I see there is an import utility to get up to speed with the new Room Lighting app, but I'm confused. I've read your article about migrating, but I'm still confused. I am seeing options to import both Motion Lighting and Groups/Scenes, but what's the process here? Check all the boxes in Motion Lighting and import and then check all the boxes in Groups/Scenes? I obviously don't want to screw anything up, but I don't see clear instructions on how to get existing things converted over to Room Lighting.
However you want. You can do them one at a time or do multiple at once. The option will remain there as long as there are Group, Scene, or Motion Lighting apps remaining to import. Maybe start with one just to see how it works?
1 Like
Well won't it duplicate things if I import both the existing Motion Lighting app and the existing Group/Scene? I am not really looking to pull the trigger and hope it works. Hoping for clarification on the official process for bringing this all into Room Lighting without borking everything.
1 Like
Your newly imported Room Lighting app will be paused so as to not conflict with your existing automation. You can disable, pause, or even remove (though I'd make you're you're happy first...) whatever app it replaced, then un-pause the new Room Lighting instance, for example.
There is no "official" process--just up to you and how you want to handle it! Thinking of potential conflicts is a good idea, though, and luckily, the import process already considers that for you.
Yes, I read that and would have no questions if it was just showing my Motion Lighting apps, but I am confused about showing the Motion Apps AND the Groups/Scenes. What's the difference? Do I migrate both or just one or the other? Sooooooooo confusing.
Just do one, and see what's going on with Room Lights. Crawl, Walk Run...
1 Like
I'm not sure what differences you're asking about; Motion Lighting and Mode Lighting are different apps from Groups and Scenes, and they are appearing in separate lists for that reason, if that's all you mean. All are distinct apps from Room Lighting, which is newer and capable of replacing all of these. The import is meant to make this easy. You don't have to change anything if you don't want to, and if you do, import is just one option to make it easy (you could also manually re-create the setup, for example).
I second Bruce's suggestion: if you're curious, just try it. 
Your old app will remain, and your new Room Lighting app will be set up with identical configuration--but paused until you change something, so nothing will really change until you take more action. If you're afraid you'll mess something up, take a hub backup beforehand so you have an easy restore path (but I don't think you'll need to).
I totally understand how Motion Lighting Apps migrate to Room Lighting. The confusion is what the heck Groups/Scenes have to do with this? Mainly scenes. I have different scenes for each room. How do these relate to a new Room Lighting app? It's very confusing. Yes, I can sit here and play all day, but I'd rather not. I'd rather understand how these relate first.
How does a scene like "Basement Office (Dim)" correlate to anything in a Room Lighting app?
1 Like
Room Lighting is capable of replacing not only Motion Lighting but also Groups and Scenes (mostly by way of the activator device). If you're importing, you don't have to worry about the configuration, since it will be done for you, but if you're curious how it would be created new to replicate a group or scene, see this recent post:
But again, you don't have to change anything if you don't want to.
I will read that and hopefully it makes more sense. I don't like the idea that I don't have to do anything. The old apps are retired, so I would like to get everything up to speed with the new setup, I just wish the process and explanation was laid out a little clearer. Info is scattered all over the place. Maybe a detailed walkthrough video would have helped. Again, the most confusing part is how "Room Lighting" can be compared to a "group" or a "scene".
A Scene (as in Scene-1.2) is a collection of lights with captured settings. A Room Lights instance is also a collection of lights with captured settings. In each, it is possible to adjust those settings, or to re-capture them. In each, the 'scene' is activated by turning on an activation device. So Room Lights completely incorporates everything a Scene-1.2 does, but also much more.
1 Like
It's certainly not bad to learn new things, and hopefully the above explanations help. But there is also no need to be concerned about something being "retired." It just means it's not available for new installations, usually because there's a more featured replacement (as there is in this case with Room Lighting) and presumably to reduce confusion for new users (why are there two apps that can do the same thing?). Your existing installation will continue to work, and I think the parent Groups and Scenes app will even let you continue to create new ones if you want (this doesn't always happen; see old versions of Rule Machine rules--and speaking of which, I'm sure there are people around with rules dating back to the original version; I still have some Rule 3.0 rules, plus a mix of everything since).
So previously, I used a Motion Lighting app to activate different scenes based on the mode. In this new Room Lighting App, I need to create one app for the actual room lighting and then another one for each of the room scenes (in my case dim, bright, and off) and then I would use the Room Lighting app to trigger each of the room lighting scenes based on the mode?
I am a pretty technical guy and also have a background in UI/UX and the new Room Lighting app definitely is confusing, mainly because of incorporating groups/scenes into the mix. It just doesn't make sense.
Having a Room Lighting App for each room makes perfect sense, but I still have no clue why I would need a Room Lighting App for a group or a Room Lighting App for a scene.
This explanation here is extremely hard to figure out unless you were the one building it.
I am all for flexibility and control/customizability, but it feels like this new app confuses things quite a bit.
You don't unless you want to replace an existing Scene-1.2.
There is nothing different about Room Lighting than what you've done before, except this: Whereas before you might have some Scenes, some Groups, and some Motion Lighting instances -- each of those could be done with identical functionality as before, but with Room Lighting instead of Scene-1.2, Group-2.1 and Motion Lighting. That is to say, Room Lighting has within it all of the functionality of each of those other apps.
You could just import each into RL and end up in the same place you are now. There is no real need to do that. But, it's also possible that you might discover better ways to do these same lighting applications without so many app instances involved. It's up to you.
If you want a scene, RL can do a scene. If you want a scene activated by motion, it can do that. If you want a scene activated by motion that gives different settings for different times of day, it can do that, etc. If you want to go on using Scene-1.2, you can do that too.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
