Room Lighting: Works different when controlled from Z wave switch than when controlled from Android app?

💡 Lighting Room Lighting
#1

Using Room lighting to automatically turn on and off secondary light B whenever primary light A is turned on/ off.

This has been working flawlessly when Light A is turned on or off via

  • its switch
  • the Hubitat native dashboard on a Windows laptop

I recently installed the Android App and have been learning about it.

The automation only partially works on the Android App.

  • If I use the app to turn ON Light A, it automatically & immediately turns on Light B as it should.
  • HOWEVER, if I then ALSO use the App to turn OFF Light A, Light B does not turn off (but it should)

Interestingly

  • If I use the Windows dashboard to turn ON Light A, it automatically & immediately turns on Light B as it should.
  • If I then switch to the Android App to turn OFF Light A, Light B turns off as it should.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

#2

It would be helpful to see the room lighting setup along with logging for the room lighting app and the devices running through the scenarios.

I presume when you say "Windows dashboard" that you mean the same dashboard as the Android app, just accessed via a web browser in Windows instead. If so, they are, effectively, the same thing.

1 Like
#3

Yes, that is correct.
I also thought they were the same thing, but they don't act the same.

By "Room Lighting Setup" do you mean screenshots of the App for this light?
By "Logging for the RL App" I think you mean screenshots of the log
What do you mean by "the devices running through the scenarios?

#4

Correct.

Also correct.

I mean, to replicate the rule lighting not functioning properly and show the logs from that specific instance.

#5

So I just redid the on/off sequences described above for purposes of posting the log here, and for some reason it works just fine now??? So I feel kind of silly.

Looking at the logs, I'm going to guess that what happened was:

  • When I initially discovered it, the device for Light B failed to pick up the Zigbee signal for whatever reason (some anomaly)
  • When I initially replicated the problem for purposes of my initial post, I turned the lights on and off too quickly, and was thus able to "replicate" the problem
  • When I tried to replicate the problem for purposes of posting the logs, I took my time between the on and the off sequences, and thus did not "replicate" the problem

Sorry to have bothered you...and thank you for replying

#6

No need to feel silly not like a bother. What possibly happened, depending on your RL setup, is the RL instance thought Light B was already off and didn't send the command.

  • You turn on light A, and the on command goes to light B.
  • You turn off light A before light B has updated to being "on".
  • RL thinks light B is already off and does not send the command.
  • Light B is actually turned on from the command in the first step.

RL has "optimization" baked in. Meaning, by default, it won't tell a device that is on to turn on; off to turn off; etc. There's some ways around this.

If you just want the lights to follow each other, the built-in"Mirror" app my be a more well suited option.

Download the Hubitat app