I want to improve my automations by taking into account physical interactions with the system.
The picture or view of the system I have in mind to make this improvement would show:
physical interactions for a device
groupings by time of day
a link to apps that relate to this device
I would still have to figure out how best to make the adjustment by way of making a new mode, app change for brightness level or whatever, or a new app, but I think that just knowing about what the day looks like with regards to physical interactions would be a nice start.
Does this exist?
If it does not, would people want to use a view like this?
Related: I can get close to a view like this by searching for “[physical]” in my past Hubitat logs but it’s a little hard to understand since I have to make a mental model of the day by reading each timestamp and would prefer something more like a scatter plot.
An approach to this that I've used, particularly with respect to assessing when my home is "Occupied" or not, is to create a Virtual Button device with N buttons. That may sound useless but hear me out...
Into whichever automations/rules that I deem to be "physical activity", I insert a "Push: Button X" action, so that the VB has an event assigned to it and immediately stands ready to receive more such "pushes".
Activities that qualify: Motion inside home; Cellphone arriving home; Remote being used; Lights physically turned on/off; Thermostat adjusted, etc.
Basically, you decide what type(s) of activity you want to probe, and let the VB act as a "counter" that's easy to graph or Log as you see fit. The reason I allow multiple buttons is that each occupant or room or sensor type may have its own corresponding Button Y.
Oh, and I also make liberal use of Button Controller app.
IF my setup doesn't appeal to you or seems a bit intricate, remember that you can always include a simple LOG action inside Rule Machine (not sure if Simple Automation, Room Lighting or other apps offer this action) stating "Physical activity" so you can filter for that in Logs later on.
