Help with Conditional Rule

curtman3 · December 12, 2021, 3:32am

I created the rule below. I want my tree to turn on during a certain time period, but not if my alarm is set or a switch is on. However, if any of that criteria changes, the tree goes off.

When I turn on the virtual switch, it shows as "false" in the rule, but shows the condition is "True" and doesn't change the status of the Christmas Tree. Am I an idiot and missing something (probably)? Thanks in advance.

pseudonym · December 12, 2021, 4:05am

@curtman3 The way your IF statement is written, it evaluates like this:
Time between Sunset-30 and 10:00 PM AND Armed All Open
-OR-
Alarm Virtual is of

I think you need to put ( and ) around your second two conditions like this:
IF (Time between... AND (Armed All open OR Alarm Virtual is off) THEN

And add an END-IF

Try this and see if you get the results you want

curtman3 · December 13, 2021, 3:54pm

Thanks so much. The contact sensor and switch now work appropriately. However, I woke up this morning and the tree was still on, so the 10pm didn't cancel it.

Thanks again for your feedback.

bobbles · December 13, 2021, 4:41pm

You need to re-trigger your rule to turn the light off.
2 ways of doing it.

Just put in a trigger for 'Certain Time 10:01pm' and the expression will be false and your ELSE will be evaluated.
Delete your ELSE and put in a 'WAIT FOR 10:00pm.
At 10 your rule will then carry on and turn your light off. (Hopefully )

EDIT: BTW this is without seeing your new amended rule so hopefully this is good advice.

curtman3 · December 13, 2021, 4:52pm

Awesome! Thanks, I'll give it a try.

pseudonym · December 13, 2021, 5:39pm

@curtman3 you'll want to go with bobbles first suggestion as I believe you want Christmas Tree to also turn off if neither of the OR conditions are true. Note thought that your time condition:
Time between Sunset-30 minutes and 10:00 PM
will evaluate as true between (as of the screen shot) 4:14.000 PM and 9:59.999 PM. A 10:00 PM trigger will not satisfy the time condition and the ELSE action will be run.

bobbles · December 13, 2021, 6:43pm

While this is true and will work, me being me, I like to make sure it triggers after the condition is definitely false. I tend to have the condition finish 1 min before I want it to trigger and set the trigger accordingly. It's just......... me.........

curtman3 · December 14, 2021, 4:56pm

So I added the 10:00pm trigger and everything went according to plan! I'll keep an eye on it, but thanks to all for your help!

johnwill1 · December 14, 2021, 6:40pm

I was trying to work out how to do the same yesterday. Rather than overcomplicate it (which is what I usually do!), I forgot about the time and set it solely on the status of my alarm as shown. The alarm is Full Set every time we are out and Part Set before we go to bed. As I've automated the Part Set to be automatic during a "going to bed" routine, this works great. If we are in the house and not in bed, the tree lights are on, otherwise they are off.