Rule Machine - What am I doing wrong?

OK. Found the bug, and indeed it has only to do with Periodic. Now fixed and will be in the next release.

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So, question for you: Why do this only every 15 minutes? Why not just have a rule that fires when either garage door opens at night? I suppose one answer might be so that you can run the dog out or something, as long as you get it into the 15 minute window.

We have a rule that runs when our mode becomes Night that tells us if a garage door is open, This mode happens when we go to bed, or at some late hour.

Good questions, I'm totally open to better ideas!

The thought is that if the door is open for 15 minutes after dark, it's most likely because someone forgot to close it. Perhaps there's a better way to detect a forgotten open door?

Also, with 3 teenagers: 1) could happen multiple times after dark, so one check isn't adequate and 2) there's a higher likelihood of "someone" forgetting to close the garage. :wink:

It seems to me that if your garage door opens at 2:03 AM you'd like to know about it right then, not at 2:15. Also, if it opens at 2:03 and closes at 2:05, you won't know that happened (I've raised teenagers -- it's debatable whether you want to know all of their comings and goings or just sleep through some of it :open_mouth:). You could write a rule that notifies you only if it's been left open for x minutes, using a delay that cancels on truth change.

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Here's a simple rule I use to try to keep us from leaving the area without at least closing the back door! This will notify immediately when the rule is TRUE, so you could change the switch ON action to a delay before ON, pending cancellation. Change the repeat frequency to whatever you want, and then just create a virtual switch and a RM Trigger for speaking "Garage Door Open". That is what you will turn on every X minutes.

Just be sure to add the "Garage Door Open" switch to the action for False so that it will be turned off if the rule is False, otherwise it will keep repeating "Garage Door Open" until something turns off the switch!

Definitely some good ideas here. Thanks guys!

@SmartHomePrimer, if you are using the built in virtual switch, you can now have the delayed off set in the driver itself rather than RM (acts like a momentary switch that way).

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Thanks Stephan. I know about the delayed OFF. I asked @mike.maxwell to add it, and he kindly obliged. :smiley:

Sometimes I double-purpose a switch, so I've decided not to use the built-in delay off in that way for everything. I instead use it for a virtual switches that I need to be momentary, but I'm primarily triggering outside of RM, such as via Homebridge. Those are almost always single purpose switches, so for that I'm thankful not to have to create a separate rule any longer, in order to turn them OFF 1 second later. :crazy_face:

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I am trying to get my head around some of the more complex aspects of Rule Machine. Well, maybe it's not really complex but I sometimes have trouble comprehending!

So in your example, suppose I didn't want to use a switch...can I just announce "Back Door left open" in the actions for true? Will that repeat every minute until false? I am not completely understanding the "Repeat every minute" part of the rule.

I'm not aware of anyway to make TTS repeat more than once, unless I trigger a switch repeatedly that speaks the phrase I want. If you don't want it to repeat a phrase every x amount of time, then no virtual switch and RM trigger is needed. I've chosen to repeat every minute in this case, because I'm hoping we will see the notification (I'm using IFTTT so I don't have the fancy stuff) before we drive really far from the house. One notification might easily be missed in the car.

I would also have thought that if the rule was False, it would stop repeating the action in my example, but it doesn't. Needs the switch set to OFF when the rule is False, or just keeps on, keeping on! :wink:

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Whoa, you are making this much more complicated that it needs to be!

  1. It is possible to repeat anything, including a spoken notification or Pushover notification

  2. You can stop repetitions using the Stop Actions action -- so that could be in the False part of a rule that starts a repetition.

  3. If you use Pushover, you can send an "emergency" notification with "[E] door left open". That will repeat until you acknowledge it.

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Correct. I'm not sure why I had that temporary lapse of reason. I in fact do repeat spoken phrases in other rules. Sorry for the misinformation @denise.grider

I use that one too in a triggered rule. Forgot to mention it. I'm not clear as to why even a rule that becomes False does not stop a repetition when that is part of the action for True. Is it a separate process that starts outside of RM and must be killed?

I know Pushover has cool features. I'll cave someday probably. For now, it's a personal choice not to use it.

What I think would really help me with regards to Rule Machine and its capabilities, is a place where there were a lot of examples of "If you want to do this"...when I read through the Rule Machine intro and instructions, my eyes start to glaze over. I must be getting old :wink:

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Stopping repetition on truth change is an option for rules. But not for triggered rules, as there is no such thing as truth change per se.

:point_up_2:

I feel your pain. Only recently it has started to make sense for me. Still have a lot to learn but at least I have sorta figured out when to use a rule vs a triggered rule, cancel on truth change etc. Something clicked and it started to make sense. The first thing I had to realize is you can't use perfectly linear logic like we did with webCore. Multiple rules and Private Booleans are your friend...fight it like I did and you will lose.

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That makes sense. I don't know that stop on truth change is needed, since that's pretty much what Stop Actions is doing isn't it? I'm just not an expert on RM yet. I'll keep working at it!

Haha, stop on truth change already is an option. It's only there for rules, not triggers, triggered rules, or actions -- because none of those involve truth change.

Well, that sure puts emphasis on how "green" I am with RM, doesn't it? :smiley:

@bravenel
Yes this would be awesome. Could a sub section be created in the forums for RM? Then we could have all the helpful hints and shared rules available in one place.

I am also having trouble wrapping my head around RM. I know it can do all that I need. I just cannot ever seem to put the pieces together..

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