This Zen77 dimmer controls dining table lights.
Occasionally lights fails to turn on.
Normally the off event followed by an off command:
However, when lights fail to turn on the off command seems to be coming from nowhere:
Rule sends an on command (dim to 100%) but off event happens almost instantly without a command. And sure, nobody touched this dimmer manually at this time.
Is this a problem with a dimmer itself or something else?
This is happening very seldom and at random.
Post 2 things….
Here is a rule for turning lights ON:
And here is a rule for turning lights OFF:
The logs for the OFF rule was not turned on but this rule will send an OFF commnad no less than 1min 15 sec which is not a case. Plus there was not an OFF command recorded by the device log.
And here is "in use by":
In addition to ON/OFF control rules there are few time based rules which may turn dimmer off but it was not a case. And other rules are using this dimmer as a status.
Yours questions are valid but here is my point and original question/point:
Normally the device logs (digital) event followed by a command (please check my original post above). But in this questionable case the OFF (digital) event was not initiated by any command or physical interraction with a dimmer. Unless I am missing something it looks like the dimmer itself decided to be turned off.
I mean no offense, but I have to say that is by far the most complex rules, conditions and triggers I have seen. IMHO, I think you are trying to execute a lot of your logic in the required expressions instead of in the actions. I see you have what appear to be several virtual switches. I don't understand quite why, but people approach things differently. So you want to turn the dining light on based on motion, but only between 6am and 10pm unless you have some overrides. How about set your requirements to only turn on during that time. Triggers are your motion and virtual switches? Use the actions to do your conditions to allow the lights to turn on if they are in a certain state.
As for the off rule, same thing. Also, if you disable the off rule by checking the slider in the rules list, do you still get this phantom digital off command?
Just a bit of advice. Build your rule a little at a time. Turn the light on with motion. Turn it off after motion becomes inactive. In fact, you can do this in one rule instead of two. Then build on the rule with logic instead of conditions or requirements.
+Please keep in mind:
You say there is no off rule but your second rule appears to turn the dimmer off. Since each rule operates independently, I suspect the second rule is issuing the off command asynchronous to the on rule. They really should be part of the same rule in your case. You can always wait for motion to become inactive even if you manually turn the light on like my kitchen lights rule does.
First off all - I did not say there is NO rule which turns lights OFF. There is one. And these two rules which are controlling lights are TWO STAGES STATE MACINE. They are not asynchronous/independent. Rule which turns light ON never will be triggered/retriggered if light is already ON. Rule wich turns light OFF a bit complicated and could be retriggered by MS in order to kill OFF timers and turn light ON in a full brightness but dimmer must not be in OFF state. Logic in Required Expressin is for isolating SM State.
In addition there are few rules which will turn OFF ligts based on time of the day.
NO!!! My approch for designing all Automations are relies on State Machines. In the HE/RM world it means multiple rules, i.e. each individual rule handles just ONE SM State.
Complex rules should/must be avoided.
Wouldn't it be easier to use the Button Controllers App and avoid all the nested logic just to parse what button pressed?
Your words. I’m just seeing complexity where it’s not necessary. If there is a phantom off coming from somewhere. Turn off all off commands and eliminate the possibility. Good luck.
Complexity actually in the single huge rule with a (usually) spagetti logic.
All Uatomations are naturaly State Machines (SMs). Unfortrunately HE/RM does not support SMs naturally. The only way to create a SM in the RM is to have multiple very simple rules. The only downside for this approach in RM is difficulty to maintain READABILITY/MAINTAINABILIY. But nice Name Convention helps a lot in this area.
Bottom line:
If you want easy readable and maintainable rules in the RM use the SM design approach.
I have no idea how good the WebCore (NodeRed, etc) is for creating SMs but RM is good enough with very little extra effort for readability and maintainability.
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