Hey there y'all, I need your help please.
I had the idea that I need a babysitter mode for my house. I started doing it but fell down a rabbit hole, got frustrated and deleted everything.
But i've started again and need some help, what I want to do is control the lighting based on a switch to change the flow of modes.
Currently;
Evening mode -60m before sunset
// turn on living room, hallway and bedroom lights (night mode simple lighting)
Night mode 745pm
// turn off hallway, leave living room and bedroom lights on (phase two simple lighting)
Babysitter switch has been made (on/off)
also;
simple lighting - turn everything off if presence FALSE (restrict if babysitter switch on/disable when off)
simple lighting - turn on phase two when mode becomes night (restrict if babysitter switch on/disable when off)
rule machine - activate HSM when mode becomes away (restrict if babysitter switch on/disable when off)
rule machine - activate HSM when presence is FALSE (restrict if babysitter switch on/disable when off)
What I want; When babysitter switch is TRUE
when evening mode goes to night and babysitter switch is TRUE, turn on babysitter lighting
when babysitting lighting switch is FALSE, default to lighting base on current mode (phase two)
It's not an easy question with one right answer... we all handle this differently for our situations. For example, I've given up on modes because I had so many and now handle everything via virtual switches and leave the mode alone.
Hopefully others will chime in with better suggestions (I see @SmartHomePrimer just did), but I'll still post mine to give you ideas on how to proceed. It's like a choose your own adventure novel!
I'd probably create another mode called babysitter, or possibly multiple ones like "Babysitter day", "Babysitter evening" "Babysitter night" (you can see why I gave up on modes having too many). Then change my mode via rule machine using the time of day and the switch. So, if between time X & Y and babysitter off, then turn on evening mode. If between x & y and babysitter on, then turn on babysitter evening mode. Then you could likely still use your existing lighting automations you have just with more modes.
Or you could change to switches to decide your lighting levels like I have and abandon modes, but, not knowing the simple lighting app well you might have to move everything to rule machine to do so.
see, this is what im getting to with falling down the rabbit hole. There are 18 ways to do something, each of them viable, but also super complicated and you can get to the end to only realise you need to make 4 other modes to actually get your rule to work.
Then you need to decide, is this a rule, a triggered rule, an action, a mode based simple lighting..
I have restricted all the normal actions that take place with the babysitter switch. I just need to work out how to switch on a babysitter lighting scene when the mode goes from evening (NM SL) > night (P2 SL) and back, when i switch it off - which really shouldn't be so hard.
With great power comes great responsibility! One of the huge benefits of Hubitat is the power to do so many things, and often that brings multiple ways to do the same thing.
I think most of us have made a rule, then gone back and found a better way to do the same thing. Or more annoying, gone down a path to a dead end, only to find our initial idea of how to do it was flawed and had to rethink the whole thing.
I wish there were a simple way to do everything everyone wanted, but at least at this time there isn't... you have to try and fail until you come up with the least complicated solution that works for you. And it likely won't be the same solution that works best for me and my slightly different situation.
I like to think it comes down to: do you want a limited hub that works the same for everyone, or do you want to customize.. and if you want to customize you have to learn to enjoy the journey of finding the path that works best for you.
If I sound overly positive, or like a motivational poster... it's only because if I don't force myself to think this way then I'd probably be reenacting the most famous scene from Office Space. So know you are not alone!
I don't think it will work in simple lighting (again not familiar with it, maybe it would work with multiple simple lighting rules?), but if you were using rule machine for your lighting, and the babysitter switch changed to off, you could create an action that would retest the evening rule. I don't personally find this to be an elegant solution, but I think that is what you are asking - how can you get the evening rule to rerun when the babysitter switch goes off.
So, what I might do is setup a babysitter scene. And TRY a rule.
If babysitter switch is on TRUE & Night mode is on TRUE, set babysitter scene to ON
If babysitter switch is off TRUE & night mode is on TRUE, set scene to phase two ON
i might not mess with the modes, im happy with where they are at.
Rightio,
So i left the idea of setting a babysitter mode (mode manager) and went with a babysitter switch (called babysitter mode, confusing i know).
Really all I wanted to do was to stop most of the automation while my wife and I were out of the house and someone else was here (also added a remotec 8 button switch to the wall with instructions). And finally wrote my first working rule.
Set the babysitter switch as a restriction for most automation (leaving the geo fence, turning the house off if we werent home etc etc) then all i wanted to do to start off was what I wrote above.
So if the babysitter switch is on, and mode changes to away (both phones leave the fence) delay the action for 1hr and then dim the hallway lights to 10%. Then if anything in the rule changes to false, raise the hallway lights to 100% in three seconds.
@stevebott123 Perhaps the thing to do is to hire a babysitter with Hubitat Rule Machine experience and have them come up with some rules. It would keep them busy and out of the medicine cabinet.
