[NEW APP] Room Lighting

I agree--this app has taken things to a whole new level with its configurability and flexibility. I especially like that it shows what rules are active and what rules are disabled; that's very helpful in trying to understand why things are behaving they way they are.

I know feature requests are a mixed bag, but I'll make one--I'd love to see "another RL rule is active" among the drop-down options for disabling activation. I've achieved the same thing using button presses--rule 1 pushes a button that disables rule 2, then on exiting, rule 1 (via preset off) pushes another button that enables rule 2. But it would be great to have the functionality more built-in. Just my two cents.

Disabling, or as a Condition to Limit Activation? Don't run if this other thing is Active. I'll think about it.

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I was thinking disabling.

As an example, I have a number of overlapping rules--that is, multiple rules control the same lights. Turning on generally works as planned, but I sometimes get things turning off when I didn't expect it. Having one rule disable another turning off would essentially set one rule as having priority over another.

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The difference is important. When you disable, you also have to re-enable. I think you want it to be a condition to limit. That means it wouldn't activate if the other one was active, but would if the other one was not active. Isn't that what you're seeking?

I think either would work, but you're right that limiting activation (or turning off) would be more intuitive.

As I'm doing it now, I have a rule trigger buttons to disable or enable another turning off. I actually have two different rules that suppress a third, and I can use the same buttons in both cases.

Less work if it's set up as a condition.

@bravenel

Is there an API for Room Lighting similar to RM? (ie. pause, resume, etc.)

Thanks

No.

It's not really an API, but Rule 5.1 can Pause or Resume a Room Lights instance.

Dipped my toe in with Room Lighting this afternoon. Like it a lot, packs a lot into a neat package :slight_smile:

I have a couple of relatively minor pieces of feedback, no real / major bugs, just a couple of suggestions and things I noticed:

  • Not really Room Lighting related, but I noticed after I ran the platform update and the hub rebooted, Room Lighting was not showing in the Built-In Apps list. I needed to refresh my browser window. This may have been reported before, but just in case it hadn't I thought I would mention it.

  • When I started using the App I selected a Room and an Unexpected error briefly pops up. I'll try and dig through the logs, every chance this could be down to something with my devices and some custom drivers more than a Room Lighting thing

  • Once the error flashed past, all the devices are displayed in the main table, followed by the activation options, etc, as I would expect. If I remove a device from the "Devices to Automate" list automatically populated by my Room selection, they are removed from the main table, but are left in the various "Means to Activate Lights" and "Means to Turn Off Lights" options. Could there be an option / prompt asking if we also want the devices removed from the activation and lights off options? I was torn as to whether to ask for this as I know many of us ask for more "automation" or smarts when setting up our system.

  • Along similar lines, and perhaps some justification for my request, I did find myself removing a lot of devices initially. I often include an eclectic mix of devices in each Room, some virtual devices to indicate states or dashboard controls, etc, so if the deselection of a device gave us the option to remove it entirely from the lighting child app that would be good.

  • In the main table at the top, a check box to toggle all device on and off under the "Act" and "Off" columns would be nice.

  • I'll need to get some more information on this one, but when clicking on the Type value of "CT" for a device from my Advanced Hue Integration, the screen remained semi-greyed out and didn't return focus. I will look into this some more and provide any logs and other info if I get anything useful.

I did like the way my Hue Dimmer switch, even though it is integrated via the Advanced Hue Integration, still defaulted to button 1 for on and 4 for off, without any input from me, a nice touch, even if unintentional :slight_smile:.

I much prefer the layout of the app in general to mode lighting, nice use of some of the drop-down lists and hiding and showing options as required, nice and clean.

If I could make one other request, and I can understand if the answer to this would be no, but could Room Lighting also include the ability to cycle through states / scenes on the press of a button, like can be done in Philips Hue's native setup, or in @bertabcd1234 's button controller app? Or perhaps I should have started by asking, can this already be done in Room Lighting and I haven't spend longer than 15-20mins to try and find out?

Thanks again for another great addition.

In the Means to Turn Off Lights section, can we get an option for Switch turns on in addition to the existing Switch turns off? I have the overhead lights in the bathroom turn on to 10% in night-mode. but If I turn on the bathroom light-fixture (100%), then the overhead lights should turn off.

Or is there another more elegant way to accomplish this that I'm overlooking?

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I have a front light switch that I had multiple rules for that I thought RL would consolidate but so far it’s giving me trouble. I would like to:

  1. Have the light go on at sunset and off at 1015pm. Nothing should change that.

  2. Between 1015 an sunrise I want the light to go on:
    If motion is detected in the front. Then turn off after 6 minutes unless the garage or front door are open
    If the garage or front door is open and not go off until they are closed.

  3. The light only does these things if it is between sunset and sunrise. Otherwise they do nothing.

Does this look right? Currently they don’t stay on from sunset until 1015.


Same this morning...Unexpected Error shows briefly and then goes away when I select a room. Unfortunately no logging on it.

Thanks, but looking to do it from outside of RM (from one of my apps)

Having an issue wit a basic automation, Have a rocker switch want to turn two lights blue when button 1 (up) is pressed and return them to the state they were in when button 2 is pressed (down)

Activate works fine, turn off does nothing regardless of options I have set

Show the logs from the app when you press button 2.

Another issue:

Two rules to control the same lights using the same button

Rule 1: Tap button > turn on lights to full brightness > tap button turn off lights

Rule 2: double-tap button > turn on lights to 10% brightness > tap button turn off lights

Issue 1: setting "means to turn off lights" as tap button is causing a turn on and turn off command to be sent at the same time causing a strobe effect

Issue 2: tapping then double-taping is causing both rules to be active resulting in needing to deactivate both rules before button operates as expected.

Would be nice if you could set different modes based on tap or double-tap in one rule

Again, you need to show screenshots of the logs from the app (don't use copy/paste). These sound like device issues from what you've said.

First issue: Blue light not restoring to state before activation, these are two Hue lights

This is always true. It's a normal function of browsers.

Not seeing this. Need logs to show it.

Activation Devices and Means devices are completely separate things. So no, there wouldn't be such an option. It is easy to get rid of means by deselecting the Means, as opposed to removing the device. RL will clean up after you later to remove the device settings, if there are devices with no corresponding Means.

Won't happen. Too much complexity involved. Using Rooms may not be the right choice if you have too many odd devices in a room. It's not that hard to just set up RL from scratch.

This is what the Activate and Turn Off UI buttons do.

It builds the list based on the defined capabilities of the device. So start there. It assumes that if a device has CT, it also has "switchLevel", so it wants to present "Dimmer" and "Switch". There should be a pull-down menu offered with all of these choices based on the device capabilities.

Intentional. Most button devices have that convention. And if the guess is wrong, easy enough to change.

Aargh. No. It's not a button controller app.

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