Virtual switches not available to scenes

šŸŽ¬ Get Started
1

I've defined a virtual switch so I can use it in a scene, but it's not available. Are scenes limited to physical switches?

More complete scenario:
I need to turn off my thermostat, along with other noisemakers, when I'm doing podcast recordings. I would also like to be able to turn the thermostat on and off by voice via my Alexa. I thought it would be useful to to switch on a "house hush" scene to achieve it. I have a Honeywell thermostat, so I've installed the great TCC driver (Honeywell Total Connect Comfort thermostat control), which (after some debugging) appears to work for what I need. I added a virtual switch and connected it to the thermostat using my very first rule in Rule Machine. When I click the virtual switch, it does exactly what I want. But it doesn't show up in the scene definition. What am I missing?

2

Iā€™m a bit confused on why you are trying to do this with scenes .. could you elaborate?

3

I think I would have approached it a different way too. Not sure if this is what you were thinking?

  1. Virtual switch tied to a dashboard.

  2. Press switch when you want to work.

  3. In Rule Machine:
    IF Virtual Switch on
    Turn off XYZ devices
    Turn off thermostat.

  4. When VS is off,
    turn on or restore devices.

Not exactly a finished rule, but just some thoughts.

4

Would a Mode change be appropriate here?

5

That might be a good option too. I have a "do not disturb" type of mode that I basically use at night to do something similar.

Lots of ways to skin a cat with Hubitat.

6

Yeah, I have that all set up and ready to go. But I want to turn off a number of devices in addition to the thermostat, e.g. a handful of air filters and a couple fans.

7

Ah, wait, penny just dropped. Do all the work in the rule, don't bother with the scene. Roger that.

But shouldn't the virtual switch have showed up in the scene?

8

Not sure, I only have a couple basic scenes.

Maybe @bravenel Bruce could clarify?

9

That is what I was thinking.. When I asked why you wanted to do this in a scene

10

There is no reason that a virtual switch should not show up in a Scene as av available switch. One possibility would be that you had the Scene already open when you created the switch, and didn't refresh the page?

11

Well, I tried again this morning and the virtual switches are there as expected, so this one's definitely PEBCAK. Thanks for the reply.

12

Now that I've gotten it working, I can explain my reasoning. I'm a fan of (a) keep it simple, and (b) don't repeat yourself. The virtual switch does nothing but control the thermostat, which means I can use it directly in other contexts (Alexa, dashboard). Modes have broad influence (other automation depends on it being "day," for example).

Scenes exist to set state on a collection of devices, which is what I wanted here. Virtual switch + scene = woot.

13

Maybe browser cache...

14

Curiouser and curiouser. I added a couple zigbee outlets today. They show up in my device list, and when I create a brand new scene they're in the list of available switches. But neither show up in a scene I want to amend to include them, both on my laptop and iPhone browser. To make sure the hub wasn't in a strange state I rebooted it, as well.

Do scenes grab the collection of available devices when you first define them? Or should I be able to add more (brand new) devices over time?

15

Actually it does do some odd things in the way it gathers the devices you can use. So that could be what's going on with this. I will look into it. In the meantime, if you run into this issue you could delete the old scene and recreate it.