Fix my rule for blinds going up and down when its sunny with clouds

📐 Rule Machine®
1

Hi,

trying to figure out how i could not make my blinds go up and down when you have a sunny day with clouds.

I only have one illumination sensor that controls them. Atm i have two rules, they go up when ill <= 1250 and down when ill >= 2750. Actually i want to have them go up at 1600, but problem is when you have clouds the blinds go up and down with that value.

Also when it gets really bright over a short period the rule triggers multiple times making the blinds studder since it sends same command down. So i need someway of blocking that too once it's been triggerd.

Is there an easy way to handle this? or i have to create local values (flags)

I was thinking that once up or down is triggered, it cant be triggered again for the next 20min.

Cheers Dawid

2

I think there are two steps here:

  1. Logic of how you wish the blinds to act with varying conditions.
  2. How to automate 1)

I would start with a pad and pencil and list the actions and measurements. Then start making a list of rules to accomplish 1. These rules are the same as if you were describing to a person how to accomplish what you want.

As you start 1) you will find (as I had) that "simple" automations are not so simple. But there is no way around step 1) that I have ever found.

In defining 1) I would start with the basics (light > xxxx and time between yyy & zzz) and then start to add the possible conditions and what to do.

There are wait and delay functions in RM that might suit your application.

One thing you might try is to move your Lux sensor to the north-east side of your abode. I found less fluctional due to the sun not shining directly on the sensor.

3

If you don't want the blinds position dependant on the weather then wouldn't just using sunset and sunrise to trigger the blinds make more sense?

4

I hadn't made a thread for it, but I have an app for solving this exact problem: GitHub - joelwetzel/Hubitat-Auto-Shades: An app for Hubitat that can automatically control smartblinds and shades, by integrating with a light sensor.

The best way to install it is with Hubitat Package Manager.

You tell it what shade to control, and the illuminance thresholds. It then controls your shades.

It has logic to make sure it isn't moving the shades too often. (Like if a small cloud comes in front of the sun.) And it has logic so that if you manually change the shade position, it will stop controlling your shades for a little while, so that it isn't overruling your wishes.

1 Like
5

Thanks, but the thing is that i have a bookshelf close by, so to save the books from sun exposure and the wooden floor, I want the shades to go down only when its bright.

6

Cool, thanks for letting me know. Will try it out and see if it works with my powerview blinds (hunter douglas)

7

I tried the delay, but guess i configured that wrong since it didn't work as expected. I put a pause- delay on the up rule and vice versa.

But will try jwetzels1492 app and see if it does the trick.

8

So when it autoclose or open it will see it as a manual operation?

2021-03-12 13:28:38.769 [debug]Skipping AutoShade because minutesSinceLastManualClose <= delayAfterManualClose (7 <= 120)

2021-03-12 13:28:38.677 [debug]autoShades:illuminanceHandler(1571)

2021-03-12 13:21:21.888 [debug]Detected a manual event.

2021-03-12 13:21:21.854 [debug]autoShades:windowShadeHandler(open)
2021-03-12 13:16:21.441 [debug]Detected a manual event.

2021-03-12 13:16:21.437 [debug]autoShades:windowShadeHandler(closed)

Because i havn't touched those blinds or have any other rule controling them.

9

How long do your blinds take to open or close? Is it taking longer than 6 seconds? If so, increase the value in line 141, where it says:

if (secondsSinceLastAutoShade > 6) {

Technical details: Basically, when I'm manually adjusting my blinds, I usually do it through Alexa. This shows up as a digitally commanded event, not a manually done one. So to tell the difference between events that were commanded by Alexa and events that were commanded by AutoShades, I look at how many seconds have elapsed since AutoShades tried to do anything by itself. In my case, my blinds only take about 2 seconds to open or close. So when they finish closing after I tell Alexa to close them, the event for it comes back in less than 6 seconds, and AutoShades can know that it was a "manual" event.

However, if for example your blinds took 20 seconds to close, you might want to adjust it to:

if (secondsSinceLastAutoShade > 30) {
10

Thanks, will give it a try. They take around 50s to open/close. So i configured it to 60s

1 Like
11

Great! You'll probably want to adjust some of the timeouts too then. No need to have them constantly opening and closing all day.