I don’t think it is dimming in general broken dimming works fine from the device type in the app or from many smartapps … It DOES not work from the smart lighting smartapp and I think that is the bulk of the issue.
too bad the smartlighting smartapp is not one of the public templates or I would fix it for the @$$.
It works from the Smart Lighting app if you follow my steps above. At least it works in my case, local automation and all.
The key seems to be to create the rule first with some trigger like a contact sensor, then edit the rule to add motion. Dimming seems to work correctly after that.
Even if you could create a copy from template, the modified app wouldn’t run locally per their design. In which case it’s not any better a solution than Rule Engine (in terms of running local).
I’m using GE Dimmers with Aeon Multi-Sensors and dimming doesn’t work unless I use the steps above. My cousin on the other hand has the same GE Dimmers with an Iris motion sensor and his Smart Lighting dims correctly without the above steps.
Whatever the issue, it’s very specific…and annoying.
Very interesting! I can’t wait to try this when I get home this evening. I’ve got a door sensor I can use to set up my lights before switching over to motion. Kind of an annoying workaround, but it’s better than using rules engine if it still runs locally. If this works, you get my hero of the month award.
It works!! Well, mostly. It did not seem to work if I triggered the light automation via door open/close sensor. But then I tried triggering it via hitting a virtual switch, and that correctly turned on and set the light to the correct level. I then edited the automation to use motion instead, and it now works correctly via motion - yay!
One thing I just realized is it seems to take a couple hits of the virtual switch before the light automation starts working, so maybe if I had open and closed the door a few times more that would have worked, too. A virtual is just quicker since I don’t have to physically walk back over to it.
I also found I could do this fix by editing my existing rules and switching from motion to virtual switch and back to motion. Nice that I don’t have to recreate everything.
It’s so weird that this works. What in the world kind of bug in the hub is fixed by such an odd process? Regardless, I’m just glad to have my auto dimming back!!! Woo!!
You definitely get my hero award of the month, @mobious! Thanks!
@brbeaird I’m glad it works for you, I’ll wear the award proudly!
It certainly wasn’t my intention to provide a solution. I simply wanted someone else to confirm my results so that I could probe the limitation further in terms of how it affects my own system.
I would ask that you still open a ticket, even if they close it. Hopefully there is some internal metrics reporting that drives fix priority. Maybe these steps outlined above will even provide further clues and speed up the fix. Assuming they read every post as they claim to do.
Thanks for reporting back your results and even taking further steps to try the same steps using a virtual switch (I didn’t think of that).
How do you set up a virtual switch? I tried the door thing and it did not seem to work. The door would trigger the light on to the last dim level that the light was on at.
There’s a good list of steps in the link below. When choosing the device type I personally go with the “Momentary Button Tile” instead of the “simulated switch.”
Interesting. So the workaround of the virtual switch basically moves the entire rule to the cloud, and switching it to use motion after that doesn’t cause it to switch back to local, so it continues working at that point. So the bottom line seems to be that any locally-initiated action is NOT able to set level.
I got the e-mail yesterday saying an update would be pushed to my hub on Thursday. Is it too much to hope this is fixed in that update?