I have a rule going to turn on lights in my son's room each morning to help him get going for school. On days where it's a snow day, sickness or holiday it's not as simple as I'd like to get into the toggle to deactivate it or even re-activate things. Is there a better method than all the clicks?
What app are you using to create the rule (Rule Machine or one of the other "rule" apps?), and how are you toggling it now?
In Rule Machine, you can do whatever you want. In most other apps, there are some built-in "restriction" options that should do what you want, usually with a switch as an option. That could be a virtual switch that you toggle from Hubitat Dashboard or turn on/off via a voice assistant, for example.
Rule Machine. Always works which is nice ...
I go in, press Pause, then Done. Reverse when it's back to normal. I know this isn't really a big deal but it does take longer than expected each time for such a simple seeming thing.
Alright, in Rule Machine, you can make pretty much anything work. An easy option would be either a Boolean hub variable (which you can toggle from Dashboard) or a virtual switch you create for this purpose (which you can toggle from Dashboard or add to a voice assistant or similar). Then, you can either add a specific variable/switch state as a "required expression" (will prevent the rule from triggering when false) or in your actions somewhere as a conditional action (which you can use for a similar outcome to the required expression or if you need more control over which portions do/don't happen in the actions).
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Create a virtual switch that turns off every morning at 1:00 AM. On days where you want to pause the rule, turn it on from a dashboard or button. It will reset the next morning.
Alternatively, my wife is a teacher. Her school publishes a calendar with all school closures. Using GCal app I have a switch that is on when there is no school. It has been working pretty reliably for me. Perhaps your school division would have something like that?
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thanks have to try the virtual switch and really like the cal integration as we do have that as well. The snow / sick situation seems like it would be managed by the virtual switch.
The virtual switch concept is extensible to other automations that make sense 99% of the time, but need to be suppressed on rare occasions. I have several such switches such as
- Suppress lighting automations
- Suppress irrigation system
- Suppress wake-up
etc. on my main dashboard for easy access. I canāt imagine dealing with exceptional cases by having to go into the Hubitat UI.
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i created a virtual switch for holidays that prevent my lights from coming on in the morning.
in my actions, i just put a conditional before the whole thing.
If VS = off THEN
do rule
EndIF
Plus one for a virtual switch. A boozy night and a late bedtime exposed a flaw in my "Auto Curtains" rule that caused some panic, when at 9 AM we went on display to the neighbourhood. Needless to say, WAF for my smart home concept plummeted. There is now a "Sleep In" virtual switch on my dash that is referenced in "Auto Curtains" Mk2.
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I use the GCal Search app for this very use case (and primary reason I have spent so much time maintaining itš¤£). I load all school holidays into my calendar each year and then I have a calendar search for each of my kids which also creates a child switch for them too. Then the rules that automate their lights in the morning are based on this switch being On. If itās off it wonāt fire.
Example search string to cover all:
KidName * School,SchoolName No School,Kids * School,KidName Out Sick
This way if one is sick I just create an all day calendar entry with their name and it takes care of the rest.
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