Room Lighting - I Got To Be Missing Something

[LearningHubitat]

I use smart bulbs in all my lights for various reasons instead of moving to smart switches. I also currently have all these bulbs in groups such as "Living Room Light" or "Bedroom Light". This allows me to stop their individual popping effect when they turn on as the groups allow me to send the one command to turn them all on simultaneously. Then I have written all my rules in either Basic Rules or Rule Machine.

I have seen some posts about Groups and Scenes being old and it got me to thinking what if this app is discontinued. So I got to playing around with Room Lighting to see if I can move things over.

I am having zero luck figuring this out.

(1). How do you eliminate the popping effect and get all the bulbs to turn on simultaneously? I know if you create a room lighting rule based on a group you have the option but I can't find it if you just select all the bulbs. That is the whole purpose of trying to get away from Groups and Scenes.
(2). I have some rules that have multiple things limiting the rule to run. I am assuming this would still have to be done in Rule Machine or can this be done in Room Lighting?
(3). I also have not been able to find a good way to add required expressions as I have several of those.

Like I said I know I have to be missing something as I have not been able to program my mind into the logistical thinking of Room Lighting yet.

Any help you guys could give would be greatly appreciated.

[johnwill1]

@LearningHubitat

(2). I have some rules that have multiple things limiting the rule to run. I am assuming this would still have to be done in Rule Machine or can this be done in Room Lighting?

No - Rule Machine is not needed and yes you can select multiple things to limit activation. You first pick the category 'Limit Activation under these conditions', select the category/categories, then each category will present you with a separate button in the UI where you can select as many devices in the category as are necessary.

@LearningHubitat

(3). I also have not been able to find a good way to add required expressions as I have several of those.

There's no required expression as such but you may still be able to achieve the same end using the Disable Activation, Enable Activation options.

[danabw]

@LearningHubitat

I have seen some posts about Groups and Scenes being old and it got me to thinking what if this app is discontinued.

I don't think you have to worry too much about this...after a brief retirement the Groups and Scenes app was restored to the standard list of built-in apps for HE, and there has been zero discussion of removing it since then. If I had a working setup using Groups and Scenes I'd just keep using it. Ain't broke approach is just easier...

If you'd just like to learn how to use RL to do similar automations I get that, but I don't think you need to do that.

@LearningHubitat

...eliminate the popping effect and get all the bulbs to turn on simultaneously...

You didn't say, but assuming your lights are Zigbee below is some info on using Zigbee Group Messaging in RL that should help:

Zigbee Group Messaging in Room Lights

Room Lights supports Zigbee Group Messaging (ZGM). This allows multiple Zigbee lights to activated by a single command on the Zigbee network. Doing so both cuts down on network traffic, but also causes the lights to respond all at the same instant. However, there are limitations to this feature, and understanding exactly how it works sheds light on these. ZGM is tied to an Activator Device. When the Activator device is commanded, all of the lights in the ZGM group are commanded in exactly t…

...and more on Groups in RL:

How to use Room Lights for Groups

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion about how to set up a group in Room Lights. Before getting to that, let's define what a 'group' is: A group is a set of lights that should all respond identically to an activation device. By turning on the activation device, all of them should turn on. By turning it off, all should turn off. By setting it to blue, they should all be set to blue. For Room Lights to have a group, we first need to select the group member devices in the pull down for…

[dcaton1220]

I have a love/hate relationship with Room Lighting. I've moved things between RL and RM probably too many times.

RL does a lot of things, but sometimes it's overkill and goes against Bruce's KISS mantra. If all you need is a toothpick, a Swiss army knife is overkill. There's confusion about how to set up a group in RL because it's an obscure option buried deep in the UI, and the name "Room Lighting" has nothing in particular to do with a group of zigbee devices.

I have zigbee groups set up in both Groups & Scenes, and RL. If I need the additional capabilities of RL, I use that. If I just need a zigbee group, Groups is the app for that.

Personally, I think Groups and Scenes should be divorced from each other. Groups should remain as a simple, obvious, discoverable way of creating groups. Scenes should be depreciated because Room Lighting could (IMO) be thought of as Scenes 2.0. "Room Lighting" is a bad name IMO, because isn't limited to controlling lighting, nor is it limited to controlling a room.

[LearningHubitat]

I use a pressure mat attached to a water leak sensors to detect presence in the bed. I don't want the bedroom lights on if someone is in the bed, either side. When trying to set this up in RL I was only able to choose one sensor or the other not both. I know this has to be user error.

[LearningHubitat]

Thank you for the references to the other posts. I will review those later today. Yeah I actually really like the groups and actually really like RM. Maybe because it is similar to my every day job so I understand it, somewhat. I just wanted to learn RL while I still have things operational instead of it being one of those must learn it now cases.

[LearningHubitat]

It may just be me but when I think of Room Lighting that is the first thing that comes to my mind is groups of lighting in the room. It must be just because I started out with BR and RM but it seems like in RL the activities that you want to use to achieve certain goals is either labeled differently or the nomenclature is different. It is just really confusing to me at this point but I have no doubt I will get there.