Notices not Stopping

[geroose]

@Din.Djarin Don’t give up yet, It is possible make a rule that does exactly what you want.
Once you know exactly what rule machine is doing with the repeats, you can figure out how to control it.

When your rule does a “stop repeating actions” command, it doesn’t do anything to the scheduled job, instead it changes a setting called “stopRepeatMain” to true. That setting is on that same page where you see the scheduled jobs, it’s up in the Settings section.

When the scheduled job runs, that setting stops it from running any actions and it doesn’t create a new scheduled action. So if you refresh the page then, there will be no scheduled jobs.

Rule machine only has one set of settings for each rule, not separate setting for each time you run it.
If you stopped the rule and happen to wait long enough for that current scheduled job run and get stopped, then everything is ok when you restart the rule.

But if it is still out there when you run the rule again, thats when you get the strange problems.

Whenever you run the rule, that stopRepeatMain gets reset back to false. So that schedule job does not get stopped and continues to run and repeat. Meantime, your rule starts another repeat, and you end up with 2 of them running at the some time. That is what has been happening.

To prevent that, put a stop repeating actions command at the top of the actions. That will flip that stop setting back to true.

However, when you start the repeat, it also sets the stop setting to false. But if you wait 40 minutes before starting the repeat, that will guarantee that the previous scheduled job (which no longer has a full 40 minutes to its scheduled time) will completely stop and go away before your new repeat starts. You might want to make the delay time 40 minutes and 1 second just to be sure. You don’t need the “first notice” global variable, because you are already waiting 40 minutes before starting the repeat.

Here is a sample rule set up to repeat every 2 minutes. It turns a light on and back off. Turning the virtual switch off and on always makes it wait 2 minutes from now to flash the lights. It doesn’t matter how long you wait to turn it off or on, it always will work the same.

You would just need to add in your (time between 6:45 AM and 9:30 PM) to the IF statement, and of course change the vSwitch to Rosie. And add a trigger for 9:45 pm to make it stop automatically, like your original rule did.

If you set it up for 40 minutes, then anytime you start the rule, regardless of whether it was recently running or not, you will get a 40 minute delay and then it will send the notifications and repeat that every 40 minutes.

You could even add a push button to the triggers. Then pushing that button would give you an instant reset without having to turn Rosie off first (assuming it was already on) Maybe use a virtual pushbutton, and setup a “reset Rosie pee” command for your Google home to push the virtual pushbutton.

[Din.Djarin]

Ok I made the changes you suggested but the problem seems to be if I turn the VS back on b fire the 40 minutes. It will still kick off the original notice. Then it will do I again 40 minutes from when I turned it back on.

[geroose]

Can you post a picture of your rule as you have it now?

[Din.Djarin]

Here's what I'm using.

If I turn it off, then turn it back on within the 40 minute period all of those scheduled jobs will still run.

[Din.Djarin]

My issue seems to be the same as what was going on in this thread from 2 years ago.

Pending Cancellation Potential Bug?

Your rule looks fine to me. I would take a look at the scheduled jobs section in the app details (near the bottom of the page) . [20180915_085138] [20180915_085230] When you turn off the virtual switch a scheduled job should appear there (dont forget to refresh the web page). When you turn it back on, this job should disappear (refresh page ). If that is not happening, I would delete and recreate the rule because something wonky is going on.

[geroose]

You are almost there, your rule is similar but not the same as my sample - you missed something.
Starting a rule or starting a repeat will cancel any previous “stop repeating actions” command, which will allow any pending ones to keep repeating. So you want to hold off on starting your repeat until after the previous scheduled job is completely stopped. You need to put a separate “Delay” command before you start the repeat. And you won’t need a delay on the notify action.

Like this:

Trigger:
Rosie turns Changed
OR
When time is 9:45 PM EDT

Actions:
Stop Repeating Actions 
Cancel Delayed Actions
If Rosie is on AND
Time between 6:45 AM EDT and 10:30 PM EDT THEN 
       Delay 0:40:01 (cancellable)       <<need this here
       Repeat every 00:40:00 (stopable)
            Notify iPhone: ‘Rosie needs to potty!’  <<no delay on this
       END-REP
END-IF

That stand alone Delay command will stop the rule at that point, and create a scheduled job to start the rule back up after 40 minutes.

The scheduled job for it looks like this:

It is a separate action, located in the same section where the Repeat command is.

Regarding that older post you referred to, that was a bug in rule machine 2.5 that was fixed later. Rule machine 4.0 is way different than that older version. Rule 2.5’s whole triggering system was different, and there were not nearly as many functions and possibilities as there are now.
In a couple years we’ll probably be on Rule 6.0. Rumor has it that it will have “household task” actions. You will be able to schedule it to automatically clean your house, wash your car…. or let Rosie out to pee!

[Din.Djarin]

Oh wow! You did it! Thank you so much. I'm so sorry I wasn't doing the delay part correctly.

You are an awesome human being and one day people will write stories about you.

BTW, can I put in a feature request for RM 6.0 to paint my bedroom?

[geroose]

Glad it’s working for you.

I don’t work for Hubitat, but their wizards read this forum, so I am sure they’ll work in the paint-a-room task. But you’ll have to keep those repeats under control - two coats of paint is enough!