A few times now this has happened:
Alexa virtual device stops working.
Individual lights work with on/off on devices screen.
Have to remove app and re-create (and thus push the alexa device to all other apps again)
I have the Alexa virtual switch in SmartTiles and Other Hub going to ActionTiles via ST.
It shouldn’t matter how I turn the virtual switch on and off right? It’s not JUST for Alexa is my point. But for some reason it breaks.
Need a bit more detail on what you mean by “it breaks”.
The Alexa Dimmer device is tied to its parent app, the one that created it. It relies on the parent app to do the actions for it. So it could be that the parent app is getting into some odd state. Need all of the details to sort it out.
If I turn the Alexa virtual switch on/off with other things, it seems to get out of sync at some point with the two actual lights #1 and #2.
I've had one switch on and one off, I've also lost all control with the virtual switch.
A few times the Alexa switch has been set to level 1, and then the lights won't turn on with it. Which wasn't something I'd ever set, knowingly.
I'm assuming this is just building a RM rule (or 2) behind the scenes. Is it a trigger or condition? It feels like maybe it's a trigger and because one light doesn't always turn off, or register off, the system gets out of sync.
I've built two RM rules now to temporarily replace this Motion App to test my theory. Here's what I've got so far:
I do feel like I'm missing something with the virtual switch logic here, but so far it's been ok.
No, this is a stand-alone app. When you say that you've lost all control with the virtual switch, do the lights still respond to motion events? Have you looked at the state of the virtual switch? Is the virtual switch changing state? Can you show me the app details page when it is in this condition. Is anything touching/changing MO Motion Off?
Motion will work still yes. The virtual switch changes state but doesn’t activate the lights. So yes, state does seem to remain consistant with what’s expected.
I’ll have to throw the app back up and wait for it to break again, might be a day or two before I can get those details.
The MO Motion Off is actuated via ActionTiles, I push it on, or tell Alexa to turn it on, when I want the lights in my office to remain off, like when I’m gaming. I haven’t noticed a correlation with that switch affecting the Alexa ability though.
One seriously weird thing though, when I do tell Alexa to turn the light on, but the Alexa VS is already on (or reverse with off) it works. But clicking on (or off) in the device page does nothing. Like something behind the scenes is going on and not updating the actual VS status.
Do you have modes other than Evening, Home and Night? They won’t turn on in other modes. Also, if you do set this up again, turn on Logging in the Alexa dimmer device, and have your Logs on.
FWIW, we cannot reproduce your problem. If you were in another mode, that would explain it, as all attempts to turn On the lights looks at the mode (setting a level independently does not). All Alexa does is turn the Alexa dimmer on/off/level, so some other app doing the same should be fine. In turn, the Alexa dimmer tells the motion lighting app to set the level based on mode, or turn it off, or set the level explicitly irrespective of mode. If someone operates one of the two lights independently, this app will not be aware of it. However, any action on the Alexa dimmer should affect both lights at the same time, bringing them back into synch. I’d be very curious if when you have this problem if Alexa can control these lights. If you reproduce this again, we could dig in deeper to try to see what is happening,
I do have an Away mode. I haven’t noticed if that’s playing into this. If the motion stops after Away mode is set, it wouldn’t matter, but if somehow Away mode was set before motion, then I tell Alexa to turn it on, that may cause something like this?
I can add Away mode, and set it to dim to 0 I suppose.
When using dimmer-per-mode, in Motion Lighting or RM, if the current mode is not in one of the ones specified, on() doesn’t do anything. off() still works, and setLevel() still works.
So, for example, telling Alexa to turn on the lights won’t do anything (when not in one of those modes), but telling her to set them to 50 will set them to 50. Dimmer-per-mode is its own mode restriction, in a sense.
Download the Hubitat app
