The Act column selects that device for Activation. The Off column selects that device for Turning Off. The Switch column determines what action to take upon Activation (on or off). So it is possible to have Activation turn off a light (instead of the normal turning on). The way you have it setup would turn off the Landscape Lights upon Activation.
I would encourage you to use the logs from the App to see exactly what is going on. It could be that the reason for not turning on the Office light is that it is already on, or the app thinks it's on.
What it looks like is going on, is it's telling the switch to turn on twice, then off twice. But, I had played with the settings so much that I'm not sure if this was with the Off box checked or not, but in the whole log, that looks like the same thing. Two commands on, then two off.
Just to make sure I'm understanding things right, when you say activation, I'm assuming you mean when that table's time happens? So in my case, 05:30, and then activate at 06:13.
Why don't you just post the main page of the app? I can't tell what you're doing. Activation is when one of the Means to Activate causes the app to activate the devices, which happens according to the table then in effect.
Apparently I'm misunderstanding how the whole thing works. I was on the understanding that the lighting periods was so that it could change the scene at the given time under lighting periods.
What I'm looking to do is turn on my outside lights just before sunset, turn off the landscape lights and dim the other ones at 21:30, and turn everything off just after sunrise. So I was thinking that setting a lighting period for 21:30 would make the changes at that time.
Not sure how I missed that, but I changed it over, and still no luck.
What's puzzling me is on the rule page, it shows the correct table for the time period, and it's showing the light is set to turn on, but it won't. But if I push the activate button, it works. Looking at the logs, there is no command being issued to the light. Just for further testing, I added one of my smart bulbs to it, with the command do dim it to 50%. Same thing. The app isn't issuing the command, but if I hit the button it does.
We have a winner!!!! Well, second after the last post of activating on time period changes.
I was just coming to post here when I saw your post, that when I looked again at the logs, it was saying already activated. I selected the activate even activated option, and it works.
Also, I see now how I missed the other part about activating on period changes. I had set up a new rule for testing, and that wasn't an option until I set up the periods. When i started into all of this, I had set the activation time first, then periods.
You mean "activate button"? There's no checkbox as far as im aware.
But to the OPs point, I was just saying to @bravenel that this interface is so incredibly confusing to most people. It still doesn't make any sense to me 5 years later. I've complained in the past and it was just dismissed as it has been recently. They say they're working on it but something simple like this can't be addressed.
I have the same exact question: "will be activated when the RL rule becomes active." HUH???
It still makes NO SENSE. When you save the rule, shouldn't it automatically activated????? I know pressing the button makes the lights come on, but WHY? Why would anyone want this? Does it activate the rule? Or does saving the rule activate the rule? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
"The Off checkbox means that light will be turned off when the RL rule becomes inactive."
Again, WHAT??? I'm sorry but I don't understand.
Is this all simply trying to accomplish (through being utterly confusing) what a "Pause" button does in other apps?
Omg that's just not obvious one bit.
I've been having so many issues with RM and now this RL because of that. I just thought it was for turning things on or off while I was on the screen.
I think the vast majority of us write a rule to either come on or off and that's it. We're not selecting switches to do the opposite of others, and if we do, we end up writing a separate rule for that.
"Activate" is used instead of "Turn On" because sometimes to activate the automation means to turn something off instead of on. Turn Off means what it says. How the automation is activated is defined by Means to Activate -- AND it can be done manually with the Activate button in the UI. Similarly, how the automation turns its devices off is defined by Means to Turn Off, with a UI button to do it manually.
The Device table provides more nuance to this, by allowing Activation to turn a device off, or specify exactly what should happen when the automation is activated. It also allows for some devices to not be affected by Activation at all, or affected by Turn Off at all (the Act and Off columns under Device Control). Here is an example of that:
Notice that Master is not touched by Activation. This is because it is handled outside of this automation. Notice the detail Activation setting for the two lamps, causing them to be set to color temperature mode with a specific CT and level.
The automation can omit turning some devices on upon activation, as shown above, It can also omit turning off some devices when Turn Off happens. Also, you should pay attention to the defaults that are set when you first set a Room Lights up. Those defaults are for the most common usage, where lights are turned on by Activation, and turned off by Turn Off.
The interface is confusing at first, and the documentation doesn't help. But, on this point, yes, it's like a pause button for that time period. You can set up time periods to do different things at different times. But, you have to select certain devices to be used, and all of those selected devices will be part of the time period that you create. When you set up a room in Room Lighting, all of the devices you select for that room will be part of it.
So activate does not mean turn the device on, it means that device will do what you tell it to do when the time period is activated. If you uncheck it, then yes, it's pausing that one device from the time period.
So, using the example of my outside lights that I used here. I have the porch lights and lights in front of the garage, I have my lights on my back patio, and my landscape lights.
Just before sunset, all of them come on and are set to 100% brightness. But, the porch lights in front of the garage are a bit bright. I'm lighting the stop sign two houses away. It's OK earlier in the evening, but as a courtesy to my neighbors later at night, they need to be dimmed. So at 9:30, I have another time period where it dims those and the patio lights to 30%, the porch lights to 50%, and the landscape lights turn off. Then just after sunrise, they all turn off.
So, to answer your question about activation, when 9:30 comes around, it activates that time period that i have set, which means it's turning off the landscape lights. I will fully agree that is very confusing at first because it does look like that would mean the light, not the time period. But that's what it actually does.
What should probably be made more clear in the documentation is that the list you are looking at with the activate and off check boxes are allowing you to manually make a change without changing you time period list. So under State, you can manually turn that light on or off. Then once you have al that set, you can recapture those settings for a time period. The point is you can set things up, and make adjustments while you are setting it up. So for example, I had already had my brightness levels figured out because I was doing all of this in rule machine prior, but had I been setting all of this up form the start in Room Lighting, I might have set the brightness to 50% for everything, then go look, and well, the porch looks fine but the garage lights are too bright. Let me lower them to say 40%. Still too bright, but better. Let's try 30%. That looks good.
Then, while I'm out there, those landscape lights are also adding a bit too much light later at night, and not really needed. Those don't happen to be dimmable, so my only option then is to turn them off. So from here, I can just click it to off.
In the end, yes, all of this can be done with rule machine, but you end up with a long list of rules. So this, and button control, make it more organized.
Just to clarify something else with the activation check box, as I said it means to activate that device to the settings. So that means brightness settings too, not just on or off.
The Act and Off columns under Device Control allow device by device selection as to whether or not each device is commanded upon activation, or turned off by Turn Off. If Act is checked, then the Activation Settings on the right side of the table are applied to each device upon activation.
The normal (and default) case is to Activate and Turn Off each device, with whatever Activation Settings are used, like this:
In that case, there are no applicable Activation Settings for that device (since it won't be activated at all). There is another device in this automation (not shown), a button device that specific button are pushed for On and Off.
In the same way, we could uncheck the Off column, and the device would be activated by this automation, but not turned off by it. Like this:
Please stop. You aren't helping anyone else, and your complaints are not contributive to anyone's understanding, just for your own venting. That's not the point of this community, and it's not appropriate. I'm truly sorry that Room Lights appears to be over your head,.
Please stop? And you’re the one showing maturity hiding a post??? You’re being condescending. Great customer service you’re showing everyone here.
