I’m going through a process of simplifying some of my rules, as I’m working though this a few questions have come to mind
My rules are currently triggering lights on motion and then doing a delayed off after x minutes. Is this the best way to do this? Or can/should I be looking to identify when motion has stopped and using this as the trigger event to turn the lights off or a combination? Can this be done in RM?
will multiple instances of the same rule run in parallel eg. In the above case where Im in a wait condition and then motion starts would it trigger another instance of this rule? Or does only one instance of the rule get executed?
are there any advantages of using the motion lighting app over RM4? Or is this just a more convenient way of setting up motion rules? Is there any difference in performance between the two?
Yes, just what you described above. It removes you from having to do all of that. Just choose which lights and which motion sensors and the delay time AFTER motion has stopped for the lights to turn off. There are a ton more options in Motion Lighting but for what you are doing...using Motion Lighting is for sure the best way to "simplify" your rules.
No--you probably want to turn the lights on with motion, then turn them off after a delay after inactivity is reported. It sounds like you're turning them on with motion, then blindly turning them off after a delay regardless of whether there is still motion. If you really want to use Rule Machine for this, the docs contain an example of what you'd want to do here.
"Wait" and "Delay" are different--I'm sure you were just using generic terminology, but these are specific in RM and it matters because the answer is different. Delays will get piled up unless you set the "cancel?" flag on them and run a "Cancel Delayed Actions" action where appropriate (in the motion lighting example above you can see how this could be done). "Wait" actions, however, do get cancelled every time a trigger happens.
Well, Motion Lighting (and Simple Lighting) are a lot easier to set up since they're basically templates you can fill your devices and other preferences into, but you have to start from the beginning creating the automation yourself with Rule Machine. It's also therefore more likely for you to make a mistake. (There have been mistakes on the other side, too: bugs Motion Lighting or Simple Lighting, but they have been fixed quickly, and there have also been bugs in RM, also fixed quickly, so I don't see a particular advantage to one over the other just for this reason.) They are also likely a bit smaller code-wise and probably take a bit fewer resources for the hub to load when "triggered" (when scheduled or subscribed events happen), but that's probably a small enough difference to not be noticeable.
The real advantage to RM, in my opinion, is that it's more customizable. Motion Lighting has a lot of options (and they've listened to feedback and added more since it was introduced), but Rule Machine gives you the ultimate flexibility to set the automation up exactly how you want it. The tradeoff is that it's more difficult to set up.
