Coming from Wink2

🎬 Get Started Migrating to Hubitat
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I finally got my HE and quickly found out that I could not have HE and Wink running simultaneously. With Wink I have a couple of robots where a dome motion sensor turns on a hall switch and another where if there is no motion, the hall switch turns off. These then are called by the Wink shortcuts where the 'Enable shortcut' enables the robot to turn the hall switch on and turn hall switch off. The shortcut is ultimately called by iFTTT when my weather station detects a certain amount of lux (daylight) outside. Can I accomplish this with HE?

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Yes. And if your weather station integrates directly with Hubitat, or if you have a hubitat-compatible illuminance sensor, you could even drop IFTTT.

But with the current setup, I would do the following:

  1. Create a virtual switch (let's called it "Lux") and expose it to Hubitat's IFTTT integration.
  2. Create IFTTT applets that turn Lux on & off (turn on when the illuminance matches your desired threshold and turn off when it rises above that threshold).
  3. Create a single rule in RM 4.0 with the following trigger and actions:

Trigger:

motion sensor is changed`

Actions:

IF Lux is off: Exit Rule (this is a simple conditional)
IF (motion sensor is active) THEN
    On: Light(s)
ELSE
    Off: Lights(s)
END-IF

P.S. Here's a link to the Rule Machine documentation. The Hubitat channel on YouTube has helpful videos on how to use Rule Machine.

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Thank you kind sir! I'll be playing with this for the next couple of days and probably driving my wife crazy. In addition, I may be coming up with a new couple of words....

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Welcome.. Glad you made the jump.. I guarantee that any automations you could do in wink you can do here...

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Hi, tried looking up the virtual switch concept in the documentation, with little success. Also, don't understand 'expose' it to iFTTT integration. If you could help me out on it, it would be appreciated.

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Okay - so I made a video that demonstrates how to:

  1. Create a virtual switch in Hubitat
  2. Expose it to IFTTT using Hubitat IFTTT app (which you must install)
  3. Use a different IFTTT service to control that on/off status of the virtual switch

I use an IFTTT service for the Automatic adapter in my car. You would replace that with your weather station's IFTTT service.

I just uploaded it, so the video is still at 360p (SD) resolution. But in a little while, YouTube should make the HD version of it available.

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Thanks ever so much! Is there documentation that explains the concept/reasoning behind virtual switches?

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??? I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.

You can use virtual devices in any way you want. For example, I use virtual momentary switches to turn on specific radio stations/playlists on my Sonos. I use a "virtual contact with switch" with the Alexa app for presence detection. I use a "virtual dimmer" as a surrogate for Alexa to control my thermostat (because the Hubitat Alexa integration doesn't support thermostats currently).

In the IFTTT example, the virtual switch provides a mechanism to use the status of an IFTTT integrated device (eg. your weather station) to trigger a Hubitat automation.

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Wink refugee here too.

I have a certain virtual switch to turn on and off on a schedule (via rule machine). I then use the state of the switch to block or allow apps to run or for certain actions to happen. One example is I block Better Laundry Monitor from announcing "washing machine done" during sleeping hours. This particular app doesn't have a setting for times to speak, but does have a setting for block speech when a certain switch is on.

Another example of virtual switch use is I have a virtual switch to override motion lighting. When I double tap the basement light switch, it sets the virtual switch to on. When VS is on, motion lighting is disabled for that area.

A third example is a switch for an app called Lighting Effects that changes/cycles colors on RGB strips. When I push a certain button on a remote control, I step through different colors. The other button on the remote activates a virtual switch which then cycles through the various colors. Buttons aren't the same as switches, so I had to "convert" one device type to another through the virtual switch.

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Wink really is a simplified system but you were using virtual switches!

That shortcut was really a virtual switch. When you pressed the shortcut (aka virtual switch), the robot was enabled to turn the hall switch on and turn the hall switch off.

I don't know if that clears it up but you were already using virtual switches and didn't know it!

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Duh! Thanks, now it's clicking.....

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