Auto Off for Kitchen based on motion and other switch

Goal.

Trigger:
Any kitchen light turns on ( Kitchen Canopy, Pantry, Bulb Group, Kitchen overhead)

  • Wait for motion to be inactive for X minutes
    Off - Kitchen Lights
    IF Breakfast Light is on, wait until light is off to run actions.

What I get is it works for the most part, unless breakfast light is turned on while actions are running and timers have started.

I tried using the breakfast light as the required expression but if it turns on while actions are running, I get the same result. Im at a loss.

I also room lighting but it activates all the lights as group.

Here is the Room Lighting set up. Devices to automate has been cleared out because it was grouping all lights on a single light activation. This may be an inherent feature of RL and must be done with RM.

Try this...

If you want to do it in RM, you could try:

  • Trigger the rule on motion becoming inactive and staying that way for 1 minute, or the Breakfast Light turning off
  • Check if the Breakfast light is on and wait for it to turn off
  • Turn off the lights

There is no real need to triggering on the lights turning on, that I can see, turning them off if they are already off won't cause any issues.

It looks like you are manually turning on the lights. If so, and you want to use Room Lighting, just uncheck the ACT button for each light. What is happening is that your Room Lighting instance is turning on when you manually turn on a light. Because the Activation button is selected for all of your lights in the table, it turns on everything. By unchecking the Activation button, Room Lighting will still turn on, but it will only turn off lights after the motion sensors goes inactive or you manually turn off the light(s).

As for the Breakfast light, use @danabw's suggestion of putting it in the don't turn off section if the switch is on rather than limiting activation. If you limit activation, you'll need an event to turn on Room Lighting and an event to turn if back off. By having Room Lighting still activate, all you'll need is either motion inactive or one of the other switches to turn off to run.

Just a suggestion to use a mmW sensor for this instead of a motion sensor. I had two motion sensors covering the kitchen for a long time, and while to worked reasonably well there was always that occasion where we weren't moving enough while cooking, doing dishes, or just standing in the kitchen talking with friends.

All those issues were imeadiately eliminated when I added an Aqara FP2. It covers the kitchen, dining room and living room due to the layout of our house, but even better is the kitchen is split into zones. So the undercabinet lights don't turn on unless you walk up to the sink, and the dining room light doesn't come on unless you sit down at the table. There's even a split where if my son sits down at his piano, the dining room light turns on, but if you walk inbetween his piano and the dining table on your way to the kitchen, the dining room light does not turn on.

@SmartHomePrimer

That is next one my list because this has started happening more frequently. LOL My wife is getting ^%&^

To everyone else-- I will trey each until I get it to work correctly.. Thank you all.

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Instead of using Wait for Expression followed by Delay use Wait for Expression with the Duration option. That'll reset the Wait if the Breakfast Light turns on when the "timer" is running.

@pseudonym --- The Wait Expression dies not have duration --
Wait for event does... But it still doesn't run correctly.

@JB10 @danabw
I built in RL and it activates but never turns off the lights at all.

Clear out your "Set Means to activate lights" section - that should be empty.

My undestanding was that you weren't using the RL to turn the lights on, only to turn them off after motion goes inactive.

I'll try it again, but when I put together a simple version of this last night it worked for me. I was in bed and about to go to sleep so I could have missed something... :slight_smile:

It sure does. Wait for events has "and stays"

Wait for Expression

Wait for Events

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@pseudonym -- sorry :frowning:

really struggling

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No problem. If you want to try RM again, make the suggested changes and post your rule again so we can make a quick check. We'll get you a working rule, be it RM or RL.

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I'm testing the RL I suggested again right now.

And worked perfectly...light was on, I activated several motion sensors. 1 min after motion sensors went inactive, light was turned off. Same would work w/one motion sensor and multiple lights, whatever combination of motion sensors and lights you want.

That's what you want, right?

Let me be a little more proactive here. This should meet your needs and doesn't require the Breakfast Light to also be off for 1 minute.

Trigger Events:
Overhead Light, Canopy Light, Bulb Group, Pantry any turn on
Kitchen Motion, Kitchen V3 any motion active


Event to Run:
Wait for Expression: Kitchen Motion, Kitchen V3 all motion --> duration: 0:01:00
Wait for Expression: Breakfast Light is off
Off: Overhead Light, Canopy Light, Bulb Group, Pantry

I added motion to the trigger to account for the case that you're waiting for the Breakfast Light to turn off but motion goes active again. The rule will run if motion goes active without the lights turning on but it shouldn't make a difference since the lights are already off.

Likely (very) I'm confused, but I can't get how that works. :slight_smile:

Why is the first Wait for all of the lights to turn off? If that's the Wait then the rule doesn't have anything to do at that point, since all the lights are off (the end state he's going for). That first Wait is supposed to be for the motion sensors to go inactive, right?

Oops! Yeah, I grabbed the wrong items for the first wait. Correcting previous post now...

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Figured it was a Ctlr-C/Ctrl-V PEBKAC issue. :wink:

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Absolutely :grinning:

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@pseudonym

What would prevent the lights from turning off IF the breakfast light was turned on during "motion" the duration?