Just starting some testing and wondering about the accuracy of the "Delay Action" in RM4. I'm setting up some dashboard switches that will turn off a "Vacation" flag after a certain number of days, so some of the delays will be long (i.e.; a 10-day vacation will need a 240 hour delay before turning off the "vacation" mode).
I don't need atomic precision, of course - just curious how close I should expect the delay to be (or if there is a maximum delay). Thanks.
Welcome to the community! It just so happens, I had a rule with a 1440 hour delay finish today, exactly on time. It is a reminder to change the furnace filter. When a rule is triggered and pauses at a delay, a job is scheduled which you can check in the app settings for that rule.
Excellent - thanks for the info.
Most likely within 50 milliseconds of what you've set. This depends on what you mean by "how close". It takes some time to fire up the app, hence the 50 msecs. You can use logging to determine exactly how close is close.
Well, I'd be happy with a few minutes on either side, so 50 ms is perfect!
Related question - is there a way to cancel a delayed action?
Yes. One of the available actions in RM4 is a cancel delayed actions.
Be sure to select Cancel on the delay. This makes it eligible to be canceled.
Got it - thanks for the help.
Can a delay be cancelled if it is added as part of another process, such as a button press?
Not sure what you mean by this. Any delay in a rule can have Cancel attached to it, and Cancel Delayed Actions cancels all such delays.
Sorry - wasn't clear. If I add a delayed action as part of a button controller app, I don't see the option to "cancel delay" like I do in RM.
Button Controller 3.0 is obsolete. You can do all of its functions in Rule Machine, plus many more, using the exact same UI.
Select Button Device as the Trigger Event in a new rule, you will be transported into Button Controller. In this case, Cancel Delayed Actions would cut across all button actions.
Thanks. I'm clearly missing something. I wanted to create a virtual button with 10 buttons, then do something different when each is pressed. This seems easy to do in Button Controller, but I'm not seeing it in RM.
Got it, thanks. Using RM, that means I'll need to build 10 IF/THEN statements to respond to the different button presses?
(sorry for taking this so far off topic).
No. You are failing to grasp that the entire functionality of Button Controller is under what I just showed you. Try it. You will get 10 different action sections just like in Button Controller. What happens after you make the selection I've pointed out, is that the UI for Button Controller in toto comes up.
Total brain fart - I had selected "Button" instead of "Button Device". Back on track thanks to your help.
Final question... I presume that "Cancel Delayed Actions" only applies to Delayed Actions started by one of the buttons on the Button Controller used to start a delay (hope that makes sense)?
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