I am currently using a WATO and RM3 rule to control lights throughout my home. I am hoping the community can help find a more efficient way of achieving what I am doing here to improve response times and reduce missed events.
Here is what I am currently doing:
RM4 rule to adjust a virtual dimmer up and down with a 5 minute fade at sunrise/sunset:
WATO that allows any light that turns on to turn on and set its level to the same level of the virtual dimmer. Here is one of them: WHEN [Bonus Room] ATTRIBUTE switch = on.ignoreCase() THEN [Bonus Room] : setLevel([Virtual Dimmer] : level)
RM3 that allows any lights already on to follow the virtual dimmer during the fade time:
I'm hoping for a more efficient method and to eliminate WATO. I currently have to have a WATO and RM3 rule for every group of lights I might turn on individually.
I think you might have missed that I want the lights to turn on at the correct level, and adjust when turned on. As far as I can tell, there is no way to adjust level directly to a bulb without it turning on when the level changes are sent.
What you shared would cause the light to turn on, if off. If you added a condition to check if the light is on, then it would turn on at the wrong level if it is not already on during the sunrise/sunset fades.
I'd really like the light to turn on directly to the correct level, but I think at this point, it is a pipe dream. I'll have to live with the light turning on to its previous level, then dimming to the correct level.
It is just not how bulbs work. They turn on and adjust to the level you want. The only way around this is by first fading to the lowest level possible before turning the bulbs off. So, if you were turning them off by a button controller, if you first dimmed them to 10% and then turned them off, then when you set the level to 50% they would turn on to 10% and brighten to 50%. But you are correct. There is no way to setLevel directly to the level you want with a bulb. That is one of their disadvantages.
I might try this by using virtual switches for all control, then. When press the wall button (Sylvania), or tell Google to turn the lights off, it will flip the virtual switch, triggering a rule to fade down the associated group to 1% and turn off. Then when the virtual switch is turned on, the rule will fade up to the correct level, based on the current level of the virtual dimmer tracked for dimming.
Sound like it would work? Is there anything to watch out for?
I wouldn't do it in a separate rule, you can do that directly in Button controller in RM4.0 . You can then have the trigger in google home "press" that button via a rule. That would be clearner than having a bunch of rules.
OK. I think I'm following. Here is what I see, then:
Create a RM4 action for off and one for on button pushes
Create the RM4 button controller rules for all 3 wall controls and the virtual button for Google (they all do the same thing in the room). Each of these button controllers will activate the RM4 Actions create for on/off.
Seems to me like it might just be easier to handle it with two triggered rules: one for on and one for off. Basically, if any of these buttons is pushed, do this. I'm thinking this is cleaner than what I mentioned above, unless there is a downfall to this method.
No...not quite. You need to create a RM 4.0 button controller first. You select the trigger "Button Device" and then pick your button controller. You can then create all your actions within that one rule.
There are no such thing as triggered rules in RM 4.0 You only have triggers and actions. You can create one per button if you want but It's going to become hard to keep organized when you have over 100 rules.
