Modes

Is it possible to set up modes to be set by the state of the system for example armed or disarmed? I would like Home mode to be envoled when the system is disarmed and Away mode to be set when the system is armed.

Mode is just a word. It has no explicit meaning. The value of Mode, the word, is able to be compared in many Apps, which is where it becomes useful.

You can put ANY set of words you want into Mode and then use them in your automations. "Spring", "Summer", "Fall", "Winter" ?? those would need to have an automation to change Mode to one of those words as they occur. Mode Manager, the built-in app, is targeting a daily set of Mode words.

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Yes :slight_smile:

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If you choose to stick with the modes provided by default, like @csteele refers to, you can transition to each mode as you choose based on whatever rules you choose to define. Again, as @csteele refers to, you can define additional modes as you need to, again defining rules to manage the transition to and from these modes.

I'm not really adding a lot here am I....? :slight_smile:

I guess the key point is that you can have a mode(s) for armed and disarmed or whatever mode(s) you want to cater for your needs, with the addition of whatever rules you need to move between those modes.

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Mode used to be the ONLY "global variable" but now, with much more generic globals available, having equivalence to Mode is quite possible. You could create a variable called "Season" with the values: "Spring", "Summer", "Fall", "Winter" and create your own Mode Manager equivalence to step through them. Same with a global for "Security" with values of "Home" and "Away" or "Armed" and "Disarmed" with your own App to switch between them.

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The only benefit to mode settings is the ability to use them in "by mode" options in rules / apps

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Thank you all for your feedback. I have tried using the mode manager to set Home and Away mode to be set by the armed and disarmed state of the system but all I could see available was switch settings or time of day. Am i missing something? Would i need to go to another app in order to accomplish this? Sorry I'm not at all skilled at programming rules.

Perhaps a different way to approach the conversation is.... What do you want to achieve in terms of arming or disarming your home? I am expecting it is due to the presence of those who occupy your home.... I'm expecting the same will be true for disarming the home, arriving home....

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No, you aren't missing anything. Mode Manager is, as I said above, focused on the more standard set of Mode words. "Day", "Evening", "Night" and "Away" You might be able to remove 2 and rename 1 to be "Home" to give you just two modes. Mode Manager has the option to switch to/from Away based on "something else" but I don't know how much you can disable all of the rest of the options.

You will probably have to create an App that sets Mode to the word you want as the events occur.

Which could include a Rule Machine rule, it doesn't need to mean writing code.

Also, you can easily create a new Mode through the Mode Manager app to match those you need.

I have setup notifications that will alert me on my phone when a contact is opened or motion is detected based on what mode is currently set - using the notifcation app. Everything works fine but I currently have to manually place the system in Home or Away mode. Arming and disarming is currently handled by either the Habitat phone app or the Iris keyboard I have set up. Could it be I went down the wrong rabbit hole to accomplish what I'm trying to do?:grin:

You could also go old school and have a virtual switch to indicate home/away..

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I am rusty with Mode Manager as I don't use it. But wouldn't one of these work for your use case?

For this, I think you would need to create a virtual switch, and use this in Rule Machine.

Alternatively, (and this may be a bit oversimplified and probably does have flaws in this exact logic) would be just to directly switch modes by a Rule Machine rule.

here is some of my mode change logic for your perusal

Summary








this last one insures that the house disarms when my garage door is automatically opened by the tesla when i approach the house.. yes now looking at it i can reduce the if else and add the unlock above the if.. will change it now.. lol

ok rewritten ... :slight_smile:

Hi Neonturbo,
Thank-you very much for your comments.
I was able to setup a virtual switch but got stuck trying to make it open when HSM set to Disarmed and close when HSN set to Arm All. I figured out how to make HSM ARM when open and Disarm when closed but not he other way around.
On a separate issue I also saw that my backdoor sensor is set to dial some random number when battery gets low (I think description is "lastBattery" but I could not find where you set the number to correct the phone number.

NVM I think it's my Google voice thinking that is a phone number. It's not a notification setting :upside_down_face:

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That isn't a phone number. That is a date in I believe Unix time. Not sure what or why there is a phone symbol there.