I'm trying to set a few lights for what I thought would be a pretty simple routine, but not getting my head around this.
It looks like I need a method to turn off the lights to be "Turn Off at Time Periods Start.," just like for turning on has "Activate at Time Periods Start."
Here's the screenshots:
Have you tried checking the “activate even if partially activated” and/or “turn off even if partially off” options ?
I don’t see either of those being an option. All options available are shown in my screenshots.
Your screenshots show the means. You need to open the “turn off light options” box at the bottom and similarly for activation.
There are two ways you can do this. The first way is to use Time is Sunset for Activation and Time is Sunrise for Means to turn off. You could get rid of the time periods going this way.
The other way is to select “adjust lights on time period changes” which is in the options sections of Means to turn on. Once you activate Room Lighting, Room Lighting will always stay on. However, your lights will adjust with each time period.
You can also have it "Activate" to a setting of off, if that's needed for some transitions.
1.) If you want to keep time periods, you need to select "Adjust lights on Time Period Changes" in the options. This will adjust the lights to whatever is set for each time period. In this case, you can just leave Room Lighting Activated all the time (I do this for a different instance). The lights will automatically adjust with this option selected.
2.) The other way to set up room lighting is using time as the Means to turn on and Means to Turn off. Going this route means you would no longer need time periods as Room Lighting will turn on and off at sunset/sunrise. As long as you select both the ACT and OFF box in the device table, it will turn on and off the lights at your select time.
For the time being, I have your second configuration enabled and tested with specific times. I've now set them to Sunset and Sunrise times. I was trying to avoid creating Activator Devices but this was not working to turn off the devices.
I'm able to use time periods to turn devices on with "Activate at Time Periods Start," but there is no corresponding selection to "Turn Off with Time Period Start" to turn the devices off. This would be my preference.
I tried turning the devices off by using time periods with Turn Off Lights Options "Restore the lights to the state they were in before Activation," and separately, by Activating the devices using an "off" state. Neither works to turn off the devices.
Can you post your Room Lighting instance? The second option will work fine since your time periods are not really doing anything besides on and off. You do not need an Activator Device. I have it in my example for a personal use.
The other thing that might help is quick explanation about how Room Lighting works. The Means to turn off refers to Room Lighting and not the devices in the table. In its most simplistic form, if your devices have both ACT and OFF checked, they will mirror Room Lighting. Room Lighting turns on, light turns on. Room Lighting turns off, Light turns off. By putting sunset as a Means to turn on and sunrise as a Means to turn off, your lights will mirror what is happening to Room Lighting.
Room Lighting would have no idea which time period goes with which means. That is why it is not an option. This is also why I suggested just using sunset and sunrise as your respective means since a specified time is allowed.
This is how I presently have it configured. I'm like less than a week new to Hubitat, coming from ST, and I'm just trying to mimic what I have in ST. This is the most elemental of my ST automations/routines.
There's obviously dozen's of ways to this. I picked Room Lighting to see if it was good fit to replicate ST routines.
No worries as we have all been there. This will work as you want. There is no need for an Activator Device and the two options. You just need the two Means based on time is. This will turn on both lights at 30 minutes after sunset and turn them off 30 minutes after sunrise.
With ST, I created scenes (containing devices with both on and off states) and then called the scenes with a routine. My assumption is that Room Lighting combines this functionality but I don't want to be reversing anything. I just want to activate combinations of "on" and "off" states at particular times of the day, and the devices may be found in either state at a given time. It seems the Room Lighting app will always be active in this way, which is fine providing it always acts on a device regardless of its state. If there's a better way, please say.
There are two ways of doing this sort of action. You can use Room Lighting like you currently do or create something in either Basic Rules or Rule Machine. Since Hubitat is event driven, you could create two rules (one for each time). The triggers would be the time and the actions would be either turning on or off the lights. For instance, if you went into Basic Rules, you could create the following:
Trigger: sunset
Action: turn on the switches
Just do the opposite for sunrise and the rules will do exactly what you want. Room Lighting consolidates that logic along with a lot of other options. It's slightly confusing at first since you are activating and turning off Room Lighting. What happens to your devices is based on the selections in the device table. In your specific scenario, Room Lighting is acting just like writing those two basic rules.
Room Lighting will turn off at sunrise and turn on at sunset. What happens to your lights is based on the device table. Because you selected ACT, your lights will turn on when Room Lighting turns on at sunset-30. Because you selected OFF, your lights will turn off when Room Lighting turns off at sunrise+30.
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