Room Lighting "Training Module"?

📢 Feedback Feature Requests
#1

Room lighting is such a powerful tool and I want to use it as much as I can before hopping onto Rule Machine. My brain is wired to use Rule Machine, but Room Lighting just looks like it can handle more complex rules much better than anything I could write that would probably otherwise result in a ton of nested IF...THEN statements.

I wish there was like a Room Lighting "training module" to introduce new Users like me to what all the different advanced options do and give an idea of "Use cases" for them lol. I've read the documentation a few times now, but honestly, words just don't "stick" as much as hands-on for me and actually seeing what the options do. If there was a "Room Lighting Training Kit", I'd 100% buy it.

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#2

What type of Rules are you using that you might want to put into Room Lighting? Do you have a sample rule that the community could help convert?

With that said, I have found the following to be roughly equivalent:

Means to Activate/Turn off = Triggers in Rule Machine
Limiting Activation/Turn off = Conditions/Required Expressions

From there, you can get significantly deeper to have the lights do various things based on modes, time periods, etc... If you are just turning on and off a light, the rough equivalents should be able to get you started.

#3

I agree on your thoughts about RL. Whats an example of something you would want to do? Maybe I could make short screen recording on it? Is that what you are looking for, like a screen recording walkthrough? I also have a couple of examples posted in the RL forums section with explanations.

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#4

Here's just a few options where I don't know what a practical "Use Case" would be like or I'm a bit unclear of what it actually does or both:

  1. Advanced Uses of Indicator
  2. Activate Only Activating Switch
  3. Alternative Turning Off Methods
  4. Events that Disable and Re-Enable Activation/Turning Off. I feel as though this one is used for a "master" switch? But, I don't know why I assume the it would work that way anyway even without these options. Like, I can just turn off the light manually as I leave the room or turn them on manually as I enter.

But, what I like about Room Lighting is all the other things it can do like you mentioned (modes, time periods, etc.) would probably be either a separate rule or a nested IF...THEN on RM, but in Room Lighting, it's just a configuration on the UI.

Edit: @jtp10181 Here's a bigger list for me personally.

#5

Essentially like a video or recording of the different advanced options and how typically they are used. For example, the Events that Disable and Re-Enable Activation/Turning Off. I feel as though this one is used for a "master" switch? But, I don't know why I assume the it would work that way anyway even without these options. Like, I can just turn off the light manually as I leave the room or turn them on manually as I enter, can't I? When would I use this?

#6

Yeah, RL has a steep learning curve -- I guess comes with the territory, since it has so many similar and often intertwined capabilities and options. It can be intimidating.

I had the luxury of moving existing setups over to RL when it came out, so I could afford to experiment more - if something blew up, I just re-activated my old setup while I goofed around more in RL.

For me, it was a lot of trial-&-error and searching the heck out of the community here for similar questions when I ran into them.

The Disable/Re-enable option (and its cousin "Limit...") is especially useful in motion-based RL setups. In our bathroom, motion triggers the lights, but my Hue can't see behind the shower curtain, so I use my Bath Fan triggering on humidity as a "Disable" my RL rule -- that way, the lights stay on when the motion sensor loses us in the shower.

Disable vs Limit is a whole other can of worms :sweat_smile:, but maybe that example helps.

#7

Good idea, I am currently using it as a limit to turn off but maybe I should just have it disable it totally so it does not mess with other things. I will have to check it out.

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#8

See! That's how I've been learning through it as well, but would love a more "organized walkthrough". And thank you for giving me an idea to use for my bathroom!

Admittedly, I am a little intimidated with trial & error because I already have a husband that doesn't buy into home automation. Deploying "imperfect rules" would just make him even more apprehensive about the whole thing. If I was living alone, I wouldn't care. I'd probably just laugh in a dark bathroom waving my arms like a maniac if it turned off on me lol.

This is probably best suited for a different topic, but how do you all "QA" rules end to end to test both the rule itself and the placement of your sensors without yet "Going Live" with it? Do you just trigger virtual stuff and log it for a few days and read the logs?

#9

Ha, oh man, please don't think I did that with a whole lot of deliberation.,. I was actually just trying to figure out if I should consider changing that one to a "Limit..." lol

I recently realized I use only "Disable" in my RL setups, and I've simply never really considered if/when a Limit would be better -- so I'm treading slowly down that rabbit hole now :sweat_smile:

@HarleysWorld -- here's a good example of "Well, finally got it working as desired so imma call it good". Sure, all of my current RLs work, but are they as "clean" / efficient / refined / etc as they possibly can be? Almost certainly not lol...

The rabbit hole always goes deeper!

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#10

Keep it simple. This is the same response I would have to your other post about not being sure what some of the advance options can do. When starting with Room Lighting or even Rule Machine ask yourself the following: What are you trying to accomplish with the light? Can you activate and turn off the light as desired (via switch, sensor, etc...)?

The key thing with lighting is getting the on and offs to work correctly. From there, it is just diving deeper to tweaking it.

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#11

Totally understandable. I'd consider building incrementally. Start with basic devices and simple automations to cover tha main wants. Refine over time with adding in new tweaks and capabilities. You don't have to solve for the ultimate full-blown kit-&-caboodle all in one fell swoop.

As you increment, you may realize your initial grand picture had flaws anyway - that often happens to me.

Yep, that challenge is real... We don't have kids, so if I have a bigger design project I just try to coordinate a weekend day with my spouse where I can go head's down and dig in. Not as easy as back when I was single, but we figure it out.

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#12

I have one room that I would really like to get set up on RL, @jtp10181 has been great helping work through a couple of other projects, but this one seems to be a stumper. It's our bed Room and part of the problem is that I work all three shifts, with Tuesday and Wednesday being overnight shifts so I'm sleeping during the morning and evening. clearly, I don't want lights coming on with motion, or at least if they do, to come on red so it doesn't wake me, or cause me to stay awake if I have to get up. Then there is morning and evening lighting, overnight "night lighting" (see above), and my wife just decding to go to bed early.

#13

Bedrooms are hard for some of the reasons that you state. As stated further above, the KISS system is frequently the best. In our home bedrooms use only vacancy rules (turning off). There are just too many scenarios and exceptions to try to automate the 'on' actions. Having an Alexa or HomePod in the room also minimizes any of my desire to try to be more complex. A Pico or two by the bedside is also useful.

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#14

Pretty much now the extent of automation is dashboard control. For a while, we had Alexa in the house until she started deciding that what we really wanted was for ALL of the lamps in the bedroom to turn on at full brightness at 3:00 a.m. We never turn any light on to full brightness except exterior lights at any time. Whoever created "hunches" should be fired. needless to say, we evicted Alexa. If I could ever get Homekit to work, I might be willing to give Siri a trial. But so far home kit is elusive as well.

#15

Yeah, that would be darn hard to package up in one "rule". I don't have anything quite that complicated, but I've found using RL to at least set up unique (individual) scenes can be useful, and then you can leverage rules and virtual switches to manage when each scene is fired (or disabled etc).

But it can all get tangly pretty fast and can be hard (if not impossible) to fully automate (i.e. often still ends up needing an intentional press on a Pico [or whatever] to execute a certain state).

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#16

Since there is no consistent pattern, I would probably only use pico/dashboard control instead of motion lighting.

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