So this is the first time I've tried grouping lights.
I have four recessed zigbee lights.
I added them, defaulted to "Device", and I changed them to "Advanced Zigbee RGBW Bulb".
I tested each one by changing colors and levels from the device page; and all four work great.
The problem is when I try to group them.
Here is what I would like:
One scene for normal usage (2700 white color).
One scene for movies (blue, purple, green, cyan).
That's it.
I tried using Room Lighting first.
I was able to setup the two instances; but anytime I tried switching between them, I had erratic results. Honestly, I don't know how to set it up the best way.
Next, I tried using Groups and Scenes.
I created two scenes (one for normal and one for movies).
Everything seemed okay on initial setup, but again when switching between the two, I had erratic results. I would try turning off one scene, but when I went back to the app listings page, the other scene was still active. So I would go turn off that scene, go back to apps listing page, and the scene was still active.
My lights will stay normal most of the time.
I'd like to be able to say, "Alexa, turn on movie mode".
This will fade the lights from the normal white, to the rainbow colors.
When it's over, I could say, "Alexa, turn off movie mode".
And the rainbow colors fade back to normal white.
Certainly someone else is already doing this.
What am I doing incorrectly?
Which app should be used? RL or Groups and Scenes?
EDIT:
I forgot to add, I would like all four lights to behave as a group.
I'd like them turn on/off, dim, and change color as a group.
First, unless you need a specific feature in the "Advanced..." driver, I'd try the "Generic..." equivalent first. The "Advanced" driver doesn't work with all devices, though either should be fine if it does work with yours.
Zigbee group broadcasting, which is an option in both RL and Groups and Scenes (really only Groups), might help if you want to command all the devices to the same settings. But for "scenes," whether Scenes or different settings per your RL activation table, it's just going to be a bunch of commands to each individual device. Some handle this better than others. Groups and Scenes offers a "metering" option that can space the commands out a little, which may help even though this shouldn't be necessary (to such an extent that it was never added to RL in the first place).
What the scene activator device itself says isn't necessarily a problem; there are settings for how the group and scene activators work, most of which ultimately depend on what states the individual devices report back. Ideally, that would be the same as their real states, but unless you rely on this device for anything, I wouldn't pay too much attention to that (or consider changing options for how it behaves to your liking if you do--and looking at the individual devices and their drivers if that's where the problem is).
Either app should work for your purposes.
This might be a different issue than the rest of your post. You can do this with either app as well. But the key is that to get this behavior, you'll need to command them using the group device (or the RL activator device). You can't manually change one device individually in the group and expect it to propagate to all the others in the group just because they are in the group, if that is what you're thinking -- unless you create some additional automation to handle that (but that would be a problem for your "scene" usage where it seems you do want them to be different).
Thank you. This helps, and gives me something to play with.
I did briefly try the generic driver; but probably not long enough. I'll switch back.
So yes, to clarify to myself, I'd like:
All lights belong to a group. I can turn on/off, or change color, as a group. I will change this from the newly created "group" device... which should propagate to all devices.
Now, I'd like to have a scene, where each light is a different color.
1st Use Case:
The lights are on normal white, 2700K.
I turn on the "movie" scene. All lights change to their designated colors.
I turn off the "movie" scene, and all lights return to their normal 2700K white color.
Hi Bill.
Well, after spending about 25 hours playing around with Room Lighting and Groups and Scenes, I was unable to get a reliable solution.
Sometimes clicking to activate a scene would do nothing.
However, a second click to activate would get "some" of the lights to the correct setting.
State variables did not update correctly. The light would change color, but remain in an "old" state on it's driver page.
In a nutshell, sometimes I was able to get it working once, but subsequent attempts were unreliable. Basically, I could never get it working with 100% accuracy.
So.. I started thinking of other means.
I have an Aqara cube; I only use two sides.
So, I setup rules in Rule Machine that when flipped to side 3, set each light in the living room to a different color. When flipped to side 4, change back to warm white.
This works reliably 100% of the time. I sat last night flipping the cube back and forth about 30 times, and it worked every single time. The only downside is, I have to say "Alexa, flip cube to side 3", instead of "Alexa, turn on movie mode".
Taking this a step further, I could probably add virtual switches which run the appropriate rule when turned on. This would let me say "Alexa, turn on movie mode".
No idea why Room Lighting and Groups and Scenes was so difficult in my case. I was able to successfully create one scene of white, dim, turn on/off... so that worked great. It was changing between CT and RGB that was the issue.
Anyways, hope this helps.
I'll continue to dig as I have time.
Thank you for your info!
I will try a few things also because I have a couple of rooms that have Singled RGBW lights in them, and I would like to control them in a group rather than individually, so groups or RL I thought would be the way, but there are some problems with this as you have found out also.
Thanks for your efforts and info!
The Aqara cube sounds interesting.....
I was reading the thread about @kkossev's driver for the cube and saw that the Button Controller can be used with it which pretty much sold me. I'm a sucker for interesting gadgets.
I would think that your idea with the virtual switch controlled by Alexa that executes your rule actions will work perfectly. I don't have Amazon devices, but in the Google world I can create a custom voice command like "turn on movie mode" to flip a switch which will trigger Hubitat to do whatever automations are needed.
