As the title suggests I'm interested in the best practice for turning off multiple devices (More than 25) in my away mode rule. I've noticed some devices failing to turn off. Would it be better to group everything or do a staggered delayed off?
Currently I have them grouped to turn off, then 30 seconds later send another off command to the entire group. This seems to get the job completed, but I'm looking for hub efficiency during my rule building.
Thanks
It depends on whether youāre using zigbee, z-wave, or a combination of both. -If youāre using all zigbee, enabling group messaging in the group should turn everything off at once in one go.
-If youāre using z-wave, the hub has to send a separate message to each device, so there are a couple options that can help this to happen without resorting to multiple off commands. 1: if all of the devices are z-wave plus, you can enable on/off optimization in the group. This will only send off commands to devices that the hub thinks are on, cutting down on excess traffic. 2: if devices still donāt all turn off in one go, you can enable metering in the group. A good starting point is probably around 75ms. This puts a very small delay between each device command being sent.
Ken, thanks for the response. All the switches are zigbee. Where is this option to enable group messaging? In Rule Machine?
You mentioned grouping them. If you group them all using the Groups and Scenes app, the option for zgm is in the group.
There is also Zigbee group messaging support in the Room Lighting app as well.
@ShaneAllen might be helpful to post a a screenshot of your rule/setup since there any many different ways you may have this currently setup.
For me, I have my "all off" setup straight in Rule Machine, and my devices are mostly Z-Wave so I have it staggered in 2 groups. You only need to stagger by 1-2 seconds, it makes a big difference just waiting 2 seconds for a second batch of devices.
You could also try using the Custom Actions to turn them off with metering. Something like 50ms should be okay.
I've had this issue in RM trying to group all On or all Off in the same action line. Separating them to have each device have its own line in actions fixed it.
Thanks for the responses!
I used the grouping smart app and the ZigBee messaging option, and it has corrected the issue. Everything is working correctly now! This allowed me to add the group device to my rule and remove all the individual devices.
+1 for using metering - I am all in on zigbee - my 'goodnite' routine turns off all lights. Grouping was always problematic. I just meter and select all the devices and don't care about popcorn effect - actually kinda nice to see lights popping off all order randomly but I never have a missed device of the 50+ bulbs and switches I'm running.
Yeah this is why I keep my staggered rule as well, I sort of like it turning off in 2 phases.
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