Feedback on groups

I've always felt that HE has a weakness in the group area. Specifically - bulbs. For example - if you have a group of bulbs you get color, CT, dimming and assorted buttons regardless if they are appropriate or not. If there are 3 dimmable bulbs, then one would think there would be a group bulb dimmer with only dimming capability. Since it carries through to the dashboards if makes sense.
Same with CT bulbs - why have color buttons when there is no color? This feels so legacy to me - like someone just forgot to finish some easy area of development.
I created a dashboard of just groups and it takes a ridiculous amount of time to straighten out the proper tiles since the defaults are so inappropriate.
Speaking of tiles/dashboards - setting CT value using the drag button is also ungodly wieldy. I want to set the CT to 2700 and basically its just not possible. You can hand enter the RGB values for a color bulb, but you cant hand enter the CT value? or push your + / - keys to make it go up and down?
I think there should be a group CT, a group RBG, and group dimmer (bulbs) and they should be basic and specific. If someone tosses a different bulb into the mix, then they would adjust but in initial setup the standard of a group is similarity.
This is my opinion of course. but it's just one more reason why HE doesn't have polish. powerful? flexible, - sure. but not everyone is a developer.

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The thing I like about Hubitat is that there are many ways to work around the built-in options, thanks to the work that actual developers can do and share with the community.

One doesn’t have to be a developer to take advantage of Hubitat’s extremely powerful and flexible nature.

I can’t code anything myself, so I should know :slight_smile:.

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There is. :slight_smile:

This is also now an option when you create a group--what kind of driver you want to use with it. If you have existing groups, you'll have to change it yourself, as this option only appears during initial creation--and is relatively new, so if you've been using Hubitat for a while, it did indeed not exist before some point recently. To do this, you can find the appropriate driver (only one of the "Group..." drivers) on the device page ("device" being the group device--not the app, and not the individual member devices) under the "Type" dropdown. [EDIT: Apparently, this is not a recommended path--so I suppose the best way is to just choose the driver at creation.]

There is no CT or RGB-only (as opposed to RGBW) driver, so that point still stands, nor will anything automatically adjust after creation--even now, you could make a group of RGBW bulbs and expose it as a just switch if you really wanted to, which perhaps someone does (but maybe there could be a way to adjust it from the app side later?).

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I will try all the iterations and see what I can accomplish - I remember once before when I first came to HE (then got frustrated and left) there was only 1 (2?) group types.
So interestingly - what I found continues to feed my feeling - I select 'Group dimmer' and it seems ideal. I select 'group BULB dimmer' (which to me should be for Dimmable bulbs and I'm offered Color, Hue and CT. It is either deceptively named, or I'm just an idiot. (don't answer that).
Further adding to the sludgy mess I feel I'm stepping in, is there are 2 Group Bulb Dimmer choices (one labeled 2.1) So obviously the 2.1 has some reference to a version - so why not put a version on the other one? Is it newer? older? Again - developers may know (only because of spending 4 years reading these boards) but a new user just head scratches. And is it intuitive to use Group Dimmer for a group of bulbs - especially when there is an option for Group Bulb dimmer? This whole section of concept just has the feel of 'bleh. it works, they'll figure it out'. For HE to push to the next level, the unit doesn't have to be the Mark 11 Espilon - just give TLC to some of the GUI portion so the layman who want to control his lights enjoys the experience.

The forum has been around for a little less than four years.

Documentation is always a tough thing to get right, although they have at least made some recent updates to the hub’s documentation pages when things change over time (as they obviously must).

But again, reading threads here doesn’t make one a developer. The forum has lots of info for anyone that’s interested, no coding skills required.

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thanks once again. You're ambassador title is well deserved.
I interpret feedback as a general method of the community to upload feelings about their experience. The community is a great place for numerous reasons, and it's value to me is unparalleled. I guess one could ask 'where is this ship heading anyway?' I doubt that the avg technical level of this community is consistent with John Q Public. Exploring here can be of great value but it also is a hornets nest for even a rudimentary person as it begins to bend and break under it's own weight. A search for 'Echo' pins a tail on that donkey.
Anyways - my continued responses just adds to the din. I've left my feedback and hope someday others feedback similarly, and HE uses it to further improve the product we're enjoying.

I'd like to comment on your observations about Group Bulb Dimmer. As you observed, it's an amalgam of multiple possible devices used in a Group, a switch, a dimmer, and RGB bulb, an RGBW bulb, and a ColorTemperature bulb. You propose that each should have it's own dedicated driver / device type. I understand that.

However, there is a problem: Group-2.1 creates a virtual device that represents the Group. Suppose you have a Group with just dimmers and switches. There is a device that represents that Group. Now, you want to add a color bulb to the Group. How can you do that? The device that was created, were it a Group Dimmer, would not support a color bulb at all. Suppose further that you've used the Group device in several automations. We can't delete the Group dimmer device and create a new device that includes color, as that would blow up all of those automations. This is why we use the Group Bulb Dimmer for all Groups, as it can support any Group, including one that evolves from an existing Group. [Could the hub be smart enough to swap the driver on the existing device instead? Perhaps, but for now changing a driver is not something the hub supports an app to do.]

As for Dashboards and the Group device. It is not that difficult to change the template used on a tile. If all you have are dimmers, you can just select the Dimmer template, and it will display those attributes of a Group Bulb Dimmer as you want. [Could the Dashboard be smarter about how it selects the template for a Group device? Perhaps, but for now it does not.]

I do not recommend that you change the driver for the Group device in any circumstances. These are child devices that have an intimate code relationship with the app that created them, and that relationship will most likely become corrupted if you change the driver. Older versions of these drivers exist, because there are older versions of this app, and these may still be in use. We try not to just jerk things out from under people as the platform evolves. So my advice is to leave the Group device driver alone, and deal with the issues it creates in Dashboards in the Dashboard. The fact that the device page for such a device has additional commands that may not be relevant for a given group should not be a concern.

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