Use Routines or Rule Machine

[Ziggy (Michael)]

Are others here using Routines or find that its better to use Rule Machine?

[MichaelS (Micheal)]

At the end of the day it is personal preference…I know a vague answer, but it really depends on what you need. This is no offence to Bruce, but his app is being changed all of the time, so there is always a chance that it could work today and not tomorrow, or he stops developing and it is an orphaned app.

At the same time, ST isn’t always steady either. All things being equal, use the one that gives you the functionality you need and the manageability or desire.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

My advice, hybrid.

Use both. See what works and what doesn’t.

Personally, I don’t use routines. I can do the same thing in Rule Machine and so far, not a single failure.

But like @MichaelS said, it’s personal preference. That’s why I say try both.

[bravenel (Bruce)]

FWIW, I use both, although the only reason I have any routines is to give me a quick way to change mode in the mobile app.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

@bravenel

FWIW, I use both, although the only reason I have any routines is to give me a quick way to change mode in the mobile app.

See! Everything had a purpose… Well almost everything… I don’t use modes either.

[bravenel (Bruce)]

@bamarayne

I don’t use modes either.

I use modes to control my lighting. Works great! My lighting is all mode driven for dimmer levels, which are selected for each room for each mode.

[SBDOBRESCU (Bobby)]

@bravenel

I use modes to control my lighting. Works great! My lighting is all mode driven for dimmer levels, which are selected for each room for each mode.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO switching back to v1. That’s IT! I want my modes back. Why are they working on v1 but not on v2?

[bravenel (Bruce)]

Modes don’t work on V2? What happens???

[Mr_Lucky (Bob)]

Reread the poltergeist thread from last October, and see if you still think modes are infallible on v1.

[SBDOBRESCU (Bobby)]

@Mr_Lucky

Reread the poltergeist thread from last October

I don’t want to reread anything that is from September & October Those were the “in-a-few-weeks-this-crap-will-be-fixed” days. I now have 2 modes 3 routines and a foot out of the door…

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

@bravenel

Modes don’t work on V2? What happens???

It goes into “I do what I want!” Mode.

Which means… Modes? We don’t need no stinkin modes!

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

My modes work great! They never fail to do absolutely nothing! Just like I programmed them to do!

[bravenel (Bruce)]

@bamarayne

It goes into “I do what I want!” Mode.

What do you mean? Are you talking about changing modes or something else?

[SBDOBRESCU (Bobby)]

@bravenel

What happens???

So I have been muscling modes for several weeks. There is a disassociation between local and cloud. Bingo…as I was typing this I answered my own question as to why they work on v1…So the apps “believe” I am in the right mode, but ide & android doesn’t show it and mode based exclusions doesn’t work. To resync I have to go in ide and manually change the mode that it should be. It has happened several times in the past 2 months. I now only have 2 modes left and I seriously thinking to go @bamarayne’s way…modeless

[bravenel (Bruce)]

Yesterday, some of the failures reported were the entire local processing bit apparently disconnected from the cloud. Perhaps the problem isn’t modes, but local processing staying synced to the cloud in general, and modes are just vulnerable to that issue.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

@bravenel

What do you mean? Are you talking about changing modes or something else?

I mean…

Set night mode… It might change to it… And if it does and an alarm goes off… You’ll never change modes again.
Set morning mode… ST says naaahhhj, I’m sleeping in and so are you.

When I tried to use them, several different times, they were just too unreliable. So, I just don’t use them.

I use RM to make my own routines. I use actual times, instead of sunrise/sunset (though I really wish that was reliable), and instead of modes, I use virtual switches to act as virtual modes…

Night mode VS, triggered at 8pm. It turns on and that is the trigger in Rule Machine to do other things.

It works great and I have control over it.

[SBDOBRESCU (Bobby)]

@bravenel

Perhaps the problem isn’t modes, but local processing staying synced to the cloud in general, and modes are just vulnerable to that issue.

Yes, that’s totally the case. And it was the case with “poltergeist” but the recurring issues are frustrating…

[bravenel (Bruce)]

As @JDRoberts would say, choice is good.

For me, modes are a convenience simply because I don’t have to go through all of those gymnastics, and it minimizes my exposure to scheduled events. Sunset / sunrise work well for me also, except on the odd day that one of those happens on the hour or half hour, and events just vanish or apps hang and get killed.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

@bravenel

Yesterday, some of the failures reported were the entire local processing bit apparently disconnected from the cloud. Perhaps the problem isn’t modes, but local processing staying synced to the cloud in general, and modes are just vulnerable to that issue.

This want yesterday… My last routine and mode was deleted within a week of the release of RM.

[bamarayne (Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)]

@bravenel

For me, modes are a convenience simply because I don’t have to go through all of those gymnastics, and it minimizes my exposure to scheduled events. Sunset / sunrise work well for me also, except on the odd day that one of those happens on the hour or half hour, and events just vanish or apps hang and get killed.

I agree! Choice is good. I gave them all a good effort, but they failed me.

Sunrise/sunset was pretty reliable, but it would fail me at key times… And I don’t mind putting in the extra effort creating rules to get as close to 100% as possible.