I am not 100% sure this is the cause but I noticed today the master bath lights were on even though no one (and not pets) had been in room for a while, and door to master bedroom was closed. I suspect it is because the last time it was used I turned the lights on via the switch, so the motion sensor did not officially "activate" the RL app. I have the RL app set to NOT activate if the switch is already on because I do not want it to kick the level back down to 10% if it has already been ramped up to 100%. I have a separate RM rule adjusting the level after it turns on based on a few factors.
Anyway, how can I get the RL app to turn off the light via motion if I turn it on manually? I thought about adding the switch ON as a means to activate, but I also have that as a limiting condition for activation so I don't think it will trigger.
I assume it's not turning off because it thinks it's not activated? Add the Turning Off Option of "Turn Off even if already partially off". That basically forces it to turn off irrespective of its activation state.
Ah yes, as long as it’s still looking at the means to turn off this should fix it and force the off even if never activated by the motion. I will give it a try.
Does not appear to be working. I am not getting the "All motion inactive, scheduling off in 10 minutes" log from the app, and it has been over 10 minutes, lights are still on. Settings are same as above but I turned on what you suggested. Would it help if I enabled one of the indicator modes so that app would go to "Active" state when the lights are on?
@bravenel I added the indicator setting "Indicator for Group All On", so far looks like this is the key for the app to take action on the means to turn off. I got the log saying the Off was scheduled. Not sure if this is your intended behavior or not.
Is it possible that someone used the switch to turn on the lights and then never entered the room and never activated the motion sensor. If this is the case, AFAIK, the motion sensor will not "become and stay" inactive (it will stay inactive) and nothing will end the process.
I never came up with a good solution for this scenario when the RL is dealing with more than one mode different delayed time by mode.
It this is your case as well, you could add the switch to activate the process and add Elapsed Time from last activation" to Means to Turn Off.
Yeah I am aware of that edge case, I know this is not the case today since I was the one who was in the room. Your solution would fail in the case where someone enters the room and then the motion sensor never goes inactive while the elapsed time runs out, the light would then turn off even though there is still active motion. Looks like you could also add an option to limit turning off when motion is active which would prevent that. I may have to add the elapsed time in there as well, it would be a catchall for any odd situations.
I just had issues with this and it was fixed by turning on the "turn off even if already partially off" option. I was hoping to read more about this in the docs, but I don't see anything. Is there anywhere I can dig further on this feature to figure out what it means, in detail? Thanks!
Short version: RL listens to On triggers if it thinks it's off and Off triggers if it thinks it's on. That option says it should listen for Off triggers all the time, regardless of whether it considers itself activated. There's a corresponding one that listens to On triggers all the time.
