Newb motion lights at night override by switch

[vandersande]

Have a C8 and am new to Hubitat. There seems to be a lot of different add ins to manage lighting and am looking for the best add-in or way using rules to accomplish the following. I have a hallway light which when it is night time and there is motion, turn on the light to 15% wait 3 minutes and then turn off. This is easy and works fine.
I would like to have it so if the physical dimmer is turned on, regardless of current state (off or on due to motion), turn the light on 80 % and leave it on until the dimmer is physically shut off. This is fine during the day, but in the night when the dimmer is on due to motion, seem to be more complicated. Is rules the best way to do this or is there an add-in that is better suited for things like this?
Thanks in advance.

[Sebastien]

First, the type of dimmer you have will make a difference. It must either support either the « Physical » vs « Digital » switch attribute, or be able to register button presses.

Assuming that you have a switch that can do that, then what I would use to do this is Rule Machine. I would setup the following:

1. Hub Variable: lightWasManuallyTurnedOn (Boolean)
2. Rule 1 - turn on the Hallway light at night with motion:

Required Expression:
Mode is Night (or you could also set to between 2 times: Sunset and Sunrise)
lightWasManuallyTurnedOn is False
Trigger:
Motion is activated
Actions:
Dim Light to 15%
Wait elapsed time: 3 minutes
IF lightWasManuallyTurnedOn is False, THEN
Off: Light
ENDIF

3. Rule 2 - Set the lightWasManuallyTurnedOn variable to on or off and turn on the light to 80%

Trigger:
Dimmer is turned on (Physical)
Actions:
Set Dimmer level to 80%
Set lightWasManuallyTurnedOn to True
Wait for Dimmer is turned off (Physical)
Set lightWasManuallyTurnedOn to False

Let me know if you decide to try that approach and if you run into any snags.

[rlithgow1]

You could do either a pause or an exit on a conditional I would think in the rule. If the light is manually turned on then exit rule. Or pause rule.

[vandersande]

Thanks this looks promising. I have an older switch. is there a brand or model you recommend? I will change out my older ones for newer with better features.

[Sebastien]

The most feature rich dimmer is Inovelli’s. They have a Red which is Z-Wave and a Blue which is Zigbee. I have both and am very satisfied with them.

Zooz dimmers and switches should also supports the digital vs manual events. The Zen32 Scene controller that I have does.

[vandersande]

Thanks! Appears to be working well.

[kahn-hubitat]

3rd approach i had trouble with pause working.. i use a virtual switch instead of a hub variable
in this way i can see the status of the paused/active in dashboards and control it there if need be also..

rules