Best way to start with Room Lighting?

đź’ˇ Lighting
#1

Hi, I'm new and need some advice on where to start. I've tried but I'm kinda lost.
I have lots of zigbee bulbs and I'm trying to set up scenes using the Room Lights app but it's not working the way I'd Expect. I usually have 3 big house wide scenes, Bright White, Soft White (with only some bulbs on) and Rainbow (where every bulb is different colors, you know for fun.) I would like to be able to active the scene via google assistant and control the bulbs (in groups) that way too.

TIA, looking forward to going down this automation rabbit hole

#2

This is a bit like asking where to start with Home Automation.... without the jaded experience of a previous platform :slight_smile:

If I was being generous to Room Lighting I would suggest you cut your teeth on another app or platofrm, whether that be within HE or something else.... But if you want to dive in, then all the better.....

Unfortunately this is where I fall short, given I have not actively used this app....Sorry.....

What I can suggest is to start small, pick a room with limited use and test out your interpretations of the Room Lighting App, before expanding your seting to more commonly used rooms. Also, if you already have a working solution, stick with that and slowly transition to using He and Room Lighting.

#3

Thanks for that suggestion, that's what I've been doing so far.

I've been running everything through Smart Things and Google Home so I'm not completely new to this. I guess I just want to know (mostly), is Room Lighting the tool to use in HE, I tried with "Scenes and Groups" but that seems to be the old tool.

The problem I'm encountering seems to be that If activate a scene it's turned on, then when I activate a different scene, they're both on and things don't work right. I'll keep at it.

#4

Home Automation, let alone Hubitat, is a learning curve.

In terms of Scenes, for the most part treat them like the terms often used, you are "activating a scene". This is also used in platforms like Logitech Harmony and Philips Hue, with the idea being that a scene is not a "state" as software developers may phrase it, a scene is something you activate, but is not something you treat as being active over time.... if that makes sense.

Practically, that means that you can make use of scenes in Hubitat, but just treat them in this way. You can still set them up and reference them in apps like Room Lighting, or even the close relation, Mode and Motion Lighting App., or Rule Machine.

#5

Ok, So I set it up in rule machine and created virtual switches that I can activate with google. I don't know if it's elegant, optimal, or scalable, but it's working for now and I can keep learning. Thanks so much!

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#6

Yes, you can most definitely use Room Lighting for this. Just set up a new RL instance which includes all your lights you want to control and set the desired settings for each of the lights. Then at the bottom of the main RL window you have a field called “Control with Activator Device”. Type a name in there and the app will create a new device which you can control with Google Home.

Once you have created your first instance and found it working as you’d like, you can clone this instance to make a copy that you can use as a template for the next instance.

For anything Room Lighting, also see https://community.hubitat.com/t/new-app-room-lighting

Good luck!

#7

You can do it that way. But it also is possible in Room Lighting.

When you fill in the circled blank, you get a virtual device (shown in second screenshot) that you can use in other apps. This turns the Room Lighting instance on and off. It should work with Google, but I don't have one to try.

RM Activator
RM Activator813Ă—282 23.1 KB

Activator
Activator1460Ă—129 25.4 KB

I would think that when "scene 1" turns on, you would use the following option in Room Lighting to turn the "scene 2" and other Room Lighting instances off. Use the previously created Room Lighting virtual devices for this option.

RM Off
RM Off659Ă—563 42.1 KB

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#8

Thanks, I'll try it that way too and see how it goes.

#9

OK, I'll try it again that way + the switch off thing mentioned. Thanks!

#10

Noob question, where can i get the app?

#11

Room Lighting is a built-in app. So go to Apps (in the sidebar), and then click on the button at the top to add a new Built-In app.

Download the Hubitat app