I'm brand new to HE, but so far loving it!
I installed a Zooz ZSE41 open|close sensor to my pantry door and have set up an app to turn on a Zooz ZEN31 RGBW LED dimmer when the door is open, and again to turn it off when it is closed.
My problem that I'm having and can't seem to get around is if the door is left open too long, I have another app that will turn off the RGBW dimmer if the door is left open for more than twenty minutes.
If the lights turn off and someone closes the door and then quickly re-opens it, it appears to be acting as a dimmer switch and resetting the brightness to however long it takes the door switch to show as open again.
I don't have the lights hooked up to any other switches or sensors, so when this sets the lights either too dim or too bright, I have to go into the HE to reset the level, which is rather inconvenient.
Does anyone know of a way to stop this behavior?
A couple of things there. You can probably do what you want without using multiple apps.
Using Motion Lighting, you can set up "contact sensors to turn on lights when open" - you don't need t assign a motion detector. Also you can set the dimmer level, so that it sets that level every time rather than turning on at a default value.
Example (I just tested and this works):
This does seem far more versatile without the additional rule, thank you!
I have set it up just like yours now, with a 1 min delay for testing, but it doesn't appear to be turning off the lights if the door is left open. Any ideas?
This does solve the dimming issue though, I appreciate that!
Unfortunately, the forum won't let me upload a screenshot. I'm guessing because I just created my account.
Try it like this instead. It might need the contact sensor to be the initial trigger in order to respect the delay off. Here I've enabled the "allow contact sensors to trigger" and selected it in the first box and also deleted the contact sensor bringing the lights on in the lower left box.
PS Once you've made a few posts your account will be upgraded.
I don't think that worked for me either! For something so simple I'm making a mess of it. I'll do it in Rule Machine, it'll be simpler.
Yeah, doesn't seem to be turning it off here either.
Set as so:
Right here you go - did this in Rule Machine. This works 100% just tested.
The rule triggers when the door opens and triggers again when the door closes (contact 'changed'). On the open trigger it will start a timer and switch off the light after your elapsed time, if the door is left open. On the close trigger it will turn the light off immediately, cancelling the timer from the on trigger.
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That was a crash course in Rule Machine, but I think we have a winner that appears to be working properly. Thank you so much!
Here's another question. How hard would it be to set a variable on the brightness based on time of day?
For instance, if I want the lights to be at 60% from 6am-11pm and 30% for the remainder of the time (to avoid being blinded while digging for midnight snacks).
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Haha. I've had HE for over a year and get a lot of help on here with Rule Machine from some of the regulars. Without them I'd be left scratching my head in most cases. I like it when someone pops up newer than me and I can try and solve an issue. It's good practice for me.
Yes it'll be possible to set the dim level by time by adding further conditionals into the rule. I'll be back shortly once I've had a play.....
Here you go. So here I've nested another If Then. When the contact changes - if it opens and is between your 06:00 to 23:00 it'll go to 60% wait a minute then go off else if it's outside those hours it'll go to 30% wait a minute then go off. Regardless when the contact closes it'll trigger again and skip over those actions, switching off immediately.
When you create the rule - initially switch all the logging on. It's really helpful when you're learning and testing to open the logs and watch, so you can see the logic at play.
PS: It can be a little confusing to edit an existing rule when you need to "insert action before" but you'll get used to it. One way to avoid issues is to clone your rule, pause the original rule, then work on the clone. If you hash it up it doesn't matter....you can just delete it and hit resume on the original. Once your happy with the edited clone, you can delete the original and rename the clone.
You're definitely correct that it's a bit of a clunky interface with a few bugs here and there to learn, but I think I got it.
Thanks for the tip on cloning a rule also, I can definitely see where that would come in handy!
This is what I've settled with. Thanks again!!
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You're welcome - looks good. You'll find the more you play with Rule Machine, the easier it gets, but also you'll come up with more complicated scenarios to challenge you. The community on here are really helpful and I've had loads of tips and explanations when I've posted anything in the Rule Machine category (or any other for that matter).
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