration if a user wants to disable an Action from sending notifications during the daytime hours. For example, users of the Motion Detection sensor often want notifications to send when motion is detected during after hours of their building, but do not have need for the Actions to send during normal operating business hours. In this scenario, the user would schedule the Action for Before 8 AM and After 6 PM. Therefore the Action would not send during business hours while the business is operating, but would sending during after hours when no motion is expected.

Conclusion

It is important to understand that the Schedule is implemented in terms of a contiguous 24 hours period. Once this is clear, the “Before and After” schedule election can successfully be implemented for your purposes.