Evening On RL automation created around 12:30 PM and I had been dinking around UniFi IP reservation when I noticed no lights came on 12:40, the time I initially set. I couldn’t remember if I had hit Update, so I set activation for 1:05 PM and hit Update at 12:56 PM. I also decided to hit Done and I think it initialized again at 1:00 PM.
At 1:05 PM I have the following outcome with no lights having been turned on at all. So please, can someone tell me what the issue is? Is it me? Am I this clueless that I can't make sense of it?
Sure, the Automation was already activated but the devices were not in their defined states for being activated. Why is this so difficult???
If there is truly an explanation for why this didn't activate the devices, then let me point out that whatever that reason is, it is not documented prior to the section on Set Up Lighting Periods or Re-Capture Devices.
Either that, or I'm an idiot. And the latter is unlikely, yet possible. I do have a tendency to miss the obvious...
The logs at 1:05pm say “already activated.” With the Means to Activate, that turns on Room Lighting and sets the devices according to the table. However, if Room Lighting is already activated (like indicated), then it won’t set the lights unless the option “Activate even if already activated.” Try either adding that option or turning off Room Lighting via the Turn off button. The next time should work better.
Yes, reading on in the documentation I found you can set an option to "Don't Turn Off," and this is supposed to let the app function for turning on, only. However, what I got was everything turned off in the Log. Not what I expected...
No. The activated indicator is telling you that Room Lighting (the app instance) is on. It says nothing about your lights and their state. It’s just a visual indicator for you to know that it is activated.
The “don’t turn off” option means that you want Room Lighting to always be active. Again it’s about the app and not the light states. The light states are based on the device table and their column selections.
Based on your Means to turn on and off, you want this Room Lighting to turn on at 2:05pm and then never turn off. What exactly are you trying accomplish?
I'm trying to turn these lights on preemptively for a given time period. This will change with people tuning lights on and off physically, and will be followed by an automation for the next time period where some of these lights may be turned on again, and others may not, depending on what time period and time of year.
I'm now adding the option to Activate even if partially Activated.
This is definitely doable within Room Lighting. Two options in the Means to Turn On will be key. Activate even if partially activated and adjust on time period changes (once you put in time periods) will keep things moving in the direction you want.
As you build the automation, remember that the Means refer to Room Lighting. What happens to the lights is based on the device table within Room Lighting.
I'm not even going to attempt defining time periods for a while. Just want to make these come on and use a different app to turn off.
It's been 6 weeks and I haven't been able to get a repeatable outcome where MY expectation is met every time. It's entirely possible that's an issue with me. Even so, it seems more complicated than necessary. Would have helped if C8 had been reliable with Zigbee. It was another 4 weeks before I got the C7 put in for handling Zigbee.
Yes, that's my goal. Someone earlier on in this conversation recommended an app called All Off that Bruce B. wrote long ago. I like it because it double (or however many times you set) checks that everything turned off, and will send nn retries every ss.
However, I fully intend to have RL handle everything. I can definitely envision what RL can do. Getting my head around how to do it has been less than enjoyable up to now.
Do you see any reason why this won't work to only turn lights off? And that's not to say I won't combine both on and off in the same RL app, just that I want to establish the logic for each method before I try to combine them.
To fully mirror your other example, go into Means to Activate and select “do not activate.” It’s not really necessary for your tests, but I did want to point it out that it exists. Otherwise, your logic is correct. I use this logic for my Turn off the house Room Lighting instance.
I also am new to Hubitat and rule lighting where i can not get a consistent experience for simple lighting rules e.g if motion detected, turn on light if no motion detected turn off light. I use 2x zwave aeotec motion sensor 6 and 2x aeotec zwave nano switch which as a test, exposed from hubitat to home assistant using makerapi app in hubitat. I then setup rules the same as i had in hubitat and then disabled the rule in hubitat and found that i had 100% success rate when using home assistant rule engine and devices added via hubitat, I also tested this with rule machine and same inconsistent results, leading me to believe that there is a flaw in hubitat app or logic where it doesnt check if the requested action resulted in the desired state e.g no motion = switch should be off or if there is motion = light switch should be on.
I have not tried motion lighting with Room Lighting. I used the Motion Lighting app for that since I have very simple need for it. I’m sure RL can do it but I think it’s best to keep variables to a minimum until I get my head completely around how RL works.
turning off that many at once will probably overload the mesh and you may get failures.. there are apps or options to delay so many ms between operations to allow the mesh to more smoothly execute the commands without stepping on itself.
