jeff-winn / homebridge-automower-platform

A platform plugin for Homebridge to connect your Husqvarna Automower and Gardena Smart (BETA) robotic lawn mowers to Apple HomeKit.

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Run switch instead of a schedule switch

jeff-winn opened this issue · comments

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe:

As a user, I'd like to be able to have the mower go back to the charging station when I arrive home. This is to prevent my son from getting into the mower to play with it.

Describe the solution you'd like:

I would like a switch which turns "on" when the mower is mowing the lawn, or "on" when I press the button manually. When "off" I would like it to run on the next schedule.

Describe alternatives you've considered:

The existing switch seems to park indefinitely, rather than until the next scheduled execution.

Additional context:

Mower:

  • Year:
  • Model:

My main concern with this item is the dual control of the mower mowing the lawn between Apple HomeKit and any home automation, and the mower onboard schedule.

User Personas

  1. Someone that wants to control the mower only within HomeKit (Preferred)
  2. Someone that wants to use the mower onboard schedule to control timing while being able to turn the mower off via HomeKit
  3. Someone that wants to use the onboard schedule to control timing while still enabling the mower manually via HomeKit

Personas 1 and 3 essentially end up operating the same way. The only difference is the mower starts without the knowledge of the plug-in at predetermined intervals.

Persona 2 is going to get strange behavior if they turn the mower on. Given that the switch would be “run until turned off”. This seems more like a desire for a stop button than a switch to me.

Normal expectations of any switch turned on, is it would be turned off at some point.

The big difference here is the change in behavior of the controlling service needs to use “park until further notice” or “park until next schedule”.

Only persona 1 could use the “park until further notice” call, the other two would use “park until next schedule”. In which case if “park until next schedule” was also used for persona 1, this would meld persona 1 and 3 together.