Pausing and resuming a rule with a dimmer switch

[Farris]

I thought I was so smart, I figured out how to make a rule that from 10:30 pm to Sunrise, if my motion sensor in the master bath senses motion that my dimmer would make the vanity lights come on at 1% so we would have a night light. I also made them turn off after 15 seconds if there was no activity. Last night reality set in when my wife took a shower at 10:45 pm and the lights kept going off.

I think the solution is that if during the time this rule is running, if she turns on the lights with the dimmer switch, it could pause my rule and when she finishes with her shower and she turns off the light with the dimmer, it would resume the night light rule.

I know this is possible but I am unsure about how to do it. Anyone have any help to give on this? Much appreciated.

[Sebastien]

There are a few ways to do this. Here’s one:

Have a Rule Machine rule that pauses the other rule when the light is turned on [Physical], and then resumes it when it is turned off.

This assumes that the switch you are using sends [Physical] vs [Digital] events.

[Farris]

Thanks for responding, I did try this and while I was able to get the pause action in as you have shown, there was no subsequent "create New Action" after that to let me put the resume part in.

I did give me an opportunity to set up a "wait", but that is not what I wanted.

By the way, I do have a physical switch so that part will work.

[Sebastien]

I have this setup for a couple of rules.

Action:
Pause Rule
Wait for event: Light Turned off
Resume Rule (flip the “switch” on the left of the “Pause or Resume?” prompt)

When you say there was no subsequent “create New Action”, can you share a screenshot? There should be a green “+” on the bottom left of the New Action table.

[Farris]

Very confusing. I was able to find everything but I have tried multiple times to get this correct and I am not successful.

There is little to no documentation on this and many other topics.

[Sakman]

Can you share a screenshot of the rule you are attempting? That would really help us help you.

[Sebastien]

For documentation, the following link should help:

http://docs2.hubitat.com/

[Farris]

Okay, I had to fire up my work machine so I could have access to Snagit. There are three screen shots since this is currently broken down to three rules. The first is in basic, the next two are Rule Machine 5.

I am on line so if you have any questions, fire away!

[Farris]

Yes, I have been reading through the documentation for the whole time I have been trying to solve this. The problem is that there is some holes in the explanations.

I have found many solutions to other issues but not this one. I am not a programer but I usually do okay with technical stuff. The other issue I have with the documentation is the search engine sucks. I usually use google after I can't find what I am looking for.

[Sebastien]

I think the “Resume” rule is posted twice, but the “Pause” rule is not.

[Farris]

So on the pause rule I deleted the resume.

This is the resume rule

Do you think pause and resume should be on one?

[Farris]

What do you think, I tried consolidating into 1 rule for the pause resume.

[Sakman]

That may work..Try it and see.

I came up with the following where it would just pause and resume your existing Basic Rule., similar I believe to what @Sebastien described above.

I would also defer to @Sebastien who has more experience than me.

[Farris]

This looks good, the only thing I am confused on is the trigger, if someone is taking a shower after the rule starts, I was thinking that if they push the dimmer on the wall to 100% that would be the trigger for the the rule to pause and at the same time the shower light comes on 100% too, When I tested this trigger, it did not pause the rules and there is not any way to set required trigger to say >= 95%. The only thing I see is "changed"

[Sebastien]

@Farris

there is not any way to set required trigger to say >= 95%. The only thing I see is "changed"

That is because the trigger is “Switch” rather than “Dimmer”. “Physical dimmer event” will allow you to set the dimmer value.

[Farris]

Thank you very much, I learned a lot and I am up and running