New update (2024-04-08T19:55:17.403290766). Might as well be called 2.0!
How would you do this automation? “In around 3 or 4 hours turn on the lights of an arbitrary room”.
Auto-cycle just got superpowers with a new mode! Long spanning time frames of up to 24 hours per step, random delays and automatic backup of 1-minute or longer delays to restore it if possible after a hub or driver restart.
Things you can do:
- Run a specific scene after a random time. Example: “turn off this light in around 3 or 4 hours”
- Run a random scene after a random time. Example “turn on this light in around 3 or 4 hours with red, green or blue colour”
- Run a sequence of scenes with random intervals. Example “turn on the living room lights, wait some time between 30 minutes and an hour, turn it off and turn on the bedroom, wait again, turn on this, wait…”
- Run a random sequence of scenes with random intervals. You got the point.
Should fit most presence simulation routines or other lighting scenarios like parties, cool pomodoro timers, I don’t know, just don’t use it for critical or personal-safety stuff. Had to add the disclaimer 
Introduction to the new Long Spanning auto-cycle
- Switching delay is in minutes and you can specify an Additional random offset. If you want something to run in the interval between 20 minutes and 1 hour, the switching delay would be 20 minutes and the random offset 40 minutes.
- Starting scene also delayed makes Auto-cycle actions delay the first switch. Normally the first switch happens immediately and then applies the delay for the next switch. Useful for those “do this after X time”.
- Switch only once makes auto-cycle stop after the first scene switch. Useful if you have more than one scene and want to run one random scene after some time but not cycle through the others.
Quick tutorial:
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To run one specific scene after a random time:
- Create a Switcher. In settings, select Number of scenes 1
- In Long Spanning section, set a Switching delay in minutes (that will be the minimum) and the Additional random offset. For something between 3 and 4 hours it would be a delay of 3 * 60 = 180 minutes and a random offset of 60 minutes.
- Enable Starting scene also delayed.
- Done. You can run the Auto-cycle [ > ] action from a routine, button, etc. and the scene 1 will trigger after a random time. Map active scene 1 to your action like turning on a light.
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To run one random scene after a random time:
- Same steps, but: Number of scenes is the number of your scenes (let’s say 3 for a light to randomly turn on green, red or blue). Enable Switch only once so it only triggers one scene and the Auto-cycle action is the one with [ ? ] since you want it random.
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To run a sequence of scenes with random intervals:
- Similar. Set Number of scenes and map the actions. Pick Linear in Cycle mode so it finishes at the last scene, make sure Switch only once is disabled since you want to cycle through all scenes. In Auto-cycle settings pick Starting scene Initial if you want to always start in scene 1. For the action use Auto-cycle [ > ]. Starting scene also delayed to your taste, if you want scene 1 to start after the delay, enable it.
Always have a standard schedule as a failsafe: A sudden power loss and restart of the hub would make the auto-cycle not able to restore the timers, just like any other driver. Account for it by adding standard schedules past the random times to have the peace of mind that if something has to be in a specific state by certain time, it will be.