Not sure if I’m explaining this right but is there a way that we can set a trigger or a condition, if the light is on and the switch is physically pressed again it will set the state of the virtual switch On. This will cause the rule to be disabled and stop the timer from turning off the light. The virtual switch can be reset when the light is physically turned off.
Not sure if that makes sense to anyone or if possible?
Of course I will!!!
I can’t prove it definitively, but it seems like every time I update Rule, time-based rules misfire or at the wrong time until I open the rule and Done it. This morning, a vent that was supposed to close at 7:30AM and open at 8:30PM opened at 8:30AM instead.
It’s been so flaky that I’ve set up IFTTT to do the same actions 15 minutes later as a backup.
And, of course, there have been quite a few updates recently.
Can anyone else confirm or deny this, or is this the issue that was just fixed in 15.11a?
When you first input a rule without triggers, it is evaluated. What you’re calling “rule start up” is by no means the only scenario. What about other rules that are triggered by the evaluation? They shouldn’t be triggered when it’s disabled. Etc.
So no, disabling means disabling. It isn’t a “rule startup”, except in your situation. As the saying goes, “your use case is not my use case”.
Updating Rule should not do anything to your installed rules. Look in the IDE at the state of one of your rules that you think is misbehaving. It will show its scheduled jobs. Verify that there’s an issue. I don’t think there is one with this.
@Mike_Maxwell has developed a major addition to Rule Machine that allows custom device type commands to be run by Rule Machine actions. In addition, I have added support for a camera to take photos as an action. @oilisab…
For this update you need to download both Rule Machine ( https://github.com/bravenel/Rule-Trigger/blob/master/smartapps/bravenel/rule-machine.src/rule-machine.groovy), save and Publish for me, and Rule ( https://github.com/bravenel/Rule-Trigger/blob/master/smartapps/bravenel/rule.src/rule.groovy), just save, don’t publish.
See Mike’s post here:
The schedule looks correct in the IDE now, but something closed the vent at 7:30AM (as planned) and something opened it again at 8:30AM instead of 8:30PM, and RM is the only thing listed as associated with that vent.
It’s a random universe, I guess…
I’m just saying, I know from updating Rule in my own setup about a zillion times, that doing so does not have this affect, couldn’t have this affect in fact.
So you’re just faced with the same crappy backend stuff we all get. My wife told me about lights flashing on and off last night in one bedroom for no reason at all. Go figure.
Yes, that’s how my setup works (will get screen shots in a little while, time permitting). However, if the switch is on, and you’re using one of the GE in-wall switches, turning the light ‘on’ again will not send an isPhysical() event in the platform. Hence my ‘training’ to my user base (family) that for the override to be enabled, they need to physically turn off the switch and then switch it back on (which sets the appropriate virtual switch that I use as my disable value).
I’d prefer it if the GE switches sent that event again, but I believe (others can correct me if I’m wrong) that’s a hardware limitation.
Don’t you have to wait for the cloud to see the Off before you can send an On? That might be a few seconds with some devices…
Good point - for slower internet connections, this can be a problem, certainly. I have a fairly fast connection, but I still advise the family to do the ‘one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand’ count.
Some of the time they actually listen. 
As much of a pain as it is to re-install new hardware, if there were Z-wave in-wall switches out there that did send the isPhysical() events for both on and off if the switch is already in that state, I’d consider replacing all of mine…
This isn’t an internet speed issue. It’s a device issue. I have Leviton dimmers that can take several seconds. I also have instant reporting dimmers that are almost instant. This is all because of the infamous Lutron patent. Evidently, some GE dimmers report fairly quickly. There is also the potential for cloud delay from ST.
This isn’t a hardware issue in the sense that replacing with a different device would solve. The point is that the device type for a dimmer is not going to recognize on if it thinks the device is on, or off if it thinks it is off. Not until the device type changes state, will it change state again.
This is one of the primary reasons that this sort of automation generally fails.
I see what you mean. This actually sucks, as I was thinking of thinking to use a double or triple tap on the switch to program the extended motion sensor override delay.
However, for the business logic I want to implement, I think, I can work with this limitation. All I want is allow an annoyed user to toggle, i.e. change the current position of the switch/lights and by doing so activate a delay timer (so that they can calm down and not chase me with a frying pan. )
If by “toggle” you mean off then on, read my post above. That may not give you the results you expect.
By toggle, I mean switch the position to the opposite of current, i.e. if the light is off, they would turn it to on, and vise versa. I mean if they want light to be on and it’s already on, there should be no need for them to touch the switch to begin with.
That can work. I’ve used that approach for disabling motion. Here’s the case:
The light is on from motion, but I want to disable motion turning it on. Turn off the switch physically; that signals to an app (could be Rule Machine) to disable motion lighting. The way my app worked was that if it went to turn off the lights from the motion time-out, and they were already off, that meant disable motion. So the only timing gotcha was hitting the switch within a few seconds of the motion time-out, before ST would recognize the off. But, in practice, this worked.
It’s a trickier (or impossible?) case to do the opposite.
EDITED TO ADD: I did replace the dimmer in question with an instant reporting dimmer. Before I did that, this too would fail sometimes due to timing issues.
I’m not at home but tried remotely and in the “select camera to take photos option” there is no camera listed.
Virtual switch worked great to trigger an IFTTT rule.
I’ve set Button 1 on the 3-button controller to tell IFTTT to set the Ecobee 3 up one notch for one hour = a WifeButton: “Just press this button to turn on the furnace and warm up the house, honey…”
Great new addition! Of course, it begs the additional question whether it would be possible to extend things so that more than one custom command could be run as an action (e.g., in order to replace all my custom apps I would have to change multiple cameras and my thermostat for my “Everyone Left” rule/trigger).
need to write rule
turn off space heater and send a message.
anyone written anyting like this thanks