Change colour temperature over time

And BINGO...

I just reset without the variables (which I suppose I need to set up) and the rule stuck.

Now I need to tell the lights to ignore the previous colour selection and run the rule...

The bulbs are stuck in Green and not colour cycling.

After an hour or so I realised this if colour temp for WHITE light and not RGB!!!

Is there a method for doing this to colour fade over time? Pulling my hair out trying to do something that a cheap Chinese remote control can do with a single button.

OK, I have tried HPM and Event Engine.

NOTHING WORKS.

What am I doing wrong, this is like pulling teeth. Simple commands missing, you can change the colour temp, but not the colour, SPELLING is US based which is also a pain when searching the forum.

5 Bulbs, all RGBW, all are white with no colour except for changing to specific colour in seconds with no fade.

Why is this so difficult?

What an awesome forum. So, newbies post problem, gurus respond pointing out mistake in record time. No more input.

Tutorials are dated and not detailed. The "manual" is a mix between outdated and vague bordering on useless. The user plugins are worse, lots of obvious effort, but no documentation or support.

Classic stuff. I have reverted to the cheap plastic remote control from China. Great, I now have colour fades working as they should. The second hubitat I bought during Black Friday will remain in the box.

What a frustrating waste of my time this has been. I will keep at it though, as it is obviously something stupid that is stopping thing from working.

5+ hours so far, as an Architect I can't see how this platform would in any shape or form have widespread uptake. Sort the documentation.

At a minimum, fix the inconsistencies. i.e. Colour temp over time but no colour change over time = pure 100% nonsense.

Why should a user be forced after several hours to download a third party (potential security vulnerability) package to find that it won't work either!!!

I am pointing these things out as constructive criticism, having bought and shelved several other platforms (Homey etc) due to privacy / online requirements. I am however ready for the "how dare you" defensive replies.

Argue your case. Is this platform mainstream ready?

One minor argument in favor of Hubitat not having exposed a "fade color over time" action -- how to fade between colors is very subjective... Should it be a rainbow fade? Through white? Linear across the wheel?

A possible two-step workaround: use "fade dimmer over time" with a virtual dimmer. Then create a second rule that mirrors the "dimmer level" into a "hue" value for the rgbw bulb... Just a thought, this would apply a rainbow fade

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I have not used it personally yet but Event Engine looks to have those features.

Lighting Effects was rolled into it a little while ago.

OK. I will try this idea. Thank you for the tip.

In reality, this should be much more simple than it is. The Chinese remote has a couple of buttons, random colour change, rainbow colour change and sequential colour change. My dearly beloved looks at me like I'm a moron for wasting time "automating" things that can be done with a remote (when a certain person doesn't lose them!!).

She misses the point of gradually adding complexity (geofencing etc.) to achieve effortless automation. But when I cant achieve what we have been doing for a couple of years (with different Chinese generic bulbs with a dedicated remote tbh) she laughs and rightly so.

Again, why is this out of the box requirement of RGBW lights so hard to achieve?

I have absolutely no idea, but am not impressed in the least. Add build was easy, program bulb is painful.

???

People are on and off of the forum and are not always waiting. I just got done with dinner for example, and I bet many are also busy with after work activities right now.

Ok, I will give you that.

Which ones are you talking about? Community apps and drivers? If so, that is something you should ask on a specific thread for that app or device. Most if not all the developers are very helpful here in my experience.

Again, this is something that should be asked to a particular developer. You didn't even name what you had tried, so I don't see how we can advise on whether it should have worked, or if there are better choices.

Well here I am. :smiley:

But truthfully, I think you need to step back for a few minutes. No need to try something over and over again if it isn't working. Take a break, and come back when you are ready to deal with it.

You haven't really laid out what you mean by "fade color over time". That can mean a lot of different things to different people.

This. So if you want to fade from red to blue, you would approach this quite differently than to do rainbow effects or psychedelic or whatever. There isn't an industry standard here compared to bulb temperatures.

Lighting Effects while no longer being developed (features rolled into Event Engine) still works. I use Lighting Effects to do various color changes, and it is fairly simple. Never tried Event Engine, but I suspect it is similar.

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@dkilgore90
So after 10 minute, I had no idea what you are suggesting or I am trying to achieve. I set up a rule (I thought as per your idea), the tried to set up the second rule, but cant figure out how to reference the first rule.

Again this is like pulling teeth.

The lack of feedback makes everything so painful, why is everything so difficult for a novice?

Example from Lighting Effects.

@wecoyote5 I agree that Lighting Effects seems to have bee replaced, but a good deal of the functionality of the former has been lost.

Such as a simple method to colour fade.

@neonturbo you are playing WITH MY MIND,...

This is what I am trying to do, this plugin is no longer available, the Event Engine does NOT have most of the functionality described in Lighting Effects.

Yes it is. Did you click on the link above, for Lighting Effects, read the instructions, and go to the Github repository?

I will even link it for you.

https://github.com/bptworld/Hubitat/tree/master/Apps/Lighting%20Effects

The code for Lighting Effects is here: https://github.com/bptworld/Hubitat/tree/master/Apps/Lighting%20Effects

Looks like the direct link got pulled from the thread when the functions were (partially) merged into Event Engine

@neonturbo Agree on most fronts.

Adopting a new platform is not easy, but when the docs are not up to scratch it is worse.

As I said, I was looking at Homey as a "full frills" based smart home controller until I realised that they are despite their claims, reliant 100% on an internet (info harvesting) model.

Hubitat (despite the app weirdness) seems to be very solid. I bought two (the newer version is still in the box).

@neonturbo You sir are a gentleman.

@dkilgore90 Thanks to you too.

To be resumed tomorrow, I hear a shout from the queen behind me (she who must be obeyed), no doubt I must gather firewood or some other trivial task, which I dream of automating some day.

Just for the record, I downloaded Event Engine. All the functions of Lighting Effects ARE in there. They are right in the Actions section. See below.

If you ever have a problem with a particular app, you should put that in the support thread for that exact app. Otherwise, the developer will likely never see it.

@neonturbo I saw all that and set it up as per the attached screenshots. Nothing happened, the lights won't turn on. Mode is correctly being set in this example to Day based on the time, so the trigger should work.





Are there any logs to show if anything is happening, i.e. output to a terminal window in realtime?

Yes, the Logs tab in the left menu of Hubitat.

But you really should post this in the Event Engine thread if you need support for that app. Bryan the developer is very helpful and I am sure he will help you if you post there and describe what is going on. I am just an end user like you that only yesterday downloaded this app, so I am probably not able to diagnose why this isn't working for you.

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