Could be, given that you were coming from a pretty old version. I try to keep backwards compatible. That’s actually a challenge when improving things.
No problem, I updated and back to normal. Did have one question on the original Garage Door Timer. Did what you suggested and moved it to Delay action 30 minutes. What I’m getting is no matter what, even if I close the garage doors 2 minutes after I pull in to the garage, the message pops up 30 minutes later saying it’s true.
I was just hoping to use it as a ‘if garage door has been open the entire 30 minutes AND no motion activity in those areas, then go ahead and close.’ That way, in the summer as we’re playing outside, the motion sensors continue to extend the 30 minute timer until we go inside for the evening. Here’s the current rule as I have it configured:
You need the Cancel option for the Delay.
Ah got it. What about this one. Simple Exterior Light timer that used to work but isn’t now. Maybe bc it’s spanning two days from sunset to sunrise?
What isn’t working with that one? The time of day part is correct, that it’s false at 10:19 AM.
When I’d save the rule it would say it was ‘True’ but I manually turned off the lights and it updated to false. Maybe it’s fine now and the devices were just stuck?
What does turning the light on or off have to do with true or false? It should have said true when you saved it since the luminance condition is true. It shouldn’t become false until luminance is > 1000.
It’s actually the other way around I believe. During the day, I’m wanting the luminance condition to be false since it’s bright enough to not need exterior lights on along with the OR not the time period that is between sunset to sunrise+30. Then when it’s <= 1000 whether due to night or a real cloudy day, the lights will come on either way.
Not sure why the push output changed when I manually turned them off but before it would only say True. After switching them off, it came back as False.
I apologize if I’m asking a basic question:
Can you direct me to the differences between these actions in RM?
-
Delay these actions:
-
Turn on/off these switches after a delay (default is OFF):
-
Turn on/off these switches after a delay, pending cancellation (default is OFF):
Delay these actions can be used for ALL actions.
Turn on/off these switches after a delay is just for switches to be delayed. It can’t be used with other actions. However, you can pair this with the Delay These Actions and set up an overall delay, as well as an additional delay on the switches.
Turn on/off these switches after a delay, pending cancellation is the same as above, however you would use this to allow your rule to cancel the action of turning off the lights.
An example for the last one would be a rule where you have your lights turn off 5 minutes after motion is no longer detected, pending cancellation. If your motion sensor kicks back on during that 5 minute countdown, it will cancel the delayed off. If you had set this up with option 2, the 5 minute delay would happen and turn the lights off, regardless of motion being detected again.
So, I have the following Rule “Turn off Dryer Fan”
Define Conditions:
Dryer Fan Outlet on
Power Level of Dryer Energy Monitor <15
Define a Rule:
Dryer Fan Outlet ON AND Power level of Dryer Energy Monitor < 15
Select Actions for True: (Here is where I’m not quite clear)
Delay these actions: 5 minutes
Turn off these switches: Dryer Fan Outlet
Turn on/off these switches after a delay, pending cancellation: Dryer Fan Outlet
What I want to do is leave the fan run for 5 minutes AFTER the power level drops below 15 (i.e. dryer turns off), but cancel this if the dryer is turned back on again (i.e. Power level goes above 15).
Have I coded this correctly?
Thanks,
Dave
No, it’s not correct. You wouldn’t want both to turn it off, and turn it off after a delay. If you left out the Turn off these switches, what your rule would do is wait 5 minutes, then wait another 15 minutes, and if the power went back up during that 15 minutes, it would cancel the schedule turn off.
So, I just want:
Turn on/off these switches after a delay, pending cancellation: Dryer Fan Outlet
Get rid of the Delay this action &
Turn off these switches: Dryer Fan Outlet
Where do I code in the 5 minute delay?
Sorry, more confused than before ???
Conditions: Fan outlet on, energy monitor < 15
Rule: Fan outlet on AND energy monitor < 15
Action for true: Turn off after a delay, cancellable, 5 minutes, Fan outlet
Rule goes true when power drops. If it stays low in 5 minutes, fan turns off. If it goes back above 15, cancels the timer.
Thanks Bruce - I’ll let you know if it works now . . .
Dave
A minor suggestion to help clarify this:
The way this shows up on the App, you have thrown in the feature “Turn ON after the delay” toggle.
I assume this is to FORCE the switch on, versus the regular action of toggling it On/Off. In my case, since it must be ON for the Rule to be true, this means it will toggle it off.
You might want to change the wording to say “Force switch ON after delay” (or something like that). Also,put it below the section for the delay time.
Also, there is a horizontal line that separates the “Turn on/off these switches . . .” section from the “Minutes of delay / Turn ON after delay” section. I did not realize that was part of the Pending Cancellation portion of the App, thinking it was another option on the Actiions for True. If you can remove that horizontal line, then it all appears as 1 section.
Again, very minor stuff that does not affect the performance of the RM, but might make it easier for novices such as myself to use without the questions.
Thanks again.
Dave
There aren’t many options for how this can be done without throwing up an entire page. I don’t know what you mean by “FORCE”. You’re either going to turn off some switches or turn them on. Off is the default, so the toggle is to override that default (off is the most common need). When you hit Done on selecting Actions, it shows you exactly what you’ve selected to do.
There is no way to remove the horizontal lines, and these are all in a single section to begin with, simply separate input statements, which have to be separate.
There are limits to what can be done in the mobile app, and as you can see, Rule Machine is bumping right up against them.
Now that I’ve figured out how to attached screenshots, here is what changes I made to the App.
No harm - no foul if you don’t like my suggestions. It is just more clear to me as I’ve modified it.
Dave
You’re wrong, these are NOT TOGGLES!! This is ON or OFF, which is entirely different than a TOGGLE.
I still don’t get “FORCE”. What???
Toggle Definition from Google:
switch from one effect, feature, or state to another by using a toggle.
The way RM works in this code is it changes the state of the switch from one state to another. If it is ON, it turns it OFF. If it is OFF, it turns it ON. Makes perfect sense to me.
When I say FORCE, I am saying no matter what state the switch is in, IT WILL BE ON after the command is issued. Maybe we could agree on "SET the switch to ON " ?
Clearly different from my “toggle” comment.
It really is irrelevant, and I’m sorry you are taking issue with my suggestions. I am an admitted novice, and so I will acquiesce to your feelings on the matter. Your wrote the APP, so do what you feel is best. I AM NOT TRYING TO BE ARGUMENTATIVE AT ALL !
The only other comment: You are approaching this from a programmers perspective. I AM NOT a programmer, just someone who is playing around with this ST thing to do some automation stuff around my house. I will never pretend to understand 10% of what you know on this subject: BUT - I’m trying to present simple improvements that make the app more “intuitive” to the non-programmer user (i.e. Me) As originally written, it is confusing how to differentiate between the different options for setting actions for rules being true. Maybe my suggestions are not the solution, but it is confusing to a new user how to set these states.
Again, enough said on this issue, and I do appreciate your efforts to make this whole ST thing work.
Have a great evening, and sorry for making such a big deal about such a trivial matter.
Dave