After updating to the latest version, I noticed an issue with my scenes.
On the positive side, so far, the Scene itself seems to more accurately reflect the state of the individual devices in showing (in the title) that it is "On" or "Not Set".
However, after several devices in a scene that was previously set to "on" changed state, the "Scene Name" reflected that it was "(Not Set)" however the associated "Scene Activator" device remained "State=On".
Ah. So, is there a way to tell (in a rule) if a Scene is fully on? I not aware of a way for a rule to detect the actual scene state directly from the "scene" itself.
Currently, I have a dashboard where I track the on/off state of key scenes for easy reference. In the previous version, reading the activation device's state value seemed to reflect what the hub thought the scene was set to--but that is no longer accurate.
Another use case involves using an RGBW LED device to reflect the currently active scene (e.g., Inovelli dimmers, etc.). If there was a way to test the state of a scene, you could create a simple rule to do that ("If Scene1=On, then set LED=Red"...).
Since the scene could change state (on<>off) by a person manually turning a light on/off (in addition to rule actions), being able to trigger that rule from the activation device's state change would be one way to allow proper updates to the indicators.
I was hoping to use the (future) multi-button/multi-LED scene switch from Inovelli in this manner--each button would correspond to a scene and the LED next to it would show the scene's state. As this is still a ways out (if Inovelli is able to bring it to market), this is only in the "hope to sometime" stage (and my dashboard was the substitute).
I noticed this as well. I have a scene that I use for all the defaults of my kitchen lights. It used to work that if one of them was turned off the scene device would then change to off. Now the scene device on/off state is totally irrelevant and only reflects the last time you used it to set the scene vs the actual state of the devices.
Similar issue here. When I activate the scene (by rule, or by clicking "activate scene" on scene detail page), devices turns to correct state. But, on scene detail page, the button stays titled "activate scene", and on top, there is still red "(Not Set)" after scene name. This worked in 2.2.8 - when scene was activated, button changed from "activate scene" to "deactivate/unset", not sure now how exactly it was called, important is the button then allowed to turn off the scene, which is now not possible. And the title "(Not Set)" was there only if the scene was not set, after activating scene this "(Not Set)" was removed from title. That's not happening now.
I found a bug in Scene due to investigating the activator issue @rob9 asked about. I think it's not accurately reflecting the fully set condition for RGB bulbs. You can tell, and it would be helpful if you would post a screenshot, by the display in the app of the current scene settings. If you see something in bold black parens, e.g. (40) -- that means it thinks that value is wrong. So if you see that right after the same value, e.g. like this:
Hmmm, I guess this fixed it by working around it and creating a virtual switch to replace what I used to be able to do with the scene device. I swear before that the scene device would stay in sync (on/off) with the Set / Not Set state of the scene child app. That is exactly how I was using it. Now I have to create yet another virtual device just to toggle the scene. I am using a scene and not a group because then I can set the specific dimming levels I want in the scene.
Am I doing something that was not intended to be done? Using a scene to toggle on / off a group of lights to a favorite setting?
I can confirm DO NOT set the new Scene Set Indicator switch to the actual scene device. Very bad things will happen. If you turn off one light in the scene, the scene becomes not set, which then sets the scene device to off, which then triggers the scene to turn off. You would think it would be done there but for some reason it got stuck in a cycle and had to reboot the hub then check the disabled box next to the scene device just to be able to open the scene app and disable that setting!
However, the "Scene Activator" is apparently a very "special" device that is intended only to force an activate/deactivate of the scene--not to reflect the scene's actual state.
Thus, pointing to a virtual SWITCH device that can be used to determine the state of the scene.
From what @bravenel said, there-indeed-are serious complications if you have the scene activation process attempt to set the scene activator to "on" (or "off").
Namely, when the scene goes "On", it will turn itself On again. And, when it then realizes it is On again, it will turn itself On again, .... forever. As you found out.
But it used to do that on its own, I have been using it for months and if I turned off one light in the scene manually the Scene would become not set and the device/activator would then be off. Then if I wanted to restore all the lights back to default I could just press the scene to turn it back on. Now it would still be in the on state so pressing it would turn the scene off. I could roll back to 2.2.8 to prove this but I am certain that is how it worked.
It sounds like if I make a virtual device and point the scene to it with this new feature it will do the same thing but it seems like a regression from how it was working before.
I think it may have done that also. However, there were some other issues with scenes that were fixed in this release. It appears that, as part of fixing that issue (which several people mentioned), they had to separate the activation device functionality from the indicator device.
If the end result is far more stable scene behavior, I'm all for it!
OK next problem. I created the virtual device. All this does is mirror the Set / Not Set to the on/off state of the virtual device. Turning the virtual device on or off does not change the scene.
I can turn the scene activator device on / off to adjust the scene but the problem is that when mapped to a dashboard (homekit in my case) it does not reflect the actual state of the scene.
Am I overlooking something obvious that I should be doing instead?
I see on the Hubitat dashboard if I add the scene activator as a "Scene" tile, it gives an on/off button but with no indication of what state it is in.
Update: Maybe if I make a rule to set the scene based on when I toggle the virtual device on/off it would work the same as the scene activator used to work. I would turn ON the virtual device, the rule would then turn on the scene, the scene would then attempt to turn ON the virtual device but it would already be on. Hopefully wont cause an endless loop.... again.
At that point the scene activator device would be totally worthless to me, wonder if I can just delete it.
Correct: The "scene indicator switch" does NOT change the scene. It is only a device that lets you know the state of the scene (assuming you have NOT manually changed it--in which case, the results are unpredictable).
Yes, you CAN turn the Scene Activator on OR "push" it to activate the scene. You may also (more clearly) do an "Activate Scene" command. But, all 3 do the same thing.
Creating a dashboard tile linked to the Scene Activator would likely let you activate the scene by pressing it but, yeah, I don't think it would properly show the state.
You might consider using the "switch" attribute from the "scene indicator" to show the state.
YIKES!! I am pretty sure THAT will be a disaster again (causing the same loop you had before).
Can confirm, I did not think of what would happen when I turned off one light. Scene becomes NOT SET, virtual device gets turned off, Rule then picks that up and turns the entire scene off.
Well... this is frustrating. I somehow need to show the on/off state of the virtual device but when I push to toggle it, it needs to turn the actual scene on/off without creating a loop.
EDIT: I think I could make it work with a second virtual device, and a complicated set of rules to tie it to the first virtual device. I would have to use some variables to block the looping, such that is if the scene becomes not set, vd1 gets turned off, the rule then sets a time variable and turns off vd2. The other rule which would then pick up on vd2 being turned off, sees the variable just got set so it ignores it and does nothing. Then if vd2 gets flipped to ON, it would then transfer that to the scene activator turning on the scene, which would then turn VD1 ON. I could have another time var check there to stop it..... Yeah thats way too complicated for this. might just delete the whole scene and forget I ever created it.
Trying to think of ideas for you. So, not tried these myself and I might be making things more complex, but...a thought:
------Create a Virtual Switch named "VSIndicator" (point the scene indicator switch to this)
------Create a 2nd Virtual Switch named "VSToggle" (use in your dashboard, etc.)
------Create a rule on "event: VSToggle changed" named "SceneToggle"
If Private Boolean=False Exit Rule
If (VSToggle=On)
Activate Scene xxx
Else
Off: Scene xxx
End-If
------Create a 2nd rule on "event: VSIndicator changed" named VSIChanged
Set Private Boolean False on SceneToggle
If (VSIndicator=On)
VSToggle=On
Else
VSToggle=Off
End-If
Set Private Boolean True on SceneToggle
