I need help winning a light switch war with my 4 year-old. Every night at bedtime, we dim down his lights using a simple automation with a double tap down. He immediately turns the lights back up to 100% as soon as we leave the room. This battle can go on for hours and typically he doesn't start to get tired until lights stay dimmed down....
Can someone help provide guidance on creating something in rule machine? The ideal rule would be turned on in dashboard OR triggered once we do the downward double tap on the switch in his room. And, we'd want the physical switch disabled so he can't play with it once triggered.
I tried building something a bunch of times, all of which didn't work. I attempted to build the rule so that the physical switch is restricted after 7:30 PM once it's triggered with the first double tap down. I'm also not sure how we would have the switch unlock in the morning. Maybe have it unlock/work after an hour?
If locking the switch is easier to be triggered from a dashboard tile, i'm all for it. I just have not figured out how the dashboard works.
Switch in the room is a GE Enbrighten Z-Wave Smart Dimmer
I am not aware of any way to disable the manual control of one of these GE Z-Wave Dimmers. My experience with these is probably out of date, though... Perhaps the newer versions of the GE Z-Wave dimmer allows for such a capability?
Is the GE Z-Wave dimmer directly connected to the lights? I ask because the only way I know to deal with an issue like this is to use a smart bulb, that is controlled by Hubitat. For manual control, the in-wall switch would need to be set to "Smart Bulb Mode" (not sure if the GE Enbrighten Dimmer can do this) to allow the switch to essentially be a Button Controller device, whose manual commands are routed through Hubitat, instead of directly to the lights. I hope this makes sense.
If the switch is hardwired to the light @michael.l.nelson suggestion might be the best/easiest solution. If the light is only being controlled through rules, you could try writing a rule that once the light is dimmed the state can't be changed until morning or until a few hours have passed.
You can't stop the switch from being used. You could if you switched to one like the Zooz lineup that has a smart bulb mode. That prevents the switch from actually changing the internal relay that controls power to the light.
Alternatively, you could write a rule, triggered by your double tap, to stop all other automations, then automatically reset to the dimmed level if there's a change. Kid will still be able to mess with the lights, but not crank them up and leave them that way.
The switches in my house are installed at ~50 inches off the floor? Your 4 year-old must be exceptionally tall! Or are your switches/dimmers installed at a lower than normal height?
Use something like a Zooz Zen77 dimmer. It can be set to smart bulb mode in the driver (it might be the community driver in HPM), but you need a smart bulb as well. The dimmer then acts as a mere button controller and all commands to the bulb come only from HE. You can easily create a rule to disable commands or use time or mode restrictions in your rules. I have these dimmers controlling bulbs in my house and they work well. I will say that I only use Hue lights on the Hue bridge in bedrooms because they can be set to return to their last state if the power flickers, where most smart bulbs will turn on.
What about using a “switch guard” such as this one? Many you will find are magnetic which your child will probably figure out how to remove but there are some that screw on:
Create the virtual switch and call it whatever you want.
Create a rule to turn on the virtual switch using your double tap (replace Master Bath Lights with your switch. Use the wait for event to delay turning the virtual back off after whatever period works for you. You can also set a Required Expression of "between two times" to keep the rule from triggering during the day.
Create a second rule like below (again, replacing Master Bath Lights with the switch). The required expression will keep this from running unless the virtual switch is turned on. While it is turned on, any change to the dimming level will result in the dimmer getting reset. Use whatever dimmer value you see fit.
I have an LED light that stays on a little and flickers when the dimmer is off. If I set it to 5%, then it still is on but at least it doesn't flicker. So I have a rule that says that if the light is set to off, turn it back on to 5%. I think the rule runs once a minute to check.
Just do this. Create a rule that runs every minute, and if the time is after 730pm and before his wake time, and if the dimmer is not set to your desired level, then set it to the desired level.
He'll turn the light on full, and get back in bed, and then it will turn back down in under a minute. If he constantly battles with it, it will probably tire him out faster. This might actually be fun to watch on camera.
This is the best solution using your existing equipment. Have your double tap engage something else that will force the level to where you want it. You could run it on a timer or something so it forces it for 2 hours for example. Then if they turn the lights back up the rule will just set them back again. They will probably get tired of fighting with it before long.
Even better, on top of that use a TTS speaker to inform them the light is locked out.
I have a rule for the TV that says if it's turned on before 7 AM, Hubitat announces that it's too early for TV and turns the TV back off. You can't stop him turning it on, but you can easily respond to him turning it on.
