I'm a newbie to Hubitat. I successfully paired a SmartWings z-wave shade. It shows up in the device list and I can control it with the command buttons displayed. I even added an Alexa integration for it and can control it through Alexa. I set out to create a Basic Rule to close the shade at sunset. I must be missing something because I cannot pick actions for the shade device in the "Do This" prompt. All I can do is pick a Mode. Any advice for a newbie?
That does seem strange. What platform version are you running? Is it the latest version?
I just installed Basic Rules on my test hub (running platform version 2.3.5.152) and setup a new rule triggered at sunset and saw a different list to what you showed on your screenshot. I do notice that mine includes the "1.0" text after the title for Basic Rule....
Yup, that looks very odd. You're almost all of the actions. Almost like the app isn't seeing that you have the shade installed...
@Wonderfit - when you click on Basic Rules to start creating a new rule, do you see this version number:
This is normal; Basic Rule (and Rule Machine and some other built-in apps) tend to only show "actions" you can actually use, based on the devices added to your system.
For the Basic Rule in the OP's screenshot, this leaves one of two issues. Either the shade driver isn't implementing the right capability (the one that Basic Rule is looking for, likely WindowShade) -- which seems unliklely given that the device detail page screenshot shows the commands and attributes you'd expect from such a device -- or the "cache" of installed device capabilities that Basic Rule is working with didn't get refreshed.
That last thing seems most likely to me, and it could happen if you had the rule open while adding the device. Since there isn't much here, I'd just hit "Remove" at the bottom to abort creating this rule and not install it, then open the "parent" Basic Rules app to try creating another Basic Rule and see if the problem persists. (Maybe even hit "Done" in the parent Basic Rules app first then go in again, just for fun? Not entirely sure when it reads these...)
@danabw my version is Version 1.0.4 (9/26/2022)
@bertabcd1234 I removed the rules and clicked the "done" button, rebooted the hub even. That didn't get me more actions. I also noticed that no devices are available for making a dashboard as well--I'm sure that is the same issue. The fact that this shade shows up and works on the device screen, Alexa can even integrate with it for commands, but the Hub itself cannot build dashboards or Basic Rules with it is definitely a puzzle. I read that some devices need virtual devices in front of them--not sure if this is one of them. Forgive my ignorance. . . still learning.
I created a virtual shade device to see if it showed up. It adds actions like a dimmer light switch--thought I would see open, close, set position. . . But, it does show up
Looking into this further, I think Basic Rule just doesn't support window shades (perhaps part of what makes it "basic" and not Rule Machine). I have a longstanding shade on my system and am not seeing this option, and I think I remember someone asking a while back.
This would be fairly easy to do with Rule Machine.
Some older shade drivers do this. It can be convenient to use with apps like this or Alexa that (I think) still don't support "real" window shade capabilities, but pretty much all new drivers use "pure" window shade attributes and commands. This can make things less confusing when it works (you won't see them where you expect lights), though it does mean apps need to know about shades specifically.
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That was it @bertabcd1234 !!
I switched to the regular "Rule Machine" app and my shade controls show up! I think I am in business.
To summarize --Basic Rule app and the Simple Automation Rule app (as I tried it too) do not support window shades.
Appreciate the help everyone!
Glad that worked! BR and SAR certainly have their place for folks with relatively simple needs, and when I first moved to HE, my intent was to keep things simple enough that I would avoid "complex" rules engines like RM or WebCore (I came from ST).
Well, that didn't last long at all lol... RM can be intimidating at first, but once you're used to it, it's a sweet deal. I now use it for all rules (along with Room Lights and Button Controller). I have some RM rules that could certainly be done in BR or SAR, but doing them all in RM helps 1.) keep them in one place in the UI, and 2.) keeps me fluent in RM.
Interesting - I wanted to check Shade support in Basic Rules when I first looked at this topic...since I don't have an actual shade I created a Virtual Shade using the Hubitat Virtual Shade driver, and the virtual device showed up in Basic Rules when I chose Brightness, On, Off, or Toggle as the action.
So it depends on the capabilities the given shade driver provides/advertises - if it has those actions it will show up in Basic Rules. The Smartwings driver lacks those options, it only has Open/Close and Position commands, so it doesn't appear in Basic Rules.
Minor point, but I believe the important version number would be the version number displayed in a basic rule child app instance, i.e. an actual rule. The parent app like the one you displayed can often be updated much less than the child app where all the work is actually happening.
In one of my Basic Rules this is the version number I see:
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Good point - parent/child. I assumed they would always be released together if either is updated to ensure everyone was on the same page, but possibly not.
Yeah it came up in conversation about one of the other apps, something like RM or RL where the parent was a much lower version number compared to the much higher child version.
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