This only updates whenever the device generates an event, so it works well for devices that check in regularly. All of my motion sensors and contact sensors also report temperature, so they are always checking in, even when there’s no one in the house.
You can also set up different intervals for different devices. I have most of my devices checked every day, but I have my presence devices checked every 3 days (sometimes my wife won’t leave the house during the weekend, thanks to COVID).
However, like you mentioned, it doesn’t work well for my button device, because that one only generates an event when a button is pressed.
OK, this is helpful. I can see how it works -- let me set a few up as well.
Am I right in thinking that I should have at least a few devices in different parts of the house set up on this, as just one won't necessarily be representative of the whole mesh network?
To all the "Motion and Mode Lighting Apps" experts out there -- in case you have a few spare minutes..?
EDIT: Or maybe a more open-ended question -- what's the best app to use to do what I want to do, i.e. have my lights turn off when triggered by motion sensor and go off when there is no more movement, UNLESS I press 'on' on the button / dimmer / switch that normally controls those lights. Fairly common use case I would think...?
I've just discovered yet another app -- Button Controllers -- and find it brilliant! Where would you place it on your prioritised list, if you use it at all...?
I use ABC (Advanced Button Controller) a community app. I like its layout and find it simply excellent to work w/Pico remotes, of which I have a lot (family loves, craves buttons). Both are excellet, and they fit in around the Motion Lighting app. You don't build automations in the button controller apps per se, but you can use the button controller apps both to manage devices directly or via groups and scenes, and to kick off automations that you want to activate w/buttons.
Yes, makes sense. And it seems I've been using some of these true automation apps for things that really just needed button controls, so I feel like I've found my favourate app for the job (of course still using some of the other automation apps for actual automations). Thanks!
The cool thing is you can choose and use what you want, where you want, and there really aren't any "wrong" choices (other than liver and onions). It's good to explore options over time to figure out which apps fit intuitively for you and meet your needs.
I tend to have automations set to run and then (because my family says so) often provide a button option to manage the automation if they want it to run (or reverse) for some reason. That way things "just happen" magically but they have some control if desired.
I spent my first few weeks trying out Apps. The next few weeks, I got rid of half of them. I vacillate between being attracted to an interesting concept (shiny object!) and then pragmatically solving my real problems. Today, webCoRE is my personal must-have app. Next month, who knows?
For most motion lighting, I’ve seen no discernible difference and I prefer the built-in HE apps as I find them quicker and more intuitive to configure and debug than NR. Others have reported speed differences though. Eg here and here.
Where I’ve seen big differences personally is with activating scenes with lots of devices. Eg in my home office, I control my lighting with 6 scenes that change the level and color temperature of 11 different bulbs based on motion, illuminance and whether I’m on a video call. HE’s scene activator takes 3-6 seconds to change all the lights, which is painfully slow, whereas the same scenes activated in Node RED via HE’s Maker API are, I’d estimate, 3-4x faster.
I also use NR to create complex motion lighting rules that would require multiple cascading rules in HE.
TL:DR is that I recommend using the built-in HE apps like motion lighting ahead of NR to prototype and build the majority of automations, but have NR in your back pocket for when you run into the occasional use case where HE’s latency is unacceptably high or the built-in apps can’t handle the logic elegantly.
I'd recommend Hub Rebooter to keep the hub running smooth and sort out any issues automatically. Its a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing that helps with the occasional hiccup or slowdown. I use mine on daily reboot mode at 4 AM (full reboot, not reboot process). I'd recommend this config for most people.
Is RM really that resource intensive? Sure, I could search 5 minutes for an app and spend 5 minutes configuring it, or I could spend 5 minutes making a rule in RM (which im familiar with), even if it is a little less efficient.
I agree with @marktheknife - I wouldn't worry about it. Do consider using the "lite" versions of RM for the simple stuff though. No need to use extra resources if you can help it.
If you start getting fancy and incorporating a lot of different things especially cloud related stuff and/or lots of community apps/drivers then it's possible that you might start seeing some performance related issues but usually the system can handle it.
The other things to watch out for are hub power issues (get a power backup if you can) which can kill the hub or a bad/failing device messing up the mesh.
Shiny sparkly things really are distracting... 
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