Summary Question - does an entire Simple Automation stop once a Restriction condition is no longer met?
I have a Simple Automation that:
Triggers with motion
Turn on light and set level (when any motion starts)
Turn off when all motion stops, after 5 minutes
Restriction: Illuminance sensor below 50
This morning:
7:21am - motion active and the lights turn on as expected
7:22am - illuminance crossed the threshold (36 to 76 Lux)
The lights remained on for over an hour without additional triggers
Before I make changes, I want to confirm that the automation stops (in this case, does not execute the "turn off" portion) due to the Restriction no longer being valid.
The behavior you described is how they work: "Restrictions" in Simple Automation Rules are, well, simple, and if they are in effect, any actions you've configured will not run (even if that action is one you might consider complementary to a previous action the rule did run, like turning the lights on--it won't turn them off).
If this is not the intended behavior, the solution is to create two instances of SAR: one that turn the lights on (and includes the restriction) and another that turns them off (and doesn't), both based on the same motion or whatever other criteria you want. Alternatively, for this specific case, you could look into a different app like Motion Lighting, since it includes ways to separately effectively "restrict" (that's not what it's called, but same idea) the "on" and "off" portions of the automation separately. Finally, there's always Rule Machine, where you can make whatever logic you want, but it's likely overkill for this case.
Thanks. In webCoRE, I would be able to see the curly brackets. In SharpTools, I know to create distinct rules. Ironically, Simple Automation was not as clear that the restriction condition (lux) is shared across both triggers (motion and time inactive).
For now, I will live with it. There are still a few more sensors to add, then I will step back and consider an overall mode/motion/scene strategy.
