Advice on wake-up light automation

šŸ“ Rule MachineĀ®
1

I've just built a zigbee bedside wake-up light from some RGB LED strip & a Gledopto controller, then created an uber-simple rulemachine rule to ramp up brightness over 30 minutes at 7.30am. I've got a zigbee 4-endpoint switch for control - currently only set up as a basic button controller to turn the strip on and off as a bedside lamp. Next step is to make things a bit slicker - hence the request for advice here. I'm a relative novice, having only used 'simple' rules before and never any virtual devices, variables or rulemachine.

so:

  1. It'd be great to set the alarm time more easily - I'm guessing create a hub variable for wake-up time, stick it on a dashboard for easy editing and then trigger the ramp-up rule from that? If so, how's that done? - a virtual device of some sort?
  2. Currently, the off switch doesn't work during the 30-minute ramp-up (I assume the rule to ramp brightness is always active during that time so the light-off command is immediately overridden) - do I have to somehow disable the rule first? Is there a way to extend the rulemachine rule to cancel the ramp-up on button press? It's not obvious if the 'conditions' section of rulemachine can be used in this case, when the rule has already triggered at e.g. 7.30am
  3. slickly enable/disable the alarm via a button press or phone and provide some ideally visual feedback - I've attempted to set the strip to e.g. red or green for 1s but that appears to be hopelessly unreliable. The best I can think of is to use a new rulemachine rule to enable/disable the alarm rule on button press and send a notification to my phone & tablet - is there a good way to single-flash RGB strip?
  4. Lastly, am I missing anything obvious, such as an app that already does some or all of this?
2

I donā€™t have any advice offhand, but hereā€™s what Iā€™ve been using for my son.

IMG_1983
IMG_19831206Ɨ626 82.8 KB

IMG_1982
IMG_19821206Ɨ2276 535 KB

3
  1. Yes you can create a hub variable with time and just use that to trigger your rule.

Trigger at a certain time. I do this for a rule I use to heat my bathroom in winter. I have the variable on a dashboard and I change it as needed.

2, There should be a stop command for a level change. So I would think you can send a stop level change and then off. I am not really sure as I have never really done this, so perhaps someone else can give you better advice.

  1. I have a third reality button by my bed. If I push the button it runs my normal goodnight routine. If I hold it, it runs the good night routine and enables the heating routine. If I double press the button it activates the bathroom heat immediately, in case I wasn't sure when I would get up.

With RM you can have a great deal of flexibility. I have been meaning to adjust the button to different things based on time of day and time of year. Just haven't got around to it yet.