Setting Modes based on Time/Presence

šŸ“ Rule MachineĀ®
1

For the purpose of this discussion, I have 4 modes (Home, Night, Away Day, Away Night). I have not been able to get Mode Manager to set the correct mode based on whether my presence device is "present" or "not present". I understand by reading threads on this subject many are using RM to accomplish this.

The problem I am having is with the presence. I can set a mode based on the time of day but the presence options are only "leave" or "arrive". What if I am already gone or already home? Mode Manager handled the switch from daytime to nighttime by setting the mode to Away Night even though the presence was present, I am guessing it chose Away Night over Night mode (both modes have the same time settings) because the former was first in the list.

I looked into RM but run into the same problem. I can set the timeframes for each mode but cant find an option to determine the present state.

Can someone tell me which triggers I should be using for what I am trying to do here?

2

Hello and welcome to the community

I'll start with what I do and works for me, however there are many unique solutions for sure and I hope this gives you some ideas

First, I use a combination of time, presence and Alexa commands

Here is my mode manager

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Going from Sleep to morning or evening to sleep, tell Alexa Good Morning/Good Night. This way the day starts/ends when we do and not by time

Next, I set our Ring alarm based on mode/presence

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Simple, basic but it works for us... YMMV

Others will be along shortly with many more ideas/suggestions

Rick

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3

This might not be the most elegant way to do this, but hereā€™s what I would do based on my limited RM knowledge. Iā€™d create 3 separate rules. You probably could combine these into a single rule but if your RM knowledge is not as good like me itā€™s probably better to keep things simple.

Rule 1:

Trigger X time
If presence is present set mode to Home
Else if presence is not present set mode to Away-Day

Rule 2 (repeat for night mode)
Tigger Y time

If presence is present set mode to Night
Else if presence is not present set mode to Away-Night

Rule 3
Trigger presence changed
If time is before Y and presence is present - change mode to Home
Else if time is before Y and presence is not presence - change mode to Away-Day
Else if time is after Y and presence is present - change mode to Nighy
Else if time is after Y and presence is not present - change mode to Away-Night

1 Like
4

Here is what I did. (Rule in the linked thread)