This is my first Rule Machine automation, so I might have stuff misconfigured.
Here's the rule I set up to turn on the lights 60 min before sunset if someone is home.
I started watching my logs a few min before sunset and a few min after and nothing happened (lights didn't turn on either).
After I clicked the Run Actions button then the actions ran as expected and I saw this in the logs:
So I'm not sure what may be misconfigured right now. I have doubts that my presence sensing and mode manager are working correctly at the moment. But please let me know where to troubleshoot that.
Do you mean you watched an hour before sunset?
Look at the bottom of the App Status (gear icon) page to see when it ran or is scheduled to run
Yes, exactly. Sorry, my mistake.
Looks like the next time it's going to run will be tomorrow 1 hour before sunset (sunset should be 4:42 PM).
But there was no Prev Run Time. Do I have to manually run a rule after creating it for the first time for it to schedule correctly?
Bruce will probably tell me I am wrong, but I think that you have so schedule this far enough ahead of time to get a subscription to the sunset event. I think that sunset event happens one day ahead of time?
So I guess the question is, when did you create this rule?
The night before, maybe like 16 hours prior. This was the first sunset event it would've triggered on.
No, that’s wrong. It is supposed to look at the time and figure out how long it is until sunset -60, and schedule that. Then at sunset itself, it schedules it for tomorrow.
Ah, I am conflating things. Thanks!
I will check to see if this works as it should or not.
Cool, thanks! To make sure the timing is perfectly clear here, I'll lay it out:
Dec 3, 11 PM: Set up new rule pictured above
Dec 4, 3:42 PM (1 hour before sunset): I expect the automation to trigger, but it does not.
I just created a rule to trigger at sunset -60. Sunset just happened here a few minutes ago. It scheduled it correctly:
But, this won't remain visible in the status:
Since it changes every day, it won't have a Last Run Time, it just goes away. So we can't tell from status if yours was scheduled or not.
Did it work right when you did Run Actions?
I just created a new dummy rule to test this out and it seems to work fine as well.
So either it was a one time error or maybe my mode manager isn't set up correctly.
Would the logs have tried to run my original automation at sunset anyways (even if mode manager was set to away)? In essence, should I have seen something in the logs regardless?
As I didn't see anything in the logs at all, I'll just wait until tomorrow and see what it does.
EDIT: And yes, it did work correctly when I clicked Run Actions.
Ha! You know, sometimes I wish it was a perfect world. But, then I realize it is a perfect world, it's just my perception of it that makes it seem otherwise. Who knows?
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